Last Friday, a day late for 4/20, a new commercial began running on a mid-size independent TV channel in Orange County. It was for a cannabis extracts company, but it was hard to tell that if you weren’t already a dabber or vapor, and even then only if you watched very closely.

For a full 55 seconds, the new ad for Eureka Vapor could be for just about any product. Old people go for a walk in the park, veterans hang out in front of billowing American flags, two women wearing hijabs drink coffee, a one-legged athlete sprints down a track, a two-legged baseball player hits a ball in the stadium. During this vague and confusing montage, equally vague and confusing text appears: “Discover Honor… Discover Love… Discover Life… Acceptance… Passion… Freedom” etc., etc., listing basically every generic thing that people generally like, besides puppies.

For a would-be subversive commercial spot, this ad looks as bland as innocuous as they come. If you weren’t too busy being bored out of your mind by the commercial, you’d probably be confused. Is it an ad for a prescription nasal? A political candidate of either major political party? Shoes? A bank? Gatorade?

Only in the last seconds does it become clear with the words: “Discover EurekaVapor.com.” Only what exactly Eureka Vapor, an extracts company specializing in CO2-processed goods, distributing to Colorado and California, and awarded for its achievement at last year’s Hempcon, has to do with the content of that advertisement is less than clear.

Like the recent “Kendall Jenner and political protesters fight the oppressors by drinking Pepsi” ad, this commercial seems to feature just about everything and be about just about nothing, not even an extracts pen.

Of course, there’s a reason why Eureka and the ad’s creators wanted to keep weed and extracts out of the commercial: most TV stations wouldn’t air it, fearing advertising a federally banned controlled substance might jeopardize their federal broadcast licenses. So the company and the advertising firm they hired, Innovation Agency, had to find a workaround.

“We wanted to create a commercial that captures the essence of the brand,” Randall Huft, Innovation’s president and creative director told the LA Times. “Eureka stands for inclusion, acceptance and love.”

Not exactly vivid branding. And it borders on the offensive. In the comments on the YouTube page, one user wrote: “They tried to use us military and social issues to sell their products??? Not cool Eureka!!” Another wrote: “Wait…….. is this a Discover Card ad or nah??”

But maybe we’re not far off from a day when cannabis can be advertised openly on TV. When Huff was asked whether he thought that would come to pass one day, he replied with a statement just as sweeping and meaningless as his advertisement. “Certainly,” he said. “Most things in our lifetime seemed impossible just a short time ago: Equal rights for the LGBT community, gay marriages, Trump becoming president. Anything and everything is possible.”

Image: Screenshot from advertisement “Discover Eureka Vapor”

History got made on 4/20/2017. Maybe it wasn’t Archduke-Ferdinand-being-assassinated historic. Maybe it wasn’t even first Franz Ferdinand concert historic. But it was pretty neat.

On April 20, the first ever legal drive-thru cannabis dispensary opened its garage doors to the people of Parachute, Colorado. Built in a former car wash, the new innovation in legal weed-distribution is the latest venue in the Tumbleweed pot shop franchise (they also have a plain old dispensary across the street).

The most surprising feature of the first ever weed drive-thru is that its owners didn’t even have to change a law or permit to do it. The neat trick they pulled off is that the drive-thru works by the same laws as a regular dispensary, as they told NBC 4.

Before a car pulls into the former car wash, a Tumbleweeds employee checks the ID’s of everybody in the vehicle to make sure they’re 21. Then the vehicle pulls into the establishment and garage doors are closed at either end of the drive. That means that the vehicle is technically inside the dispensary, so all the same laws apply to it that would apply to any pot shop.

So clever it’s a wonder no one ever thought of it before. “As far as I can tell we are not aware of this business model ever coming up before,” Robert Goulding, spokesperson for Colorado’s Marijuana Enforcement Division, told the Post Independent.

Novel to be sure, and the venture seems to be getting good vibrations, not just from stoners feeling a little lazy, but also from the community at large. “We think the drive-through is a very creative and innovative idea,” Town Manager Stuart McArthur told the Independent. “Tumbleweed has been a good neighbor and has made large investments into town. We’re excited to have Tumbleweed here and get on the map with something that is totally unique.”

But could the novelty of this new enterprise actually be its drawback? Video taken by NBC 4 shows a line of cars waiting to get in. That was, of course, on opening day when even national news outlets were drawn to the spectacle, but keeping the customers flowing in and out could be a problem. Ingenious though it is, the business model of having the client drive into the garage and have their ID’s checked and then have them scope out the merchandise and then buy it means several minutes at the very least per customer. Meanwhile, cars could be backing up all the way out the street.

All that trouble for only 15 varieties of cannabis, 5 days a week. It seems like you might just as easily go into the store itself. But until the day when/if Colorado’s Senate Bill 192, which would legalize weed delivery services, it’s the only way stoners in the state can get their weed without having to get off their asses.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

There’s been a whole lot of weed going on at the Capitol Building in D.C. this last week, and it’s not because politicians have been trying to medicate their depression over President Trump serving his first 100 days in office.

