TheBongPlace: The Marijuana Blog

AP) — A tiny southwest Missouri hamlet has passed an ordinance allowing residents with a doctor’s approval to grow and possess marijuana for medicinal use. The mayor of Cliff Village says the law is aimed at showing grassroots support for a measure that has repeatedly failed in the state legislature. From the Kansas City Star:

Cliff Village is no college town. It’s barely a town at all. It has no employees and levies no taxes. It gets about $1,300 a year in distributions of state fuel taxes for road repairs and $120 to $200 more in cable TV franchise fees. The 30-year-old mayor, Joe Blundell, said the law came from his own frustration with pharmaceutical painkillers to deal with the aftermath of a train accident that left him in a wheelchair. “When I got introduced to this flower, it not only alleviated my pain, it got me out gardening,” Blundell said. “I’m not just stoning myself out. It allowed me to function.”

The Cliff Village ordinance passed by a 3-2 vote. - KSPR News

I bought cocaine, heroin, crack, weed, and ecstasy and had them forensically analyzed by a chemist at MIT because I thought they would all turn out to be poison. Guess what? Drug dealers don’t cut drugs with cement and ground glass. They barely even cut drugs at all, because they don’t need to. Relax, I’ll explain later.

The samples were analyzed by a PhD chemist at MIT (we can’t say his name or he’ll get fired) using acid/base extraction, proton nuclear magnetic resonance, and thin-layer chromatography. Acid-base extraction is the method used to isolate the chemicals. Once they’re isolated, the nuclear magnetic resonance machine is what you use to analyze and identify stuff. Basically, the kind of NMR done here tells you about the hydrogen atoms in the molecules in the drugs. So it’s like, the spectrum of heroin has 20 lines in it, all at different positions and heights, and you basically look for that particular set of lines. If you see another set of lines, you go, “Oops, there’s something else besides heroin in here.” Finally, thin-layer chromatography is a quick method that tells you how many components there are in a mixture. MIT guy says it’s “like that experiment you did when you were a kid (if you were a geek) where you put ink on a paper towel and, when the water diffused up the paper towel, all the colors separated.” It tells you how many components are in a mixture but not what they are. That’s what the NMR is for. Still confused? Show this to a smart guy and have him explain it more.

COCAINE
The cocaine was the first sample to come back from the lab. It was 98 percent pure. When everyone was done high-fiving, we started to wonder what was going on. According to the movies and NYPD Blue, you can only get cocaine like that from pharmacies. Street cocaine is basically poison, right? It’s all strychnine and gasoline and nail polish remover or something.

I was not going to go buy 50 more samples of coke, because that would be a waste of money and drugs, but there’s this guy named Peter Cohen who did his thesis on just that. Actually, his work is even better than that, because he not only analyzed 50 samples of cocaine, he also interviewed the 50 cokeheads who had bought the samples. So he got the perception and the reality, see. He asked the cokeheads whether they thought their coke was pure, and 80 percent of them said no. Of those, 75 percent thought their stuff was adulterated with speed. They also commonly figured their drugs were diluted with ground glass, Drano, laxatives, and dirt. Cohen took samples from these cokeheads to the lab. The average purity was 65.1 percent. Second of all, the coke samples Cohen had were cut with speed, Daro, vitamin C, caffeine, sugar, nicotinamide, lidocaine, mannitol, and sodium bicarbonate. Daro is an anti-headache powder. Nicotinamide is vitamin B. Lidocaine is a topical anaesthetic. Mannitol is the sugar they put in diabetic candy. Sodium bicarbonate is baking soda. These are all innocuous things that bulk the drug out— most evidence of dangerous cutting agents is anecdotal. There’s no glass in your coke, you fucking psycho.

I guess that doesn’t mean that drugs are never cut with poison. The Drug Prevention Network of the Americas reports on a gang in Dublin that cuts coke with Phenacetin, a carcinogen that causes cancerous tumors in urinary tracts and nasal passages. Of male rats. There are a hundred million stories like that, and they get picked up eagerly by anti-drug sites, druggies, and editors who want sensational copy because that is the world we live in.

