Month: July 2010

The Marijuana Trademark Land Rush

Jeannie Herer

by Jacob Goldstein

Marijuana

Ed Andrieski/AP

A few months back, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office created a new category: “Processed plant matter for medicinal purposes, namely medical marijuana.”
That set off a rush of new trademark applications from people in the 14 states where sales of medical marijuana is legal.
But there’s this central tension that keeps coming up with medical marijuana: Despite those state laws, it’s still a federal crime to sell the drug.
So officials at the trademark office changed their minds last week and decided to kill the medical marijuana category, the WSJ reports today.
But as of this morning, searching for medical marijuana on the patent office website still turned up dozens of trademark applications submitted before the office got rid of the category.
Some of the names seem so well-established that it’s hard to imagine someone could have gotten a trademark, even if the patent office had let the category stand. (Somebody wanted to trademark “Chronic.”) Other names are less familiar — “420 Honey,” for example.
Here’s a list of some of the marijuana trademarks people tried to register:

  • Chronic
  • IslandSweetSkunk
  • 420 Honey
  • Beingkind
  • RutBud
  • Emerald Triangle Bud
  • Bubba Kush
  • Panama Gold
  • OG Kush
  • Red Bud
  • Delta 9
  • Purple Haze
  • Albino Rhino
  • Diesel
  • Maui Wowie
  • Thaistick
  • Panama Red
  • Acapulco Gold

More of our coverage on trademarks: Read our post on Subway’s effort to trademark “footlong.” And listen to the podcast where we try to trademark “Money Honey.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/19/128616585/from-acapulco-gold-to-alino-rhino-the-marijuana-trademark-land-rush

War on Drugs Fuels HIV Epidemic

Jeannie Herer

James Keller-

Two Vancouver-based groups that do research on HIV-AIDS and drug policy say the war on drugs waged by many governments, including the government of Canada, has failed to curb illegal drug use and is actually fuelling the spread of the disease.
“There’s just a huge discordance between scientific evidence and policy,” said Dr. Evan Wood, founder of the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and a researcher at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS.
The two groups support the Vienna Declaration, the official document of the International AIDS Conference taking place in the Austrian capital this week.
The document accuses governments – including Canada’s, which has already rejected the Vienna Declaration – of ignoring research that shows harm-reduction programs such as safe-injection sites and needle exchanges are far more effective at mitigating the negative effects of the illegal drug trade, including the spread of HIV.
Prosecuting drug addicts only pushes their habits underground, where needles are shared, sex is unprotected and users are beyond the reach of health-care workers and addiction treatment, Wood said.
The focus on crime and punishment also results in “policy displacement,” he said, in which the money and resources poured into the war on drugs means less is available to actually help addicts use drugs safely and cope with their addictions.
The Conservative government has made strengthening this country’s drug laws a central part of its tough-on-crime agenda, imposing harsher mandatory sentences, while at the same time trying to close a safe-injection site in Vancouver, Wood said.
The federal government is currently asking the Supreme Court of Canada to let it shut down the site, known as Insite, despite its own research that shows the facility helps prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis while having no negative effect on crime.
“When the Harper government came to power, they took harm reduction out of Canada’s drug strategy,” said Wood.
“Despite all the scientific evidence that shows Insite reduces the spread of HIV, reduces overdose deaths, saves taxpayer dollars, helps get people into addiction treatment, a lot of money is being spent on lawyers trying to close the program.”
The Canadian government says the Vienna Declaration doesn’t fit in with this country’s drug policies, which primarily focus on enforcement and getting people off drugs.
“Given that some of the recommendations outlined in the Vienna Declaration are inconsistent with Canada’s National Anti-Drug Strategy and current federal drug policy, Canada will not support the document,” Charlene Wiles of the Public Health Agency of Canada writes in an email.
“The government of Canada believes that the best way to address the public health consequences of injection drug-use is to prevent people from using illicit drugs in the first place. Treatment services are essential in helping those addicted to drugs to stop.”
Still, Wiles notes federal funding does support needle exchanges offered by provincial and territorial governments, as well as an array of HIV-AIDS treatment and outreach programs targeting groups such as injection-drug users and youth considered to be at a greater risk.
However, Simon Fraser University criminologist Neil Boyd, who has signed the declaration, accuses the Harper government of simply ignoring scientific research.
For example, Boyd was asked by the federal government to review Insite, and he concluded the facility had no impact on crime and produced a “modest decline” in public drug use while at the same time saving the government money in health-care and law enforcement costs.
But despite the findings, Ottawa asked the courts to shut the facility down.
“I think they operate within a fairly narrow ideological framework; they seem to resent science,” says Boyd.
“They deny it, but all the science would say they’re pushing for more violence and more corruption in the drug trade. You’re not going to blast your way out of this one, and there’s absolutely no evidence globally that you can do so.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/war-on-drugs-fuels-hiv-epidemic-as-governments-ignore-science-experts-say/article1644869/

