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Yesterday CNN published a Report: Marijuana cultivation in Mexico rises which stated that:

Marijuana cultivation in Mexico increased 35 percent in 2008 and continues to grow, even as authorities there push forward with a large offensive against drug cartels that smuggle the product into the United States, according to a State Department report released this week.

Perhaps some of the information came from the Oxymoron group "National Drug Intelligence Center" when they should have actually just asked Ed at "Over grow your Government" and he could have explained the current situation to the State Department and broken the news to them, that the War on Drugs at the marijuana front was lost, as soon as they started fighting a plant that grows like a weed, then by making it contraband, it was made as valuable as gold and more popular than soda pop.

Once upon a time in China there were over 80 million people addicted to opium, a product that the British introduced, which was imported initially and then later smuggled in from India. The Chinese leaders came to the realization that the best way to overcome the problem, which was causing significant social problems in China, was to outgrow the suppliers and corner the market with a cheaper product. Eventually every government will come to a similar realization. Until then expect more weed from more sources and understand that Mexico can grow smugglers too, willing to risk their lives for profit, faster than the U.S. Gov can train and hire border patrols to catch them.

There's a place on Hollywood Boulevard founded by the marijuana activist Ed Forchain, also known as the NJ Weedman, or "Superhero to the Pot Heads" (according to the book "Public Enemy #420"), the place is called "Liberty Bell Temple," member of the United Cannabis Ministries and a licensed Medicinal Marijuana dispensary, where they host a "Healing Hour" everyday at 4:20 PM. From what I understand, there's a remarkable mural painted on the side of the building, plus the NJ Weedman can often be spotted driving around in a van called the "Weed Mobile" also painted with a cool mural. There's so much more to this story that I highly recommend visiting the site Liberty Bell Temple.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says the government cannot make laws "prohibiting the free exercise" of religion. Many people use marijuana as a religious sacrament, and forcing them not to use marijuana clearly prohibits the free exercise of their religion. In order to comply with the First Amendment, our laws should allow for the religious use of marijuana.

...... it creates no impediment to the free exercise of their faith in their homes, their houses of worship, or other non-federal locations. - (Forchion Vs USA)

With the Winter Olympics firing-up in Vancouver, British Columbia, February 12, the most marijuana-friendly host city in Olympic history, a place where restrictions on pot are loose enough to allow "consumption lounges," some of which are extending their hours to accommodate a wave of jet-lagged international visitors, partly explains why this has been nicknamed the "Pot Olympics". Many of the winter sports enthusiasts attending are also ganja lovers who will be pining to score some of the legendary BC Bud, to take with them to the slopes. Since I'm somewhat of an expert at scoring weed in Vancouver, my city of birth, I felt it only hospitable and kind to offer a few suggestions and tips.

If you're heading to Whistler, where most of the Alpine action is, don't take the risk of being able to find a steady supply of weed there, also because you won't want to drive the "Sea to Sky" highway without blowing a nice fatty along the way, preferably as you drive out of the city limits but also because the chances of finding some bud to smoke at Whistler is not always a sure thing, however if your stash runs out cruise the outside area of Moguls Cafe, around the liquor store and the little grocery store, just ask people sitting around and most of the time you'll be able to find some dank BC Bud.

One thing to remember about buying good herb in Vancouver is to look in the right places, discreetly ask the right people and you'll be hooked up with BC Bud at it's best because there is so much good grass grown locally that the street market always has fresh crop at fair prices and even a small sack of pot from the back of a bar parking lot, rolled into nice reefers, will keep you pleasantly buzzed and the stash last for days of watching winter sports, skiing, snowboarding and/or whatever other recreation. To get some ideas where to look for BC Bud just start by heading for W. Hastings Street and walk around, to get a feel for the city. Just relax and walk around the city and feel comfortable about your rights related to weed, follow your instincts and ask for advice. There are many people who will point you in the right direction, even the cab drivers.

