420 glass blowing kit
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I have a 420 glass blowing kit for sale, Everything included to start blowing today! 4ft oxygen tank filled, and filled propane tank included. 21 glass rods and two clear pyrex rods. 600$
Legalizing Marijuana May Lower Suicide Rates
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Prescribing cannabis seems to alleviate major depression
While we all know the dangers of confusing correlation with causation, a higher rate of marijuana use does seem to coincide with lower rates of very bad things. Like car accidents, or suicides. Maybe a population that more freely takes of the herb actually becomes less bent on self-destruction. The numbers seem to say so.
This study seems to have even more plausibility than the car accident report, too. Daniel Rees, a professor of economics at the University of Colorado, just co-authored a study that demonstrates how suicide rates among young men drop in states that legalize marijuana for medical use. By studying state-level data from 1990 through 2007, Rees and his colleagues saw an overall 5 percent reduction in suicide rates following legalization of cannabis. Men in their 20s benefited the most from having medical access to marijuana: the suicide rates in the 20- to 29-year-old male demographic saw a drop of 11 percent, while men in their 30s committed suicide 9 percent less.
Does this prove that marijuana is an effective treatment for depression? Not unequivocally, according to the study. While moderate use may indeed alleviate symptoms of mental health conditions, smoking too much weed can actually make depression worse. Still, that's all the more reason to dispense it medically; users are forced to smoke only the amount they've been prescribed.
Marijuana use does reduce levels of stress, which can be a huge factor in mood patterns and mental health issues. I'd imagine obtaining the drug illegally causes about as much stress as it alleviates. By eliminating the fear of arrest or other trouble from procuring marijuana, legalization allows its positive effects to act unhindered.
I would also imagine that people who suffer from depression but don't want to self-medicate with illegal drugs may turn to alcohol--a widely available and completely legal drug that almost inevitably worsens their symptoms and attacks their health. Alcohol is infinitely more addictive than marijuana of any kind (physiologically, at least--marijuana can be psychologically addictive) and so depressed individuals may find themselves sinking deeper into their illness until they finally end their own lives. But offer an alternative to alcohol that operates on many of the same mechanisms without many of the risks, and you may see with far fewer suicides. That's certainly what Rees's study seems to suggest.
I'm all for swapping death for pot. If it means that some of us will get to be a little happier during our lifetimes, by all means, let's make the stuff legal.
First Cannabis Cup Ever
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Cannabis Lifestyle magazine, High Times is featuring the first medicinal marijuana cup. They’re calling it the Medical Cannabis Cup and it’s going to go down in Los Angeles at the LA Studios. The event will be held on February 11th and 12th. The doors open at noon on both Saturday and Sunday. At 4:20pm (both days) there will be a celebration put on by High Times with special guests.
The cup will feature a competition seeking, well… the dankest bud. On Sunday night, the cup will end with a closing awards ceremony featuring the winning sativas, indicas and hybrids. The ceremony will also honor the top edibles and concentrates. These will all be submitted from legally owned and operated California dispensaries, co-ops, and collectives.
There will also be tons of cannabis tools of the trade on offer, including intricately designed glass self-flaming butane water pipes. Attending this expo will immerse you deeply in Southern California’s medical marijuana industry. There will be doctors, patients, dispensary owners, growers, researchers and activists present. The cultivation editors from High Times magazine, Danny Danko and Nico Escondido will be holding seminars to teach you how to grow your own medicine.
Following the expo on Saturday, there will be a VIP party that will feature what promises to be some great music with very special guests. To find out all the details of this truly spectacular first time event, please click here. Following this one, there will be subsequent events in Denver, Detroit and San Francisco.
Celebrity Drug Busts in Texas
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Did you know Willie Nelson is a toker? This much becomes obvious when reading an article in High Times magazine by Rick Cusick, he does an interview with Nelson featured here. Nelson was traveling through the small town of Sierra Blanca in West Texas, and when all was said and done, he was found to have less than 2 ounces on his person.
Nelson pleaded no contest and was fined 500 dollars by the county sheriff. He could have easily gone to the county jail for 180 days. If he had, sheriff, Arvin West, publicly stated he would have made him cook and clean and wear those black and white striped outfits like the rest of them.
I have previously read about drug busts happening at checkpoints in small towns throughout West Texas. With a different mentality and hard talking law enforcement, when it comes to green; I vowed to never find myself traveling through this part of the U.S., ever.
Especially when you consider that even internationally recognized rapper, Snoop Dogg was busted for pot in the same area. Just two weekends ago, Snoop Dogg was traveling through West Texas via tour bus and was stopped by border patrol. The patrol brought a K9 unit to the scene. The drug dog unveiled a pill bottle found in the garbage can on the tour bus stuffed with a couple of joints.
Snoop Dogg was told he could either pay the county fine, some 537 dollars or contest the citation in the district court. Mike Hughes covers the full story here.
