DON'T STEP ON THE GRASS

The Cannabis Cup is the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, and the Olympics of marijuana all rolled into one. Rolled and smoked, you might say. The annual event is held in Amsterdam, and every year pot farmers and hopheads from around the world converge on the Dutch city as new strains of cannabis are unveiled, and judges award the Cannabis Cup, as well as the best new product, best booth, best glass, best hash and best Nederhash--whatever that is.

This irreverent history of the event is amusing (and probably even funnier if you're stoned). Don't get me wrong. I don't advocate smoking pot, but I advocate the freedom to do so as an adult in a (relatively) free society.


With California going broke, some people are advocating the legalization--or at least the decriminalization--of cannabis, which is the state's biggest cash crop. Marijuana, that's right, pot, grass, weed, bud. Forget arguments about freedom, and forget arguments about the relative dangers of pot and booze, and forget arguments about victimless crime--what may turn the tide of marijuana prohibition is money. Pure and simple, cash on the barrelhead, something Americans know more about than weed.


Save the economy with pot? This ad has been running on TV in California

Medical marijuana is already legal in California for its pain-alleviating and relaxant effects. In the Netherlands, while pot is officially illegal, the government has a policy of non-enforcement and sensibly separates "soft" drugs from "hard" drugs like heroin and cocaine. Over there you can visit a "cafe" and pick up pot as easily as a cup of coffee. Of course, you wouldn't want to drive after a visit to the coffeehouse any more than you would after a couple vodka martinis. Call a cab!


After eight years of government by the dunderheads, for the dunderheads, perhaps we're due for some enlightenment on the subject of marijuana--or at the very least some non-biased investigation and intelligent dialog. And who knows? Maybe California, the state that elected an Austrian action figure for governor, will get the job done and pay their bills. Then, instead of swinging by the liquor store for gin you could pick up a carton of Acapulco Gold--or better yet, British Columbia Bud (hard or soft pack)--and listen to those Beatles remixes with the headphones on.

Holy smokes!

I don't claim to be unbiased. If you've followed this blog at all, you know I err on the side of personal liberties and generally rank myself with dissident non-conformists. Believe what you want, I always say, but do your homework. Dig deep and question the dominant paradigm--even if you come back around--because healthy skepticism if its own reward. After all, in the safety of your own cranium you need not fear the thought police.



Ever wonder what it's like in an Amsterdam cafe? High Times foreign correspondent Bobby Black filed this report from a couple of the coolest cannabis cafes, the Amnesia and Barney's. If you think these are just Dutch Starbucks take a closer look at this menu.

The Cafe Menu: Click to enlarge image

This irreverent history of the Cannabis Cup deserves to be seen by thinking adults for educational purposes. If you agree or not, take a look and keep an open mind.

It's a freedom thing.


There are two sides to every argument, so we present "The Terrible Truth" from 1951, a sensational documentary for teenagers about the dangers of Maryjane.

Visit the official website of the Cannabis Cup here.

GO ASK ELLIS

Not long ago, major league baseball player Dock Ellis passed away. His best season was 1971, when he won 19 games for the World Series champion Pirates and was the starting pitcher for the National League in the All-Star Game. Ellis is probably best known for pitching a no-hitter while under the influence of LSD in 1970.

He didn't plan it that way. Ellis had been hanging out with friends in LA and was under the impression he had the day off when he ingested the powerful psychedelic.

"I was in Los Angeles, and the team was playing in San Diego, but I didn't know it. I had taken LSD..... I thought it was an off-day, that's how come I had it in me. I took the LSD at noon." At 1pm, his girlfriend and trip partner looked at the paper and said, "Dock, you're pitching today!"

Ellis boarded a shuttle flight to the ballpark and threw a no-hitter despite not being able to feel the ball or clearly see the batter or catcher.

