Free Republic

WHEN Willie Nelson invites you to get high with him on his bus, you go. The man is the patron saint of pot, after all, and I’m the poster girl for bad pot trips. It seemed like a match made in hash heaven. When Nelson sang at the 9:30 club in D.C. one recent night, I ventured onto the Honeysuckle Rose, as his tour bus and home-away-from-home is called. I was feeling pretty shy about meeting him. The 81-year-old Redheaded Stranger is an icon, one of America’s top songwriters and, as Rolling Stone said, “a hippie’s hippie and a redneck’s...

Tired of Cheech & Chong pot jokes and ominous anti-drug campaigns, the marijuana industry and activists are starting an ad blitz in Colorado aimed at promoting moderation and the safe consumption of pot. To get their message across, they are skewering some of the old Drug War-era ads that focused on the fears of marijuana, including the famous “This is your brain on drugs” fried-egg ad from the 1980s. […] “So far, every campaign designed to educate the public about marijuana has relied on fear-mongering and insulting marijuana users,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s...

President Barack Obama on Friday blamed dysfunction in Congress on a Republican Party he said is captive to an ideologically rigid, unproductive and cynical faction, urging like-minded Democrats to show up for November's midterm elections. Addressing Democratic donors at a fundraiser in Rhode Island and another in New York, Obama said Republicans had realized that blocking all progress led Americans to become cynical about government. Republicans consider that "a pretty good thing" because they don't believe in government to begin with, Obama said. "It doesn't have to be that way," Obama said during a barbecue in Purchase, New York. "There...

A narrow majority of Europe’s youth would ban cannabis, according to new research published by Eurobarometer. Opinion was divided on whether cannabis should be banned. Forty-five percent believed that it should be regulated, while 53 percent felt it should be banned. Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of respondents added that hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine and ecstasy should be illegal. Eurobarometer interviewed more than 13,000 15-24 year olds across the bloc in June for the survey, which was released on Thursday (21 August). It focused on levels of drug use, perceived risk of certain substances, as well as opinions...

#6. There's a Whole Industry Dedicated to Just Making Weed Pretty #5. The "Safe, All-Natural Drug" Could Actually Be Full of Serious Toxins #4. Weed Can Be Fairly Dangerous to Handle #3. Even Where It's Legal, It's Not Legal #2. The Legal Pot Industry Is Hurting the Environment #1. The Growers Don't Want It to Be Legal

Since Colorado voters legalized pot in 2012, prohibition supporters have warned that recreational marijuana will lead to a scourge of “drugged divers” on the state’s roads. They often point out that when the state legalized medical marijuana in 2001, there was a surge in drivers found to have smoked pot. They also point to studies showing that in other states that have legalized pot for medical purposes, we’ve seen an increase in the number of drivers testing positive for the drug who were involved in fatal car accidents. The anti-pot group SAM recently pointed out that even before the first...

Marijuana joined roses and dahlias Friday in blue ribbon events at the nation’s first county fair to allow pot competitions. This weekend’s Denver County Fair includes a 21-and-over “Pot Pavilion” where winning entries for plants, bongs, edible treats and clothes made from hemp are on display. Organizers say the marijuana categories this year — which come with the debut of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado — add a fun twist on Denver’s already-quirky county fair, which includes a drag queen pageant and a contest for dioramas made with Peeps candies. “We’ve been selling tickets to people from all over the...

WICHITA, Kan. — The Sedgwick County District Attorney is alleging that a foster father was high while a baby was left in a hot car last week. She later died. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett read the allegations during a bond reduction hearing for Seth Jackson on Friday afternoon. Bennett said that Jackson had run out of marijuana on the morning of July 24. That afternoon, he reportedly took two children to meet with his drug dealer where he bought more. When he got home, Bennett said he left the 10-month-old girl in the car, went inside and smoked...

Urban Outfitters Pinpoints Hairroin Salons With Free Hypodermic Pens Urban Outfitters has teamed up with the NYC Hairroin Salon in glamorizing drug use at a time when heroin has devastated the city. Pinpointing Hairroin Salons in their stores that give away free hypodermic needle pens, it’s clear that Urban Outfitters has failed to learn their lesson. After previously pulling shot glasses designed as prescription medication bottles from its shelves after an uproar, the teen-focused store has actually teamed up with a hair salon with the name Hairroin in its latest New York City location. The so-called cutting edge salon glamorizes...