Recently I joined the Daily Buds Community online and have been really impressed with the activity that's happened since I got started. I'm very stoked to meet so many interesting people from a broad spectrum of the Cannabis Culture, many of whom are experts in the Canna Biz, as growers, medical marijuana dispensary owners, managers, doctors and patients etc... Two things we all share in common 1) we all love the love ganja 2) we all want legal marijuana. It's very encouraging to be a part of the Daily Buds Community, to meet and communicate with so many cool people in the 4:20 army. Please Join Us!

If you have it in your heart and your pocket to help, please give to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, which provides immediate relief and long-term support through supplies, technical assistance and other support. Also, Doctors Without Borders is in Haiti and is seeking volunteers and donations. Every dollar will help, so donate whatever your heart tells you that you can afford to give.

For a more complete list of organizations helping with the Haiti relief click here.

As if Weedmaps and Nugporn wasn't enough, on the first day of this new year those clever (and crazy) folks from the Marijuana News Network launched another new website: Medical Marijuana Bootcamp.

Tang the creator of WeedMaps.com (medical marijuana dispensary finder website) is the brainchild of this new killer project. As (one) of the owners of WeedMaps, he's in a unique position to speak about the medical marijuana business in general, especially in California, because the site is a meeting place for both patients and collectives and Tang is on first-name basis with many of them, plus has an understanding of the cannabis strains that they purvey, which goes way beyond expert.

To not be outdone on the intake and creative output of Tang, a seasoned nug expert was needed, so the dev team recruited the expertise of Chubbs, the founder and connoisseur/weed critic extraordinaire of MarijuanaReviews.com as well as NUGGETRY SD, the premier cannabis collective located in east San Diego. Chubbs has been actively involved in the marijuana movement since 1989, when he started to;experiment with hydroponics. He started the NUGGETRY delivery service based out of Orange County, CA in June of 2009 and became an overnight success.

What's cool about Medical Marijuana Bootcamp is that unlike their earlier projects the primary form of media is video via YouTube and it's light-hearted but serious content about the medicinal cannabis strains and the cannabis collectives of California. These videos are not just a couple of stoners quaffing back huge bong hits, although they do, and then mumbling the first random thoughts to the top of their minds, this content is coherent and interesting. The episodes are fairly improv, so their not scripted, they do have meaning and you will gain value in watching. I'm very impressed with this effort and give the Tang and Chubbs to enthusiastic bongs up!

Legal weed in the Big Easy? What a genius idea! One of the 12 candidates running for mayor of New Orleans is Jerry Jacobs, running on a platform of Social Change, and some say a long-shot to win but he's put forward a great plan: Legalize Marijuana, to reduce crime and increase sales tax, in an attempt to triage the city's budget crisis. During an interview with WDSU Jacobs said:

Legalizing marijuana will do for the city of New Orleans what ending Prohibition did for the country in 1933, it put the gangsters and bootleggers out of business and increased sales tax revenue.

Imagine the positive impact that Amsterdam type regulations could have on New Orleans? Tourism, which some predict will never come back to pre-Katrina levels, would grow faster than an indica plant in a hydroponic grow-op. New cannabis coffee-shops would spring-up all over the city to create new jobs and commerce. Industrious citizens would be able to apply for a license to grow weed at home and supply to the shops and/or medical marijuana patients. New Universities would open their doors, like Oaksterdam to teach students bud-tending and cannabusiness management. The increase of weed would even cause a greater demand for food to help the restaurants get back to where they once were. The Big Easy would become popular once again.

Just discovered "Toke of the Town - Cannabis Culture News and Views" which is a member of the Village Voice Media network. Within a few minutes of perusing the tongue in cheek Toke of the Town I really liked what I was reading and then realized why, the editor is Steve Elliott my online friend from Seattle, aka 'alapoet' and maybe the most prolific blogger (see: Reality Catcher) and active social net-worker online that I know. Aside from being a great writer Steve is a true activist and not just for marijuana law reform, as he's the kind of guy who will speak his mind, write letters to politicians, march in protests, or get in the face of any aggressor of any sort of injustice. There couldn't be a better editor for the Village Voice's "Toke of the Town".