"I can only remember bits and pieces of the game," Ellis recalled. "I was psyched. I had a feeling of euphoria. I was zeroed in on the glove, but I didn't hit the glove too much. I remember hitting a couple of batters and the bases were loaded two or three times. The ball was small sometimes, the ball was large sometimes, sometimes I saw the catcher, sometimes I didn't. Sometimes I tried to stare the hitter down and throw while I was looking at him. I chewed my gum until it turned to powder. They say I had about three to four fielding chances. I remember diving out of the way of a ball I thought was a line drive. I jumped, but the ball wasn't hit hard and never reached me."

autographed ball: Dock Ellis, No Hitter 6-12-70

The dubious achievement inspired several songs, including "Dock Ellis" by Barbara Manning (performed by SF Seals), "Dock Ellis No-No" by Chuck Brodsky, and "America's Favorite Pastime" by folk singer by Todd Snider.

Listen to "America's Favorite Pastime" by Todd Snider, click the button below:

Listen to "Dock Ellis" by SF Seals, by clicking here:


Dock Ellis, American Hero

PLAY I SOME MUSIC

Sheriff John Brown always hated me,
For what, I dont know!
Every time I plant a seed,
He said kill it before it grow -
He said kill them before they grow.
I shot the sheriff
But I didn't shoot no deputy

Feel that music? Can you feel that? The tiny island country of Jamaica is more than a playground for beachgoing Americans. Jamaica is the birthplace of reggae, ska, rocksteady, mento, dub, dancehall, ragga, toasting, and various other musical mutations. Jamaica also brought us the Rastafari movement--a group that reveres Haile Selassie as the black Messiah coming to take the Twelve Lost Tribes of Israel back to Mount Zion on the Black Star Liner.

Haile Selassie

One of the biggest reggae stars, Bob Marley, was a rasta who brought the philosophy of peace, love, justice, and ganja smoking to the rest of the world. He started with The Wailers, and soon his music was a cultural force. It urged people to get up and dance--and also to but get up, and stand up for their rights.

The Wailers--Marley in the middle

Reggae didn't catch on right away with the lumbering American public until Eric Clapton covered Marley's classic, "I Shot the Sheriff." Before that, you had to order reggae from Island Records. I did, anyway, since my local "hip" record store was still pushing Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles, and the wildest thing available was Tom Petty. Once Slowhand Clapton cleaned up the Kingston sound reggae started appearing in the racks. It took a white guy in a white suit to bring Trenchtown to the yacht rock crowd. Marley became a superstar.

Them belly full but we hungry

A hungry mob is an angry mob

The music was danceable and political. The groove got you moving and the lyrics got you thinking about justice and peace and struggle and getting high. Each song was a communique from the Third World, a message in a bottle.

Before the reggae dam broke completely, I was working for a small newspaper in the wilds of Portland, an underground paper that followed offbeat music and lifestyles of what remained of "the counter-culture." Nobody was much interested in reggae, so I snatched up the assignment when I heard Bob Marley was coming to town. I made arrangements and scheduled an interview months in advance. To prepare, I played his records, took notes, watched "The Harder They Come," and even conducted some ganja research to catch the vibe. Total immersion. You rarely see this kind of investigative journalism. I was psyched. They put me on the guest list and arranged for a backstage pass. More important, we would talk. Me and Bob Marley.

Anyway, Marley injured his foot playing soccer and that leg of the tour was canceled. Ahhh!


I'm still a fan of the island music. Listen. Feel it. Move your feet. This is roots, rock, reggae.

Watch Part 1 of The Story of Jamaican Music: From Ska to Reggae (Part 2 coming soon!):

BURNING MAN

What's the deal with Burning Man? It's 120 degrees in the shade and you have to pack in water...it's like Road Warrior on the surface of Mercury. What's the deal? Why not have the annual freakout in some mountain meadow with a babbling brook? How about in the dunes on some beautiful coastline? Am I just hopelessly square? What brings out all the freaks, neo-hippies, ravers, artists and strippers to bake in this hellish landscape? Is it the dope? The art? The naked people? Is it the sense of belonging? Are people tripping their brains out? WTF?

