Tuesday, 1 November 2016

Grow Q&A: How Much Pot Should I Put Into My Curing Jars?

Dear Dan,
I just harvested a week ago and my buds are ready for the curing process. My question is, how much is too much when loading jars for curing? — 420Animal

Dear 420Animal,

When curing, your glass jars should be full, but not overfilled. There should be plenty of air in the jar so don’t stuff the buds down into the jar. Basically, you don’t want to crush the buds and damage the trichomes so gently fill the jars but don’t press or force more in than comfortably fits.

Remember to “burp” the jars on a daily basis to let out any accumulated moisture. The slow release of liquid into the air and the replacement of moist air with regular air is the curing process in a nutshell. If you smell anything that resembles ammonia coming out of the jars, leave them open until the odor subsides and the buds don’t feel damp anymore.

from
http://hightimes.com/grow/grow-qa-how-much-pot-should-i-put-into-my-curing-jars/

Floridians ‘Not Amused’ by 4 a.m. Robocall from Prohibitionists

Politics The latest in cannabis legalization including laws and policies, legislators’ views, election coverage, and more.

Politics

Floridians ‘Not Amused’ by 4 a.m. Robocall from Prohibitionists

Gage Peake

A campaign push by Florida medical marijuana opponents this weekend could’ve easily been mistaken for a massive drunk dial. In the early morning hours, between roughly midnight Saturday and 6:30 a.m. Sunday, hundreds of registered voters in the state received robocalls from Drug Free Florida urging them to oppose Amendment 2.

It’s not clear whether the effort won over hearts and minds, but local reports make it obvious the calls sure pissed people off. Pensacola resident Judy Druegner told Sunshine State News that she and her husband woke up at 4:38 a.m. Sunday morning to the phone ringing. Given the early hour, the couple feared it was a family emergency.

“We were not amused,” she said.

The Drueners weren’t alone. Several residents complained to local news, and the No on 2 Facebook page was swamped with complaints.

“All this particular political committee has done is show they are capable of spreading misinformation at best, downright lies the majority of the time, and horribly poor execution of their plan to push their nonsensical agenda,” wrote Facebook user Maggie Cappadonna. “Needless to say, they have not swayed my vote on Amendment 2.”

Florida Legalization: Seeking 60 Percent in the Sunshine State

In the ad, Drug Free Florida warns what might happen if voters say yes to the constitutional amendment to expand medical marijuana in Florida. The state’s current medical marijuana system is extremely limited, with most patients limited to low-THC cannabis in non-smokeable forms.

“They’re pushing a constitutional amendment that authorizes kid-friendly pot candy that looks just like the junk food your children know and love,” Dr. Jessica Spencer, a substance abuse counselor in Florida, says in the recorded message.

Drug Free Florida issued an apology Sunday evening after the phone snafu, saying the robocalls were supposed have been made in the evening.

“Our sincerest apologies to those voters who inadvertently received a recorded call during the early morning hours on Sunday,” the group said in a statement. “It was not our intention to have those calls made at that hour. These calls were supposed to be made starting in the early PM and were mistakenly sent in the early AM.”

Latest polls in Florida show Amendment 2 leading the polls, 71 percent to 21 percent. Constitutional amendments in Florida require a 60 percent supermajority for approval. A 2014 legalization measure failed by 3 percent.

Election 2016 Florida Medical politics

Gage Peake

Gage Peake is a staff writer who specializes in breaking news coverage, politics, and sports.

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Florida, Check Your Ballots: Broward County Leaves Off Amendment 2

Radical Rant: News Flash—Legalization Isn’t Going to Solve Everything

Why are you interested in the legalization of marijuana?

To solve the gross inequality of income in American society?

To cure the evils of racism embedded in American society?

To provide an economic engine to revive the middle class in American society?

Not me. For me legalization of marijuana must solve one problem alone: it must end the ability of police to harass us over the smell of weed.

