Will this be the most pot-friendly World Cup ever? In host nation Brazil, marijuana possession is tolerated, if illegal — an arrest leads to a warning and community service, according to the “legality of cannabis by country” entry on Wikipedia (yeah, yeah, don’t use it as a resource, kids). Of course, the U.S. men’s team […]
The Week in Weed
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Bongress
Congress decided recently that the Drug Enforcement Administration and federal prosecutors should not go after medical marijuana organizations where they’re legal under state law. The House of Representatives voted May 29 in favor of an amendment that marijuana advocates say will end federal raids on dispensaries in California and other states. Under fear of federal […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Buddhaville at Rest
It was June 24, 2008, and lightning fires were raging in the southern Humboldt hills. Then came 450 law enforcement agents — federal, state and local — in some 200 vehicles busting onto the smoky scene. You remember Operation Southern Sweep, right? No? Well, a brief recap: The officers weren’t there to help douse the […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Trimming for Ramen
The starving college student is a cliché for a reason. Balancing work, school and pleasure requires careful fiduciary planning, or a good hole to stick your head in. Students unable to get parental support or government aid (or whose financial backing doesn’t quite cover that college town rent) need jobs. Jobs! The results of a survey recently […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
That Juice Tax
It’s been seven months since Arcata’s excessive electricity tax went into effect, and the threat to residential growers’ bottom lines seems to have sent most of them packing. The results are drastic. In the year or so between city residents’ approval of the tax and implementation, the number of houses using “excessive” energy dropped from […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Boring Stuff about Banks and Laws
Industrial sites are the hot real estate commodities in Colorado, as would-be pot barons are snatching up warehouses and other properties suitable for indoor marijuana growing. A Bloomberg news story this week led with an anecdote about a Denver broker who offloaded a leaky, 40,000-square-foot warehouse in less than a day to a cash-paying client […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
High Art
Where does all the weed-themed art come from? There can be few subjects that engender such a vast body of work across a broad range of genres and mediums from devoted amateur artists. Go to Google Images and type in anything you can think of, preceded by the word “weed.” There you will find doctored […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
The 4/20 That Wasn’t
Did you hear the crickets on Sunday? Downtown Arcata was slightly more populated with skunky tourists, and one lonely celebrator traversed H Street, tinny whoops and slides of electronic music belching from his waist-clipped radio. But overall, it was a doobie-day downer. Redwood Park was all but empty, reported HumRights executive director (and NCJ Media […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
How Green Is Your Weed?
Is your purple kush green? Not its floral tint, but its environmental hue? Actually, back up a second. Can you say with certainty that it’s purple kush? Where was it grown? Indoor or outdoor? What fertilizers and pest controls were used? A trapping of black market weed is that it’s difficult to trace with much […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Snake Oil
Cannabis cures cancer. So goes the viral claim, which like most Internet-borne beliefs, is misguided, unfounded and potentially dangerous; and fueled by hope, desperation and frustration. There’s no shortage of “evidence” online. Glossy websites like www.cureyourowncancer.org offer competent-sounding (look, big words!) solutions while sites like Alternet and YouTube offer an anti-mainstream-media forum for testimonials. Before […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Don’t Get Caponed
“But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” said Ben Franklin. But there’s a way to avoid at least one of those: grow weed. “B-b-but sales tax!” some cry, as though paying 8 percent of the cost of that flat screen at Target comes anywhere near the income […]
Posted inLetters + Opinion
Our Boys
I was thrilled to run into my little cousin working at a gas station in Redway. After all, he’d been watering his meth-addled daddy’s plants from the time he could toddle. Third generation of growers, I never expected him to get out. But there he was with his wide, cheeky grin, slinging high-octane coffee and […]