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This week's New York includes an expansive feature on marijuana use in NYC, written by Mark Jacobson, a self-described pothead who first turned on in Alley Pond Park, Queens. Maybe we're just really stoned, but this article is waaaay long, so let's, um, break it up:
- NYC is the marijuana-arrest capital of the country and maybe the world. Since 1997, 430,000 people age 16 and older have been pinched in the city for possession of marijuana, often for quantities as little as a joint.
- More than 80 percent of those arrested on pot charges are either black or Hispanic.
- Startlingly, those handcuffed tokers with small amounts of herb were probably not breaking the law, because possession of 25 grams, or seven-eighths of an ounce, has not been a crime in New York State since the passage of the Marijuana Reform Act of 1977. The catch is that it can't be "burning or open to public view."
- So cops work around that law by telling perps, "You don't have anything in your pocket you’re not supposed to have, do you, because if you do and I find it, it’ll be a lot worse for you." When the gullible suspect, hoping for leniency, reveals the hidden contraband to the cop, it is suddenly "open to public view" and the game is on.
- Richard Gottfried, the Upper West Side State Assemblyman who authored the 1977 Reform Act, is confident medical marijuana is on the immediate horizon for New York. He notes that it was passed by the Assembly in 2007, thinks it would have gotten through the Senate this past spring if the coup hadn't happened: "Strange as it sounds, I think this is one issue that might actually be nonideological. During the floor debate, these legislators, liberal and conservative, were almost in tears as they told their personal stories about how they and their loved ones had been helped by marijuana."
- In the meantime, Danny Danko, the senior cultivation editor of High Times magazine meets every week with a club of cannabis connoisseurs. Their location is secret, but Jacobson stops by to do, uh, research on a wide range of top-shelf herb. Danko calls marijuana growing "an act of alchemy."
In the end, besides getting coveted access to the High Times "tasting" club, Jacobson scores a sweet discount from the weed dealer he interviewed for the article. Nice work if you can get it! Any dealers with primo stuff who'd like share their side of the story with Gothamist should contact us at once.
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WANT.
don't need the doc's green when you gots delivery...
Who needs it legalized? Those dispensaries in California charge like 80 dollars for an 8th. Plus, as hotstepper said, they sure as hell won't deliver!
That picture made my mouth water.
Yeah, I felt a little drool coming out the corner of my mouth there.
Medical marijuana is kinda BS, mainly because it should just be legalized. But I have heard great stories of people being genuinely helped by pot. I remember about ten years ago I read a story about a doctor whose teenage son had cancer. The chemo made him so sick he couldn't keep food down, and he was literally wasting away, unable to heal because he couldn't get proper nutrition. None of the prescription meds for his digestive issues helped. This doctor was watching his own kid waste away and there was nothing he could do.
Then the good doctor remembered how hungry pot had made him back in the 60's. He called around until he found someone he knew to hook him up. Then he bought a pipe and a lighter and taught his teenage kid how to pack a bowl. Four hours later, his kid had eaten half the food in the house.
You won't hear any stories like that about prescription nausea medication, because speaking from personal experience, it's not very effective. The only ones that actually help the stomach are the ones that just knock you unconscious. I'd rather be a little stoned than sound asleep.
FUCK! The second one wasn't supposed to be a reply to anything. Goddammit.
Also, JDS, you seem to be the resident burner on the Gothamist staff, you should start doing reviews of the different strains floating around NYC ala LAist!
Just go to Jamaica. Its only 3 hours away and the stuff there is a fraction of the price.
Behind the Green Bong - outstanding porn reference. Score another hit (pun intended) for JDS.
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=puns
Pot fries your brain if you smoke enough of it. Having said that, the laws are unnecessarily harsh on the casual user and only serve to clog up the courts and prisons.
By all means, lock up the dealers though.
Can we get real evidence to support the brain-frying claim?
And pot dealers are not who we need to go after, as I've found they rarely sell anything else (ie drugs that ACTUALLY KILL PEOPLE). They rarely "push" their product on anybody (hell, most of them are pretty hard to get in touch with) and don't really make much money. While the Mexican weed trade is a mess, most American growers and dealers live together in perfect harmony.
And to the guy that suggested Jamaica..have you ever been there? They smoke GARBAGE weed. If you're looking to travel for weed, take the drive up to Vermont. YUM!
Make it legal to buy, grow or possess ~2 ounces, tax the shit out of it and just watch billions upon billions roll in while at the same time creating thousands of jobs for America's ever-dwindling farming industry.
Vermont?! Fuck that. If you know what your doing in JA and don't buy off the first person who offers, then you'll be ok, other than that their selection is quite good. Plus most of them don't genetically or otherwise alter their produce so its as strong as shit.
In order words, its ORGANIC! Not even hipsters & yuppies can disagree with that.
Ok. I know too much about the subject. Off to rehab
You aren't buying from the right people in America, as I actually just finished off a quarter of organic White Widow...from Vermont!
good points. however i must add to your "travel for weed" section: anywhere in California north of the Bay area has the best outdoor herb in the US. VT's outdoor (and upstate NY for that matter) has a shorter growing season than Cali and therefore less potent and less yummy.
Actually, the weed I had in Jamaica was fantastic. Plentiful, inexpensive, seedy (sure - it's grown ital-style), but powerful. You picked the wrong Rasta, kid.
Well you see, as the THC builds up in your brain, it eventually starts a chemical process whereby it starts to turns into a stainless steel frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil on it. Then, the next time you go to toke up and use that lighter, BAM! The heat causes the pan to heat up and fries your brain.
Go to Eureka Springs Arkansas. Pot is legal there and the way they get around the Federal law is to charge a $5 ticket if you're caught smoking it out on the streets or at a bar - and then its at the cops discretion if he "sees" you or not. They also allow gay marriage there that is against Arkansas state law, and i the midst of the pot and gays have the great passion play for all the Christians. Yeah I know you have to go to Arkansas which sucks, but it's kind of cool in that town.
vancouver is a place one should go if one is interested in the worry-free consumption of cheap and extremely high quality ganj.
For less than $30 and with a medical card in pocket, one can stroll a couple of blocks in SF, enter a very nice dispensary and purchase five beautifully rolled joints with paper filters (the best way to imbibe -- it's all about the delivery) and a tasty and very potent cookie, couple of pieces of caramel or other munchie -- seven days a week. Shopping has never been so good.