Follow the tweets of "Toke of the Town" or join Steve Elliott on any of these following social networks: Delicious, FaceBook, Friend Feed, Linked In, Stumble Upon, or YouTube

Well if it wasn't enough for the coolest poker site online the good folks at the Reefer Group had to go and development a new social network for marijuana enthusiasts and cannabis lovers, called Reefer People.

Although Reefer People is still in Beta this unique community and social network already has 4,950 members, 9 active groups, dozens of discussions and hundreds of photos and videos, all related - yeah you guessed it "Reefer". So take a few minutes a join this new social network at www.reeferpeople.com then pass it on to your friends.

Some people say that European's are more conservative than us Americans, well that may be so but they still love to smoke weed according to a recent report, which was featured in the Economist as: "Pot Luck" - Cannabis Use in Europe.

Which Europeans are most likely to have tried cannabis?

OVER a fifth of Europeans have taken cannabis at some point in their lives, according to new report on illegal drug use from the EMCDDA, the EU's drug-monitoring arm. Over 30% of Danes, French and Italians aged between 15 and 64 have puffed on a joint. But perhaps for Danes it is just a phase: the Italians, Spanish, French and Czechs are most likely to have dabbled with cannabis in the recent past. Levels of cannabis use are still high but may be declining, says the report. Recent studies suggest that the drug's popularity is waning among the younger generation.

The obvious glaring statistics in this report is that Netherlands and Portugal, the two counties that have decriminalized marijuana have less smokers than many of the countries that have not decriminalized. Another really interesting finding is that Denmark, by far, leads as the highest percentage of European people who have smoked cannabis during their lifetimes. No wonder they call them the "Great Danes".

According to WeBeHigh.com - A traveler's guide to getting high. It's really easy to score weed in Copenhagen and many of the other cities in Denmark. Travelers have written that the varieties of weed include skunk, white widow and hash, so apparently these folks know their gear, oh and the prices are decent too, at 5 to 15 Euros per gram. Interestingly, the tolerance from law enforcement is listed as quite low but check this:

Copenhagen police do not look for smokers, or as one of our reporters noted: "several times I have walked right past 5-6 police officers while smoking a blunt... most of the times they won't try anything because that will cause a sort of riot and lots of flying bricks".

Our conservative cousins in Europe are just having some fun and hypocrisy of "the dangers of marijuana" has been dispelled. The world is becoming more conscious.

Having lived in South Florida for 12 years and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, I became a fan of the University of Miami Hurricanes and always liked their Mascot for the sheer look of determination but also since he was often portrayed smoking a pipe. What's in the pipe, we can only guess? So a story caught my eye today, from the student newspaper for the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, called Marijuana: our dirty little secret in which the staff columnist, Timothy Heacock really hit the nail on the head with this statement:

Everyone in the media seems to have a good laugh when politicians reminisce about the times they "toked a little herb." What seems to go unnoticed is the blatant hypocrisy shown when these same people continue to support the prosecution and jailing of people whose only offense was getting high or helping others get high.

Well put Mr. Heacock! Hey, furthermore, I think it was an appropriate choice of quotes from Nate Dogg, to emphasize your point about the "best remedy for hypocrites" in your succinct and direct article:

.... smoke weed every day. ~ Nate Dogg

Timothy Heacock is a senior majoring in finance and economics. He may be contacted at theacock@themiamihurricane.com.

Whilst cruising the marijuana videos on YouTube looking at cannabis culture material and admiring peoples Channels I came across the most remarkable young woman web publisher named Angel Macdonald on COMarijuana and editor of the Reefer Report.

Her site has the following appropriate quote underneath, to give you a hint of her cool mindset:

"Most [marijuana smokers] are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers... Their satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."

