The New Yorker has a fascinating in-depth piece about the effect that the legalization of medicinal marijuana usage is having on the now semi-legal pot economy in California, which is centered around proliferating cannabis dispensaries, and is stimulating a thriving subculture of growers and buyers infused with organic food and Tibetan prayer flags:
Since 1996, when a referendum known as Proposition 215 was approved by California voters, it has been legal, under California state law, for authorized patients to possess or cultivate the drug. The proposition also allowed a grower to cultivate marijuana for a patient, as long as he had been designated a “primary caregiver” by that patient. …The language of the proposition was intentionally broad, covering any medical condition for which a licensed physician might judge marijuana to be an appropriate remedy—insomnia, say, or attention-deficit disorder.
…The [Tibetan prayer] flags identify their owners with serenity and the conscious path, rather than with the sinister world of urban dope dealers, who flaunt muscles and guns, and charge exorbitant prices for mediocre product. …The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food, practicing yoga, avoiding prescription drugs in favor of holistic healing methods, travelling to Indonesia and Thailand, fasting, and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs. Many were also financially savvy, working long hours and making six-figure incomes.
…The limited legal protections afforded to pot growers and dispensary owners have turned marijuana cultivation and distribution in California into a classic “gray area” business, like gambling or strip clubs, which are tolerated or not, to varying degrees, depending on where you live and on how aggressive your local sheriff is feeling that afternoon.
…Only a small percentage of consumer marijuana sales in California occur within the medical-marijuana market. Even so, the dispensaries, by serving as a gold standard for producers and consumers, have fuelled the popularity of high-end strains in much the same way that the popularity of the Whole Foods grocery chain has brought heirloom lettuce to ordinary supermarkets. To serve these sophisticated new consumers, growers in California and elsewhere are producing hundreds of exotic new strains, whose effects are more varied, subtle, and powerful than the street-level pot available to tokers in the nineteen-seventies and eighties.
…Medical marijuana has made it easy for people like Emily, the Kid, and Captain Blue to see growing pot as a casual life-style choice. By going into the pot business, Emily had made the kind of compromise with reality that idealistic people often make when they get older and lose faith in their ability to effect wholesale change, and when they need the money.
Growing ganja lets you feel that you’re still living on the edge, especially when you’ve become a little complacent politically. Emily nodded, and took another puff. “The forest is still getting cut down or whatever,” she said, watching the fragrant smoke swirl in the breeze. “But you’re still working out here. You’re still subverting the Man. And you’re getting people high.”
This just might be the future of cannabis in the rest of America. Anyway, the article’s a lot more informative/reality-based than the various plot machinations of Weeds, which until now has been my main source of knowledge about the American shadow marijuana economy.
The New Yorker: Dr. Kush: How Medical Marijuana is Transforming the Pot Industry
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food”i just groaned so hard i woke up my bf
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food”i just groaned so hard i woke up my bf
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food”
i just groaned so hard i woke up my bf
ok, when I buy pot, I don’t want hippie fertilizer. Just because bat dropping are natural doesn’t make it safe to smoke them.
ok, when I buy pot, I don’t want hippie fertilizer. Just because bat dropping are natural doesn’t make it safe to smoke them.
ok, when I buy pot, I don’t want hippie fertilizer. Just because bat dropping are natural doesn’t make it safe to smoke them.
finally, something on wesleying people could comment
finally, something on wesleying people could comment
finally, something on wesleying people could comment
“it’s the author writing that, btw.it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.”well duh. Doesn’t that make the article suck more?
“it’s the author writing that, btw.it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.”well duh. Doesn’t that make the article suck more?
“it’s the author writing that, btw.
it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.”
well duh. Doesn’t that make the article suck more?
What are you asking, Braille? Are you holding me responsible for everybody who smokes weed in Mendocino County?
What are you asking, Braille? Are you holding me responsible for everybody who smokes weed in Mendocino County?
What are you asking, Braille? Are you holding me responsible for everybody who smokes weed in Mendocino County?
sahm… super high me has been around since spring semester at least.
sahm… super high me has been around since spring semester at least.
sahm… super high me has been around since spring semester at least.
it’s the author writing that, btw.it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.also..why did you have to post this?All of these fucking pot tourists/colonists are fucking with our shit up here. (mendocino county….. )
it’s the author writing that, btw.it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.also..why did you have to post this?All of these fucking pot tourists/colonists are fucking with our shit up here. (mendocino county….. )
it’s the author writing that, btw.
it’s not like there is some interviewed person being like I’M INTO HIGHER MODES OF BEING LOLLOLROFL GET IT GET IT now back to downwardfacingdog.
also..
why did you have to post this?
All of these fucking pot tourists/colonists are fucking with our shit up here. (mendocino county….. )
coming to the network in fall 2008: Super High Me
coming to the network in fall 2008: Super High Me
coming to the network in fall 2008: Super High Me
Alright that line was annoying, but take it with a grain of salt. I think the author just meant that these people aim to be very self-aware and are into transcendental thinking and practices. Whether that necessitates regular trips to Thailand and Indonesia… well, that’s certainly debatable, to say the least. Anyway, the rest of the article is really interesting.
Alright that line was annoying, but take it with a grain of salt. I think the author just meant that these people aim to be very self-aware and are into transcendental thinking and practices. Whether that necessitates regular trips to Thailand and Indonesia… well, that’s certainly debatable, to say the least. Anyway, the rest of the article is really interesting.
Alright that line was annoying, but take it with a grain of salt. I think the author just meant that these people aim to be very self-aware and are into transcendental thinking and practices. Whether that necessitates regular trips to Thailand and Indonesia… well, that’s certainly debatable, to say the least.
Anyway, the rest of the article is really interesting.
ditto. fucking elitism.
ditto. fucking elitism.
ditto. fucking elitism.
3:03i stopped reading the article at that exact point
3:03i stopped reading the article at that exact point
3:03
i stopped reading the article at that exact point
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food, practicing yoga, avoiding prescription drugs in favor of holistic healing methods, travelling to Indonesia and Thailand, fasting, and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs.”If you’re interested in this stuff that’s fine and I tend to like people who are, but “higher thinking and being”? fuck you.
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food, practicing yoga, avoiding prescription drugs in favor of holistic healing methods, travelling to Indonesia and Thailand, fasting, and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs.”If you’re interested in this stuff that’s fine and I tend to like people who are, but “higher thinking and being”? fuck you.
“The people I met in the high-end ganja business had an affinity for higher modes of thinking and being, including vegetarianism and eating organic food, practicing yoga, avoiding prescription drugs in favor of holistic healing methods, travelling to Indonesia and Thailand, fasting, and experimenting with hallucinogenic drugs.”
If you’re interested in this stuff that’s fine and I tend to like people who are, but “higher thinking and being”? fuck you.
As a Wesleyan Student with a medical marijuana card in California, I can attest that this article is incredibly accurate.Oh, and dispensaries rock. Every time you buy pot, you get free hash hits at the hash bar :-)
As a Wesleyan Student with a medical marijuana card in California, I can attest that this article is incredibly accurate.Oh, and dispensaries rock. Every time you buy pot, you get free hash hits at the hash bar :-)
As a Wesleyan Student with a medical marijuana card in California, I can attest that this article is incredibly accurate.
Oh, and dispensaries rock. Every time you buy pot, you get free hash hits at the hash bar :-)