Salon.com > Kristen Gwynne

Silicon Valley is full of stoners

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 13:13:00 +0000

Another major marijuana stereotype just got blown totally out of the water -- this time the idea that consuming cannabis is for unemployed slacker types. In fact, pot is wildly popular in one of America's economic centers, Silicon Valley. According to a new report in Bloomberg's Businessweek, the "physical toll" of computer coding has made Silicon Valley workers key consumers in the medical marijuana industry.

In San Jose, which Businessweek dubs the "Bay Area capital of medical marijuana," 106 medicinal marijuana dispensaries span the city's 177 square miles, more than adequately serving its 967,000 residents. One of those dispensaries, Pallative Health Center, told Businessweek that tech workers make up an estimated 40 percent of clients.

“We’re seeing people from some semiconductors, lots of engineers, lots of programmers,” Ernie Arreola, 38, the assistant manager, told Businessweek, which noted, "That makes sense, because the shop is an easy shot from some of the area’s biggest employers—Cisco Systems, Google, Adobe Systems, Apple, EBay—and a short drive from dozens more. Also, people in Silicon Valley do like their pot."

Colorado may allow tourists to get high

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:38:00 +0000

The Colorado task force in charge of setting up regulations for the state’s legal marijuana has decided to let tourists in on the weed, the Associated Press reports. Lawmakers, law enforcement and marijuana policy activists on the task force assembled and agreed Tuesday that Amendment 64 legalizes marijuana for all adults at least 21 years old, and does not exclude out-of-state visitors.

Members of the task force were concerned whether allowing tourists to purchase marijuana would encourage or discourage illicit sale. "Imposing a residency requirement would almost certainly create a black market for recreational marijuana in the state," task force member Rep. Dan Pabon, a Denver Democrat, said at the meeting.

Regulators agreed that marijuana tourists should be warned via billboards and airport signs not to take Colorado marijuana home, and that an undetermined limit of sale should be established for non-residents.

If lawmakers agree with the task force recommendation, tourists will be free to get stoned in Colorado. Still, whether they, or anyone else in the state can do so in public is up for a more heated debate.

According to the Associated Press:

Task force members were less successful agreeing to recommendations on marijuana growing and public use. Colorado's marijuana law allows home growing but requires plants to be in a locked, secure location out of public view. The task force couldn't agree whether a "locked" and "secure" location would mean a backyard surrounded by a fence, or whether an enclosure such as a shed or greenhouse should be mandatory.

Greenwood Village Police Chief John Jackson, whom the AP called “one of the task force's most vocal marijuana critics,” expressed concern that a chain-link fence would not be sufficient in keeping kids out of a backyard pot garden. Prominent marijuana policy activist Meg Sanders disagreed, and said requiring coverings like greenhouses would be unfair."I think it goes too far in restricting what people can do on their own private property," Sanders said at the meeting.

According to the AP, Jackson and like-minded members of the task force also want to ban marijuana use on publicly visible patios, porches and backyards.

"So I can drink a beer on my porch? But I can't smoke a joint?" marijuana advocate Christian Sederberg chided at the meeting.

State Sen. Cheri Jahn (D-Wheat Ridge) also warned against regulating the use of a legal substance on private property, asking, "What about backyard grills that send the smell of hamburgers into the nose of a neighbor who's vegetarian?"

"I don't know how far we want to go telling people what they can't do on their own porches," she said at the meeting.

The task force created by Colorado governor John Hickenlooper has a February 28 deadline for marijuana regulation recommendations, which the state legislature and Department of Revenue (which oversees gambling and alcohol) will ultimately decide.

In the meantime, residents and visitors can learn more about their rights to legal weed in Washington and Colorado here.

Are we on the verge of an American hemp renaissance?

Mon, 14 Jan 2013 21:53:00 +0000

Kentucky was America’s leading hemp producer in the early 19th century. Now, 200 years later, after a historic election for drug policy has led to a shift for marijuana policy reform in America, Kentucky lawmakers are taking steps to revive the crop.

While advocates for hemp legalization say the plant could bring a wealth of green jobs to Kentucky, deep-rooted drug stigma and conflict with federal law have made passing the legislation unlikely. Nonetheless, two state bills are in the works, while a federal proposal aims to clear the way for state legalization. Lawmakers suggest the bills could at least open up the conversation about hemp, and clear up misconceptions about its use.