Marijuana Church Founder "Too Dangerous" For Bail

Jeannie Herer
Roger Christie, founder of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry (THC Ministry), has been ordered held without bail after being arrested along with 13 current or former employees and growers by the DEA on July 8. He and the others are charged with marijuana trafficking offenses related to their alleged distribution of marijuana as a sacrament at the ministry.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/rogerchristie.jpg

Roger Christie (courtesy thc-ministry.org)

Christie had been raided by the DEA in March, with agents seizing cash and marijuana at that time, but not arresting him. Federal authorities allege that after that raid, Christie recommenced his marijuana distribution at the ministry. He and the others were secretly indicted last month.Federal Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang originally ordered Christie held without bail at federal prosecutors’ request. Christie and his public defender, Matthew Winter, last week filed a motion seeking his release, citing the nonviolent nature of the offenses, Christie’s longstanding ties to the community, his lack of a criminal record, and his willingness to abstain from marijuana use or distribution pending trial.
A federal pre-trial services report also recommended that Christie be freed on bail. But prosecutors fought back with a 46-page memorandum in opposition. Because Christie allegedly recommenced marijuana distribution after the March raids, that made him “a danger to the community and… no conditions/combination of conditions could assure the safety of the community,” they wrote.
On Friday, US District Court Judge Alan Kay agreed with prosecutors. Now, Christie will be held behind bars until trial because the pot-loving minister is “too dangerous” to be freed on bail.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2001/07/19/roger_christie_THC_ministry_too_dangerous_bail_marijuana_distribution

Key to Ancient Carpet's Magic was Bugs, Plants

Jeannie Herer
By JOE SCHWARCZ, Freelance

There really is a magic carpet, you know. It doesn’t fly, but it can let your imagination soar.
So, imagine this. The year is 1949 and Russian archeologist Sergei Rudenko comes upon an ancient tomb during an archeological dig. No treasures were to be found, grave robbers having long ago absconded with them. But in the corner lies a carpet, probably judged to be of no value by the thieves. Rudenko can’t believe his eyes when he examines the find. The brilliantly coloured carpet has been perfectly preserved by the Siberian cold! He knows it is old, but not until the fabric is radiocarbon dated does the archeologist realize that he has come upon the earliest known carpet, dating back to roughly 500 B.C.!
Named after the valley where it was discovered, it would come to be known as the “Pazyryk Carpet.”
It boggles the imagination that 2,500 years ago, artisans managed to produce brilliantly coloured threads of wool and silk despite lacking any formal knowledge of chemistry. How did they do it? Bugs and plants, that’s how!
The dominant colour of the Pazyryk carpet is scarlet, which chemical analysis has shown to be derived from the female kermes insect. These insects spend their lives attached to the appropriately named “kermes oak,” with the unlucky ones being scratched off with fingernails, destined to be drowned in vinegar before being dried and ground up.
The Sanskrit term for kermes was krim-dja, from which we derive our word “crimson.” So prized was the kermes insect in antiquity that the Romans sometimes demanded taxes be paid in sacks of kermes.
Plants furnished the other colours seen in the Pazyryk carpet. Blue was derived from the indigo plant, while the yellows and browns were extracted from saffron or turmeric. Green was probably a combination of yellow weld and blue indigo. Such natural dyes continued to be developed through history and were the mainstay of the carpet industry until the 19th century.
A greenish yellow was obtained from a fungus that grew on the mulberry bush, red came from the root of the madder plant, brown from walnut shells or pomegranate peel, purple from hollyhocks. Black was a problem because the process to obtain it required soaking iron shavings in vinegar, and this produced a dye that had a corrosive effect on wool.
One of the most attractive features of these natural dyes was that each carpet was unique. The colouring process
never produced exactly the same shades. Since each strand of the carpet was dyed individually, the strands had a variation of colour even when dyed in the same mix.
All of this changed dramatically in 1856 with William Henry Perkin’s discovery of synthetic dyes. A whole range of hues never before seen could now be provided by compounds synthesized from coal tar isolates.
The “aniline dyes” took their name from aniline, perhaps the most famous of the compounds isolated from coal tar. These dyes were far cheaper to produce and easier to work with than the natural dyes. But in the eyes of most, they did not provide the same warm colours and individuality. It was said that a carpet made with synthetic dyes had no personality, it was identical to any other produced the same way. Furthermore, the synthetic dyes did not stand up well to water and faded on exposure to light.