Findings: Most coke is way over 60 percent pure, and our coke is especially good. Thank you, Rico.

HEROIN
Our sample was 60 percent heroin, 20 percent acetaminophen, 10 percent caffeine, and 10 percent unidentifiable chemicals. Even though that sounds like a lot of additives, it’s about right. New York heroin is 63.3 percent pure on average. Oh, forget the whole idea about heroin being cut with Drano. Heroin is most often cut with acetaminophen, caffeine, malitol, diazepam, methaqualone, or phenobarbital. Diazepam is a sedative hypnotic. Methaqualone is Quaaludes. Phenobarbital is a sedative used to stop seizures and treat insomnia. See, they just cut it with stuff that makes you sleepy but doesn’t cost as much or cause as much hassle to get as dope. That’s all. If you want some better shit, move to that shithole London. Ross Coomber of the University of Greenwich, London, analyzed 228 samples of heroin and found that 44 percent of them weren’t cut with anything at all. The rest were cut with the same stuff as above. Coomber did another study where he gathered information from 17 heroin dealers at varying points in the chain of distribution. He asked them if they adulterated (that is the word for adding other drugs to) or diluted (that is the word for adding inert substances to) the drugs they sold. Eleven said that they never adulterated/diluted at all, four adulterated/diluted only sometimes, and only one (dealing four to five ounces a month) said he always diluted the heroin (with glucose, by around 10 to 20 percent). Asshole.

Findings: Heroin is a little more cut than coke, but ours is average. And dealers don’t want to poison their customers. It’s bad business, and if you’re dead you can’t buy any more smack from them. The most important finding to us in this section was this great new dealer who got us a bundle of smack, delivered to our door in 20 minutes in the middle of the workday. Too bad we’re in recovery.

CRACK
Our crack, purchased from some human garbage in Bushwick, was about 95 percent pure, and the impurities were likely by-products of the synthesis, not contaminants. That means they weren’t added after the crack became crack. Rather, they were a part of how the crack came to be. Crack is actually one of the purest drugs you can buy, usually about 85 to 95 percent, because it gets washed with solvent before or after heating. Just because of the way it’s made (by “freebasing” it—or removing the active chemicals from cocaine from their base), you can get high-purity crack from only moderately pure coke.

Findings: Crack is a good bet. If you think your coke guy is stomping on your shit at all, cook it up and you’ll take out all the dirt.

WEED
So according to an article published in the New York Times in April 2004, “Law enforcement officials said they are also seeing more examples of marijuana laced with other drugs, like cocaine, a narcotic; LSD, a hallucinogen; and PCP, a hallucinogen also known as angel dust.” Our sample didn’t have coke or heroin or PCP or anything in it. It was just normal. Sucks.

Now read that New York Times quote again. “Law enforcement officials”? I like cops and I trust them to protect me from getting raped. Journalists are liars though. Why would police give quotes about drugs and not give their names? Is this a top-secret thing that the “law enforcement officials” are afraid to go on record about? Seriously, there are a million alarmist accounts of PCP-dipped weed being sold as regular weed (just google it), but not one systematic analysis to back up the claim. Just look at the slang terms for weed laced with other drugs and the whole thing starts to seem like a priest dreamed it up: “Boat, Loveboat, Chips, Donk, Lovelies, Love Leaf, Woolies, Zoom, Boat, Caviar, Champagne, Cocoa Puff, Gremmies.” What? Reporters are pussies that barely know what drugs are so if they talk about the pervasiveness of embalming-fluid-dipped pot you’re not going to ever find any evidence of them actually finding some. Hence quotes like, “Finding embalming fluid to buy on the street is not easy because most street drug dealers make more money selling individual joints soaked with embalming fluid for about $10 to $20. However, if found on the street to purchase, a two-ounce sample of embalming fluid costs about $50.” Oh really?

Findings: PCP-soaked marijuana that is sold as PCP-soaked marijuana doesn’t actually have PCP in it most of the time. There is no evidence at all I can find that marijuana sold as marijuana is soaked in PCP. However, if you want to deck your weed out, sprinkle some coke on it. It’s called a snowcap and it gets you laced.

