Written by a contributor who goes by the name of Zephyr.

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I feel the need to report here an egregious error on the part of the United States government concerning the scheduling of certain substances.  As many of you probably know, marijuana is a Schedule I Drug. This means that it has been determined that:

1. The drug or other substance has high potential for abuse.

2. The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.

3. There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

I will address these issues individually, starting with potential for abuse. Mosby’s Medical, Nursing, & Allied Health Dictionary tells us “Substance abuse is the overindulgence in and dependence of a drug or other chemical leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual’s physical and mental health, or the welfare of others.”  So, from this definition, we can establish three things as requisite. Overindulgence, dependence, and detrimental effects to one’s self or others.  The most important word there is “and.”

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Click the pic for ULTRA high resolution!

This is the dank bud of legend. I remember when I was back in high school and some people on the school bus were talking about how a friend of theirs managed to get ahold of the elusive white widow. Quite the time that was. I didn’t even smoke back then. What a shame. Enjoy the budshot!

I should file this piece under Humor. The author makes one valid point (torch lighters are good) but then completely undermines his entire cause by saying “No, don’t buy those. They’re too expensive. Buy cheap lighters.”

At least my bowl gets roasted every time I exert a minimum of effort to roll the striking wheel on my Bic.

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In response to the Bic essay:

As a frequent marijuana user for the last few years and daily smoker for the last two, I have dealt with my share of lighters. There are many different styles, ranging from the common flint and butane, to the more expensive and more personal Zippo, and finally the expensive torch lighters which can cost up to and well over $100. With such an overwhelming amount of lighters, some people just give up and pick the cheapest and most popular of them, but this may not be the best choice.

If pot smoking is your thing, a Zippo probably isn’t. They are too expensive, and unless you smoke blunts and joints every single time, a Zippo wont be very appropriate most of the time. Sure, it is possible to spark up a bowl with a wick. But why, at 3 am when you’ve been smoking since 7, and those last few shots you took are reacting quite nicely with the vicodin [Editor's note: Try to stay away from drinking while taking drugs containing large amounts of acetaminophen, which is the case with Vicodin. You could die.]. Would you put yourself through that much effort to light your bowl?

No, you need something that is useful in all situations, and this is the torch lighter. These lighters can be very stylish and many are made for exotic car owners to light their cigars with. They can range from the reasonable $40 to the, well, to whatever you can afford. These are enticing they last forever since they’re refillable, they look really cool, nobody else will have one, and you know it’s going to work every single time. Also, you can smoke Salvia with it. [Editor's note: You can also smoke salvia with a regular Bic. I have done it.]

Unfortunately, unless you are the most responsible stoner ever, you will lose it, or someone will steal it. You can have one at the house for personal use, if you never have people over, or if you trust your friends to not drunken or highly put it in their pocket. This is why we can’t have nice things.

So we must settle for the cheap disposable type. To me, if you’re going to cheap out on the lighter, you might as well go as cheap as possible. My lighter of choice? Scripto (the normal sized one, flint strike). I know stoners all over the world are warming up their keyboards to berate me for this, but hear me out.

—I cannot keep a lighter to save my goddamn life. I don’t know if the entire world of pot smokers is out to get me, but I rarely ever come away with extra lighters, and I always lose them. A pack of Bics might last me a week, and I’ll have to go get some more. This doesn’t happen, however, with my Scripto.

—I take one Scripto to a party, I leave with the same Scripto. Nobody wants to steal a Scripto, and at the end of the day when my friends both thought they had red lighters, I know exactly which translucent purple lighter is mine. [Editor's note: before I was enlightened enough to buy bics, I l got my Scriptos stolen all the damn time.]

—They are so cheap, how can you afford NOT to try them? Really though, they are cheap. I think an 8 pack costs less than 4 dollars. The last Bic I bought was over 2 dollars. That’s 4 for the price of 1 Bic. If you don’t believe at least 4 out of that package are going to work, anecdotal evidence is against you. In the last few packages at least 5 of the 8 lighters have worked for me. The bad ones weed themselves out early, and the good ones last till the very last drop of delicious butane.

—You can totally make the flame like a foot long.* This sells me on the lighter. If you are a respectable stoner, it would sell you, too. 