Carding for Sudafed can’t solve America’s meth problem

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 15:44:00 +0000

If you’re coming down with a cold this winter and you stop by the local pharmacy to pick up some pseudoephedrine (commonly sold as Sudafed), you will get carded, but it has nothing to do with age. Pseudoephedrine is a key ingredient in methamphetamine. And since 2006, pharmacies have been carding cold sufferers to track their purchases and ensure they do not buy more pseudoephedrine than is legally allowed (3.6 grams per day or 9 grams per month).

The law, however, has done more to inconvenience chronic cold sufferers than curb methamphetamine abuse. Regulating pseudoephedrine didn’t end meth production. It simply changed the game. So long as Americans are willing to take drugs to improve performance in an increasingly exhausting work culture, those without access to legal amphetamines like Adderall will use what is available. Just as some college kids take Adderall to study, some Americans who don't have access to psychiatrists will use meth to increase productivity.

Ten worst sentences for marijuana-related crimes

Mon, 29 Oct 2012 15:54:00 +0000

Most Americans want pot to be legal, and as many as 70% of Americans want to legalize it for medical use. Nonetheless, the war on pot rages on. The Obama administration has actually increased raids on state-sanctioned medical pot programs, prosecuting both patients and their providers. Medical pot defendants have little protection in the justice system, which denies as evidence mention of their marijuana prescription or state-sanctioned use. A review of some of the sentences over the past few decades -- punishments that plague individuals for decades, even after release -- reveals the injustice of the drug war. Here's a rundown of the people who received the harshest penalties handed down for pot in recent history.

1. Christopher Williams

Mexican Drug War victims: US is responsible

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 13:34:00 +0000

In Mexico, where the authorities and the drug cartels are hard to separate, finding answers is often left to the survivors of drug war violence. Some survivors have dug through mass graves, turning over mutilated bodies, half-hoping to see the face of a loved one. Others have stared their children's killers in the eye while hearing the brutal details of how their kids were murdered. They interview incarcerated drug traffickers, desperate for some kind of closure. Determined to speak for the victims who have lost their voices, some relatives of victims have joined a new movement, the Caravan for Peace with Jusice and Dignity. The Caravan has demanded justice for the dead in Mexico, and this summer, they delivered their message -- a call for accountability -- across the United States.

Study: Marijuana prevents spread of cancer

Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:00:00 +0000

Two scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco have found that cannabidiol (CBD), a non-toxic marijuana compound that delivers many of weed's benefits without the high, might stop metastasis in aggressive cancer, "potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever."

The pair, molecular biologist Pierre Desprez and researcher Sean McAllister, mixed CBD and cells with high levels of ID-1, the gene that spreads cancer, in a petri dish. What happened next was a bit of a miracle: ID-1 cells stopped spreading and returned to normal.

"What we found was that his cannabidiol could essentially 'turn off' the ID-1," Desprez told the Huffington Post.

The duo have been studying CBD's effects on cancer for years, and they first published a paper about the finding in 2007. The results just keep getting better.

Doctors and dealers battle for addicts

Wed, 22 Aug 2012 15:00:00 +0000

As a recovering drug addict, 23-year-old Joe has spent almost three years successfully managing his former oxycontin addiction with suboxone, a prescription medication that reduces cravings and withdrawal symptoms for drugs like heroin and prescription painkillers. He first began suboxone when he was in college and was able to receive free treatment and prescriptions. But since graduation, the cost of obtaining his treatment legally has become unaffordable, largely because of the American healthcare system.

“Recently, I paid $100 for 20 [dissolvable suboxone] strips. That will last me over a year,” said Joe, “Now, if I were to go to a doctor, it would cost $300 cash just to walk in and see the doctor for the first time. If you can use your insurance, you can get it a little cheaper, but a lot of insurances don’t cover it,” he said. Legally, each strip can cost a whopping $15 dollars without coverage.

Stop-and-frisk, eviscerated

Tue, 29 May 2012 19:30:00 +0000

This month, a federal judge in New York dealt a blow to “stop-and-frisk,” a policy that resulted in 685,000 recorded police stops in 2011. Eighty-five percent of those stopped were African American and Latino, mostly youths.

U.S. district judge Shira Scheindlin granted class-action certification to a stop-and-frisk lawsuit against the city of New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The plaintiffs allege that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy regularly violates the Constitution by illegally stopping and searching scores of people belonging to a particular demographic -- black and Latino. Pending the city's appeal, the class-action ruling will put stop-and-frisk on trial.