ECSTASY
Our sample was pure MDMA. Once again, that’s because we have good dealers. We all know that E is often cut with dope, because we’ve all seen those little brown freckles in pills that we’ve taken. That’s heroin, stupid. So while E can be dirty, it is not as dirty as a 1993 Time Out magazine article, “Bitter Pills,” made it out to be. In that article, it was reported that E dealers spike tablets and capsules with heroin, LSD, rat poison, and crushed glass. That story was repeated all over. Stephen Beard of the Newham Drugs Advice Project was the source for all this, and he said he got his info from a single dealer. This single supposed dealer said he made fake ecstasy by crushing light bulbs. The word for that is “hearsay.” There was no supporting evidence such as lab tests or reports from doctors who had treated users. Oh, but again, it does happen that there is poison. In London, in 2000, there was an unmarked, half-scored, yellow-flecked tablet that was 8 mg of strychnine. The lethal dose of strychnine is 10 mg.

The verdict: It’s not hard to get good shit. Drug dealers figure, I can sit here trying to figure out how to dilute this shit or I can get it on the street and paid for as soon as possible. If my shit is too pure—great. All that means is I’ll have a reputation as Bobby PurePants and more people will want to buy from me.

ANN HIGGINS

As California faces a $1 billion budget shortfall, the marijuana industry offers a commonsense solution to the state’s fiscal problems:

August 6 — A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars to solve the current state budget crisis. The group, calling itself Let Us Pay Taxes makes the offer through its web site LetUsPayTaxes.com. The offer comes at a time when the California legislature is deadlocked on a new budget and California has stopped issuing checks for vitally needed social services. Legislators are currently arguing over which programs will be cut in order to balance the budget. [link]

This effort is the brainchild of drug policy expert/activist Cliff Shaffer, who has hit the nail square on its head. The failure of prohibitionists to grasp the inherent economic lunacy of the drug war has always been particularly startling to me. I grudgingly accept that drug war supporters feel no sympathy for the victims of harsh laws, and even that they clumsily attribute the harmful effects of prohibition to the drugs themselves. Yet, tragic and irrational as these beliefs may be, they do not explain the willingness of government to cast aside billions in taxable commerce.

Marijuana is, after all, the #1 cash crop in the nation. This fact cleanly illustrates the failure of prohibition, while vividly depicting the massive windfall available to any state with the wisdom to pursue regulation. And all this is to say nothing of the incalculable value of discontinuing our current marijuana policy, which is as wasteful and ineffective as can be.

Gov. Schwarzenegger is unlikely to be impressed with this offer, unfortunately, having vetoed California’s hemp bill over concerns regarding conflict with federal law. Yet, as Shaffer points out, there is truly nothing the DEA can do to prevent state level regulation of marijuana. The vastly smaller medical marijuana industry has already overwhelmed the agency’s enforcement capacity. Ongoing DEA raids are merely a face-saving gesture, designed to confuse legislators in prospective medical marijuana states. The full-scale regulation of the marijuana economy in any state would reveal DEA’s genuine impotence, permanently burying the myth that conflict with federal law ensures some sort of brutal showdown.

Having failed to get the point across in so many ways, it’s about time to start offering people a billion dollars.

via stop the drug war

WASHINGTON — The White House won’t say it explicitly. Neither will the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air that U.S. policy is about to change when it comes to medical marijuana.

The message is clear, said UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, a former Justice Department official and an expert on crime and drug policy.

“It is no longer federal policy to beat up on hippies,” said Kleiman.

Tell that to the DEA.

In California this past week, agents raided four dispensaries in Los Angeles and seized 500 pounds of pot.

“It’s a little bit surprising, because I think current DEA management didn’t get the message,” said Kleiman. “The message is, this is no longer drug warrior time. We are not on a cultural crusade against pot-smoking.”

California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it is still against federal law.

Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana. California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries, businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Legal under California law, such dispensaries are still illegal under federal law.
“Anyone possessing, distributing or cultivating marijuana for any reason is in violation of federal law,” Sarah Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman in Los Angeles, said Thursday.