While the chemical community celebrated Perkin’s discovery, Mozaffer ed Din, who became Shah of Persia in 1900, was no fan of the novel synthetics. Indeed, one of his first edicts was to prohibit the use of aniline dyes for the famed Persian rugs. All such dyes were to be seized and publicly burned. Penalties for their use included jail time and fines equal to double the value of the merchandise.
Sounds like a curious edict. Why did the Persian ruler care about how carpets were dyed? Because carpets are an integral part of Persian culture, having been woven into the fabric of Persian society for more than 2,500 years.
Persian carpets are regarded as the finest in the world, and the shah believed that this reputation was about to be compromised by the introduction of synthetic dyes. And there was quite a reputation to be concerned about, perhaps best exemplified by what is regarded to be the most magnificent rug in the world, the “Ardabil Carpet,” woven for Shah Tahmasp in the 16th century. On display in London’s Victoria and Albert museum, this silk and wool carpet features 10 different colours and more than 26
million hand-tied knots! Its unique design has fostered endless copies, including one that adorned Hitler’s office in Berlin.
While Mozaffer ed Din may have stalled the use of synthetic dyes, he was unable to stop the march of time. By the 1920s, a new class of synthetics, known as the chrome dyes, had been developed. The critical component was sodium dichromate, used as a mordant. Mordants are chemicals added to a dye solution to forge a strong link between the fabric and the dye, producing long-lasting colours that can compete with the natural dyes.
Today, most Persian rugs are made with chrome dyes, although there are still some villages where carpets with natural dyes are being produced. Connoisseurs value these highly because no two are alike. Indeed, it may well be the beauty of such rugs that inspired the association with magical properties.
The most magical of all the rugs, The Pazyryk Carpet, is now one of the prized exhibits at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum. It is securely locked in a glass case. Definitely a no-fly zone. But people who had sat on the rug before it was placed in the Siberian tomb may have flown. Beside the carpet, the archeologists found some pipes and a supply of hemp seeds.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/ancient+carpet+magic+bugs+plants/3292509/story.html

Reefer Sadness

Jeannie Herer
It has been reported that, as of July 17, 2010 New Mexico is running low on stockpiles of medical marijuana, which a 2007 state law permits it to distribute to approximately 2000 patients in the state. Currently, the only fairly severe conditions are approved for treatment in New Mexico, which include cancer, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, spinal cord damage, HIV/AIDS, or those in hospice care for terminal conditions. While some question the scientific justifications behind using medical marijuana as a treatment, New Mexico’s list of approved conditions seems to be largely in keeping with those which are said to be responsive to the drug.

New Mexico is one of 14 states to permit medical marijuana under the direction of a physician to treat some conditions, though 8 more states and the District of Columbia also have pending legislations.

In New Mexico the suppliers are also fairly strictly regulated, with a limitation of 95 mature plants placed on growers. While one can also apply for a permit to grow the plant as an individual, most patients appear to rely on suppliers.

To help ease the supply bottleneck, New Mexico says that they have approved six new suppliers. However, given the fairly serious nature of the conditions that patients must have to qualify for the programs, patients may not be able to go without treatment if a supply problem does occur. For, as the original article notes, one grower in Albuquerque, New Mexico claims that he has five times the amount of patients that he is able to supply.

Since other states are not reporting similar shortages, however, it would stand to reason that one possible solution, instead of merely expanding the number of growers in New Mexico, would be for the state to attempt to arrange some sort of sharing system with other states. For example, Colorado, which borders New Mexico, has its own medical marijuana laws, which would mean that it might be possible to share that way.

This raise issues with interstate commerce. However, according to this link, the federal government has committed to end raids on medical marijuana on medical marijuana operations complying with state laws, despite the fact that marijuana is still a controlled substance on the national level. Therefore, this solution may well allow New Mexico to keep patients stocked, plus cope with the 200 or so patients new patients it is approving every month.

http://www.examiner.com/science-in-albuquerque/reefer-sadness-new-mexico-runs-low-on-medical-marijuana-supply-may-have-to-share

California Bud Growers Worry About 'Wal-marting" of Weed

Jeannie Herer

After weathering the fear of federal prosecution and competition from drug cartels, California’s medical marijuana growers see a new threat to their tenuous existence: the “Wal-Marting” of weed.