Two separate, but related cannabis prohibition protests led to at least eleven arrests for federal violations of marijuana possession and distribution. The fun started, of course, on 4/20 when the very vocal cannabis activist group DCMJ staged its First Annual Congressional Joint Session. The group intended to distribute 1,227 joints to Congress people and congressional staffers to publicize House Resolution 1227, a bill which would end federal cannabis prohibition.

Unfortunately, but maybe not too surprisingly, the proceedings were interrupted very suddenly by District Police, as reported by Leafly. Seven protesters were arrested, one in the middle of a speech, though all were released without charges except for two of the event organizers. Adam Eidinger, the face of DCMJ, and William Angolia were both charged for possessing more than the two ounces of cannabis allowed by District of Columbia law.

The actual charges that will be filed are still up in the air, but authorities are reportedly considering federal distribution charges (as the Capitol is federal property), which would fetch a maximum of 1 year in jail and up to a $1,000 fine.

In retaliation for this disruption, demonstrators returned to the Capitol for another demonstration Monday. The plan was to have a “smoke-in” to protest the arrests on 4/20 and again champion the legalization of cannabis on a federal level.

The act of civil disobedience was quickly noticed by local authorities. Soon after the protesters lit up, Capitol police stepped in and arrested four more DCMJ members.

DCMJ’s efforts do not look to be over anytime soon. Nikolas Schiller, a co-founder of the group, told reporters on Thursday, “We will be suing the hell out of US Capitol Police.“

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

On Tuesday, an event was held in the UK on the digital future of cannabis in England and abroad. The basic thrust of the proposal put forth by the event’s organizers and contributors was that the most sensible future for a regulated legal marijuana market was one that was entirely digital, where weed could only be bought through online purveyors.

The event, called Green Screen, was put up by Volteface, a self-described “policy innovation hub that explores alternatives to current public policies relating to drugs.” Mike Power, the award-winning science writer and author of the Green Screen report that came out in tandem with the event, told Volteface that, “Globally, cannabis prohibition is crumbling under the weight of popular opinion, scientific research, and simple good sense,” and that it was “time for a new solution.”

The solution proposed is meant to sound warm and fuzzy to both proponents and critics of marijuana advocates, promoting a regulated “digital-only cannabis market” that “would protect children, and limit their access to cannabis, but allows adults to make their own informed health choices.”

But this vision probably sounds dismaying to some. For instance, the folks who have built up legal cannabis markets in the US, Britain, and Canada, and don’t want to see those markets taken away from them and handed over to Silicon Valley.

Volteface writes that, “Just as streaming services such as Spotify have hugely diminished music piracy, an online only, legal cannabis market in the UK could disrupt the illicit black market.” But what isn’t addressed, weirdly, is that music piracy is not the only thing that was “diminished” by the ubiquity of Spotify.

The music industry was too. What has replaced the old model of record companies which supported both artists and legions of employees is a tech-based streaming service with comparatively much fewer employees and a substantial decrease in pay for musical artists.

The reason buyers in the market chose Spotify over the old methods of distribution was obviously that it was a much cheaper alternative. If tech companies with substantial capital create a service equivalent to Uber Eats, where “non-employees” deliver a mass-produced product to customers, then those companies could dismantle the current cannabis industry (one that was, unlike almost any other in America or Britain, built recently without the help of corporations) the same way Uber and Lyft have decimated the taxi business and Spotify has wounded the record industry.

The good news, of course, is that none of this has happened yet. Weed is still federally illegal in the US and in Britain. Canada will be breaking new ground next year when it goes full legal and the money and political power gained by corporations in that nation will likely have a bearing on the future of legal marijuana in other countries.

Eaze (a weed delivery app in California) and Tweed (another in Canada) are two companies at the forefront of the digital cannabis delivery world. In a piece on the subject Leafly quoted Eaze’s CEO Jim Patterson as saying, “I think what a lot of people are doing is waiting and seeing.” So, I guess that’s what we’ll be doing too.

Not to be left behind when it comes to legalizing any vice, Nevada is pushing to become the first state in the U.S. to okay social cannabis lounges. A senate bill was passed 12-9 Tuesday to allow cannabis clubs in Clark County (which includes Vegas) and the bill will next go onto the state Assembly, as reported by The Las Vegas Review Journal. The Clark County marijuana advisory board has already made recommendations on how cannabis lounges could function in the area.

The move comes just weeks after Colorado cancelled its own cannabis lounge initiative. The reasoning behind that state’s trepidation was “uncertainty in Washington,” according to Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper. The governor told The Denver Post that “this is not the time to be… trying to carve off new turf and expand markets and make dramatic statements about marijuana.”

But Nevada apparently don’t give no fucks about uncertainty in Washington, particularly when they stand to make a whole lot of money off betting that the feds do nothing to stop their cannabis lounge plans.

Apparently, Nevada’s Governor Brian Sandoval has released a two-year budget which calls for approximately $70 million in marijuana sales tax money. That mark would be hard to hit without the spending power of tourists, and current marijuana laws don’t help out 420-minded tourists all that much.

According to the legalization law which passed January 1, adults 21 and over (even tourists) can possess up to an ounce of weed. Later this year, they’ll be able to legally buy that ounce of weed. But, under current laws, they won’t be able to smoke it. The law doesn’t allow for public consumption and casinos have been specifically warned about allowing ganja on their premises.

