Schedule 420

Schedule 1 is the cornerstone of cannabis prohibition, an institutional lie designed to frighten citizens and hamper scientists so that no one gets close enough to re-discover the truth about this ancient medicinal herb that rarely harms and never kills.  By declaring cannabis to be of no medical value (who's still not laughing?) our government has been able to hold the line on research and control the conversation for nearly eighty years.  But now the truth is online, and the research has gone viral.

Every spring, on the afternoon of 4-20, cannabis fans all over the world conduct, on themselves, at their own expense, on schedule to the minute, and often on video, the largest coordinated cannabis study possible; all in.

And what happens when everyone who chooses to do so gets totally baked on the same day, at the exact same time, all around the world year after year?  Don't bother to check headlines from 4-21; you already know; no big bad; no spike in traffic accidents, health care costs or violent crime on 4-20 or for that matter every afternoon at 4:20.  No ill effect from celebratory mass consumption on a global scale, and yet this is the 'substance' our government of hope and change continues to insist (with guns at the ready) that we stay away from?

The industrial revolution swiped our right to choose cannabis.  We want it back.  We know the truth and we're not shy about sharing it.  Mainstream media is wising up; seeing the demand and the dollars.  When the American people wake up to the truth about this healing garden flower that also happens to be stimulating rural economies from Bangor to Boulder and beyond, they'll rise up and end this terrible war faster than a NH governor can just say no.

The Next Bagel

I was in bagels when bagels turned hot.  We founded Boston Bagel in 1990, and we were there when Lenders launched a $40 million ad campaign to tell the world about their strange boiled rolls.  That sparked a brand new segment in the baking industry, and our sales went from middling to over a million in under 18 months.  It was a wild ride, especially in the mid-90s when investors and large bakeries swooped into the space to make deals and snap up the best and brightest teams.  Alas, we were not one of them.  Young and unfocused, by the time we figured out what color to paint our tent, the party was over.

Cannabis is the next bagel, except that this enterprise frontier involves countless new venture possibilities across lots of industries; textiles, food, medicine, patient care, education, retail, consumer products and more.

Most people in the Northeast are still completely unaware of this economic powerhouse on the horizon.  In New England, where weed is nearly as popular as ice cream, the negative social stigma of being associated with this naughty little prep-school vice is a strong motivator to look away and keep quiet.  Entrepreneurship professors at certain Eastern business schools, like the old Yankee caterers who scoffed at the idea that a dense and chewy Jewish bread could ever go mainstream, are not seeing the possibilities either.  VCs down on Milk Street (the ones for whom fine bud is like fine wine only more so) are cheering from the sidelines but their institutional clients would freak at the idea of investing in the cannabis trades.

The good news is that for early entrants the fruit is ripe and hanging low; choice names, domains, product concepts, rising demand, and lots of business models begging for someone to come in and build something special.  To those of you who cringe at the idea of enterprise and making money, keep in mind that wherever successful cannabis ventures grow, the truth spreads right along with the good fortune.

If you are out of work and looking, give some thought to what it is you enjoy doing, and how you might utilize those skills to transition into (or begin to investigate) your own legal corner of this vast emerging frontier.

God and Cannabis

I'm snr, but the Bible does say that God created the earth and all its natural riches for our benefit (Genesis 1:29).  Free will came with the deal so that we, being naturally curious and inventive, would treat ourselves to those blessings.  For thousands of years we did just that, and cannabis was cherished as one of the finest greens of all Creation.  Then suddenly, less than a century ago, this divine plant was demonized and three times denied; food, fiber, medicine.  Now we have a forbidden flower that people need for medicine, and free will only within the bounderies of 'modern' law.  Could there possibly be a greater testament to the awesome power and reach of the Great Prohibition than ongoing Christian support for it?

My first blunt

Okay I admit it.  I use cannabis medicinally and not so much for recreation.  I don't use tobacco at all except when I travel (hiding behind sunglasses at a busy outdoor cafe, corner table, back to the wall, my notebook, a fast pen, strong coffee, and a single smoke bought for pennies from a street vendor...)  So maybe it's not surprising I never tried a blunt.  Last weekend I'm up at Don Christian's festival in Harmony ME, strategizing with Scott, my festival commander in the field (B-school speak; vendor liason).  This multi-fam campsite, which has taken most of the morning to set up, has all the comforts of home.  I'm in the kitchen looking for bug spray when Jimmy arrives with Emily.  Emily joins herbalist Sondra Running Wolf on the hammock.  Jimmy sits next to Scott and uses a skinner's knife to gut an El Producto.  Refilling the shell with dried flowers, Jimmy explains that while my generation grew up rolling joints, his generation favors this hybrid that has long been popular in Europe.  It's a classic odd coupling; tobacco, a highly addictive leaf that cause cancer fairly readily, wrapped around cannabis, a non-toxic flower that is not physically addictive and that more and more people are swearing actually kills cancer.  Conclusion:  If Eric Cartman married Betty Boop and they had a child...the kid would be fun to party with, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.

Give cannabis the screen time it deserves

Last night I attended the fun and lively screening of the NH 48 Hour Film Project up in Hooksett.  My 15-year-old had worked on one of the crews, and I must say it was a bit strange seeing her name scrolling on screen; production assistant, data wrangler...Of course, I'd been hoping to see cannabis up there as well since it's as much a part of the fabric of the American experience as a frosty brew is.  The re-emergence of regular cannabis use by regular people is a great place to look for storylines, complex characters, startling truths, and delicious points of conflict and contradiction.  Most important; the honest portrayal of cannabis use on screen (on stage and in writing) is the perfect foil to the most successful and far-reaching propaganda campaign the world has ever known.

My Taylor

It was a dark and stormy night.  Christmas Eve 2005.  Amherst, NH.  I had ducked into the Guitar Gallery to have a few moments with a Taylor 714ce I'd grown particularly fond of.  Rosewood back.  Deep thumb-picking bass.  Except that I didn't actually know how to play.  Earlier that year I'd found a Squire mini acoustic in my half of the stuff.  The rusty, high-action strings tore at my fingers and the tinny sound fit the mood; late-40s guy trying to forget, and move on...The 714?  Just sold.  That figures.  He'd seen me around; knew I couldn't play.  Taking pity on this night of all nights, he excused himself from the customer I must have just interrupted and returned with a limited edition 414ce; rosewood under spruce.  I found a corner in the busy store.  The resonance, the feel, the happy, sad sad tears.  Wrap it up.  Merry Christmas to me.

Occam 101

The chasm of belief about the nature of cannabis is now so vast that it begs the question; who is more likely to be right?  On one side are mostly well-meaning authority figures raised on Nancy's Kool-Aid; your police chief, your pastor, your coach, and if you live in New Hampshire, your Governor and your newest Senator.  They all just say no to cannabis; it'll make you lazy and useless; you'll be a drain on society.  On the other side of this millennial divide are cannabis minions--tireless and driven patients, advocates and researchers like Shona Banda, Rick Simpson and Dr. Melamede.  They seem to think about nothing else, as if they have discovered a wondrous truth that must be shared with the rest of humanity before it's too late.  As if.