Weed: Where We're At 

We had our shot. In 2010, California voters had a historic chance to regulate, control and tax marijuana and put our state on the fast track to weedtopia. Oh, man, especially for us here in HumCo, wouldn’t that have been something? We could have cashed in on that Humboldt brand and secured the future of our sushi restaurants for generations to come. Let the good times roll ... a doobie! (Sorry.)

But we all know how that ended. The Prop 19 was defeated 54 to 46 percent. Then, in this recent election thang, Washington and Colorado beat us to the honor of being the state(s) to end marijuana prohibition. In short, damn.

But on the bright side, at least as a nation we’re on the right trajectory, right? This would be a great time for a book about the social history of cannabis in America and our growing populist revolt against the drug war. And, hey! On Friday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m, author Martin A. Lee wisps into Northtown Books to sign and discuss his latest word brick Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana - Medical, Recreational and Scientific.

Previously, Lee authored the book Acid Dreams, which looked at the history of LSD. He is a co-founder of the media bias watch group FAIR and director of Project CBD, an information service that reports on cannabis science, and he writes for the weedy outlets O’Shaughnessy’s and BeyondTHC.com. So he’ll undoubtedly have plenty to say about the state of marijuana laws.

And should he run out of time on Friday night, Lee will also be discussing Smoke Signals on Saturday, Dec. 1 at Humboldt State NORML’s event at the Goodwin Forum on the HSU campus. Lee’s talk is at 4 p.m. and will be followed at 6 p.m. by a screening of local activist Darryl Cherney’s film Who Bombed Judi Bari?

For more info on Martin Lee and Smoke Signals, head to smokesignalsthebook.com.