-Harry Anslinger's (first commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics)1938 testimony to Congress

Angela is also a contributor to the NORML / Examiner and has a great social netowrk on the following sites.
- YouTube
- Facebook
- Myspace
- Twitter

Most importantly make sure you check out her site www.reeferreport.com

New policy guidelines issued yesterday by the Obama administration (claim they won't arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers, as long as they conform to state laws), spread across the web faster than rumor of a pop star sex scandal. The news was based on a report from two Justice Department officials saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.

The new policy is a major step towards marijuana legalization, especially compared to the Bush policy which said it would continue to bust marijuana dispensaries and enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of the will of the people.

How much longer it will take to completely legalize marijuana is anyone's guess, as the people of America have been aware of hypocrisy of marijuana for decades and still been unable to make any significant changes, in laws that continue to incarcerate their own citizens for marijuana related offenses and fill prisons at an alarming rate.

Before the masses of pro-pot supporters get their hopes up too high, consider the Life Magazine issue of October 31, 1969, which must have been a trick 'or treat special issue and now is a piece of pop-culture, almost in the same category as reefer madness. If history were to repeat itself, it wouldn't matter about popular consensus, public sentiment, medical miracle breakthroughs or even plain old truth because the powers that-be have a vested interest to keep the prohibition in lock-down mode for as long as possible. It's a truly David and Goliath scenario and Goliath still has a strong-hold on the majority of people in the places of power.

by Nol van Schaik

The Dutch Model has proven to be the best possible way of approaching a world wide problem, the control of drug use and abuse. This report was written in 2002 which was also the year of the 30th anniversary of the birth of a Dutch phenomena, the Hash-coffeeshop, where people can 'score' and smoke cannabis-resin and marijuana.

Note: According to NORML (see: Are Dutch Cannabis-Selling Cafes Going Extinct? Here's The Truth! )

- Cannabis has been for almost 30 years, is now, and will continue to be legally sold in the Netherlands at hundreds of cannabis-selling cafes to adults over 18 years of age;

-The 43 cannabis-selling cafes scheduled to close (or re-locate) in 2011 are part of citywide effort to gentrify parts of Amsterdam's 'Old City' that are prime for urban and tourist redevelopment;

- Cannabis tourists from Germany and Belgium can no longer readily purchase cannabis at nearby cross border cannabis-selling cafes or in the center of Maastricht;

-The Dutch still have the best, most effective and humane cannabis policy in the world.

Wernard Bruining, Weed and the Weesperzijde.

The first 'official' teahouse or coffeeshop in Holland was opened by Wernard Bruining and some friends, at the Weesperzijde 53 in Amsterdam, in a squatted bakeryshop, in 1972. It was actually a logical follow-up of the friend to friend service that was going on in the place before that, but the group of friends extended rapidly, smoking hash, drinking tea and relaxing together.

"That gave us the idea to open a teahouse or a coffeeshop, that was easy, since there was no permit required. The name was inspired by the Donovan hit in those days : Mellow Yellow. "If you do not have anything to smoke, you can always get a little high of a baked bananapeel !" as Wernard explains it.

There were other adresses to get hash or weed, like Paradiso and Kashba, both youth-centers, and in the Melkweg and Famos, for instance. Besides these public places the city had some housedealers, two of them above the former policestations at the Overtoom and Stadionweg, where the customers were informed not to throw their roaches out of the window, on the doorstep of the Police, do not wake up a sleeping cop!

Another good reason to end the prohibition of marijuana is to stop the insurgency of guerrilla growers, whether they be Mexican, as so often indicted by law enforcement, or homegrown. The very idea that people are moving into the National Parks to grow weed is almost as absurd as the amount of taxpayer money being spent to combat this pesky problem, since the experts have no idea what percentage of the bush grow operations have been eradicated. Legalize marijuana and the problem ends, or be prepared for a major troop-surge.