CLENDENIN, WV - A man is in jail after telling police that he snorted Hydrocodone tablets inside a vehicle that had three toddlers in it in Clendenin, West Virginia, in Kanawha County. According to a criminal complaint issued by the Kanawha County Magistrate Court, 33-year-old Ronald Adkins was arrested and charged with child neglect creating risk of injury. The complaint says that police observed a vehicle at the intersection of Elk River Road and Beech Street in Clendenin on Tuesday, July 15. After police went towards the vehicle, they found it had three women, three men, and three toddlers inside...

Given the link between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and birth defects, should expectant mothers who drink be arrested for assault? If not, it is hard to see why Mallory Loyola is in jail. Loyola, who was arrested last week after giving birth to a baby girl who tested positive for amphetamine, is the first woman to be charged under a new Tennessee law that criminalizes drug consumption by pregnant women. The law, ostensibly aimed at protecting children, is really about punishing what its chief sponsor described as "the worst of the worst": women who not only use arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants...

Mike Boyer, 30, was canned Tuesday after waiting 20 hours to buy pot and immediately going home to smoke. He was called up for urine analysis after he was spotted on TV buying the pot. Boyer told The News he 'regrets nothing.'His high was quickly brought low. A Spokane, Wash. man was fired from his job as a security guard the same day he became the first person to legally buy weed in the city Tuesday. “I don’t regret it,” Mike Boyer told the Daily News Wednesday. “I’m sad it happened but I got the title: I’m No. 1. I...

Veteran marijuana activist Douglas Hiatt, right, says Washington's Initiative 502 establishes a "Soviet style" market for marijuana and won't work. “You’re going to have people selling grams of pot for $25? What, are you kidding me?” Hiatt says. “You can get the best pot you have ever smoked for 10 bucks a gram at a [medical marijuana] dispensary or from someone else who's going to give you a better deal than the state.” There’s no way they are going to eliminate the black market with something that’s totally unresponsive to a market at all,” Hiatt says. "You're going to see...

DENVER, July 9 (UPI) --President Obama turned down a hit of marijuana during a visit to a Denver bar with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. The man who offered the president some weed posted video on Instagram to document his story. The presidential motorcade also passed two people holding up signs offering Obama free marijuana but did not stop. During his evening out, Obama also ate at a pizzeria with several people who had written him letters.

(CNN) — Some Colorado marijuana sellers are challenging Uncle Sam. They’re filing a lawsuit — saying the IRS shouldn’t be allowed to collect taxes on marijuana sales because marijuana is illegal under federal law. Attorney Rob Corry says forcing Colorado’s recreational marijuana businesses to pay violates the United States Constitution. He has filed a lawsuit in District Court on behalf of clients, some of whom say taxes could be used as evidence in any future prosecution. “They’re open records and they are admitting to a federal crime. It’s still a federal crime to sell marijuana,” Corry said.

Maureen Dowd travelled to Colorado in January, ate a bit too much of a marijuana-laced chocolate bar and proceeded to have a Valley-of-the-Dolls-style meltdown in her hotel room. Here's how she describes the experience in her Wednesday New York Times column: "I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn't move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the...

A small fire at a West Berkeley business Tuesday, which sent a man to a San Francisco burn center for treatment, appears to have been caused by what police described Wednesday as “a hashish production operation.” Scant information was available from authorities, but officer Jennifer Coats, Berkeley Police spokeswoman, said that officers who responded to the fire Tuesday found an illegal marijuana grow and hashish production operation on-site.

Rep. Jared Polis will gladly visit a marijuana dispensary in his home state of Colorado. He’ll stand in a fluorescent-lit room with hundreds of skunky plants, discuss the different types of high someone gets from Willie’s Wonder versus Super Lemon Haze (one’s a “creative upper,” the other “uplifting and euphoric”) and ruminate on the local ban on edibles. Just don’t try to take his picture in the grow room. “It’s like, that could go viral,” Polis says, leaving Choice Organics in Fort Collins. “I don’t shy away from the issue; we talk about it, whatever. But the problem is, we...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Just back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol -- and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign. He said the next race is "an opportune time" for an independent...

ust back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol - and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign. He said the next race is "an opportune time" for an independent like him to run...