—Lotus

*I don’t recommend modifying the product to make a larger flame. However, if you do and it doesn’t strike, use a different one to light it with.

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Leave comments below.

Based on this story by the New York Times about salvia. I’m sure that most of you, by virtue of the fact that you chose to visit this site, will probably get the point of the story immediately. Others, however, may not have done much thinking about—or have a vested interest in—US drug policy. Let these people read this story.

Originally written by a person known as Phyzzle.

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Full article at the Ashland Daily Tidings.

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In Oregon, legally smoking “green” requires a green thumb, or knowing someone who does.

Medical marijuana cardholders — even those who are terminally ill — must grow their own marijuana or find someone else to grow it for them, according to state law.

But some local activists are aiming to change that. Voter Power, a medical marijuana activist group with an office in Medford, plans to put a measure on a 2010 ballot to create dispensaries in Oregon, similar to those in California.

“Currently, we have the grower-caregiver patient system, but a lot of patients do not have access to their medicine,” said Alex Rogers, outreach coordinator for Voter Power, who works in Jackson County. “They don’t have the time or money to grow their own, nor are they connected to someone who does.”

Voter Power, which led efforts to legalize medical marijuana 1998, hopes to create a limited number of nonprofit dispensaries where cardholders can receive marijuana.
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Looks like a good plan to me. Leave your views by commenting below.

Article here.

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MEXICO CITY (AP) Mexican authorities say they have found and destroyed 97 tons of marijuana in a field in the northern border state of Sonora.

The Public Safety Department says the plants were spotted in a 13-acre field during an aerial search over the town of Nacori Chico in Sonora state, across the border from Arizona.

The department says the plants were pulled out and incinerated.

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I don’t know about you guys, but where I come from, 97 tons is a lot of pot. That’s like, 97 pounds times 2000. Yeah. A lot. Jesus. It was almost certainly all brickweed, though, so I don’t feel quite as sad about the loss here as I might if it were fine dank weed that I could potentially be smoking.

Lotus, who has posted here before, sent me this story he wrote the other night after smoking very excessive quantities of fine Austin homegrown:

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Looking back on it, I do seem to remember a strange whistling sound in the background. I thought it was just a spurious noise, so I ignored it. As the whistling got louder, I could hear the sound of a plane’s engines roaring overhead. It was odd. I hadn’t heard them until just then, when they had been just as loud for at least a minute before. I realized that I had been hearing the sound, but I was simply not interested in it. As the whistling was at its highest peak, the thought crossed through my mind that it might be a bomb. I knew this was just the product of paranoia, but I started to become worried.

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This video is absolutely fucking crazy. There’s not any other way I can reasonably explain it. Some of you may have seen this already. Watch it again! The above screenshot does very little to convey the true depth and power this piece contains. There is quite a bit of complexity to the piece overall, and the musical accompaniment is nothing short of phenomenal in terms of quality and overall emotional evocativeness. Click the above picture to go to the artist’s website, or watch the video below. I guarantee you that you’ll want to download the high quality version after viewing the full piece on youtube.

Links:

Grau on Youtube

High Quality Download (101 MB Quicktime 7)

As always, click the above pic for MASSIVE size!

Wow. I don’t know if I believe the rumors of G-13 being created by the government, but I’ll tell you what: those are some fairly dank nugs.

By the way, readers: our very own King Cthulhu will be completing his massive joint-rolling guide shortly. We’re not exactly sure what ’shortly’ means, but it shouldn’t be more than a couple days. I have born witness to a rough draft of the document, and let me indeed say that it is like nothing of its kind (that’s a good thing).

From the original article:

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SANTA CRUZ — Thousands of medicinal marijuana patients and supporters attended WAMMfest to celebrate and learn about the herbal medicine Saturday.

Though medical marijuana patients were able to smoke their medicine at the event that featured music, crafts and speeches, that portion of the festivities was in question until this week. After failing to muster the votes to lift the city smoking ban in parks in a prior meeting, the council Tuesday agreed to do so. Only those with a medical marijuana identification card were allowed to smoke in a specially-designated tent Saturday.

Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana co-founder Valerie Corral said the event is an opportunity to normalize the use of medicinal marijuana and bring its members’ stories to the public eye.

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Leave your comments below.