Cigarette Smoking Has Significantly Higher Drawbacks Than Marijuana Use
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Moderate marijuana use was found not to have any significant effect on pumonary health.
Although teachers and parents always cautioned their kids to the harms of drinking, medical science has held up that moderate drinking may actually have some health benefits (one 12 oz. glass of red wine, or one pint of beer a day). The same will never be said for cigarettes, whose harmful effects are widely researched and publicly acknowledged. However, new research shows that marijuana cigarettes (joints) may actually improve certain health factors in moderation, over the same frequency of use with cigarettes.
Researchers with the National Institute of Health recently completed a 20-year descriptive study that attempted to measure the effects of marijuana use over tobacco use on pulmonary and respiratory health. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show that the moderate use of medical grade marijuana is significantly better for an individual than an equally moderate use of tobacco. The research, with studied the effects of smoking in over 5,000 adults aged 18 to 30, found significant deterioration of air flow within individual tobacco smokers; and the more they smoked, the worse their air flow performed.
However, the study found that individuals that smoked a single joint a day performed perfectly on a lung-function test (i.e. equal to that of a healthy non-smoker) and in some cases even improved over the standard.
Mark Pletcher of the University of California at San Francisco was the lead author in the study. “We found exactly what we thought we would find in relation to tobacco exposure: a consistent loss of lung function with increasing exposure,” he stated in the official release, “We were, however, surprised that we found such a different pattern of association with marijuana exposure.”
Pletcher and his colleagues warn, however, that this is not condoning the heavy use of marijuana. Although the research seems to indicate that moderate use of marijuana (a joint a day or less) shows no adverse health effects, heavy use of the drug shows significant impacts to pulmonary function. With increase in use comes an increase in the decline of pulmonary function over one joint a day.
Science continues to lend credence to the saying, “everything in moderation”. A glass of wine, a cup of coffee, a pint of beer, and now a joint a day seem to go just as far as a single apple in “keeping the doctor away”. Of course, I don’t see teachers and parents advocating for local dispensaries as part of one’s daily nutritional regimen.
Benefits of THC Tincture
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Queen Victoria, monarch of Great Britain at the turn of the century used cannabis tincture to help soothe aching joints. Who knew?
In the most traditional sense, tincture is a form of medicinal extract contained within an alcohol solution. It wasn’t until the 1920’s, THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol: the psychoactive chemical compound within cannabis) that tinctures could no longer be found at your local pharmacy.
Tinctures seem to be a lost method of medicating these days. Yet, in 1864, Lewis Carroll wrote of Alice. She drank a magical blue elixir in a bottle with the tag, “drink me”. For most of us, the idea of elixirs and tinctures allude to a pharmacological past where one might imagine sepia toned photographs. These photos would present alchemies of primeval potions, lotions, serums, salves and elixirs of all sorts. Really… the RX (which means “recipe” in Latin; the literal translation is “to take”) culture of the past 90-100 years ago appears to be more reminiscent of witch craft than medicine.
However, today in our culture, tincture may come in handy for those that have trouble smoking. Yet, still allow one to receive the pain relieving benefits the tetrahydrocannabinol compounds offer.
The easiest way to acquire THC tincture is to make it yourself. For the most effective tincture, use 90% proof alcohol (such as Everclear) as your base. The main ingredient in Everclear is ethyl alcohol. The ethyl alcohol will take the cannabis and diffuse it as time goes on, then preserve the THC compounds within the alcohol.
Start with 35ml of Everclear and combine with 1 gram of medication. According to this article, soaking the cannabis for seven days should produce effective results. Shake, strain, then store in a dark, cool area.
Legalizing Marijuana May Lead to Fewer Traffic Accidents
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Study suggests more pot equals less death
In a superficially ironic twist of events, it would appear as though legalizing marijuana, rather than causing the youth to run out, murder toddlers, and fornicate with one another in the name of Satan, actually leads to a more peaceful, less catastrophic society. At least, that's what one study conducted by professors in Montana and Colorado now claims. It looks as though states who have given the go-ahead to medical marijuana use have also seen a welcome decrease in traffic deaths. More pot equals fewer car crashes, say the numbers.D. Mark Anderson and Daniel Rees crunched some numbers and discovered that states who had legalized medical marijuana saw a 9 percent decrease in car-related deaths from the time of legalization. Even the researchers were surprised by their own findings. Rees has conjectured that greater accessibility of marijuana could result in more teens smoking up rather than drinking heavily. While it's not necessarily the best idea to get behind the wheel of a car with a head full of smoke, it probably is at least less dangerous than speeding while hammered on booze. Marijuana doesn't lead you to the same kind of overconfidence that alcohol does, nor does it impair your motor skills quite so severely. So it's possible that stoned drivers are killing fewer people than drunk drivers.