With a month to go in the growing season, California is shattering records for pot seizures stemming from raids on illicit marijuana gardens. And authorities blame intricate Mexican drug networks that seek remote growing sites, supply and arm workers, and harvest and traffic the product.

So far this year, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting - a California task force of nine state and federal agencies - has seized about 4 million plants, a 1.1 million increase over last year's record haul.

"I think they're growing more and we're finding more," said Michelle Gregory, special agent for the state attorney general's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. "We would like to say that we find 50 percent of the grows, but honestly we don't know how much we miss."
Source: Sacramento Bee

Say it aint so? The Dutch cabinet wants to discourage foreigners from coming to the Netherlands to buy drugs by limiting the amounts permitted to be sold and by only allowing debit card payment. Please tell me this is just for the border towns for the purpose of slowing down the trade in areas bordering Belgium and Germany and close to France and Luxembourg?

The consumption and possession of small amounts of cannabis has been decriminalised since 1976 in the Netherlands, where it is sold in about 700 licensed coffee shops. However, the mayors of Roosendaal and Bergen-op-Zoom, some 15 kilometres apart, announced that all eight coffee shops within their borders would be barred from selling cannabis as of yesterday.

The new law has forced some 25,000 marijuana-smoking tourists, mainly French and Belgian, who flood their communities every week, to take their money elsewhere, or ride the trains further into Holland to stock-up.

Some Results of the Dutch Drug Policy

In the Netherlands 9.7% of young adults (aged 15-24) consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%) and less than in the UK (15.8%) and Spain (16.4%) but much higher than in, for example, Sweden (3%), Finland or Greece. Dutch rates of drug use are lower than U.S. rates in every category. So, amazing as it may seem, people will travel to the Netherlands to score weed, even though there's a higher percentage of users in their own countries. However, maybe the tide is turning on the whole phenomena? And the Dam is about to burst because of the rise in criminal investigations into organized crime, which mainly involve drugs (72%). Most of these are investigations of hard drug crime (specifically cocaine and synthetic drugs). What a shame it would be, if synthetic and hard-drugs ruined the party. My hope is that the good people of Holland will, once again, let wisdom prevail.

Once upon a time there was a giant mountain named Whistler all by itself in the coastal mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Then one day some smart dudes from Aspen, Colorado, came along and bought the mountain next door, then built a mega-resort at the base and installed high-speed quad chairlifts straight up to the top, reaching just high enough to un-seat Jackson Hole, Wyoming for the most vertical drop, of any ski resort in North America.

Back in the day, when I was young and cocky and full of piss and vinegar, my friends and I would hike past the top lodge at the newly constructed Blackcomb, under the out-of-bounds ropes, past the "ski at your own risk" signs, remove our skis to put them over our shoulders, then trudge up a steep incline of snow stairs for about 45 minutes until we reached the top of a massive cornice, overlooking a beautiful glacier with a vista of the awesome coastal mountain range. This back bowl would be filled with fresh, deep powder snow, which is precisely why we went to all this trouble, since the in-bounds ski terrain was plenty challenging enough but this particular location had something that regular ski areas do not have - a cornice (an overhanging mass of windblown snow or ice usually on a ridge).

This was the birth of extreme-skiing although we didn't know it, or think-up the cool name but this is where it all started, and why it happened is because to get to the fresh un-tracked snow the next person that hiked-in needed to climb a little higher up the cornice, which meant dropping in (as we called it) from a higher position, or if you were a total adrenaline freak/lunatic you could choose your height all the way up to about a 90 foot drop from the top.

I first visited Brazil for Christmas and New Year's in 1996 and finally moved here permanently in 2002, to this day I think it was one of the better decisions of my life. The people is what first attracted me, specifically a woman and then meeting her family and spending a festival season with a Brazilian family left an indelible impression on me. Also, on that first trip I managed to cover allot of ground, first laid my eyes on Rio and spent a week in the most awesome town of Buzios. I could go on about the weather, the rain-forests and the 4,000 km's of beaches but suffice it to say that after so many years I'm still feeling like I've only scratched the surface and I dream about seeing more.

