March 4, 2013
businessweek: jenniferdaniel: NEW MAP! The locations of 102 San Jose marijuana dispensaries and their happy tech neighbors. By: Allison McCann/Jennifer Daniel Silicon Valley is high on innovation. And pot.

businessweek:

jenniferdaniel:

NEW MAP! The locations of 102 San Jose marijuana dispensaries and their happy tech neighbors.

By: Allison McCann/Jennifer Daniel

Silicon Valley is high on innovation. And pot.

2:46pm
(Notes: 126)
  
Filed under: Technology Silicon Valley Marijuana Maps 
November 19, 2012
The Secret Ingredients for Marijuana Legalization: Moms and Hispanics Convincing women — mothers, especially — that legalization wasn’t simply about stoners and libertarians was essential to ending blanket prohibition. They needed to be assured this was sound policy and that their children would not be affected. “We definitely wanted to reach [women],” says Tonia Winchester, the outreach director behind the Yes on I-502 camp. “We were very much focused on not being a pro-pot campaign but a pro-policy campaign, showing that we could shift resources from incarcerating and focus on programs we knew would work.” Read more. [Image: AP]

The Secret Ingredients for Marijuana Legalization: Moms and Hispanics

Convincing women — mothers, especially — that legalization wasn’t simply about stoners and libertarians was essential to ending blanket prohibition. They needed to be assured this was sound policy and that their children would not be affected.

“We definitely wanted to reach [women],” says Tonia Winchester, the outreach director behind the Yes on I-502 camp. “We were very much focused on not being a pro-pot campaign but a pro-policy campaign, showing that we could shift resources from incarcerating and focus on programs we knew would work.”

Read more. [Image: AP]

2:46pm
(Notes: 110)
  
Filed under: Marijuana Drugs Latinos Women Voting Politics 
June 7, 2012
Intercepted! Mitt Romney Harshes His California Neighbors’ Mellow It’s an interesting look into the American psyche that even now, four years after the housing bubble brought the national economy to its knees, few things have the power to fascinate like real estate. And there’s no better example than Mitt Romney’s house in La Jolla, California. First there was the infamous car elevator. In today’s New York Times, Michael Barbaro visits La Jolla and gets the Romney family’s neighbors to dish on their gripes about the relatively new arrivals. Many of those complaints are exactly what one might expect. A good number of the adjacent homeowners are liberal, and take issue with the former Massachusetts governor’s politics, though there’s no reason one can’t enjoy a barbecue with an ideological adversary. There’s some standard NIMBYism about the Romney family’s plans to drastically renovate the property. And others are upset about the presence of Secret Service agents, an inconvenience that the Romneys can’t do much about. One particular gripe sticks out, though. The Romneys rarely entertain neighbors, but they have tried to weave themselves into the fabric of local life. Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop. Read more. [Image: Reuters]

Intercepted! Mitt Romney Harshes His California Neighbors’ Mellow

It’s an interesting look into the American psyche that even now, four years after the housing bubble brought the national economy to its knees, few things have the power to fascinate like real estate. And there’s no better example than Mitt Romney’s house in La Jolla, California.

First there was the infamous car elevator. In today’s New York Times, Michael Barbaro visits La Jolla and gets the Romney family’s neighbors to dish on their gripes about the relatively new arrivals. Many of those complaints are exactly what one might expect. A good number of the adjacent homeowners are liberal, and take issue with the former Massachusetts governor’s politics, though there’s no reason one can’t enjoy a barbecue with an ideological adversary. There’s some standard NIMBYism about the Romney family’s plans to drastically renovate the property. And others are upset about the presence of Secret Service agents, an inconvenience that the Romneys can’t do much about.

One particular gripe sticks out, though.

The Romneys rarely entertain neighbors, but they have tried to weave themselves into the fabric of local life. Mr. Romney and his wife take regular walks around La Jolla, exchanging pleasantries with fellow strollers and occasionally enforcing the law. A young man in town recalled that Mr. Romney confronted him as he smoked marijuana and drank on the beach last summer, demanding that he stop.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]

11:17am
(Notes: 35)
  