“Tourists don’t have a home in Nevada,” State Senator and bill sponsor Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) said on the senate floor. “We’re trying to get $70 million in tax revenue from them,” he continued. “So let’s give them some place to use it.”

That’s where Senate Bill 236 comes in. It will allow marijuana lounges, located off the strip, to act as a “safe haven,” in the words of Andy Abboud, senior vice president Las Vegas Sands Corp. The gaming commission is said to be on board with the bill, as the lounges would give the tourists an alternative besides bringing weed into casinos and “dumping the responsibility onto the resort corridor.”

For the first time 20 years, California is laying out new regulations on its medical marijuana program. On Friday, the state’s Bureau of Marijuana Control published its proposal for new standards which would apply to dispensaries and cultivators, as reported by The Californian.

Among the provisions in the proposal are limits on the amount of THC allowed in units of extracts and edibles, new limits on the amount of flower which can be sold in a single day, and a new moratorium on free samples.

These regulations are not set in stone, yet. The state plans to take feedback from its citizens, both within the industry and without, during a 45 day period before ratifying its new licensing guidelines which would go into effect on January 1, 2018.

Some of the new provisions outlined in the proposal are:

• Extracts including tinctures are limited to 1,000 milligrams of THC per package.
• Edibles are limited to 100 milligrams of THC per package. Packages would also need to be split into serving sizes of no more than 10 milligrams of THC.
• Free samples of cannabis or cannabis products are no longer allowed to be distributed.
• All packages need to be childproof.
• Dispensaries and delivery services can only operate between 6 a.m and 9 p.m.
• Dispensaries can sell no more than 8 ounces to any patient or caregiver in one day.
• License priority would be given to veterans and businesses that were in good standing with their county or city as of January 1, 2016.

And then there are 58 pages more of details right here. In fact, actually being current with the new forthcoming regulations will require a whole lot of reading. In addition to the Bureau of Marijuana Control’s document, there are 58 more pages of proposed regulations from the Department of Food and Agriculture and an additional 95 pages from the Department of Public Health on manufacturing cannabis products (that’s for you, extractors and edible makers).

And that’s not including Governor Jerry Brown’s 92 page budget plan for how to differentiate medical marijuana laws from those regulating the recreational market. That’s because, even after these proposals get tweaked and made law, they still won’t apply to that big elephant in the room which is recreational cannabis. To the delight of cannabis trade groups (and the chagrin of law enforcement), Brown is going with mostly free trade positions on the recreational market.

As for the MMJ proposals from the three different government entities, those who want to shape them still have until early summer to give their feedback. You can give written comments by clicking this link and there are also a slew of upcoming public hearings for manufacturers, cultivators, distributors, retailers, transporters, and lab testers, which can be found at the bottom of this article by The Californian.

Photo via Flickr user Dank Depot

When an illegal BHO extractor is busted after blowing up their set-up in the middle of a run, they have a few options. Provided they didn’t sustain severe burns and require immediate medical attention, they’re probably going to be in police custody right quick, so they’ve got to think of something fast. If they’ve stashed a little money aside, they could say nothing and call a lawyer.

But a Colorado man decided on a different tactic, opting instead to try to sell authorities on an alternate explanation for his house suddenly deciding to explode. He said he was intentionally bombed, and not with any modern pipe-bomb type apparatus, but with an explosive most commonly found in westerns and Wile E. Coyote cartoons: a stick of dynamite.

The Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office responded early Tuesday morning to the report of an explosion in a residential neighborhood, as reported by the Denver Post. On arrival they discovered a blown-apart refrigerator on the patio of Michael Scott and Jesucita Gardner’s home.

To make things easier for officers present, Michael had an explanation ready for them. “Gardner … told deputies he thought someone had put a stick of dynamite in his refrigerator,” according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.

But the plot quickly thickened as authorities entered the Gardner home. According to the release, “In further examining the refrigerator, deputies saw several small pieces of suspected marijuana in the refrigerator and on the back porch.” The cops now grew a little suspicious of Michael’s dynamite theory after that. These suspicions were then corroborated as they searched the home and discovered “items typically found in a butane hash oil lab,” such as butane canisters, plastic baggies, and “suspected marijuana.”

It will probably not be shocking to find out that the Gardners were subsequently arrested on suspicion of unlawful cannabis extraction and they now face charges of possession of cannabis concentrates with intent to distribute, reckless endangerment, and tampering with evidence.

It’s likely that the married couple is upset at the person who dropped the dime and called 5-0 on them, especially given that the person was Michael Scott Gardner himself. “Shortly after… [Gardner] heard an explosion in the backyard… he said he went to check to see what it was, when he noticed the refrigerator was destroyed,” according to the sheriff’s office.”Gardner said he called 911.”

World history was made Tuesdays when Uruguayans became the first people to register for a cannabis program OK’d by the country’s federal government. The Netherlands has decriminalized marijuana on a federal level and Canada will legalize cannabis next year, but Uruguay is about to roll out the first ever federally legal cannabis program.