Rio de Janeiro is one of the greatest cities in the world, everyone owes it to themselves to visit if they have the chance. However, unless you like crowds I highly recommend avoiding the days surrounding New Years Eve and the week of Carnival, although I've got to admit that the beaches are so broad and hotels across the nice wide avenues around Copa Cabana, that even on the busiest of days (click to enlarge the photo), there's still room for everyone - believe it or not!

Two Taxable Industries Being Ignored

Budgets on a local, state, and federal level have been tight, if not altogether choked. Many states have been turning to different channels of income in order to fix their sinking problems. New methods of taxation have been suggested, and amongst these ideas we have found two civil rights that could be made legal and taxed - Marijuana and Online gambling.

Both industries could prove to add billions of dollars to the government. The tax, be it state, local, federal, excise, and so on, could literally generate billions of dollars for each level of government. Marijuana has been illegal for decades, while Internet gambling has only recently (2006) seen federal interdiction. The future may hold the repeal of these liberty limiting laws, as legislators have been introducing Bills to overturn the previous laws that would decriminalize and regulate two of the most widely used sources of entertainment.

The battle for legalizing marijuana has been a long running, deep seated battle. Federal representatives and state legislators have introduced different Bills with the goal to overturn prior laws, but thus far none have been more successful than reducing penalties. While this is a step in the right direction, the problem still exists - because marijuana is illegal, criminal activity controls the ropes and innocent people are regularly imprisoned.

The legalization of marijuana would take money away from the common criminal and place it back in the coffers of the private sector as well as the government, with the former from profits of sale and the latter through taxation. Reports have shown that in California alone, over $2 billion dollars could be generated for the state. It is California now that is at the spearhead of a state wide legalization of marijuana. Assembly Member Ammiano has introduced the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act - an act that would legalize marijuana on the state level.

I love Florida, having lived there for some 12 years and traveled through MIA dozens and dozens of times coming from South America on my way to Canada. I always plan a short layover, or longer when time permits because my connections for the dank sticky in-door grown bud are so good, I can be smoking reefers within an hour of my arrival, then spend hours toasting on those awesome beaches while stoned out of my mind. The quality never disappoints. Hell, my friends from New Orleans call me up asking me to hook-em up when they come to town because they can't get the gear I can get, and it's been that way for years. I always knew Florida was a sunny place filled with shady people (growing some wicked herb) but now TIME Magazine have made it official - Florida is the hydroponic pot capital of the USA.

California may be the center of the marijuana trade and the controversies over its legalization. But Florida has surpassed it in one important category: the Sunshine State is now the country's leader in indoor marijuana cultivation. It is a potent distinction because most of the marijuana grown this way is cultured hydroponically -- that is, mostly without soil and with a carefully calibrated cocktail of chemicals and lighting -- to create some of the highest level of highs on the market.

I have this feeling that the editorial staff over at TIME must love smoking weed as much as me, these people should work for High Times. Check out the excellent article and fabulous resources they added to it, on the story called: Florida's New Marijuana Boom: House-Grown and Super-Potent

Rumor has it that Cambodia has become very popular as a destination for marijuana-aficionados to vacation in South East Asia. One of my friends from the U.S. has been traveling there each winter for years and speaks highly of the friendly people and relaxed attitude towards marijuana, plus he tells me that the weed has gotten much better in recent years. Evidently Cambodia has become a weekend get-away hot-spot for expats living in Bangkok, Singapore or other SEA cities, partly due to guest-houses and resorts that cater to stoners. I was recommended to a cool place named the "Happy Hppi" on the coast in a beach town called Sihanoukville.

NEW YORK, July 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Bambu, makers of The World's Finest Rolling Papers, announces the launch of its first clothing line, Bambu Apparel, available for purchase starting July 2009.