The Oakland City Council on Tuesday will look at licensing four production plants where pot would be grown, packaged and processed into items ranging from baked goods to body oil. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000 in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance and be prepared to devote up to 8 percent of gross sales to taxes.
The move, and fledgling efforts in other California cities to sanction cannabis cultivation for the first time, has some marijuana advocates worried that regulations intended to bring order to the outlaw industry and new revenues to cash-strapped local governments could drive small “mom and pop” growers out of business. They complain that industrial-scale gardens would harm the environment, reduce quality and leave consumers with fewer strains from which to choose.
“Nobody wants to see the McDonald’s-ization of cannabis,” Dan Scully, one of the 400 “patient-growers” who supply Oakland’s largest retail medical marijuana dispensary, Harborside Health Center, grumbled after a City Council committee gave the blueprint preliminary approval last week. “I would compare it to how a small business feels about shutting down its business and going to work at Wal-Mart. Who would be attracted to that?”
The proposal’s supporters, including entrepreneurs more disposed to neckties than tie-dye, counter that unregulated growers working in covert warehouses or houses are tax scofflaws more likely to wreak environmental havoc, be motivated purely by profit and produce inferior products.
“The large-scale grow facilities that are being proposed with this ordinance will create hundreds of jobs for the city,” said Ryan Indigo Warman, who teaches pot-growing techniques at iGrow, a hydroponics store whose owners plan to apply for one of the four permits. “The ordinance is good for Oakland, and anyone who says otherwise is only protecting their own interests.”
Council members Rebecca Kaplan and Larry Reid, who introduced the plan, have pitched it largely as a public safety measure.
The Oakland fire department blames a dramatic rise in the number of electrical fires between 2006 and 2009 in part to marijuana being grown indoors with improperly wired fans and lights. The police department says eight robberies, seven burglaries and two murders have been linked to marijuana grows in the last two years.
Reid and Kaplan also are open about their desire to have the city, which last week laid off 80 police officers to save money, cash in on the medical marijuana industry it has allowed to thrive.
Oakland’s four retail marijuana stores did $28 million in business last year, and if sales remain constant, the city would get $1.5 million this year from a dispensary business tax that voters adopted last summer. A similar tax on wholesale pot sales from the permitted grow sites to the dispensaries would bring in more than twice that amount, the city administrator’s office has estimated.
“Allowing medical cannabis and medical cannabis products to be produced in a responsible, aboveboard and legitimate way will be a benefit to the patients, to the workers and to the people of Oakland,” Kaplan said.
Adding to the anxiety of growers — and the impetus Oakland officials have to get the grow tax in place — is a November state ballot measure to legalize marijuana possession for adult recreational use and authorize local governments to license and tax non-medical pot sales.
If it passes, Proposition 19 is expected to feed the state’s hearty appetite for marijuana. Backers of creating the four big indoor gardens say the plan is not dependent on legalization, but would benefit from it.
“The reality is, this is an issue that is going to grow. I would like it to grow here. I would like it to be Oakland business and not the tobacco industry,” Councilwoman Jean Quan said.
Regulating the supply side of the business would represent another turning point in California’s complicated, 14-year-old relationship with medical marijuana. Although Maine, New Mexico and Rhode Island license nonprofit groups to produce and distribute cannabis, California’s law is silent on cultivation other than for individual use.
Even as hundreds of storefront pot dispensaries, marijuana delivery services and THC-laced food products have flourished, the question of where they get their stashes remains murky: Inquiring is considered as impolite as asking someone’s income or age.
Industry insiders usually say they rely on a variety of sources, including farmers who grow outdoors in the far northern end of the state, contractors who run sophisticated indoor operations, and customers who grow their own and sell the surplus.
Officials in Berkeley and Long Beach also are moving take the mystery out of medical marijuana production.
The Berkeley City Council last week approved a measure for the November ballot that would authorize the city to license and tax six pot cultivation sites. Companies running the facilities must agree to give away some pot to low-income users, employ organic gardening methods to the extent possible and offset in some way the large amount of electricity needed to grow weed.
Long Beach officials want to reduce the amount of medical marijuana being sold in the city that isn’t grown there.
The city is in the process of trying to whittle its more than 90 dispensaries down to no more than 35 marijuana collectives through a lottery. License winners will be required to grow either at their retail sites or elsewhere in Long Beach and to open their books to prove they aren’t growing more than enough to supply their members, said Lori Ann Farrell, Long Beach’s director of financial management.
http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0718/growers-worry-walmarting-weed/