The art looks pretty cool...and it looks like people put a lot of work into their projects, so we tip our hat. Maybe this is the last chance for full-out craziness, the last hurrah for non-conformists on our orderly, dying planet. Okay, I can see that. I shouldn't rush to judgment. Who knows? Maybe someday I'll glue some toy dinosaurs on the Mazda and drive down to Death Valley or whatever godforsaken landcape they've chosen for their revels, and have a truly transcendent experience. I could make a hat out of tinfoil. Paint my ass blue. Get some roller skates, you know, and some bottled water, and head out beyond the Thunderdome. And why not?


Burning Man? Check out the official website here.

THE WORLD IS GOING TO POT

Past presidential pot preferences? Chris Matthews reviewed transitioning public attitudes towards marijuana by reviewing the statements of past presidential candidates about their own drug use, from Bill Clinton to Barack Obama.

Michael Phelps is no dope-smoking slacker. Phelps has won 14 career Olympic gold medals, the most by any Olympian. By the end of 2008, he held seven world records in swimming. Now he's been "caught" with a bong, and he admits smoking marijuana, and the world is stunned that he would do something so despicable. If the swimmer had had a few beers the world would march on dumbly, but smoking marijuana--even in this day and age--has a terrible stigma. Recent scientific studies dismiss outdated "reefer madness," and bolster arguments calling for decriminalization. It's against the law, critics cry. It's a crime. So was your beloved martini, at one point.


Today, the Associated Press reports that "In the past six months, four [sumo]wrestlers have been kicked out of the ancient sport for allegedly smoking marijuana, creating the biggest drugs-in-sports scandal that Japan has ever seen."

Is the whole world going to pot?


Like many jazz musicians, Cab Calloway was no stranger to the Reefer Man.

Anti-pot propaganda from yesteryear was often tied to racist fears of blacks and Mexicans, in whose communities the use of the weed was more common. Sex was a part of it, too. A puff might result in "drug-crazed abandon," turning a "good" woman into a wanton harlot enslaved to dope, ripe to be sold into "white slavery."



Let's get real. Smoking pot a victimless crime, and according to the scientific research less harmful than alcohol, but it's been lumped with heroin and crack cocaine and other dangerous drugs for so long many people believe it belongs in that deadly category. Of course, others know better. Anyone who has been around isn't startled with the news that someone as successful as Phelps can smoke pot and not be a drooling junkie or lose his mind completely.

The government needs to loosen its grip and allow scientific research to give us the answers--but research is being stifled by our outmoded views, according to the Scientific American. "...Outdated regulations and attitudes thwart legitimate research," say the editors, and the "current restrictions on marijuana research are absurd." (read the rest of the SA article here)

Maybe it's time we looked at the pot laws again. Maybe it's time to examine the evidence with a cool head (no pun intended) like intelligent, scientific people in the modern world.


The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Washington has launched a multimedia public-education campaign on the country's marijuana laws and their impact on taxpayers, communities and those arrested.

As part of this effort, travel guru Rick Steves hosts this infomercial-style panel discussion produced by the Washington ACLU. Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation

LINKS:
Marijuana: Time for a Conversation
ACLU Washington
NORML: working to reform marijuana laws

TOKING UP WITH LAWRENCE WELK

Technically, Lawrence Welk was never part of the 1960s counter-culture. In fact, culturally-speaking, he was probably as close to a perfect square as was geometrically possible. He loved his polkas and played them tirelessly for his adoring fans in a galaxy of champagne bubbles.

Sometimes the champagne music wasn't enough. Those times Welk went searching the mean streets for something stronger, something wilder. For Kicks. We may never know what was actually going on behind that smile, the friendly demeanor, and the insistence that everything was "Wunnerful, Wunnerful!" All we have are these clues.


In this clip, the Lawrence Welk singers describe the disorienting effects of smoking too much marijuana in a train station. As the singers weave their haunting spell, the music builds in intensity, approximating the drug user's "high." Was Welk a closet hipster sending secret messages to fellow druggies? Or was this a desperate cry for help?

In the clip below, Welk has clearly turned into a hippie. Must have been all that grass. His friends hardly recognize him, and his aggressive behavior seems "out of character." Fortunately, an impromptu intervention sets him on the right path.