The new program requires anyone who wants to buy state-legal weed to register with their name and fingerprints. No individual will be permitted to purchase more than 40 grams (1.4 ounces) of bud in a single month.

In just a few weeks, Uruguayans will be able to buy marijuana at pharmacies (no prescription necessary), making cannabis legally akin to aspirin or mouthwash. The secretary general of the National Drugs Council said the state’s weed will go for $1.30 a gram, about half as much as the street price, according to a registrant who spoke recently to The Telegraph.

“What the hell kind of weed are they getting for $1.30 a gram?” you might ask. We don’t know for sure. Anecdotal reports on PriceOfWeed.com (which might be false) say in the last few years you could acquire medium quality stuff for $75 an ounce or high quality for $100 an ounce on the black market.

What we do know about legit cultivation in Uruguay is it is being handled by private companies, who grow their stuff in secret, regulated facilities. It also won’t be available to foreigners. Unlike virtually every other state or nation with a liberal attitude toward cannabis (Colorado, Canada, the Netherlands), Uruguay is not trying to court marijuana tourism. Only citizens or foreigners with permanent residency permits can register to get the legal weed.

One other very strange fact about weed legalization in Uruguay, especially given that it is a world first, is that it is not very popular in the country. In 2013, when lefty wildcard then President Jose Mujica signed marijuana legalization into law, about two thirds of Uruguayans opposed the measure.

In conjunction with the opening of cannabis registration on Tuesday, the government put out a series of online videos on the health risks associated with cannabis. In addition, marijuana registration receipts were printed with the number of hotline for drug abuse information and help. On the other hand, the government says legalization will curb crime and violence associated with the country’s drug trade.

“This is a great step forward in the evolution as citizens,” Marcos Ferreira, a cannabis registrant told the Telegraph. “Uruguay is innovating to see if we get results.”

Photo via Flickr user Vince Alongi

Most likely nobody is surprised by the fact that cannabis is banned in Disney World or Disneyland. They might disagree with it. They might ask why a medical doctor-recommended drug would be banned in the parks. They might even be outraged that a child suffering from severe epilepsy wouldn’t be able to bring their non-psychoactive lingual spray. But they probably wouldn’t be surprised.

What is surprising, though, is that cannabis, medical and otherwise, was not expressly forbidden inside Disney World or Disneyland until last Thursday. That’s when the people at Disney World added marijuana to their list of prohibited items, grouped in with other intoxicants as “Alcoholic beverages, marijuana or any illegal substance.”

This addition was first discovered by Orlando’s WESH 2 News, which reached out to Disney for comment on the change. “Although some states have legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, marijuana remains illegal under federal law,” a Disney spokesperson said. “We are revising our rules to clarify that marijuana is not permitted on our property.”

What brought on this sudden change in explicit policy is uncertain, but it might have something to with Florida’s Amendment 2, a ballot initiative which went into effect in January and allowed, for the first time, for marijuana containing high amounts of THC to be recommended by a physician. This law does not allow for marijuana tourism in the way that a state with recreational marijuana does, but it may have brought greater awareness to the park’s administrators.

But what about Disneyland, “Happiest Place on Earth?” As of Thursday morning, there was no mention of the wacky tobaccy on Disneyland’s website. But that changed shortly after the weed news hounds at Leafly contacted the West Coast park for clarification.

“The answer is the same for both coasts and we are in the process of updating the park rules,” Melissa Britt, the park’s medica communications manager told Leafly. Later that afternoon, Disneyland added an identical statement about marijuana and other illegal substances to their park rules page.

Florida medical marijuana advocate Matt Morgan told WESH he thinks Disney World has gone too far, and that “to the extent that they’d go through someone’s personal belongings to search for that, I think that’s when the public might start having an issue with it.” Morgan asked, “for instance, if someone has a vaporizing pen in their purse, what makes that different than a pill of Oxycontin in their purse, and should people be treated differently?”

So, when you wish upon a star in the Magic Kingdom, it better not involve treating yourself with state-legalized, but federally banned organic medicines.

A “hard landing” at a small airport in has brought a half million dollars in cash and 32 jars of cannabis extract to the attention of law enforcement in Riverside County, California.

At first, authorities were alerted for a distress call and possible plane crash. A cessna plane took a digger when landing at Banning Municipal Airport, hitting a fence and then tipping its nose. A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told The Press-Enterprise that the pilot was not seriously hurt, but a mugshot reveals he suffered at least a superficial smash in the face from the landing.

But that pilot might be hurting a little more than his bruises let on. When coming to his assistance, local law enforcement discovered a whole lot of money and hash. That’s when Alex Furman, a 24 year-old from Corona, was arrested and charged with a felony for possession of more than $100,000 obtained from the sale, transportation or manufacture of a controlled substance. In addition, Furman was charged with two misdemeanors for transporting cannabis for sale, as well as simple possession.

In more bad news for the pilot, the case has been turned over from the local district attorney’s office to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. DEA agents were called to the scene of the landing at Furman’s arrest. The hash transporter’s bail was originally set at $1 million, but bail was then withdrawn, since authorities started to wonder if a pilot who carries a half million dollars in cash might be able to get that money on the quick and then just fly his ass away from the courts.