Seeds of Life: Chia, Flax, Hemp, and Pumpkin

Jeannie Herer
By Andrea Donsky and Randy Boyer, Naturally Savvy.com Tribune Media Services

Seeds are a crucial food source for birds, squirrels, livestock and other animals, especially during winter. For humans, edible seeds provide a delicious, nutrient-packed punch to meals and snacks, and are the source of most of our cooking oils, as well as some spices and beverages.
Seeds are quite high in calories because of their natural oils but don’t let that dissuade you from enjoying them. Their nutritional value is worth every calorie. A few interesting edible seeds that top the nutrient charts are chia, flax, hemp and pumpkin seeds.
Chia Seeds
While most of us remember the “Ch-ch-ch-chia Pet” as an ’80s gimmick, the ancient plant is actually regarded as a superfood, with many clinically proven health benefits.
Chia, Salvia hispanica, a plant belonging to the mint family, was so highly recognized by the Aztecs that it was often used as currency. The powerful seeds, referred to as “running food,” sustained Aztec runners, hunters, traders and warriors on long expeditions, often as their only source of nourishment.
Today, experts suggest that chia is one of the most nutritionally complete foods found in nature. In addition to being an excellent fiber source (mostly insoluble, which creates bulk for stool), chia is a rich plant-based source of Omega-3 fatty acids, consists of about 20 percent protein, and contains high levels of antioxidants, calcium, magnesium and iron.
Research has shown that chia has enormous potential to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease and Type 2 Diabetes. It can lower blood sugar (glucose) after a meal, reduce inflammation (C-Reactive Protein) and blood pressure, and is a natural blood thinner.
Since chia can absorb several times its weight in water, it helps the body maintain hydration, an important advantage to athletes and to those living in hot climates.
Gluten-free chia seed can be added — whole or ground — to a wide range of foods, including cereals, breads and bakery products, yogurt, desserts, pasta, and even soups and mayonnaise.
Flax Seeds
Flax has been cultivated for centuries and has been celebrated for its usefulness all over the world. Hippocrates wrote about using flax for the relief of abdominal pains, and the French Emperor Charlemagne favored flax seed so much that he passed laws requiring its consumption!
The main health benefits of flax seed are due to its rich content of Alpha-Linolenic Acid (ALA), dietary fiber, and lignans.
The essential fatty acid ALA is a powerful anti-inflammatory, decreasing the production of agents that promote inflammation and lowering blood levels of C-Reactive Protein (CRP), a biomarker of inflammation. Through the actions of the ALA and lignans, flax has been shown to block tumor growth in animals and may help reduce cancer risk in humans.
Lignans are phytoestrogens, plant compounds that have estrogen-like effects and antioxidant properties. Phytoestrogens help to stabilize hormonal levels, reducing the symptoms of PMS and menopause, and potentially reducing the risk of developing breast and prostate cancer.
The fiber in flax seed promotes healthy bowel function. One tablespoon of whole flax seed contains as much fiber as half a cup of cooked oat bran. Flax’s soluble fibers can lower blood cholesterol levels, helping reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke.
Ground flax seed provides more nutritional benefits than does the whole seed. Grind the seeds at home using a coffee grinder or blender, and add them to cereals, baked goods, smoothies, and yogurt.
Store dry, whole flax seed in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a year. Ground flax seed should be refrigerated, also in an airtight container. Properly stored, it will keep for up to three months.
Hemp Seeds
Hemp has been an important resource and source of nutrition for thousands of years. While Cannabis sativa L. and other non-drug varieties of Cannabis, commonly known as hemp, have not been cultivated for use much in recent years, interest in the versatile plant has been restored worldwide.
Studies have identified hemp seed as a functional food and important food resource. Technically a nut, hemp seed contains over 30 percent fat and about 25 percent protein, with considerable amounts of dietary fiber and other nutrients. Nutritionally, hemp seed — or hemp heart — is best known for its polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). It’s an exceptionally rich source of the essential fatty acids linoleic acid (omega-6) and alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), and a rare source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA) and stearidonic acid.
The two main proteins in hemp seed are edestin and albumin. Both of these high-quality proteins are easily digested and contain nutritionally-significant amounts of all essential amino acids, arginine in particular.
Some of the known health benefits of hemp include increased energy, improved metabolism and immunity, reduced food cravings, and it can help lower blood pressure. Hemp hearts also contain plant sterols that have been shown to reduce cholesterol.
In the U.S., hemp seeds are used to produce food, nutraceuticals, and body care products. Natural Product stores and supermarkets sell a variety of hemp-based foods, including hemp hearts, hemp bars, hemp protein shakes, hemp milk (non-dairy beverage), and cereal made with hemp.
Pumpkin Seeds
Pumpkin seeds have 373 calories per half cup. They are a good source of minerals, including zinc, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese, as well as protein and fiber. Only one ounce provides about 7 grams of protein.
Pumpkin seed oil is rich in essential fatty acids (EFAs). EFAs have many benefits, among them the maintenance of healthy blood vessels and nerves, and all tissues, including the skin.
The oil is also rich in phytosterols, plant-based fatty acids that are similar enough to cholesterol that they can replace it in the human body, contributing to the reduction of blood cholesterol levels.
Pumpkin seeds have long been associated with a healthy prostate. The protective compounds present within the seed of the pumpkin, which include zinc and phytosterols, may help to shrink an enlarged prostate. For prevention, eat a handful (about 1 ounce) of raw pumpkin seeds three times a week.
Eating seeds raw is always preferred as roasting them deteriorates or destroys many of the nutrients. Add whole seeds to hot or cold cereals, baked goods (breads and cookies), salads, steamed vegetables, or grind them up to add to burgers, chili and casseroles.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/green/sns-green-seeds-of-life,0,6317255,full.story