That may be the law, but it contradicts the medical marijuana position of the new president.

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,” said White House spokesman Nick Shapiro, repeating past statements.

So on Friday, DEA officials in Washington declined to comment at all on the subject.

As a presidential candidate, Obama repeatedly promised a change in federal drug policy in situations where state laws allow use of medical marijuana.

“I think the basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors, I think that’s entirely appropriate,” Obama told the Mail Tribune of Medford, Ore., in March.

A year earlier at a campaign stop in New Hampshire, Obama said: “I would not have the Justice Department prosecuting and raiding medical marijuana users.”

At age 47, Obama is part of a generation that had plenty of exposure to pot.

In his memoir, “Dreams from My Father,” he described time spent as a youth struggling with questions about his race and identity, and turning to drugs _ including marijuana and cocaine _ to “push questions of who I was out of my mind.”

The new president is unlikely to make any official change in policy before he has a new DEA chief and drug czar in place.

Yet experts believe it is already clear the Obama administration will change the strategy, if not the law, on medical marijuana.

Philip Heymann, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration who is now a Harvard professor, said it’s time for the agency to put more effort into fighting drugs more dangerous than marijuana.

“I do expect him to appoint an administrator who takes marijuana less seriously than is traditional for the DEA, as I think most Americans do,” said Heymann.

Heymann said he expects the Obama administration will eventually instruct the DEA to emphatically scale back raids on dispensaries, and conduct such raids only in instances where investigators believe a business is abusing the dispensary system as a cover for other criminal behavior.

So last week’s raids in California may be the last of their kind.

“The DEA’s not likely to want to confront a new president,” said Heymann. “It may simply be that they’re behaving as they have traditionally, and they haven’t anticipated the change Obama and his spokesman are signaling.”

____

Associated Press writer Michael Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

It may have been expected, but that doesn’t make it right.

Late Thursday, cereal and snack manufacturer Kellogg’s announced that it will not renew its sponsorship contract with 14-time Olympic gold medal champion Michael Phelps. The company said that Phelps’ recent acknowledgment of marijuana use, and subsequent apology, was “not consistent with the image” of the company.

We disagree!

As NORML wrote earlier this week, it’s not Michael Phelps who should be castigated, but rather it’s the absurd and hypocritical laws that criminalize the behavior of Phelps and tens of millions of other successful and productive Americans like him that is worthy of condemnation.

Millions of Americans agree. In fact, in the past week dozens of high profile pundits and commentators — including Kathleen Parker in the Washington Post, Stanton Peele in the Wall Street Journal, and Doug Bandow in National Review Online — have demanded a repeal of America’s archaic and overly punitive pot laws.

Michael Phelps is in good company. Nearly one out of two Americans have admitted using marijuana. Whether or not the most decorated athlete in history chooses to unwind during his off time with a glass of wine or a bit of cannabis is really none of the government’s — or our — business.

Please take time today to contact the Kellogg Corporation. Tell them that you oppose their decision to drop Michael Phelps and that, as a result of their actions, you will not be purchasing any Kellogg’s related products for the next three months (or until the company decides to reinstate the Phelps as their spokesperson).

There are several ways you can make your opinion known to the company.

You can call Kellogg’s main telephone number during east coast business hours, Monday through Friday, at: (269) 961-2000 or toll free at: 1 (800) 962-1413.

You can e-mail Kellogg’s consumer services department by visiting: http://www2.kelloggs.com/ContactUs.aspx.

You can contact Kellogg’s media relation department at: 269-961-3799 or via e-mail at media.hotline@kellogg.com.

You can e-mail Kellogg’s corporate responsibility department at: corporateresponsibility@kellogg.com.

You can e-mail Kellogg’s investor relations department at: investor.relations@kellogg.com.

Or finally, you can write the Kellogg Company a letter at:

One Kellogg Square
P.O. Box 3599
Battle Creek, MI 49016-3599

When contacting the company, please be polite and concise. Tell them:

“Hi, my name is _____________ and I’m a frequent consumer of Kellogg’s products.