Maybe it is because I grew up in the Just Say No ’80s in a conservative county in Idaho, a redundancy from which springs such bigotry against cannabis that its governor is the only one nationwide to have vetoed a CBD-only law that would spare lives of epileptic children. (You know you’ve stepped to the fringes of social conservatism when you’re rejecting something Utah pioneered and the South embraced.)

Because of that experience of fearing a cage in the Gem State and having been caged over the smell of weed in the Beehive State, I tend to see this movement in very clear terms as what our opponents have always called it—a war, not on drugs per se, but on those of us who choose the unapproved ones. A war where the soldiers are the cops and our statehouses are the battlefields.

If you’re lining up with the enemy to support continuation of this war, in my eyes, you’re a traitor in that war. If you’re actively working for the enemy in continuation of this war, in my eyes, you’re an enemy combatant.

But if you’re a millennial and a California native, you don’t have that experience and outlook. For you, marijuana has always been something available at the pot shop. It’s always been a rite of passage to visit Permission Slips-‘Я’-Us and give the autographologist your annual protection money for Arrest Anxiety Syndrome. Even if you didn’t, back when you were in school Governor Terminator made marijuana just a ticket and a fine, so you think prohibition of marijuana is no big deal.

If you’ve got that perspective, I can see why legalization of marijuana freaks you out. But it doesn’t excuse your willful ignorance and cannabis privilege. When the bullet hits me, it doesn’t matter if the enemy soldier is an unwitting conscript or a volunteer patriot, I’m just as shot.

In decriminalized medical California, 8,800-plus marijuana felonies are issued annually, even after the passage of Prop 47 reduced many felony drug crimes to misdemeanors. People still get marijuana misdemeanors, too. And if you’re living in poverty, even a $100 ticket can be a serious obstacle to overcome.

Telling people that “anybody can get their Prop 215 [i.e., medical marijuana] card” also smacks of someone privileged enough to throw the kind of money around that poor people cannot.

I read too many cannabis consumers online in comments sections, Facebook walls, and blog posts complaining about legalization for numerous hypothetical reasons.

They complain that legalization “turns cannabis over to the corporations / elite / the one percent / Monsanto.” Yes, in America and most of the world, legal commodities are manufactured, bought, and sold by fictitious legal entities.

How is cannabis legalization supposed to create a market for marijuana unlike the market for any other product? Require all businesses to be non-profits? Artificially control supply and demand through regulation that will keep prices high and guarantee criminal diversion? Socialize the cannabis market and let the government run it?

They complain that legalization “doesn’t do a thing to address racism, since marijuana crimes remain and minorities still get busted disproportionately.” Yes, America has a racist criminal-justice system; blacks and Latinos are arrested, tried, and convicted disproportionately and more harshly than whites for just about every crime.

How is cannabis legalization supposed to rectify 407 years of racist oppression brought by white invaders of this continent? I can’t imagine that maintaining the prohibition status quo does much in that regard.

They complain that legalization “doesn’t look out for the little guy.” Yes, the tendency of American capitalism is to favor bigger business entities with the means to out-compete smaller entities.

How is cannabis legalization supposed to reverse the trend towards big-box retailers who outperform their smaller competitors on selection and price? By artificially restricting companies so price remains high and criminal diversion is profitable?

They complain that legalization “ends medical marijuana.” Yes, eventually when there are no longer marijuana crimes, we won’t need to protect sick people from arrest.

But as the late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan once observed, “you are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.” The legalization being proposed in all five states, including California, does not alter those states’ medical marijuana protections one iota. Unless that complaint is “ends medical marijuana’s monopoly on the cannabis market,” it’s a shameful lie propagated by people whose economic interests are threatened by competition.

Economic arguments against marijuana legalization are morally indefensible. The price of marijuana under prohibition is subsidized by the misery of those busted for it. While prohibition exists, that risk tariff is a defensible cost of doing business.

Obstructing the dismantling of prohibition, however, places you in the position of promoting the misery of others for your personal gain. It makes you no better than the cops, prison guards, drug testers, rehabs, drug companies, and other prohibitionists whose profits depend on marijuana’s criminal status.