But this is all an especially sucky turn of events for Furman, who only days before the hard landing was Instagramming weed jokes from the cockpit of his plane and posting libertarian memes on his Facebook timeline. One particularly tragic phrase from his IG feed: “You could say things are going pretty well for me.” 24 and living your life ten thousand feet up, loaded with cash and hash. Sounds pretty good. If only he hadn’t taken a digger at that airport.

Photo via Flickr user Andres Rodriguez

Attorney General Jeff Sessions is reportedly at work drafting a memo to change the course of federal drug prosecution. Namely he wants to reverse the current policy of going easy on minor, nonviolent drug offenses to instead put anybody in prison for as long as he possibly can.

Back when former Attorney General Eric Holder and former President Obama were in office, they instated measures which aimed to reduce the number of mandatory minimum drug sentences. In particular, 2013’s “Smart on Crime” initiative expressly discouraged federal prosecutors from seeking harsh sentences for nonviolent, low-level drug crimes.

The initiative was largely successful. With the help of other Obama-era policies, like new sentencing guidelines and a clemency program, the program reduced the number of federal inmates by 14 percent to 190,000 from 2013 until now, and thus substantially shrank the largest prison population in the history of human civilization. The program was pleasing on both sides of the aisle, making liberals happy by releasing human beings from captivity and making conservatives happy because it saved the boatload of money it took to prosecute and incarcerate those human beings.

But now the days of not putting people in prison for long periods of time just because you can seem to be numbered. The Justice Department is drafting a memo which would offer new guidelines for drug prosecutions. In the words of the Associated Press, the memo “would encourage prosecutors to charge suspects with the most serious offenses they can prove.”

The memo is still in the drafting stage, but, while it may not specifically mention mandatory sentences, the “most serious offenses they can prove” would in many cases be that mandatory minimum for certain quantities of drugs. In addition, the Washington Post says the DOJ is tossing around the idea of encouraging “enhancements” in sentencing, meaning those with a prior felony drug offense could get even longer than the mandatory minimums.

The crimes these new guidelines target could legally include ones involving marijuana. In fact they could legally include ones involving medical marijuana, especially considering that President Trump just said that he doesn’t feel he has to honor medical marijuana protections outlined in the recent congressional budget.

For his part, Sessions says his motivations for turning back the hands of time on progressive sentencing guidelines is his “focus on keeping Americans safe” (according to DOJ spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores), arguing that shying away from mandatory minimums weakens law enforcement by limiting the pressure they can put on criminal suspects to cooperate.

Meanwhile, former Attorney General Holder has a different spin on things. His spokesman Matthew Miller told the Washington Post that the new administration was making very clear “who it cares about and who it doesn’t.” “If you are addicted to opiates, you’ll get White House attention and increased treatment options,” Miller said. “If you get picked up with crack in your pocket, you’ll get jail time and a mandatory minimum.

One surprising fact about the totalitarian government of North Korea, which is currently threatening to destabilize the whole of global civilization, is that they are pretty much okay with weed. Though the state has harsh drug laws (possession over a certain amount is reportedly punishable by death), it does not consider marijuana to be a drug. North Koreans openly grow weed in their gardens, pick buds that grow wild, and smoke spliffs in public, according to a report from VICE.

One other surprising fact about the North Korean government is that it’s using weed as part of its weapon system. Said government has directed its farmers to grow acres of marijuana, and its primary purpose is to create hemp oil fuel for military drones, according to sources who spoke to Radio Free Asia, as reported by UPI.

Back in March an order came down to farmers to replace their soybean crops with cannabis. “The order was for each member of the North Korean Women’s Alliance to plant 33 square meters of marijuana,” the source said.

The reason stated for this new focus on marijuana was that these plants could create 22 pounds of cooking oil and and 22 pounds of animal feed. The state claimed that hemp oil would make for better cooking than soybean oil because “it has a lot of fat.”

But some are disputing the motives of North Korea and claiming (shockingly) that the Kim Jong-un administration is not being completely transparent. A source told RFA that “basically the purpose of planting cannabis is to extract fuel for drones.”

UPI is careful to note that the source did not specify why North Korea would be looking for an alternative fuel source for its drones, and even more careful to note that it was not necessarily having anything to do with recent sanctions against the country for its refusal to disarm itself of nuclear weapons.

After word got to North Korea that China was weighing an oil embargo against the nation, gas prices in Pyongyang shot up 83 percent in a matter of days, as pointed out by the Extract. And North Korea’s drones, like the country’s future, won’t stay above ground on a hope and a prayer. While one survives by untenable threats against world powers, the other apparently stays afloat by burning weed faster than a fire in Snoop Dogg’s mansion.

The extract market may be booming, but a lot of California governments are trying to stop extractors from going boom all over their towns. Sacramento County is the latest to try to legislate hash oil manufacturing into decline with a limit on butane purchases.

County supervisors voted unanimously on Tuesday to cap the amount of butane a retailer can sell to 600 milliliters per customer, as reported by the Sacramento Bee. Customers will be required to give their information and have it logged in a database as well. The ordinance goes into effect on June 22.

