Marijuana Blog

Buying weed legally is probably going to seem weird to people for a while, since most people have been sneaking around police, laws, and parents for years when they're simply just trying to get a little high. Hopefully knowing what to expect might make people a little less uneasy about buying their bud at a store, rather than on the street. Buying and smoking cannabis should be an enjoyable experience. If you're heading to Colorado to visit one of the few recreational cannabis shops, here's what you can expect thanks to a fellow stoner who's been through the process numerous times already!

 

- Similar to the packaging of alcohol in most states, your marijuana will be sold to you in a brown paper bag so that everyone will definitely not suspect that you're carrying a sneaky substance with you. No one will know you just bought marijuana. Obviously.

 

- When you open the bag, your bud will be in there but you won't get to look at it yet! It's packaged in a sealed container and comes with a nice little card that tells you about the cannabis laws that are specific to the state of Colorado.

 

- Every container has a warning on it, a batch number, the day that it was sold, and the weight of what it contains. So basically, it looks like medicine.

 

- The safety warning states that you shouldn't operate machinery or use marijuana if you're pregnant.

 

- Each container is sealed with a zip tie and will remain sealed until opened, which means no stink thankfully!

 

- And now? You smoke! Enjoy the fact that your geographical location allows you to smoke a plant and not worry about going to jail for it! The rest of the world will catch up eventually... We hope!

I couldn't help but shake my head every single time I saw this article pop up... And I saw it a lot, since my awesome readers tagged me in over ten reposts of the Daily Current article stating that 37 people had died of marijuana overdosed on January 1st in Colorado, when the plant first went on sale legally. The article quickly became a hit, circulating Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, becoming a common appearance in everyone's newsfeed. Unfortunately, the article just fueled the anti-potheads and their deflated "cannabis kills" argument and caused great waves in the pot smoking community.

 

Since social media allows things to be shared so simply, the article spread like wildfire, surprising the founder of the Daily Current, Daniel Barkeley. "We thought it was funny before we published it, but we didn't expect it to be our most popular article ever," Daniel said. The article got over a million likes on Facebook and was shared almost as much. Even though the Daily Current website contains a disclaimer saying that all of the stories posted are pure fiction, readers apparently skipped that part over and just went right for the good stuff... Which happened to be fake.

 

If you delve deep in to the meat of the Daily Current cannabis article, there are easy to spot mistakes that are quoted that prove the falseness. For example, the article quotes a newspaper called the Rocky Mountain News, which went out of business in 2009 and a doctor that actually happens to be the main character in the popular TV show Lost. St. Luke's Medical Center was the hospital mentioned in the article and released a statement saying that they had (and never have) employed a doctor by that name.

 

The false doctor was quoted in the Daily Current article, saying that the marijuana overdose death toll would continue to climb, reaching up to 300 by next week. Later in the piece, one of the victims of the alleged overdose was named. Who was it? Jesse Pinkman, a former meth dealer from New Mexico who moved to Colorado to start up a medical dispensary. Sound familiar? For those who love Breaking Bad, it should, since Jesse Pinkman was one of the main characters on the show.

 

So bottom line? The article was a joke and no one should take it seriously. No one died and the legalization of marijuana in Colorado went smoothly. Even smoother than most Black Friday events. No one was trampled, people made money, and everyone in Colorado was stoned as hell. Definitely doesn't sound that bad!

New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo has plans this week to announce an executive action that would legalize medical marijuana. Governor Cuomo’s plan is a strict one, but would be a step in the right direction. According to media reports out of New York the executive action would allow 20 hospitals across New York to prescribe marijuana to people with cancer, glaucoma and/or other conditions that meet standards to eventually be set by the New York State Department of Health.

 

No other state medical marijuana program was created by an executive action. The first ones were via the initiative process because politicians weren’t prepared to pass legislation to create medical marijuana programs. Then, slowly, state Legislatures created programs. This is definitely a welcomed third route for legalizing medical marijuana, and one that I hope other Governor’s will pursue.

 

According to the New York Times, “The governor’s action also comes as advocates for changing drug laws have stepped up criticism of New York City’s stringent enforcement of marijuana laws, which resulted in nearly 450,000 misdemeanor charges from 2002 to 2012, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates more liberal drug laws.”

 

Medical marijuana has had growing support in New York for quite awhile now. It’s a shame that it has taken this long for New York patients to finally get the legal protection they deserve. The fight is far from over. Just because the Governor issues an executive action doesn’t mean that there won’t be push back inside and outside of the state. And until every patient has safe access to safe medicine, activists in New York should remain as active as possible.