Joint Effort

Jeannie Herer

Pot-comedy legends Cheech and Chong
talk about reuniting after a quarter-century,
Chong’s bust, Canada’s hate-on for Compassion
Clubs and copping a buzz via coconut oil


FRIENDS WITH WEED ARE FRIENDS INDEED:
Richard “Cheech” Marin and Tommy Chong


by CHRIS BARRY
They should need no introduction, given that over the course of their career they’ve sold roughly 10 zillion records and generated countless millions more dollars at the box office with their classic stoner flicks Up in Smoke, Nice Dreams and Still Smokin’, to name a few. Roughly 25 years after officially calling it a day in 1985, a divorce marked by an inordinate amount of mud-slinging and acrimony even by show biz standards, many of their old bits have seeped into the consciousness of people who weren’t even born back when Tommy Chong and Richard “Cheech” Marin were freakin’ the authorities out as counterculture icons who celebrated the use of illicit drugs as much as lampooning its more ridiculous elements.
Recently reunited and finally enjoying the critical accolades they so richly deserve, the Mirror cornered the two comedians last week to discuss what it is like to be doing stoner jokes again as senior citizens, Tommy’s lengthy prison sentence in a California jail for the unforgivable crime of distributing bongs across state lines, and of course, pot—yes, we spoke a lot about pot. Imagine that! Here’s what they told us.
Mirror: What inspired you guys to work together again after all the years and acrimony between the two of you? Money?
Cheech Marin: The rent was due, that and the opportunity to do it again. We tried to get together many times over the years but nothing ever worked out. I was on a run making movies and appearing in a TV show and didn’t want to interrupt that, but finally all the stars were in line so we did it. I’d finished doing all the things I had to do and, you know, working together again was still on my list.
Tommy Chong: I was having a pretty good time but I always missed Cheech and knew we’d someday eventually get together again. When we split up, our time had simply run out. Like a cake in the oven, we were done. We’d explored every nook and cranny of that genre and it was just time to go our separate ways.
CM: We were sick of each other. We’d been together for 17 years and done everything—concerts, movies, records. We were at a creative end.
TC: Cheech was feeling confined by that one character he’d made famous, the not-too-smart Chicano guy, the first Beavis and Butthead. He wasn’t raised like that, you know, it was just one character in his arsenal. Whereas I really did become the stoner—it started out as a caricature but I did evolve into a pot advocate. Also, Cheech’s being typecast as that Chicano character was a very touchy thing, like Redd Foxx playing the junkman or a Chinese guy playing Charlie Chan. So that had something to do with it as well.

Old fogies

M: Are you doing different material from the Hey, Watch This stuff you started doing last year?
CM: Completely different show.
TC: We’re doing a compilation of bits we’d never done on stage before, like Dave’s Not Here, Santa Claus and His Old Lady, while showcasing our musical talents more.
CM: And there’s a lot of improvisation, more improvisation than ever before, so it’s exciting for us to get to the hall at night.
M: Is it weird doing that stoner humour now that you’re in your 60s? Or, I dunno, is it maybe even funnier because of your age?
TC: Actually, it’s more appropriate. When you’re 60 years old, you’re slow and stupid and never know what’s going on, naturally. You don’t have to act. In your 60s, it’s like you’re stoned all the time anyway.
M: How often do you smoke pot now?
CM: Hardly ever, only when I want to relax sitting around playing guitar or if I go out golfing or something.
TC: I don’t really smoke anymore, my lungs won’t take it. I’m more into edibles. I’m into coconut oil, it’s the latest health-food miracle down here. So I’m cooking pot into that and making these little candies. I smoke pot for creative purposes, it really triggers my imagination.