Most cans contain 300-400 ml of butane, and 600 ml is enough to make 4 to 8 grams of extract. So, a small, personal run is still very doable within county constraints, but commercial runs will be tricky unless you want to hit up every store in the county or get your butane from elsewhere.

The major concern seems not to be with an influx of concentrate in the communities but with injuries associated with amateur BHO manufacture. The chief of the burn division at area hospital UC Davis Medical Center told the Sac Bee that butane hash oil-related burn victims have been on the rise, with reported BHO injuries now accounting for 7 percent of all patients the unit sees.

Division chief Dr. David Greenhalgh compared the situation to the increase of burn victims in the 1990s due to explosive methamphetamine labs. At the time, authorities tried to stop the problem by controlling the sale of a key ingredient, pseudoephedrine. “When they got control of the pseudoephedrine, they stopped having that problem,” Greenhalgh said.

There are, of course, differences between the two phenomena. Butane does not, like pseudoephedrine, contain an active ingredient in the drug it creates. It’s merely a solvent used to perform the extraction. It’s possible that manufacturers will turn to other means of extraction such as CO2 or even water. But then it’s also possible that they’ll just order their n-butane on Amazon instead.

Sacramento is far from alone in their concern. Nearby cities Eureka and Red Bluff have already enacted similar butane-capping regulations. Last year the Chino City Council limited sales of refined butane to 1,200 ml per sale, and created its own log to keep track of butane transactions.

The list of countries pulling ahead of the US when it comes to weed progressivism is getting longer by the week. Already, there’s Uruguay, Canada, the Netherlands, and North Korea (!), among others. And now Israel is skipping way ahead of the “Land of the Free” with a law that actually says it’s okay for medical marijuana patients to vaporize their hash oil in public, with a few qualifications.

New directives issued by the country’s Health Ministry ease up medical marijuana restrictions in a number of ways, including allowing for public consumption of cannabis oil, as reported by Haaretz.

Under the new laws, certified medical marijuana patients can now vape their concentrates any old place, as long as that place has not specifically prohibited vaping and as long as there’s nobody else around. Of course, anyone in any country can vape weed if there’s no one else around, but in Israel it’s now actually the law. This new vape permissiveness will, unsurprisingly, not pertain to schools, airports, or other places where kids are hanging out or where people operate heavy machinery or public transportation.

The new freedom also applies to people administering cannabis oil orally or dropping it on food, but not to smoking cannabis flowers. Yuval Landschaft, the head of the Health Ministry’s cannabis unit, told Haaretz he felt that, “In smoking, even cannabis, other combustible materials are involved and the results of the burning can harm others.”

But maybe they could find a workaround for that, as in Flordia, where MMJ patients are getting around restrictions on cannabis flowers by vaping the buds instead of smoking them in the traditional way.

Until recently in Israel, the possession and use of cannabis products, including oil, was only allowed by medical marijuana patients in the address listed on their permit, which meant they could only use medical marijuana legally in their home, and then only when there was no one else present. This was especially burdensome for patients who travelled or changed their address. They then had to register the change of address with the government before they could start legally using again.

“We felt that a lot of bureaucracy was created over nothing,” said Landschaft.

Photo via Flickr user Vaping360

“Daily dose of cannabis extract could reverse brain’s decline in old age, study suggests,” the headline of a recent Guardian article reads. The implication is great for your grandparents, and it’s good for you too, as it simplifies the next birthday present you get grandma or grandpa. All you have to do is pick them up a couple gooey grams of extract the next time you’re at the weed shop (or the weed apartment, if you live in a state with unenlightened lawmakers).

And just why is a well-respected news source like the Guardian claiming your grandparents should be dabbing daily? A German study published in Nature has found that daily doses of cannabis extract have the potential to slow, and even treat, cognitive problems associated with aging. In other words, it effectively keeps the mind sharp as you get older.

One surprising facet of the study is that it found the best cannabinoid for treating cognitive decline is THC, not CBD. So, unlike many new medical marijuana studies which use “cannabis oil” as a euphemism for “CBD-only extract,” these Germans are suggesting that seniors could benefit from full on rips of hardcore Sour Diesel.

“If we can rejuvenate the brain so that everybody gets five to 10 more years without needing extra care then that is more than we could have imagined,” said study co-author and University of Bonn professor Andras Bilkei-Gorzo of the discovery.

The study has not entered into the human trials phase. So far, all data comes from giving mice doses of THC and sending them through “water mazes.” The plan is to start doing something similar on humans later this year. So hopefully soon a handful of very lucky seniors are going to be paid to get dabbed out and play in labyrinths made of swimming pools, which sounds close to the best life imaginable.

There is a cloud inside this silver lining, however. The study found that the cognitive faculties of old mice were greatly improved when they got their daily hit of concentrate, but they found that the opposite was true of young mice. Young mice who hit the figurative oil rig daily saw a steep decline in their ability to navigate mazes of water. So, maybe you should just give all your rigs and extract to your grandma now, and she can hand it back to you when you’re old enough.

