Was William Shakespeare high when he wrote his plays?

By Jack Brummet, Lit Ed.

From The Telegraph, August 9, 2015:

"South African scientists have discovered that 400-year-old tobacco pipes excavated from the garden of William Shakespeare contained cannabis, suggesting the playwright might have written some of his famous works while high.

"Residue from early 17th century clay pipes found in the playwright’s garden, and elsewhere in Stratford-Upon-Avon, were analysed in Pretoria using a sophisticated technique called gas chromatography mass spectrometry, the Independent reports.

"Of the 24 fragments of pipe loaned from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust to University of the Witwatersrand, cannabis was found in eight samples, four of which came from Shakespeare's property."

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .   .  .  .

"In Sonnet 76, Shakespeare writes about “invention in a noted weed", which could be interpreted to mean that Shakespeare was willing to use weed, or cannabis, while he was writing."

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Lopsided barter: a $160,000 diamond for a gram of marijuana

Illustration by Jack Brummet, story from The Smoking Gun

Walter Morrison, 20, a United Parcel Service baggage handler at the Phoenix's airport, was hoping to find envelopes of cash and planned to steal random parcels, but then he stumbled upon ca package containing a diamond (later found to be worth about $160,000). Police recovered the diamond and charged him in September.  Morrison said he traded the diamond to a friend for a gram of marijuana (worth $20, retail). [The Smoking Gun, 9-26-2014]

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Nancy Grace: People on pot shoot each other, strangle each other, and kill whole families (via Raw Story )

On Tuesday, Nancy Grace began to channel the notorious film "Reefer Madness," and claimed that people on marijuana shoot, stab and strangle each other, and that children shouldn’t bear witness to their parents drinking soda. Click here to read the entire story.

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Task force: Tourists welcome to get stoned in Colorado

(via Raw Story )

Regulators on Colorado’s Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force recommended on Tuesday that tourists be allowed to toke up when visiting the Centennial State, but officials stopped short of saying it’s cool for visitors to carry their stash back across state lines once they’re headed home. The…

The Seattle Police humorously blog about legal marijuana

By Jack Brummet, Seattle Metro Editor

The Seattle Police Department blog, which has been way out front of the legalized pot issue since the beginning, released their temporary enforcement policy today.  And they capped it with a picture of the Dude from The Big Lebowski.  Read their entire blog post here.

Some choice tidbits:

"Does this mean you should flagrantly roll up a mega-spliff and light up in the middle of the street? No. If you’re smoking pot in public, officers will be giving helpful reminders to folks about the rules and regulations under I-502 (like not smoking pot in public)."

"the police department believes that, under state law, you may responsibly get baked, order some pizzas and enjoy a Lord of the Rings marathon in the privacy of your own home, if you want to."

"In the meantime, in keeping with the spirit of I-502, the department’s going to give you a generous grace period to help you adjust to this brave, new, and maybe kinda stoned world we live in."

"As we’ve told you here on the Blotter, if you’re over 21, then starting December 6th you can use marijuana, and possess marijuana—up to an ounce of marijuana buds, 16 ounces of solid marijuana-infused product, like cookies, or 72 ounces of infused liquid, like oil." 

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Candidate Dr. Rand Paul? Pothead? Kidnapper? Mocker of religion?

By Pablo Fanque
National Affairs Editor

As you probably know by now, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul helped *allegedly* kidnap a female student and tried to force her to smoke marijuana in a "prank" during his days at Texas's Baylor University, a GQ article reported.


Paul, with another member of a "secret liberal society" targeted a woman who was a teammate on the swim team.  The kidnappers were members of the NoZe Brotherhood, an organization of liberal-minded students at the Waco, TX Baptist college.

The woman told GQ "He and Randy [Paul] came to my house, they knocked on my door, and then they blindfolded me, tied me up, and put me in their car.  They took me to their apartment and tried to force me to take bong hits. They'd been smoking pot."

Later, they drove her to a creek in the countryside and forced her to worship a bogus God.  "They told me their god was 'Aqua Buddha' and that I needed to bow down and worship him," the woman said.

"The whole thing was kind of sadistic. They were messing with my mind. It was some kind of joke."

Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton told Slate.com it was weighing its options, including legal options. “We will not tolerate drive-by journalism by a writer with a leftist agenda."  Benton never explicitly denied the story.  That is telling in itself.

You have to wonder how Dr. Paul can possibly wiggle out of this one.  This can't play too favorably with his base, whoever they are. . .
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Federal Government stands down in the war against medical marijuana

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor


In a surprise ruling today, the Justice Department said that citizens who distribute and use marijuana for medical purposes should not face federal prosecution. The directive has far-reaching political and legal ramifications.

A high government official reportedly urged the Department of Justice to draft and release these new guidelines.


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Obama brokers beer bash and breaks out the bombers

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Correspondent

President Barack Obama acted as the bartender on Thursday at a "beer summit" meet-up of the main figures in a highly charged case of racial politics. Obama hoped to turn the broil into a "positive lesson" in the national debate on race relations.

President Obama described the meet as a "friendly, thoughtful" conversation over beers at the White House with Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, who is black, and a cop, Sergeant James Crowley, who is white. Vice-President "Crazy" Joe Biden also showed up to throw back a few.

Earlier this month, Crowley arrested Gates for disorderly conduct after a confrontation over Gates not identifying himself (someone called the police, believing Gates was an intruder). Words "were exchanged," and both parties seem to have lost their cool. This, naturally, sparked a media feeding frenzy as the 58 year old Gates, accused the policeman of racial profiling. Crowley denied this and accused Gates of overreacting.

Obama poured gasoline on the troubled waters by saying he thought police "acted stupidly" in arresting his acquaintance, Professor Gates.




According to sources in the White House, even after several beers, the atmosphere was tense. The President rolled a couple of joints and passed them around. When our source returned to the meeting, everyone at the table was laughing uproariously and demanding more beer.
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Student caps speech by firing up a joint

"Student caps speech with pot smoke"

By STACEY MULICK News Tribune
June 3, 2009, 5:22PM

TACOMA, Wash. — "The teachers wanted persuasive. And they got it."

"At the end of his speech Tuesday urging legalization of marijuana, a 17-year-old Peninsula High School student (with a 3.8 grade average) pulled out a joint, lit it and smoked away. Then he ate the remains.

"For that he got a quick escort to the school office and then a ride to Remann Hall juvenile jail."

Read the entire story here.
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4/20

An annual 4/20 gathering at the University of Santa Cruz - click to enlarge

According to the Wikipedia: “A large celebration is held every year on 4/20 at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, with attendance reaching more than 10,000 in 2008. University police have tried various methods to prevent the gathering, including photographing students participating in the event, but the crowd has grown every year. In Dunedin, New Zealand, students at the University of Otago and other cannabis law reform activists meet under a walnut tree on the Otago University Union Lawn on Wednesdays and Fridays at 4:20pm to openly smoke cannabis in public in what they consider an act of protest. In 2008 a member of the Dunedin group was arrested and others were issued trespass notices after attempting to openly smoke cannabis at one of the regular 4:20pm protest meetings. "

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Marijuana definitely beats the profit margin on Girl Scout Cookies

The police have have found thousands of marijuana plants at a Girl Scout camp in Indiana (Camp Ella J. Logan), according to CBS News. At Camp Brinkley and Camp Omache, in Boy Scouts, all that ever semed to grow were nettles.

5,000 plants were growing at Camp Ella J. Logan. State troopers spotted them from an airplane.

Girls Scout officials were "dismayed" to learn of this, according to Sherri Weidman, chief executive of the Limberlost Girl Scout Council.

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Welcome to Japan!—complimentary marijuana given to tourist

A traveler arriving at Tokyo's Narita airport over the weekend went away with an gnarly souvenir from customs -- a bag of cannabis.

A customs official hid the reefer in the Hong Kong passenger's suitcase as part of a training exercise for drug-sniffing dogs. Unfortunately—or maybe because he had dipped into the bag himself—he lost track of both drugs and suitcase during the practice session, a customs spokesperson said.

"The dogs have always been able to find it before," NHK quoted him as saying. "I became overconfident that it would work." Standard Operating Procedure calls for the tests to be run using specially marked luggage.

Somewhere in Tokyo, a tourist is either horrified or overjoyed.
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