Recognized as one of the world's 1000 oldest companies, Bambu Apparel draws inspiration from its own archives using original artwork from advertisements and marketing materials dating all the way back from 1764.

"We spent years searching eBay and other websites collecting old postcards, advertisements and any other Bambu products we could get our hands on with the hopes of re-releasing these items at some point. With the help of MerchDirect we've translated our history into a tangible, wearable product that we feel embodies our company,"
said Bambu's Sarah Saiger.

A friend of mine from New Orleans called me the other day and said she was considering going back to school and being that she's over 50 years old I was a little surprised but when she told me she was considering enrolling in Oaksterdam University I got-it. See, she's a person that can't stand hypocrisy and has been complaining to me for years that the truth about the benefits of the cannabis plant have been intentionally suppressed, and she's always quick to point a finger at a big-pharm conspiracy. On top of her contention she also senses some major business opportunity for people in the right place when the laws change, her target location is Florida and even though there's no prediction of medical marijuana there any time real soon, my friend wants to be ready to capitalize in the sunshine state when the time comes for legal marijuana.

So in order to get any kind of accreditation, experience and knowledge there's currently only one school in the country providing this type of a cannabis curriculum, and that's Oaksterdam University:

Oaksterdam University is the first trade school in the world offering quality training for the cannabis industry. If you are interested in working for or opening your own cannabis-related business, want to become a cannabis legalization activist, or are interested in learning to grow your own, Oaksterdam University is for you!

The chairman / Chief Executive of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Alhaji Amadu Giade,  yesterday gave the estimated number of cannabis abusers in Africa at 42 million  just as he disclosed that the continent accounts for 26 percent of global cannabis production. Now I thought that was an interesting choice of words "cannabis abusers," it made think of people slapping their marijuana plants around when they come home drunk. The article published in This Day Online, the website for "This Day" an African Newspaper was so ridiculous that it reminded me of Reefer Madness. So I decided to do a little more digging on this topic to learn a more about weed on the dark continent.

Lagos, Nigeria where the top NDLEA chairman, Mr. Giade, is from and I presumed based, is the most populous urban area in Nigeria with 7,937,932 inhabitants. It is currently the second most populous city in Africa, and estimated to be the second fastest growing city in Africa (7th fastest in the world), immediately following Barmako, Mali. Lagos, formerly the capital of Nigeria is a huge metropolis, originated on islands separated by creeks, such as Lagos Island.

As for access to weed on the streets of Lagos, according to WeBeHigh.com
Smoking tolerance level: 4 out of 5 (where 5 is legal)

Legislation: Marijuana is illegal in Nigeria and so is any related action

Law enforcement: Depends on who you ask. Some say to be discreet, others smoke in front of the police on the street. Nigeria is Known as the third most corrupt country in the world. So a couple of dollars will get you a long way..

Where to buy marijuana: Akerele around the market is where you get the good ganja. Around African Shrine, Agidingbi, and Oshodi you will also find allot of pot. Our latest info says go to the beaches. Koramo beach is like the Nigerian little Amsterdam. Nigerians love to get high in front of the ocean and enjoy the view for hours!!!

Marijuana prices: 10 Grams goes fore N400 around 3 dollars

In closing, I'd like to suggest to the chairman / Chief Executive of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Alhaji Amadu Giade, that he learn the difference between a drug and an herb, so that he could focus his energies on more serious issues because according to other reports marijuana is grown on large-scale farms in many parts of Nigeria and is smuggled across its porous borders to neighboring countries but worse is that lax customs control and corruption, have made Africa's top oil and gas producer, a conduit for hard drugs from Asia and Latin America on there way into Western markets. Dude (Mr. Giade), get your priorities straight.

Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is doing a commendable job in the fight for reforming the bogus U.S. marijuana laws and by informing the public about what's going on. Today Dan Bernath posted an article about how important this week is to the movement.