Nearly one out of two Americans has used marijuana. This includes tens of thousands of prominent, highly successful Americans — including our current President. Michael Phelps should not be stigmatized nor condemned for private behavior that he, and millions of others, engage in.

The majority of the public, as well as those in the media, are standing behind Michael Phelps and so am I. I will no longer be purchasing Kellogg’s brand products until your company reverses its decision and reinstates Michael Phelps as your spokesperson.”

Thank you for standing up against the needless discrimination of cannabis consumers.

Norml

The active ingredient in marijuana cuts tumor growth in common lung cancer in half and significantly reduces the ability of the cancer to spread, say researchers at Harvard University who tested the chemical in both lab and mouse studies.

They say this is the first set of experiments to show that the compound, Delta-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), inhibits EGF-induced growth and migration in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expressing non-small cell lung cancer cell lines. Lung cancers that over-express EGFR are usually highly aggressive and resistant to chemotherapy.
THC that targets cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2 is similar in function to endocannabinoids, which are cannabinoids that are naturally produced in the body and activate these receptors. The researchers suggest that THC or other designer agents that activate these receptors might be used in a targeted fashion to treat lung cancer.

“The beauty of this study is that we are showing that a substance of abuse, if used prudently, may offer a new road to therapy against lung cancer,” said Anju Preet, Ph.D., a researcher in the Division of Experimental Medicine.

Acting through cannabinoid receptors CB1 and CB2, endocannabinoids (as well as THC) are thought to play a role in variety of biological functions, including pain and anxiety control, and inflammation. Although a medical derivative of THC, known as Marinol, has been approved for use as an appetite stimulant for cancer patients, and a small number of U.S. states allow use of medical marijuana to treat the same side effect, few studies have shown that THC might have anti-tumor activity, Preet says. The only clinical trial testing THC as a treatment against cancer growth was a recently completed British pilot study in human glioblastoma.

In the present study, the researchers first demonstrated that two different lung cancer cell lines as well as patient lung tumor samples express CB1 and CB2, and that non-toxic doses of THC inhibited growth and spread in the cell lines. “When the cells are pretreated with THC, they have less EGFR stimulated invasion as measured by various in-vitro assays,” Preet said.

Then, for three weeks, researchers injected standard doses of THC into mice that had been implanted with human lung cancer cells, and found that tumors were reduced in size and weight by about 50 percent in treated animals compared to a control group. There was also about a 60 percent reduction in cancer lesions on the lungs in these mice as well as a significant reduction in protein markers associated with cancer progression, Preet says.

Although the researchers do not know why THC inhibits tumor growth, they say the substance could be activating molecules that arrest the cell cycle. They speculate that THC may also interfere with angiogenesis and vascularization, which promotes cancer growth.

Preet says much work is needed to clarify the pathway by which THC functions, and cautions that some animal studies have shown that THC can stimulate some cancers. “THC offers some promise, but we have a long way to go before we know what its potential is,” she said.

In my years of getting stoned, I’ve found that there are generally two types of stoners: the industrious stoners and the lazy stoners. There are the folks who smoke a joint before alphabetizing their record collection, cleaning the bathroom grout with a toothbrush, or designing dynamic and user-friendly computer programs. These are people who, despite a full-time job and maintaining a grow-house, still manage to whip up a marijuana-spiked flourless chocolate cake for a weekday dinner party. These people are successful, productive, and yet somehow, constantly stoned.

Then there are, of course, the people like myself: the lazy stoners. We enjoy sharing a doober, making nachos, then watching two hours of Family Guy and Two and a Half Men reruns. The culinary feats we dazzle our friends with include frozen pizzas, spaghetti and meatballs, and occasionally flipping a few flapjacks on a Sunday afternoon. But thankfully for us, there are lots of easy ways to bring that big bag of marijuana into the kitchen, and none of them require a Moroccan couscoussière.

But whether you’re a magician in a kitchen, or your best dish is a jar of bean dip, we’ve got recipes that will keep you from stressing about the holidays—and instead, drifting through them in a giggly stupor. After all, it’s going to be a long, dark winter. So let’s pass the time in a productive and enjoyable way—by throwing a party and experimenting with drugs. But please be a responsible host and let your guests know if the food is loaded.