Filed under: Romney Marijuana Drugs News 
April 20, 2012
On National Pot Day, A Speech President Obama Should Give My Fellow Americans: Every day this Administration seeks as best it can to evaluate our nation’s existing policies and priorities to determine whether they continue to make sense or whether they are counterproductive to America’s evolving goals and ideals. As individuals, we make these sorts of re-evaluations all the time in our own lives. We learn from experience what works and what does not. We change our minds. We strive to be better. And as a nation we must do the same to ensure that the path we have chosen is still the one we want to be on. So, after careful consideration and a through review by the Justice Department, and with the consent and cooperation of other relevant federal agencies, I announce today that this Administration will have a new approach to the issue of medical marijuana in those states which have legalized it. Our new policies are consistent with the promises I made as a candidate, they finally make good on pronouncements I made early in my term, they are faithful in their traditional deference to states’ rights, and they sensibly redirect federal resources at a time when we need every budget dollar we can find. I have directed the attorney general to issue a directive to all U.S. attorneys and other federal officials that they may no longer raid or threaten to prosecute medical-marijuana growers and distributors in those states that have legalized the use of the drug. As of today, the federal government will be content to allow state authorities to monitor those growers and distributors to ensure that they are complying with state law. To those states we say: We are still here to help you if you need us. To the American people we say: No longer will your federal tax dollars be spent interfering with these particular state policy choices. Read more. [Images: Reuters]

On National Pot Day, A Speech President Obama Should Give

My Fellow Americans:

Every day this Administration seeks as best it can to evaluate our nation’s existing policies and priorities to determine whether they continue to make sense or whether they are counterproductive to America’s evolving goals and ideals. As individuals, we make these sorts of re-evaluations all the time in our own lives. We learn from experience what works and what does not. We change our minds. We strive to be better. And as a nation we must do the same to ensure that the path we have chosen is still the one we want to be on.

So, after careful consideration and a through review by the Justice Department, and with the consent and cooperation of other relevant federal agencies, I announce today that this Administration will have a new approach to the issue of medical marijuana in those states which have legalized it. Our new policies are consistent with the promises I made as a candidate, they finally make good on pronouncements I made early in my term, they are faithful in their traditional deference to states’ rights, and they sensibly redirect federal resources at a time when we need every budget dollar we can find.

I have directed the attorney general to issue a directive to all U.S. attorneys and other federal officials that they may no longer raid or threaten to prosecute medical-marijuana growers and distributors in those states that have legalized the use of the drug. As of today, the federal government will be content to allow state authorities to monitor those growers and distributors to ensure that they are complying with state law. To those states we say: We are still here to help you if you need us. To the American people we say: No longer will your federal tax dollars be spent interfering with these particular state policy choices.

Read more. [Images: Reuters]

3:42pm
(Notes: 85)
  
Filed under: Marijuana Drugs War on drugs Obama Politics 
April 20, 2012

In Focus: Marijuana

Marijuana use, for medicinal or recreational reasons, remains high around the world, despite often severe penalties for its possession and distribution. In the U.S., 16 states currently allow the use of medicinal marijuana and some are now considering legalizing recreational use, despite federal laws forbidding such activity. In the Netherlands, Dutch coffee shop owners are working to block a government plan to halt “drug tourists” from buying marijuana in their cafes. Mexico’s bloody drug wars continue as cartels battle to control the thousands of tons of marijuana shipped to the U.S., smuggled across the border by any means imaginable. Collected here are a few images of some of the many contentious issues around marijuana.

See more. [Images: Reuters, AFP/Getty]

1:46pm
(Notes: 70)
  
Filed under: Photography Marijuana Drugs 
April 20, 2012
Reefer Madness Marijuana has not been de facto legalized, and the war on drugs is not just about cocaine and heroin. In fact, today, when we don’t have enough jail cells for murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals, there may be more people in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses than at any other time in U.S. history Eric Schlosser on the U.S. war on marijuana in the August 1994 issue of The Atlantic. His cover story eventually became Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market. Read more at The Atlantic

Reefer Madness

Marijuana has not been de facto legalized, and the war on drugs is not just about cocaine and heroin. In fact, today, when we don’t have enough jail cells for murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals, there may be more people in federal and state prisons for marijuana offenses than at any other time in U.S. history

Eric Schlosser on the U.S. war on marijuana in the August 1994 issue of The Atlantic. His cover story eventually became Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market.

Read more at The Atlantic

10:55am
(Notes: 100)
  
Filed under: long reads the atlantic from the archives covers marijuana war on drugs 4/20 
March 8, 2012
"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol… I’ve never used marijuana and I don’t intend to, but it’s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn’t succeeded."

— Pat Robertson, on why marijuana should be legalized.

11:08am
(Notes: 233)
  
Filed under: Drugs Marijuana News Politics 
April 20, 2011

4/20 Playlist: Songs About Pot for the Cannabis Holiday:

Just as 4:20 has evolved to become a universally understood codeword, the public perception of marijuana has also changed. Back in September when California was debating Proposition 19, which would legalize the drug in order to tax it, Hampton Stevens argued that this evolution is inextricably tied to one thing: music.

Watch and hear other 4/20-appropriate tunes at The Atlantic. What’s your favorite?

4:20pm
(Notes: 29)
  
Filed under: Entertainment Culture 420 Pot Marijuana Music Louis Armstrong 
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