Bush vs. bongs

M: So Tommy, how did you wind up serving time for this whole bong-distribution thing you got popped for a few years back?
TC: When my wife and I first started doing comedy out on the road, people were selling bootleg items of ours, t-shirts and bongs. So we started our own bong company, which was fine when the Democrats were in power, but once Bush got in, he went gung-ho busting all the bong manufacturers, trying to distract people from their Iraq war by getting tough on pot, the old Republican standby. So they started Operation Pipedreams and I was their target, because I had the name. But what they didn’t know is that I never owned the company, it was my son’s. So once they found that out, I made a deal to plead guilty so my son wouldn’t go to jail—he would have been the first person to ever go to jail for that. They gave me the impression that by pleading guilty, I wouldn’t do any time but I got railroaded and did nine months—eight months beyond the chalk line and one month in a halfway house in Taft, California. It cost me about $2-million, just to plead guilty! $200 K in lawyers fees, $35,000 in cash they confiscated from my home that had nothing to do with anything, lost income from work we had to cancel, it goes on. Imagine what would have happened had I fought the charge? The government can really break you down if they want to. It’s a sad thing, especially for pot, something proven to be beneficial that helps a lot of people.
M: Are you embittered by the experience?
TC: Not at all. I enjoyed my jail time. Every Canadian and American should go to jail for at least a year or two. I was well received in jail anyway, at least by the guys who could speak English there.

Health or Harper?

M: Do either of you have a medical marijuana card?
CM: I had one but lost it in true stoner fashion. People give us weed all the time anyway so it doesn’t make sense to buy it.
TC: Absolutely. I have the first one ever made. When it first became legal for medical purposes, there was no system set up. So Jack Herer called me up saying he’d found a doctor that would give us a letter. So we took that letter and we made it into cards, little business cards. I’ve still got it. But when I showed it to my arresting officer, they just laughed at it. Do you have one?
M: My wife did but they just busted all the Compassion Clubs in Montreal, after 10 years in operation too. It’s totally fucked.
TC: It’s what’s-his-name, Harper, flexing his DEA muscles, right? Canada’s in a unique position because they’ve never really had a pot law and now Harper’s trying to jam one down everybody’s throat. Harper and his right-wing Bush attitude arresting people, saying it’s illegal, forcing the Compassion Clubs to prove it isn’t. After 10 years, you’d think it’d be grandfathered into law.
M: That’s one theory going around, the Harper thing, although I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Hey, who’s the most surprising person that’s turned out to be a fan of yours, someone you wouldn’t expect?
CM: (laughs) The Queen of the Netherlands. We know friends of hers who say they go on her yacht and watch Cheech and Chong movies together.
M: The Netherlands, huh? How appropriate, you gotta love them Dutch. So when the history book is written on Cheech and Chong, what will their legacy be?
CM: I expect to be recognized as one of the most successful comedy teams of all time.
TC: That they were like Mexican immigrants, nothing could stop them
http://www.montrealmirror.com/2010/071510/comedy1.html

Int. Medical Marijuana Expo in Toronto

Jeannie Herer

Posted by Robyn Urback

I think this will be a little different from the flash mobs and gun slinging

of past pot gatherings in Toronto.
The city will host Canada’s first International Medical Marijuana & Hemp Expo at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre tomorrow. The event is labeled as “the first expo promoting the respectable and responsible use of marijuana as medicine.”
“We’re not trying to promote: ‘Come down to the convention centre and get stoned.’ This isn’t what it’s all about,” Expo organizer Marco Renda told CBC. “This is about educating yourself on the benefits of cannabis as medicine.”
Renda says he hopes the expo will boost awareness about medical marijuana. He says he expects over 30,000 visitors to attend (despite the fact that no pot is actually being sold!). There are around 4,000 registered medical marijuana users in Canada.
http://www.blogto.com/news_flash/2010/07/international_medical_marijuana_expo_in_toronto_tomorrow/

Federal, State and Local Laws Are Confusing and Contradicting

Jeannie Herer
AVista man facing federal drug charges for operating a medical marijuana dispensary was dealt a legal blow this week. U.S. District Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz, the federal judge overseeing the proceedings against James Stacy, issued a ruling that will deny Stacy’s lawyer from presenting the “Obama-said-I-can” argument, known as entrapment by estoppel (essentially, when an official grants legal permission to do something and then arrests them for it) as a defense at trial.