Photo is screenshot from Twitter user jay

Weed is great for paradoxes. It can help you contemplate whether the chicken or the age came first, whether we’re alone in the universe or surrounded by aliens, or whether that munchie craving you got is for chicken wings or gordita crunches. But weed itself has a couple of paradoxes. One of the biggest is probably: why does smoking it cause some people to get relaxed to the point of comatose and others to freak out like they belong in a psycho ward?

Luckily for us, the peeps over at VICE recently took a look at this phenomenon and compiled different experts’ theories upon it. What we found most interesting is that there seem to be several different variables that make the difference between couch potato and psychiatric ward.

The kind of weed

Any sophisticated stoner knows that different strains have different effects. So, it’s no big shock that some strains are more likely than others to bug you out. In the most simple terms, it breaks down to THC vs. CBD and sativa vs. indica. A study from Western Carolina University showed that while CBD has a calming effect on anxiety, THC can have the opposite effect and ramp up your anxiety level.

The cannabinoids in marijuana stimulate the endocannabinoid system of the body, which helps regulate our reactions to stress. THC can stimulate that system in ways which actually inhibit its ability to react calmly to stress or anxiety, which is why you might find yourself getting paranoid that the cops are following you because you see headlights a block away in your rearview. Since sativa has higher levels of THC than indica, you’ll find the freak-out reaction more common when puffing on sativa than other types of strains.

The amount

Low doses of cannabis are less likely to cause a freakout than high ones. According to Dr. Mohini Ranganathan, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University, “as the dose increases, you become more and more likely to experience anxiety and panic.” This is related to the last point. If a little THC gives you a little anxiety, then a lot of THC can give you a lot of anxiety. That’s why people with low tolerances sometimes end up calling 911 after eating a high-dosage edible cookie.

The person

The biggest factor in whether weed makes an individual chill or ill may be the individual. There are many varieties of brain chemistry, and many reasons for that variety. Environmental factors like traumatic episodes or chronic stress have an impact on a person’s fear-processing system, and make them more likely to have an unpleasant reaction to cannabis.

These differences aren’t only seen from person to person, but can be seen in a single person over time. Someone who used to just chill out after a quadruple bongload might now get nervous after just a hit or two. Traumatic events can change brain chemistry, but so can aging in general. As a brain’s plasticity changes over time, so can its reaction to Gorilla Glue. Se la vie.

A secret BHO megalab hidden behind a false wall, the apathetic employees of a paint store, and a special education school all fit into a strange set of circumstances leading to a California man facing up to ten years in prison.

Last July, Thomas Jan Warren was running a paint store in an 8,000 foot warehouse in Santa Rosa. Unbeknownst to the public was the industrial butane hash oil lab that Warren was operating behind a false wall in the warehouse. After a fire broke out in the facility last July, authorities found 54 pounds of cannabis extract, alongside 1,500 pounds of raw cannabis plants and 10,000 butane canisters. It was later discovered that Warren had at least a dozen employees working for him in his hash oil operation.

When the blaze began in the facility, Warren’s workers at first tried to put out the flames themselves with fire extinguishers, then gave up and fled the scene without contacting authorities, leaving a burning warehouse containing more than 30,000 liters of flammable butane to run its course.

Hours later, smoke was reported rising from the warehouse. When firefighters responded to the scene, they were unaware that it had the potential to explode on them, and put the fire out before any of the unused butane caught fire.

“We were very fortunate that we were able to stop the fire before explosions injured or killed people, from the school next door or our firefighters,” Paul Lowenthal, assistant fire marshal in Santa Rosa, told The Press Democrat.

That school is not trivial to this story, as it has triggered the possibility for an “enhancement” in Warren’s sentencing. On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to using volatile chemicals to manufacture a controlled substance. The fact that the warehouse was only 100 feet from a special education school means that the sentence for such a crime could be anything from probation to 10 years in prison. Warren is up for sentencing in July. His employees face up to six months in jail each for their part in the crime.

“This fire is the result of unregulated, sloppy hash oil production that puts lives in danger,” prosecutor Matt Hubley said.

Photo via Flickr user liz west

An American Drug Policy Alliance board member and cannabis legalization proponent has left a drug conference in the Philippines after public disparagement from President Rodrigo Duterte and numerous death threats, according to a report from Leafly.

Dr. Carl Hart, chairman of the psychology department at Columbia University, visited the country to attend a drug policy forum at the University of the Philippines. The neuroscientist is known for his advocacy of progressive drug laws. A paper he co-wrote in 2014 challenged the idea that methamphetamine use causes brain damage.

During the forum in the Philippines, Hart spoke on his views, which stand in direct opposition to the stance taken by the Philippine government and Duterte. Duterte has become infamous for his hardline stance on drug crimes, which has resulted in roughly 7,000 executions and police shootings. The Philippine President claims to be personally responsible for the executions of drug dealers and has encouraged unemployed Filipinos to take it upon themselves to “kill all the drug addicts.”

In a speech at the forum, Dr. Hart said that there was no evidence to backup the government’s claims that drug users are violent and antisocial. Data used as evidence of the relationship between meth and brain damage, Hart said, has come from studies in which animals were fed much higher doses of the drug than human meth addicts usually take.