MARIJUANA: IT'S TIME FOR A CONVERSATION

As you may know, Rick Steves, the travel guru, is an advocate for the legalization of marijuana. A successful businessman, and far from the a-motivational syndrome suffering stereotypical pothead, Steves admits smoking grass when he's in Europe (where the laws are different) and doesn't hide the fact. He works with NORML ( the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and speaks openly at Hempfest (coming this weekend in Seattle) .

Meanwhile, TV station executives are tripping over their martinis trying to justify not airing a short infomercial calling for a dialog about pot. What gives?

The ACLU launched the infomercial (hosted by Steves) about the unjust history and legacy of marijuana law, and the show was ready to air on local KING 5 TV, but the station yanked it at the last minute. They say that according to station guidelines, the 30-minute show cannot advocate any legal reform.

the killer weed

To see the show, Marijuana: It's Time for a Conversation, please visit the website:
http://www.marijuanaconversation.org/interviews/

We did another post on Steves--click here.

To visit Rick's site, Europe Through the Back Door, click here.

MARY ANN AND THE MARY JANE

Dawn Wells, who played Mary Ann on "Gilligan's Island," was sentenced to five days in jail and six months' probation after allegedly being caught with marijuana in her car in Driggs, Idaho. On October 18th, Dawn was stopped by the police on her way home from her own surprise birthday party, and allegedly the policeman found the grass. The cop said he found a couple half-smoked joints, and a container "used to store marijuana."

The stoners, in better days.

In 1998, Bob Denver, the actor who played Gilligan, was arrested after receiving a marijuana delivery. At the time, numerous reports suggested that Wells had sent the package, but she was never charged.

Now it makes sense why the castaways could make a radio out of coconuts but couldn't build a raft.

Song dedication: To Mary Ann. "Grazing in the Grass," by Hugh Masekela. Click button.

RICK STEVES' MARIJUANA CAMPAIGN

Popular travel guru Rick Steves has joined forces with the ACLU to promote the decriminalization of marijuana. Steves, a longtime supporter of a sensible pot policy, admitted five years ago that he smokes pot when he visits Europe. In a Seattle Times article, the Edmunds, Washington-based writer says he's not “pro-marijuana,” but in favor of discussing the laws that affect the 830,000 Americans who are arrested annually under existing marijuana laws. About 90 percent of the arrests are for possession.

“Marijuana use should be treated primarily as a health issue, not a criminal one," Steves said. "In Europe, I've seen how more thoughtful approaches to social issues can really work. Our government's war on drugs sounds very tough and results-driven, but all it really succeeds at is being enormously expensive, tearing families apart and treating nonconformists as criminals."


In a related story from today's LA Times: The American College of Physicians (ACP), 124,000-member group that is the nation's largest for doctors of internal medicine, contends that the rancorous debate over marijuana legalization has obscured good science that has demonstrated the benefits and medicinal promise of cannabis. The ACP is calling on the federal government to ease its strict ban on marijuana as medicine and hasten research into the drug's therapeutic uses.

"We felt the time had come to speak up about this," said Dr. David Dale, a University of Washington medical professor and the ACP's president. "We'd like to clear up the uncertainty and anxiety of patients and physicians over this drug."

The following clip shows Rick Steves interviewed at the 2007 NORML conference in Los Angeles. Ignore the silly song intro. For more Rick Steves at the "Europe Through the Back Door" website, click here.

EX-DRUG COP CHANGES TUNE

Texas narcotics officer Barry Cooper must have had a change of heart. He changed from being an eager enforcer of current drug laws to actively opposing them, and telling people how to avoid being busted. Cooper sells a DVD on his website called Never Get Busted Again. He says it will teach you "drug enforcement tactics; how to avoid narcotics profiling; how to conceal your stash" and more. He was on Geraldo Rivera's show, and the first clip begins with his introduction, and then the news segment as it aired on FOX.



The second clip is an actual segment from Cooper's DVD, Never Get Busted Again, and is included for informational purposes only, and as such is protected as Free Speech under the United States Constitution.



Barry Cooper's website can be found here:
http://www.nevergetbusted.com/