Shopping for a green Christmas

As usual I am late on my holiday shopping. Any ideas?

—P. Rocrastinator

I find a hug is always an appropriate gift. OK, not always, but don’t worry, friend. There is still plenty of time to find the perfect gift for your cannabis-loving compatriots. Vaporizers are all the rage these days. I like the PAX (www.ploom.com/pax) for cannabis flowers and the Zen Pen (www.zenpen.org) for oils. Also, there’s a company called cannabox (www.cannabox.com), and while they won’t send you any actual cannabis (yet), they will send you a box filled with all kinds of cool things for the discerning pot smoker. Think of them as a “loot crate” for weed nerds instead of gamers. Or you could just buy people some cannabis-infused products like soap or massage oil. Those are always nice. I hope you have a hempy holiday season.

I keep hearing different things about the Feds and marijuana law reform. What’s the real scoop?

—A. Wareness

Yeah. There’s a lot going on and it’s hard to keep up sometimes. As of this writing, the U.S. Omnibus budget contains provisions to keep D.C. from implementing their cannabis law reforms (boooo!) and to stop funding DEA anticannabis operations in states that have medical cannabis laws (huzzah!). It’s a mixed bag. We will see what happens.

The Feds also released a memo last month that allows Native Americans to grow and sell marijuana on their reservations, even in states that don’t allow marijuana. This is huge. We will see if any tribes start their own cannabis farms. How cool would that be? A little pot, some gambling and a few fireworks sound like a fun weekend.

Yo bro, thanks for the column and for being you! Like your style. So my question is basically this: Do private yet public places, such as Sleep Train or the convention center, have a right to ban you (me) from smoking medical marijuana in their places of business?

—Ryan B.

Yo Bruh. Your letter was hella long, so I chopped it down a bit. The bottom line is this: While Prop 215 does allow medical cannabis users the right to medicate in areas where smoking is allowed (except for a moving car), the proprietors of any venue have the right to decide whether or not they will allow cannabis use. So Sleep Train does indeed have the right to tell you not to light up on their premises. It sucks, I know. Because really? Not allowing people to use cannabis during a concert is dang near un-American, in my opinion. This is one of the things we will have to address when we are drafting regulations for California cannabis law reform in 2016. Should there be “Cannabis smoking sections” as a well as sections for tobacco? I don’t know any tobacco users that object to the smell of cannabis. In the future, just walk out to your car. Or bring a vapor pen. Enjoy the show.