Duterte then personally attacked Hart in the media, telling the Philippine Star that the esteemed scientist, “said shabu [local slang for meth] does not damage the brain.” “That’s why that son of a bitch who has gone crazy came here to make announcements,” Duterte added.

The President went on to racialize his comments directed at Hart, an African-American, when Duterte attacked another speaker at the forum, Agnes Callamard. Callamard is the UN’s special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions, who needless to say is not a fan of Duterte, a leader best known for his extrajudicial, summary, and arbitrary executions.

“She should go [on] a honeymoon with that black guy, the American. I will pay for their travel,” Duterte said of Callamard. “They should be together and discuss.”

Following the president’s verbal attacks, Hart received a number of death threats on social media, and chose to leave the forum ahead of schedule and return to the U.S.

Commenting on the events, Drug Policy Alliance Board President Ira Glasser released a statement, saying, “The Drug Policy Alliance condemns President Rodrigo Duterte for his implied threats against our board member, Dr. Carl Hart, the world-renowned neuroscientist who chairs Columbia University’s Department of Psychology. In light of the Duterte regime’s murderous history, such targeted statements cannot be taken lightly, or dismissed as rhetoric. Over the course of his presidency, Duterte has made chilling threats to human rights defenders in the Philippines, vowing to kill them if they attempt to intervene in his war on drugs.”

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Canada has gotten a lot of praise for its upcoming forward-thinking, ahead-of-its-time national weed legalization. Many media outlets, including this one, have praised the Canadian government and Prime Minister Trudeau for rolling out a progressive plan to legalize the sale of cannabis by July 2018. But, despite the trailblazing legalization, Canada’s proposed plan has some disproportionately harsh sentences for marijuana-related infractions.

As of next summer, Canadians over the age of 18 will be able to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of weed and up to four plants per residence. Sounds pretty nifty, but there is one thing that’s kind of odd about our neighbors the north and their Cannabis Act. If buying and possessing weed is going to be such a chill proposition, then why are lawmakers still proposing prison sentences of up to 14 years for selling to a minor or possessing more than the allotted number of cannabis plants.

As VICE illustrated recently, the future of marijuana law in Canada has some pretty grim cracks in its weed-happy utopian facade. Here are some of the harsh facets of cannabis law currently being proposed in Canada:

• Selling cannabis to a minor or using a minor to commit a cannabis-related crime

Punishable from 18 months to 14 years in prison

• Selling cannabis without a license

Punishable from 18 months to 14 years in prison

• Possession of over 30 grams dried flower

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

• Possession of marijuana that came from outside the legal system

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

• Possession of more than four flowering cannabis plants

Punishable from 6 months to 14 years in prison

• Possession of more than four non-flowering cannabis (hemp) plants

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

Holy cow! So, if these laws go into effect, you could go to prison for possessing too much weed or growing too much hemp. These restrictions make clear that though cannabis is legal, it’s not to be treated like other taxed, age-restricted substances like alcohol and tobacco.

These laws also set up a potentially confusing landscape for Canadian cannabis consumers. If growing weed is legal, it might not seem like no big deal to sell a little to your friend or grow a few too many plants. It’s a little like having to face a prison sentence for possessing too much beer.

Photo via Flickr user Bob Doran

Canada has gotten a lot of praise for its upcoming forward-thinking, ahead-of-its-time national weed legalization. Many media outlets, including this one, have praised the Canadian government and Prime Minister Trudeau for rolling out a progressive plan to legalize the sale of cannabis by July 2018. But, despite the trailblazing legalization, Canada’s proposed plan has some disproportionately harsh sentences for marijuana-related infractions.

As of next summer, Canadians over the age of 18 will be able to purchase and possess up to 30 grams of weed and up to four plants per residence. Sounds pretty nifty, but there is one thing that’s kind of odd about our neighbors the north and their Cannabis Act. If buying and possessing weed is going to be such a chill proposition, then why are lawmakers still proposing prison sentences of up to 14 years for selling to a minor or possessing more than the allotted number of cannabis plants.

As VICE illustrated recently, the future of marijuana law in Canada has some pretty grim cracks in its weed-happy utopian facade. Here are some of the harsh facets of cannabis law currently being proposed in Canada:

• Selling cannabis to a minor or using a minor to commit a cannabis-related crime

Punishable from 18 months to 14 years in prison

• Selling cannabis without a license

Punishable from 18 months to 14 years in prison

• Possession of over 30 grams dried flower

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

• Possession of marijuana that came from outside the legal system

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

• Possession of more than four flowering cannabis plants

Punishable from 6 months to 14 years in prison

• Possession of more than four non-flowering cannabis (hemp) plants

Punishable from 6 months to 5 years in prison

Holy cow! So, if these laws go into effect, you could go to prison for possessing too much weed or growing too much hemp. These restrictions make clear that though cannabis is legal, it’s not to be treated like other taxed, age-restricted substances like alcohol and tobacco.

These laws also set up a potentially confusing landscape for Canadian cannabis consumers. If growing weed is legal, it might not seem like no big deal to sell a little to your friend or grow a few too many plants. It’s a little like having to face a prison sentence for possessing too much beer.

Photo via Flickr user Bob Doran