Amusing Video: Bernie Sanders goes all in for weed...

Oh, sh*t!

Girl scout targets unsuspecting potheads...

Capitalism at it's finest...

Danielle Lei, the entrepreneurial San Francisco Girl Scout who made international headlines in 2014 with her sales table’s location — in front of a medical marijuana dispensary — is back for another year and is already cleaning house.
Lei braved the oncoming winter storm Sunday to set up her booth in front of The Green Cross dispensary — a permitted shop in the south of San Francisco. Again, Lei cleaned up on dispensary customers, as marijuana is a clinically proven appetite stimulant.
Lei reports selling a total of 208 boxes in about two hours Sunday — nearly doubling her four-day sales campaign total to 560. “That’s pretty cool,” Lei wrote The Green Cross. “ I would not have sold that many in four days if I did not sell in front of your store.”

Stupid: Colorado Democrats blocking bill to prevent EBT card use at weed shops...

Even the marijuana shop owners favor the bill...

Everyone in Colorado from Republicans to marijuana moguls wants to stop welfare cash from being used to buy recreational pot, but standing in their way are the state’s formidable legislative Democrats.
Despite mounting evidence that “welfare for weed” is more than an urban myth, Democratic legislators are balking at a bill that would add marijuana dispensaries and strip clubs to the list of places, along with casinos and liquor stores, where debit-style benefits cards cannot be used to withdraw cash from automatic teller machines, or ATMs.
Democrats killed a similar bill last year, but now the stakes are higher. States had two years to align their statutes with a 2012 federal law banning the use of electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards at gambling and adult-entertainment venues.
As of this year, states that fail to take action risk having their federal grants under the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program reduced by 5 percent.

Interesting: Pot legalization is hurting the Mexican drug cartels...

One of the benefits of ending the war on drugs...

Via Vice News:

The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that pot farmers in the Sinaloa region have stopped planting due to a massive drop in wholesale prices, from $100 per kilo down to only $25. One farmer is quoted as saying: “It’s not worth it anymore. I wish the Americans would stop with this legalization.”
VICE News talked to retired federal agent Terry Nelson, a former field level commander who worked to prevent drugs from crossing the southern border. Nelson said that before medical marijuana and state legalization in Washington and Colorado, about 10 million pounds of pot were grown in the US every year. But 40 million pounds came from Mexico.

Given the DEA’s relationship with Sinaloa, and the agency’s fury over legalized marijuana, it almost seems like the DEA wants to crush the legal weed market in order to protect the interests of their cartel friends. Almost.

Exact numbers on illegal drug trafficking are always hard to pin down, due to the black market nature of distribution and sales.
“Is it hurting the cartels? Yes. The cartels are criminal organizations that were making as much as 35-40 percent of their income from marijuana,” Nelson said, “They aren't able to move as much cannabis inside the US now.”

I guess the cartels could branch out into smuggling illegals across the border. Obama has that business booming.

Colorado Democrats reject ban on using welfare cards at pot shop ATM's

What are democrats in Colorado smoking? Oh...

DENVER (AP) — Saying some neighborhoods have more pot shops than banks, Colorado Democrats on Wednesday rejected a proposal to ban the use of public assistance cards to obtain cash at marijuana-shop ATMs
The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee voted 3-2 along party lines against a GOP proposal to add marijuana shops to the list of places where recipients of public assistance can’t use their government-issued EBT cards to access cash.
The list already includes casinos, liquor stores and gun shops.

Is legalizing and taxing marijuana gaining stream in Washington?

This isn't likely anytime soon, but it is inevitable. Prohibition didn't work and the war on drugs has been a disaster...
 

SEATTLE (AP) - An effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a hefty federal pot tax.

While passage this year could be a longshot, lawmakers from both parties have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado plan to introduce Tuesday, Blumenauer told The Associated Press.

Polis' measure would regulate marijuana the way the federal government handles alcohol: In states that legalize pot, growers would have to obtain a federal permit. Oversight of marijuana would be removed from the Drug Enforcement Administration and given to the newly renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, and it would remain illegal to bring marijuana from a state where it's legal to one where it isn't.

The bill is based on a legalization measure previously pushed by former Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Ron Paul of Texas.

