Chronic questions

I have two questions for you: (1) Have you ever been the victim of “laced” weed? (2) Is marijuana addictive?

—TJ

First: I have never been the victim of “laced” weed. One time I did have a huge, heart-racing panic attack whilst driving to a gig in the boonies of Montana, so I went to the ER and they laughed at me. But reports of unsuspecting people smoking marijuana laced with PCP or cocaine are very rare. By the way, there’s a special spot in the depths of perdition for anyone that would slip someone a drug. Drug use should be a consciously made decision. Robbing someone of agency over their cognitive functions is vile. End rant.

More prevalent than laced weed is the accidental ingestion of pot. This happens just about every day. Someone will accidentally eat a poorly labeled cannabis-infused food and end up either having a really good or a really bad day. Please, for the love of all that is green and uplifting, please make sure your cannabis foods are labeled appropriately and kept out of the reach of children and teenagers.

Second: No. I mean, look, anything can be addictive: weed, butter, yoga, religion, whatever. Anything. As vices go, marijuana is fairly easy to kick. In fact, weed has been shown to help people with serious opiate addictions. A study from Columbia University (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
pubmed/26187456) shows that the addicts that used cannabis regularly stayed cleaner longer. Back in the ’90s, Cannabis Helps Alleviate Medical Problems, an OG mmj dispensary in S.F., had great success using hash oil as away to get people off of heroin, OxyContin and other dangerous narcotics. I’ve said it before, and it’s still true: Marijuana isn’t a gateway to harder drugs, it’s a pathway toward safer drugs. Thanks for stopping by.

Hey, maing. Any good books out there for the budding (my bad) cannabis activist?

—Owl C. Maselfout

Funny you should ask. Steve DeAngelo, the legendary cannabis activist (he’s one of the founders of both Harborside Wellness and ArcView) just released a book on September 22 called The Cannabis Manifesto. This book is perfect if you want to learn some persuasive arguments toward cannabis legalization. It’s full of talking points and history and science and anecdotes and all that good stuff. I got the chance to talk to Mr. DeAngelo about the book, the new laws in California, dabs and all sorts of other things. I went to Oakland and we had a nice chat. You can see that interview here: http://tinyurl.com/DeAngelointerview.

If you haven’t already read The Emperor Wears No Clothes by the late, great Jack Herer and The New Jim Crow from Michelle Alexander, go ahead and do that now. Weed Land, from Sacramento journalist Peter Hecht, is a good history of California so far. Don’t be afraid to take notes. Final exams start in December.