—–

Russ’s previous Radical Rant: We Will Remember the Traitors!

And check out: The The Top 10 Myths About California’s Prop 64 (With Footnotes!)

For all of High Times’ legalization coverage, click here.

And click right here for all of our dispatches on the Prop 64 race in California.

from
http://hightimes.com/news/radical-rant-news-flash-legalization-isnt-going-to-solve-everything/

Watch: Pusha T Releases PSA Supporting California’s Prop 64

Hip hop artist Pusha T supports California’s Proposition 64—the proposed bill to legalize recreational marijuana for those aged 21 and older across the state. On Tuesday, Rolling Stone premiered a PSA made by the rapper, urging Cali voters to pass the legislation.

“If California’s Prop 64 passes, no one will ever be incarcerated for marijuana again,” he explains in the video. “I’m not a California voter, but I know when good legislation passes in the biggest state, other states follow. That’s an important step in ending mass incarceration around the country.”

from
http://hightimes.com/culture/music/watch-pusha-t-releases-psa-supporting-californias-prop-64/

THC TeeVee: The Most Buzzed About Pot Programs

Back in the 20th century, whenever pot was the central plotline of a TV show, it was a “very special episode” in which the wonder weed was made to look worse than black tar heroin. But those archaic times are mostly behind us, and now, a positive portrayal of cannabis is the central theme for an ever-growing number of narrative TV shows popping up in various forms of media, from streaming to pay channels.

Here, we break down some of the most buzzed about pot programs and check their present stage of dank development.

MTV—Mary + Jane

Pot Premise
Comedy depicting two hipster women in L.A. operating a medical marijuana delivery service. Parodies hipster culture and L.A. trends as well.

Big Bud Names Attached
Snoop Dogg

Show creators Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont: “Snoop has been great about letting us make the show we want to make as the creators, and supporting our vision every step of the way. But when he has an idea or a suggestion we take heed. The man is undeniable—both as an entertainer and an expert in the field of marijuana (pun intended). Oh, and he also wrote us a fucking theme song. When you have Snoop Dogg write a song just for you, it’s pretty surreal. Which fits perfectly with our theme!”

Stage of Dank Development
Debuted on September 5, Mary + Jane airs on MTV Monday nights, with fresh episodes running through November 14.

Weird Weed Facts
Kaplan/Elfont: “Since MTV didn’t want us to use actual strain names on the show for legal reasons, we had a lot of fun making up new strain names. There are too many to list, but maybe one day people will start naming strains after the ones in the show!”

Buzz
Kaplan/Elfont: In addition, because the show is about weed, we wanted to include some trippy, surreal sequences in each episode—for instance, the “celebrity couple” being a skeleton and a raw turkey, or an entire episode where the women use weed lube and can hear their own vaginas, etc. So even if you’re not high, you might feel like you’re high when you’re watching the show.”

Netflix—Disjointed

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros. Television Entertainment/Darren Michaels

Pot Premise
A workplace comedy centered around a long-time pot activist who now owns an L.A. dispensary as she deals with three budtenders, her stoner son and a security guard with issues.

Big Bud Names Attached
Oscar winner Kathy Bates is the star. It was Bates’ 2012 cameo as the ghost of Charlie Sheen in Two and a Half Men that helped inspire alpha producer Chuck Lorre to cast her to as the pot activist star.

Stage of Dank Development
It’s been reported in the press that Netflix has ordered 20 episodes which subscribers will be able to stream.

Weird Weed Fact
As noted by the Hollywood Reporter, Disjointed started with a spec script written by Lorre and David Javerbaum, who has written for the Daily Show and whose Twitter account @TheTweetofGod was actually adapted into a book and later a play that starred Jim Parsons, who stars as super-geek Sheldon on Lorre’s sitcom smash The Big Bang Theory.

Buzz
HIGH TIMES previously reported on how back in 2011, pot-friendly Lorre allowed Two and a Half Men to set the stage for his head-first dive into this new show where cannabis is the central theme.