RECIPES FOR THE GANJA GOURMET

Bud Butter

Though preparing marijuana butter can take an entire afternoon, you can store it for future projects. Even lazy stoners might want to take a stab at whipping up a batch of the THC-laden butter—it lasts a long time and can be used anywhere you’d use regular old butter. The possibilities are endless!

What you’ll need:

1 gallon water

1 pound butter

1 ounce or more of marijuana shake

1 large cooking pot

1 large bowl

Put the water, marijuana, and butter into a large pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let simmer up to five hours. Turn heat off and run the mixture through a fine metal strainer or cheesecloth into a bowl. Squeeze cheesecloth to remove whatever butter you can from the marijuana. Discard the weed when you’re done. Put the bowl of hot water and butter in the fridge or freezer. When the butter hardens, dump out the water, microwave the butter a bit, and then transfer to a Tupperware container. The butter will keep for several weeks.

Marijuana Milk

Like marijuana butter, marijuana milk has countless purposes. Use it in milkshakes or pancakes, or better yet, homemade hot chocolate spiked with Baileys. Now that should give you enough assistance to get through even the most mind-numbing family gatherings.

What you’ll need:

One quart milk

One eighth to one quarter marijuana shake

One medium-sized cooking pot

Pour the milk and sweet leaf into your pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about an hour. Thrill your guests with herby mashed potatoes that will blow their minds.

Stoner Suds

For the home-brewers who are suddenly everywhere, throwing some weed in your brew is sure to make holiday parties more surreal. (Look, all your coworkers are totally fucked up!) For five gallons of beer, boil about a half-ounce of weed in water, then simmer for about two hours. Then add the weed and water mix to a high-alcohol brew that is almost done fermenting. Give it a couple days and you’re ready to bottle and drink.

Pot Truffles

These pot truffles are insanely rich and delicious, and the chocolate flavor goes great with the pot.

What you’ll need:

6 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

An 8-ounce package of cream cheese

1/8 ounce of weed

3 tablespoons instant coffee

2 teaspoons water

1/4 cup pot butter

double boiler or microwave-safe bowl

Melt four cups of the chocolate chips and the weed in a microwave or double boiler. Remove from heat and mix in cream cheese, coffee, and water. Chill in the fridge for about an hour until the mix is firm enough to shape into one-inch balls. Place on wax paper and place in freezer for another hour until very firm. In microwave or double boiler, melt final two cups of chocolate chips and butter. When smooth, drop a few frozen balls at a time into the chocolate mixture and stir quickly. Remove the balls quickly and put on wax paper lined cookie sheet. Allow time to cool and harden.

RECIPES FOR THE LAZY STONER

Chocolate Chip Pot Cookies

This is a favorite recipe that tastes great while requiring almost no cooking skill.

What you’ll need:

1 roll pre-made cookie dough

1/4 ounce of weed

spice grinder

baking sheet

Throw your weed into spice grinder and grind until it is fine dust. Cut slices from your cookie dough log and coat each slice in marijuana dust. Put cookies slices on greased baking sheet and follow the baking instructions on the package.

Thanksgiving Day Dope Stuffing

What you’ll need:

8 cups slightly stale bread torn into pieces

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 cup celery

1/2 cup chopped onions

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup chopped marijuana

2 tablespoons red wine

black pepper

saucepan

Sautee celery and onion in butter in your saucepan, then pour in broth, marijuana, red wine, and pepper. Bring to a boil. Then pour over breadcrumbs, stir, and use to stuff your bird.

The Green Dragon

The Green Dragon is a dangerous cocktail that could knock you on your ass. But then again, you might have fun on the way down.

What you’ll need:

One fifth of vodka

1/4 ounce marijuana

fine mesh strainer

Pour vodka and weed into a saucepan. Heat slowly without boiling for 15 minutes. Strain and cool in the freezer. Drink Green Dragon straight over ice or with mixers.

*These recipes are only intended for use during parties to which only people who are legally prescribed medical marijuana are invited. Seriously.