Fail: GQ criticizes Paul Ryan for being a "pot virgin"

Before Bill Clinton smoked pot, but didn't inhale, admitting smoking pot would have likely ended a political career. In the era of Barack Obama's Choom Gang, Paul Ryan is being criticized for not having smoked pot. The implied message to young people is Ryan isn't as cool as Obama. Will GQ next criticize Ryan for having never ate a dog either? 

Via GQ:

Paul Ryan, "the first Gen-X candidate," was 19 when the Berlin Wall came down, draft age during the first Gulf War, 21 when Nevermind dropped. All of which makes him a contemporary of many of us who work on and read GQ. Which got us wondering, what kind of a dude is Paul Ryan? Would we want to go to Coachella with this fella? More precisely: has he ever been stoned to the bejeezus belt?

The question of whether or not Ryan has ever smoked pot is not entirely out of left-field. Well over half of Americans between ages 18 and 50 say they've smoked before, and American presidential candidates as far back as Dukakis have had to wrestle with how to handle inquiries about past drug use. We know that Bush the Latter was "young and irresponsible" when he was young and irresponsible. Bill Clinton apparently "didn't inhale" anything but Big Macs and g-strings. Barack Obama, back when he was Barry, was a pot-mooching babe-hound who never met a doobie he didn't bro up to. And despite that rep, Obama won the last presidential election.

So we asked (and asked) the Romney-Ryan campaign for an answer to this famous, legitimate, and increasingly innocuous question. And we received a lot of bouncing around, and finally no answer at all. Apparently, they've decided they have nothing to gain from taking a position on this.

No matter. We can make an educated guess.[...]

In other words, all signs indicate Ryan has never tried pot.* And time was that fact would've helped his campaign.[...]

Being a pot virgin is a lot like being an actual virgin; it feels disconnected somehow.[..] More here...

Amusing Tweet: "Okay, Biden. Now say something about decriminalizing pot."

This amusing Tweet is by @daveweigel.

Were Obama Voters High in 2008?

A New PPP poll (pdf) has cross-referenced their questions with peoples feelings about Marijuana. The big buzz is Sarah Palin is ahead by a narrow margin among republicans who have used Marijuana. Huckabee is winning among the nonusers.

Among Republicans who say they've smoked Marijuana:

Palin 25
Gingrich 22
Huckabee 17
Romney 17
Paul 8

The poll also cross-referenced some questions with the 2008 Presidential vote. President Obama was favored in 2008 by those who support marijuana legalization. Almost half the of those who identified themselves as legalization supporters claimed they voted for Obama. Only 20% of McCain's supporters want marijuana legalization.



This statistic can not be solely attributed to the younger age of Obama voters. Although 52% of the 18~29 age group support marijuana legalization, the statistics for all other age groups are in the very low thirties. The demographic that most supports marijuana legalization is liberals. This explains a lot.

This picture is for all you "pot heads" for Obama:

New poll shows support for marijuana legalization, but the sample may be skewed

For the first time a poll finds majority support for repealing cannabis prohibition. The poll was commissioned by the conservative-leaning O'Leary Report. However, the question seemed skewed towards an affirmative answer. Reason.com analyzes this poll here.
Here is the story as reported by Salem-News.com:

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - A new Zogby poll commissioned by the conservative-leaning O'Leary Report has found 52 percent voter support for treating marijuana as a legal, taxed, regulated substance.

The survey, published as a full-page ad in today's issue of the political newspaper The Hill, polled a sample of 3,937 voters weighted to match the 2008 presidential outcome -- 54 percent Obama voters and 46 percent McCain supporters.

"This new survey continues the recent trend of strong and growing support for taxing and regulating marijuana and ending the disastrously failed policy of prohibition," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.

Voters were asked: "Scarce law enforcement and prison resources, a desire to neutralize drug cartels and the need for new sources of revenue have resurrected the topic of legalizing marijuana. Proponents say it makes sense to tax and regulate the drug while opponents say that legalization would lead marijuana users to use other illegal drugs. Would you favor or oppose the government's effort to legalize marijuana?"

Your medical marijuana is safe from Feds(video)

Obama's Attorney General Eric Holder is changing the federal policy for medical marijuana. The federal government will not target medical marijuana distributors anymore. I foresee a large rush to the family doctor's office after this knowledge becomes widespread.

Holder signals a shift in marijuana policy(video)

The top U.S. Lawyer, Eric Holder, has signaled a change on medical marijuana policy, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law.