Sony—Humboldt

Pot Premise
Based on the 2013 novel by Emily Brady, Humboldt depicts generational cannabis cultivators attempting to survive in a post-legalization culture, in which their black-market way of life could be pushed aside by corporate cannabis.

Big Bud Name Attached
Acclaimed actor John Malkovich is slated to star, with Emily Brady confirming, “Malkovich is in.”

Stage of Dank Development
When asked, Brady said, “Sony is in, but they’re still looking for a home (a channel to air the show) for it. That’s all I know at the moment.”

Weird Weed Fact
Even though Humboldt would be fictional, it’s based on the work of investigative journalist Emily Brady. She has reported globally from Latin America and Asia and actually spent a year embedded with real-life residents of Humboldt County in order to bring textures of verisimilitude to her narrative

Buzz
Once it makes it to the air, Humboldt could be a rare cannabis narrative—less satirical andama offering a relatively realistic glimpse of the Emerald Triangle grow scene.

Amazon—Budding Prospects

Budding Prospects

Pot Premise
Budding Prospects is unique in that it’s a period piece. Set in 1983 San Francisco, three city boys move up north to the Emerald Triangle, where their dreams of a ganja Garden of Eden are shattered by the harsh realities of “The Summer Camp.”

Big Bud Names Attached
As noted by Deadline.com, Terry Zwigoff (Bad Santa, Crumb) will direct and lead actor Will Sasso (MadTV) will play “Gesh,” a character whose smarts run deeper than appears on the surface.

Stage of Dank Development
Amazon Studios has green-lit the series.

Weird Weed Fact
Budding Prospects is based on the T.C. Boyle novel of the same title originally published in 1984, at a time when pot’s profile in the drug culture was eclipsed by cocaine and shows like Miami Vice. Now pot programs populate the TV landscape and what was old becomes new again. ,

Buzz
In the novel. the protagonist gives up on his dank dreams. Will that hold true for the TV adaptation?

HBO—High Maintenance

Pot Premise
A New York City dank delivery man known only as “The Guy” (Ben Sinclair), with new characters in the form of The Guy’s customers appearing in each episode. High Maintenance is the product of star Sinclair and his wife Katja Blichfeld originally airing online on Vimeo since 2012.

Big Bud Names Attached
HBO, the Promethean pay channel, originally ordered six episodes, with the first airing on September 16 of this year.

Stage of Dank Development
On September 28, HBO renewed High Maintenance for a second season.

Weird Weed Fact
All episodes but one have been named for an unseen peripheral character mentioned by someone in the episode.

Buzz
For in-depth coverage of High Maintenance, including interviews with Sinclair and Blichefeld, see HIGH TIMES magazihigne January 2017 issue, on sale November 8!

from
http://hightimes.com/culture/thc-teevee-the-most-buzzed-about-pot-programs/

Children Poisoned by Prescription Painkillers at Alarming Rate

While marijuana’s opposing forces often suggest that legalization should be avoided in order to protect the safety of the American children, a new study from Yale University finds the real threat to the well-being of the nation’s youth is prescription painkillers.

The study, which was published in the latest edition of JAMA Pediatrics, shows that children are now being poisoned by prescription opioids, most of which come from the family medicine cabinet, at a rate of 165 percent higher than they were nearly a decade ago. What’s worse is these accidents have claimed the lives of 176 children over the past six years.

“Opioids are ubiquitous now,” lead study author Julie Gaither told NPR. “Enough opioids are prescribed every year to put a bottle of painkillers in every household. They’re everywhere, and kids are getting into them.”

Incidentally, there is a distinct possibility that the rate in which children are being injured or killed through the accidental ingestion of prescription painkillers is far worse now than the study suggests. That’s because the data used to compile the study was cut off in 2012, so it is conceivable, and highly probable—especially considering the rapid uptick in opioid poisonings documented between 1997 and 2012—that more children than ever before are now are being hospitalized or even buried due to the wrath of prescription opioids.