James Stacy, center, believes he was in compliance
with pot ordinances.

The judge’s motion also set limits on evidence that could be presented at trial to demonstrate Stacy’s compliance with state law.
The Movement in Action pot collective founder is the first to go to trial after the Obama administration ordered the Drug Enforcement Administration to stop raiding dispensaries in states where medical marijuana was legal.
Supporters of medical marijuana across the country see Stacy’s trial as a test case for the future of pot-shop litigation.
Last year on September 9, during a sting operation called Operation Endless Summer, more than a dozen dispensaries were raided. Stacy was arrested after an undercover narcotics officer bought weed from Stacy’sshop. But Stacy argued that all transactions at his collective met the legal standards of the state.
“There was nobody ever in my collective that wasn’t a verified patient,” he says.
Stacy was charged with conspiracy to grow and sell marijuana, growing marijuana, and the possession of a firearm in the furtherance of his pot operation. Stacy says the gun was registered when he purchased it in Texas.
“It’s a totally legally owned gun,” he says.
Attorney Kasha Castillo told a reporter that her client’s defense was not intended as legal maneuvering but rather a as a reflection that Stacy believed that he was in full compliance with local, state and federal laws. At his hearing in December, Stacy, who has been free on a forty thousand dollar property bond told the court that he contacted the Secretary of State’s office, the state Attorney General’s office, and that he had hired an attorney to make certain that his collective was in compliance.
“When I first heard about this kind of business,” he says, “I thought I was the right person for it because I do everything by the rules. I wait until the light changes to cross the street.”
Stacy, 46, a Dallas native, lives in Vista where he teaches martial arts. A medical marijuana user himself, Mr. Stacy had opened his Movement in Action dispensary and collective only a few months before the drug raid shut him down.
Of the more than 30 Operation Endless Summer arrests, only two marijuana dispensary owners were brought up on federal charges.Joseph Nunespleaded guilty in December of last year in exchange for a one-year prison sentence and three years probation. Stacy declined a similar plea deal that would have also culminated in his spending a year behind bars.
Jovan Jackson, another dispensary operator busted September 9 was acquitted of state charges by a local jury.
California was the first state in the nation to legalize medical marijuana with the passage of the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. But state government’s direction has been to leave regulation of medical marijuana dispensaries up to individual jurisdictions. California pot law therefore is a patchwork quilt of confusion.
The crackdown of local law enforcement last September was due in part to a sudden proliferation of marijuana storefronts in neighborhoods countywide (and elsewhere in California) after the Obama administration, in the evidence of growing public pressure to legalize marijuana, announced that they would cease to prosecute medical marijuana collectives and their customers.
But in spite of Obama’s moratorium, pot to this day remains a Schedule One controlled substance.
David Speckman is a San Diego attorney in private practice who represents more than a dozen medical marijuana collectives. He says that Obama’s good intentions aside, federal law is unchanged and that as such, possession is still illegal, medical marijuana recommendation or not. Earlier, he told SanDiego.com that “What [the feds] are saying is that for purposes of medical marijuana, they are going to defer to the states but with a very important caveat: that one may believe that they are in full compliance with state law and still run amiss of the federal law.”
“What the bust is about,” says Stacy, “is whether the DEA can ignore what the President says and continue to harass medical marijuana dispensaries.”
Alex Kreit chaired the city council’s Medical Marijuana Task Force.
“Though Attorney General [Eric] Holder’s memo stated that the federal government would not go after individuals who were operating in compliance with state medical marijuana laws, Mr. Stacy will not have the opportunity to present evidence in federal court that his actions were lawful under state law,” he says. “The San Diego U.S. Attorney’s office should explain why it is not abiding by Attorney General Holder’s directive and has instead decided to use previous federal law enforcement resources to interfere with California’s medical marijuana law.”
On Friday, July 2, Stacy, who faces 20 years behind bars if convicted, pleaded not guilty in federal court to three additional charges brought by the district attorney.
“Unless and until federal law changes,” says Kreit, “there will always be a danger that overzealous federal prosecutors will target medical marijuana caregivers like Mr. Stacy.”
“This is aging me in ways you don’t even know,” says Stacy. “My poor wife, she’s starting to get gray hair. We both have upset stomachs all the time.”
Trial has been set for August 30.
http://www.sandiego.com/news/san-diego-pot-trial-could-be-national-test-case