Tag: Weed

City Journal's 10 Blocks

New York’s Gambling-and-Weed Economic Strategy

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MI senior fellow and CJ contributing editor Nicole Gelinas joins Brian Anderson to discuss New York’s promotion of vice, the downsides of gambling and legal marijuana as an economic-development strategy, and the results of the 2022 midterm elections in the Empire State.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

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City Journal's 10 Blocks

Legal Weed: What Went Wrong?

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Manhattan Institute scholars Steven Malanga and Charles Fain Lehman join Brian Anderson to discuss the persistent black market for marijuana, the possibility of renewed drug enforcement against illegal pot, and the changing nature of the drug.

Find the transcript of this conversation and more at City Journal.

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City Journal's 10 Blocks

Reefer’s Madness

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Hosted by Seth Barron & Steve Malanga

Steven Malanga joins Seth Barron to discuss expanding efforts to legalize recreational marijuana use, a movement helped along by extensive misinformation about the drug’s supposed health benefits.

This year, at least eight states are debating laws that would permit recreational pot. Marijuana advocates claim that the drug is therapeutic and that legalizing it will end the unjust imprisonment of casual users, especially in minority communities. But as Malanga writes in City Journal, “Even as the legalization push gains momentum, scientific journals report mounting evidence of the drug’s harmful psychological effects and social consequences.”

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Propaganda of the Marijuana Lobby: A Con Job

Susan Quinn
Susan Quinn
19520
 

We’re all being conned. As legalization of marijuana is being pushed forward in the US, we are discovering how little we really know about the drug, and the information we do have is not widely publicized:

Despite being a substance that targets the brain, if and how long-term cannabis use alters brain structure and function remain unknown. There are some known adverse effects. It acutely impairs mental functions and may exacerbate depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and use of other substances. Whether it is more harmful than substances such as alcohol or nicotine is still undetermined. On the plus side, there is conclusive evidence that cannabis provides relief from symptoms related to chemotherapy and multiple sclerosis. Other potential benefits remain unknown.

Ten states have already allowed the recreational use of cannabis. According to an op-ed piece by Alex Berenson, the pro-marijuana groups have changed the discussion by talking about medical marijuana and the relief it can provide, rather than focusing on its recreational use.

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420

Jon Gabriel, Ed.
Jon Gabriel, Ed.
9532
 

shutterstock_114904339If I know anything about Ricochet members, it’s that you love your weed. Half of you are probably baked right now. I can’t attend a member meetup without tripping over at least a dozen bongs and hookahs. (I don’t know how Peter Robinson gets the smell out of his fair-trade hemp poncho.)

So, happy 4/20, man. For that tiny minority of non-weedheads on Ricochet, today’s the unofficial holiday for marijuana and those who love it. The date is a reference to 4:20, which was the time of day a group of smokers called The Waldos would blaze up in 1971:

The Waldos designated the Louis Pasteur statue on the grounds of San Rafael High School as their meeting place, and 4:20 p.m. as their meeting time. The Waldos referred to this plan with the phrase “4:20 Louis.” Multiple failed attempts to find the crop eventually shortened their phrase to simply “4:20”, which ultimately evolved into a codeword that the teens used to mean marijuana-smoking in general. Mike Edison says that Steven Hager of High Times was responsible for taking the story about the Waldos to “mind-boggling, cult like extremes” and “suppressing” all other stories about the origin of the term.

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