It's never easy to know for sure, but this week could be huge for medical marijuana reform if things go just right in state legislatures across the country. The senates in Illinois, Minnesota, and New Hampshire all could vote to pass medical marijuana bills as early as tomorrow. At the same time, the Rhode Island Senate could vote on a bill creating medical marijuana compassion centers, making safe access to qualified patients in the state far less burdensome

When I was a teenager I met a grower from Oregon who, to me, was like a scientist. Over the years we became friends and I was able to learn allot about this intriguing man and his vocation, he told me he learned his trade in Oregon, then spent time in Northern California mastering the science of growing marijuana, before moving to a small farm he bought in BC. My friend always talked about Oregon and the great growers there.

In July of 2008 a thread was started on my favorite weed forum; Grasscity.com and it's the best single page of dank ganja photos anywhere I've seen on the web. This post is my tribute to my old friend from Oregon.

This thread is also my official salute to every Oregon smoker and grower. Every caregiver and every dealer. Thank you for keeping our cannabis some of the DANKEST and CHEAPEST on the map! Keep it GREEN!

Drop by: vc77's "Oregon Weed ROCKS" Thread - TONS of DANK Pics

Erowid.org, also called The Vaults of Erowid, is an amazing online library of information about psychoactive plants and chemicals. It provides information about legal and illegal substances, including their desired and adverse effects. The site is organized by substance, ranging from common substances like alcohol, to unusual ones such as Bromo-DragonFLY and features some great information and photos of Cannabis and my favorite section about Hashish.

According to the site, the creators' vision includes creating a

"world where people treat psychoactives with respect and awareness; where people work together to collect and share knowledge in ways that strengthen their understanding of themselves and provide insight into the complex choices faced by individuals and societies alike".

Erowid was founded in April 1995; the Erowid.org website appeared six months later. Since January 1, 2008, it has operated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit educational organization under the name Erowid Center. The organization is supported by donations, and its website is free of advertisements. Although its primary focus is on the website, Erowid also provides research and data for other harm reduction, health, and educational organizations.

Good thing I subscribe to Pete Guither's "Drug War Rant" or I may have missed a most fascinating white paper published on the Cato Institute website by Glenn Greenwald, entitled: Drug Decriminalization in Portugal:
Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies.

Glenn Greewald added more information about this white paper on his Salon blog.

Prior to decriminalization -- throughout the 1990s -- Portugal had among the worst drug crises in the EU, if not the worst. The more they criminalized, the worse the problems became. After decriminalization, Portugal has among the best drug usage rates both within the EU and outside of the EU (especially when compared to the harshest criminalized countries, such as the U.S. and Great Britain). Those are just facts.

This white paper is such an important piece of work because it debunks so many myths related to how a society reacts to leniency with regard to drug laws. I'm surprised that more hadn't been reported about drug decriminalization in Portugal, especially here in Brazil where we have a penal system bulging with offenders, many of whom are incarcerated for soft drug offenses, mainly due to not having good legal defense but also because the laws are just so draconian.

Portugal hasn't become a haven for marijuana tourists either, as one might suspect. Prague for example is touted as being the Amsterdam of Eastern Europe and there you can still get busted for possession although most reports suggest you'd need to have more than 20 joints. In neighboring Spain (which also adopted drug de-crim) there seems to be Moroccan Hashish every where you go and Ibiza, for example, has become somewhat of a drug tourist destination but according to WeBeHigh.com, a travelers guide to getting high weed or hash is difficult to find in Portugal, even in Lisbon or the Algarve, places where you'd think it to be fairly common.

Scientific America picked up on the story as well, see: 5 Years After: Portugal's Drug Decriminalization Policy Shows Positive Results but it fell on deaf ears at the White House:

A spokesperson for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy declined to comment, citing the pending Senate confirmation of the office's new director, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs also declined to comment on the report.

The Greenwald white paper is 34 pages long and an easy read, now that it's public record it becomes a valuable piece of evidence in the fight to end the war on drugs.