The study shows that toddlers were hospitalized for opioids in 2012 at a rate of more than double than they were in 1997. Researchers say the increase in cases of accidental overdoses in youngsters could be due to some painkillers resembling candy.

Teenagers are also overdosing on opioid medications. The study suggests that while teen cases are typically brought on through their own volition, this age group is being hospitalized for overdoses at a rate of around eight times higher than toddlers.

Researchers believe their findings show a desperate need to address the issue of overprescribing, as well as place a heavier emphasis on doctors educating their patients on how to properly store dangerous pharmaceuticals.

“We’ve got to pay attention to children and the toll the opioid crisis is taking on them,” Gaither said. “Kids make up about a fourth of the U.S. population, and they’re suffering from this crisis, too.”

Interestingly, despite the evidence showing there is a far greater risk of a child being poisoned through the ingestion of prescription painkillers than marijuana, anti-pot campaigns all across the nation continue to suggest edible forms of the herb will lead to the destruction of the American youth.

In fact, there is now an anti-marijuana ad campaign running in Arizona trying to persuade voters not to approve Proposition 205, because it will allow the manufacture and sale of marijuana edibles—a product that many naysayers of the legalization movement credit with harming children. These ads, one that says edibles are “marketed to kids,” were purchased by Arizonans for Responsible Drug Policy, which is a campaign largely funded by a pharmaceutical company (Insys Therapeutics) profiting on the sale of opioid painkillers.

Earlier this year, a study published by Colorado pediatrician George Sam Wang found that more children have been treated for cannabis poisoning in emergency rooms since the state legalized marijuana—up from an average of eight cases in 2012-2013 to an average of 16 in 2014-2015. During that time, the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center also reported more marijuana-related calls, but only a small percentage involved “major” effects—which unlike the hundreds of accidental opioid poisonings has yet to lead to the death of a child.

In the end, parents simply need to be more careful about where they store intoxicating substances, regardless if they are for medicinal or recreational use.

from
http://hightimes.com/news/children-poisoned-by-prescription-painkillers-at-alarming-rate/

Pro-Legalization Mayor Defeated in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro’s pro-legalization mayoral candidate Marcelo Freixo was defeated in the Oct. 30 run-off by his conservative opponent Marcelo Crivella—a bishop in the evangelical Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

Crivella, who won by a safe 20 percent, is also the nephew of the founder of what Reuters calls the “evangelical megachurch.” He had to back down from his past criticisms of homosexuality in gay-friendly Rio—as well as his criticisms of Catholicism, Brazil’s dominant religion. With the country still reeling over the August impeachment of president Dilma Rousseff of the left wing Workers Party (PT), the race in Rio represents a further gain for Brazil’s political right.

Freixo, a former school-teacher and longtime human rights advocate in Rio de Janeiro’s state legislature, is with the Socialism and Freedom Party (POSL), which broke from the PT over a decade ago and tilts in a more social-libertarian direction. His outspoken stance for a debate on drug legalization as a solution to Rio’s deep crisis of crime and violence was, of course, exploited against him on the campaign trail. Freixo won support from activists, artists and intellectuals. But Crivella actually did better in the poorer parts of the city.

The vote took place amid ongoing narco-fueled violence, as police launched city-wide anti-gang sweeps under the code name Operation “Vou de Táxi” (Taxi Trip). Troops flooded the favelas, raiding some 30 residencies and detaining some 20 suspects.

And during the run-off campaign, Rio’s longtime public security secretary, José Mariano Beltrame, stepped down amid furor over a deadly shoot-out in the Pavão-Pavãozinho favela—unnervingly close to the city’s posh downtown districts. This is a blow to Beltrame’s militarized approach to policing.

But with Brazil’s political crisis deepening, the general trajectory is heading back toward intolerance. Freixo’s campaign put some radical ideas on the table, but they will have to fight to keep them there.

from
http://hightimes.com/news/pro-legalization-mayor-defeated-in-rio-de-janeiro/