Now, anyone who's taken Statistics 101 knows that there's a big difference between correlation and causation. Just because driving deaths are decreasing doesn't mean it's because of marijuana's legal status. It could be a nice coincidence--or it could be that traffic accidents are decreasing in frequency all across the map. The study failed to look at the rate of traffic deaths in recent years in states where marijuana remains illegal in all its forms. So there was no control group to demonstrate even a casual relationship between the two factors.
It makes for a nice headline--that smokers kill fewer people than drinkers--but ultimately this seems like kind of sloppy science. If nothing else, at least it's optimistic. After all, if traffic deaths are happening less often in all states, that's something to be happy about on its own. And if marijuana access actually does lead to fewer and fewer fender benders? Well, that's a big plus one for partakers. The research could act as a template for a more in-depth study, one that looks at accident rates across the board and also takes into account how much medical marijuana increases overall recreational use. Maybe we'll see some more thorough investigation in the future.
Medical Patient Sues Wal-Mart
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Joseph Casias worked as a Wal-Mart employee in Michigan for five years. He was named the store’s Associate of the Year, back in 2008. He was a hard worker and received much acclaim from fellow co-workers and respect from his superiors within the company. In 2009, just three days before Thanksgiving, Casias was terminated from his position with the mega super store. He was given a mandatory drug test after he sprained his knee. This occurred on the job, when he was attempting to unload merchandise from a severely overloaded, top heavy cart.
He suffers from a type of sinus cancer. He (now, the father of two) was diagnosed with this rare form of cancer when he was only 17. There is very little chance that the tumor can be removed, it is the size of a softball and he has been living with it for years. Casias is a medical marijuana card holder. He has one for pain treatment for his condition. Yet he was fired when he tested positive for thc compounds found within his system.
Casias attempted to take Wal-Mart to state court, but corporate lawyers managed to get his case moved to federal court. Unfortunately, there- his case was dismissed. Though, Casias’ lawyers aren’t giving up yet. His case is currently circulating through the US Court of Appeals. His lawyers are stating that the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act should steadfastly protect medical marijuana users from being terminated from their employers, even if they cannot pass a drug test. Read the full article, including an interview with Casias, courtesy of High Times magazine here.
Origin of 420
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So what does 420 stand for, anyway? Apparently all sorts of things...
Teatime in Holland, the date of the Columbine high school shootings in Colorado, the amount of clocks found in the movie Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarrantino, Hitler’s Birthday… the list goes on.
A common myth is that 420 is the police radio code for marijuana smoking in progress. This is false… if you hear a cop mention over radio after pulling you over “We’ve got a 11357”, this means they are notifying dispatch for possession of marijuana.
One may wonder where the origins of 420 began. My guess is a crazy, mad scientist coined the term. There are approximately 420 active chemical compounds in marijuana. I say approximately, because the number for most plants in actually around 315. Though that number can go up or down depending on the strain.
The actual origin points to a group of teenagers in California who called themselves the Waldo’s back in the 70’s. The Waldo’s would meet up at 4:20 every day after school to burn one. This is also the idea behind very short term project site: facefic.com.
What is facefic? This is a ridiculously specific blog dedicated to Facebook status that are- yep, you guessed it, 420 characters. Yet the creators of this site weren’t all that dedicated, the site was only actively running from April to June back in 2009. Therefore, it is a lesser known site.
April 20th is a toker’s own special New Year’s Day, which is celebrated internationally. Further, 4:20am/pm is recognized as “burn time”. I have friends who treat it as a sport where the goal is to smoke during “burn time” as many consecutive times as possible.
The Politics of Pot
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Oy, so tell me… what are two subjects you never thought you’d imagine being combined?
What about politics and pot? Yep, you read correctly. What about hearing former presidents and presidential candidates admitting to trying pot?
I don’t know about you, but the idea of that might make some people cringe-big time. The idea is just a little too confrontational. Perhaps this is why you may witness these former officials’ make an awkward mutter or two when questioned on something, where the truthful answer that may make them seem hypocritical. The aptly titled: The Politics of Pot may even make you shudder.
If that doesn’t, the content of this video surely will. You see former president Clinton willing to admit to trying it once, not caring for it and therefore, not inhaling and never trying it again. You see confessions from Al Gore and good ole’ George Bush. Bush even went so far to state: “I mean, you wouldn’t want your kid to come in and say ‘Daddy, President Bush smokes marijuana and likes it. So I think I might like it too.’”
Near the end of the video, Obama states that from the 3.5 million voters, one of the top asked questions was: “Do you think the legalization of marijuana would help to provide more jobs and support the economy?” People in the audience laugh at the question; Obama makes a comment that these voters were all internet users, possibly suggesting they might be potheads. Huh, well, I can admit to smoking pot to flexing my writing muscles even more, seeking inspiration and increasing my productivity during working hours.
Then again, what works for some, doesn’t work for others. I believe the key is to keep an open mind. Unfortunately, the idea of our nation’s leaders admitting to being human, gosh! Well… it will probably cause most small minded Americans to gasp.