What You Need To Know About Face Masks And How They Work
Face masks are one of the fews tools we can use to curb the spread of COVID-19. Here’s how they work and why you should wear them.
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Will Rhode Island be the next state to legalize cannabis?
There are more than 1,200 nicknames for cannabis, some more familiar than others. Ganga, weed, reefer and bud are some of the most-used and familiar, while alfalfa, Green Goddess and muggle —a 1920’s term for a pot smoker and not a non-magical person — are less well-known.
According to slang scholar Jonathon Green, drugs like cannabis are slang’s “best sellers” because slang consists of words and phrases, think codewords or inside jokes, intended to stand in for an actual thing or topic considered too taboo for conversations in polite society.
Of course, one of cannabis’ best-known nicknames is pot, but of all of the dozens and dozens of nicknames, the word “pot” standing in for cannabis seems a bit odd. Marijuana doesn’t remotely resemble the shape of a cooking pot, nor is it the color of one. So where did this odd-ish term come from?
Green keeps an online database that lists slang grouped by what inspired the term, like “history,” “meaning” or “usage.” For example, the common cannabis nickname, “bud,” is grouped with other plant-derived marijuana nicknames like green, grass and herb. More slang names like chronic and dank are grouped under the “quality” category.
The word “marijuana” is itself a slang term categorized under “language.” However, despite its common use, advocates and others in the cannabis industry are working to familiarize consumers with the term cannabis instead of marijuana (which is the Spanish word for the plant) because of its racist history and affiliation with illicit markets.
The etymological argument on the slang term “pot” is far from settled, but one hypothesis of the nickname’s origin reaches back to the Mexican Revolution (1910—1924). The theory goes that Mexican immigrants in the crosshairs of revolution fled their country to make lives in the U.S., many of whom brought cannabis with them.
With that in mind, the term pot, which like marijuana is categorized “because of language,” may derive from the Spanish word potiguaya, meaning marijuana leaves.
How the term “pot” came into general usage is not very clear, but a prevailing speculation is that the term was popularized by author Chester Himes, who wrote in the short story “The Way We Live Now,” in 1938, “She made him smoke pot and when he got jagged [high]…she put him on the street.”
But these are all just theories, and no one really knows with certainty how “pot” came to be. However, Green told Time Magazine that with any slang, as soon as “adults or authorities become wise to what a term means, then it’s time for a new one.” So, eventually, maybe the term will eventually go to pot.
Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
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Can Marijuana Or CBD Help Acne?
In some studies, THC appears to ease inflammation inside and outside the body, therefore decreasing the threat of acne.
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It’s still illegal throughout the state, but Wisconsin’s great college town has decided to stop arresting people for small amounts of cannabis.
The post Madison, Wisconsin, will stop arresting people for marijuana possession appeared first on Leafly.
The pandemic hit us like a tsunami, upending every aspect of daily life. While few stones remained unturned, perhaps the most notable — and seemingly permanent — shift has been the workplace transition from the office to the living room.
This mass migration of workers has forever altered not only the way we work, but where work is done. Office building rents are at an all-time low, Zoom stocks are booming, Covid cases are on the rise, and many tech companies have already vowed to switch to remote work permanently.
Regardless of when this pandemic ends, the professional world is never going to return to the traditional model it once operated in, especially now that Covid has exposed that model as flawed and unnecessary to begin with. And with the rise of the gig economy, and the Millenial/Gen Z aversion to working for anyone but themselves, the shift to remote work had already begun. Covid just expedited what would have been a much longer journey into this present reality.
As a freelance cannabis journalist, I’ve been working from home (super stoned) my entire life. When most people think about productivity aids, stimulants like adderall, caffeine, and taurine come to mind. While those work, there’s a ton of downsides, health risks, addictive qualities, and general icky-ness associated with all of them.
But as crazy as it might sound, the right strain of weed can take the place of any productivity boosting stimulant, and do a way better job with no tax on your body and soul. To explore this concept of using weed to work from home, we spoke to a range of professionals, from artists to IT guys, about the strains they use to keep them going throughout the day.
Here are the best strains for working from home, according to people who are, well, working from home.
Jack Herer is a classic sativa strain named after the legendary cannabis activist that made a number of our professional’s lists. High in uplifting terpenes like limonene and pinene, sparkling buds that smell almost identical to Lemon Pledge produce a creative, exciting high perfect for getting shit done.
“When I’m working, I rely heavily on sativa-dominant strains like Jack Herer or Green Crack to get my brain moving,” said Renee Cotsis, a 26-year-old cannabis publicist based in New York City. “Smoking sativas throughout the work day helps me to keep my anxiety at bay while also staying laser-focused on what I need to get done.”
She continued. “Honestly, I have more productive days when I smoke throughout the work day vs. when I don’t. It really helps me tune out the noise in my brain and focus on the task at hand.”
A cross between Master Kush and Lemon Joy, Lemon Kush is another great strain that’s high in limonene. Just ask Cae Jones, a 25-year-old licensed budtender and self-taught horticulturist from Chicago who grows his own Lemon Kush to stay productive. “For productivity, for me at least, it’s all about what gets me comfortable,” he said.
“Usually, I love indicas any time of day, but the pandemic has been getting me into the sativa side of things. When I’m in a better mood, my focus is more precise, and I can analyze on a deeper level. Uplifting varieties of cannabis make the work that much easier, and I’ve found working from home with cannabis greatly improves my workflow.”
“I really love fruity and floral terpenes like limonene and terpinolene,” he continued. “That being said, I’ve been smoking a whole lot of Velvet Glove #4 from Columbia Care, Jack Herer, and my own homegrown Lemon Kush. Nothing is better than smoking weed you grew yourself. Enjoying my first harvest of Lemon Kush has definitely brightened my quarantine days.
Enya Leva, a 30-year-old visual artist from Portland, prefers to take the dreamier route when it comes to creating from home. “While a good portion of my work is admin, managing my print shop, emailing with clients and vendors, which I need to have a clear, sober head for, my actual illustration, painting, and design work I need to get into a flow state for,” she said. “That’s where the Blue Dream comes in.”
Blue Dream is a sativa-dominant hybrid whose cerebral and euphoric high has made it one of the most popular strains of all time. Great for creative work, thinking, and generally escaping the dark mundanity of our current existence, Blue Dream is perfect for creative projects — whether you’re getting paid to do them or not.
She continued, “With all that’s going on in the world, and my pre-existing anxiety, I like to micro-dose hits when I’m doing this type of work so that I can drown out all the noise and just get lost in the art process.”
Taylor Welch, AKA Deadhead, a 26-year-old vintage psychedelic clothing dealer based in Los Angeles, finds a similar flow state with Cereal Milk, one of the buzziest strains on the market right now.
“Work never stops for me, but I’m fortunate to have a platform where I can sell any given time of the day or night,” he said. “I’ve really been enjoying Cereal Milk as of lately.”
Cereal Milk is a new sativa-dominant strain from Cookies whose sweet, milky flavor, spectacular trichome coverage, and exciting high have made it a massive hit amongst weed heads in the know. He shared, “That strain helps me calm my crazy mind, and forces me to organize and become more methodical.”
Last but not least, we have one of my personal all-time favorite strains for working from home: Tangie. Coming from DNA Genetics in Amsterdam, Tangie is a remake of the classic 1990s bud Tangerine Dream. A cross between California Orange and a Skunk Hybrid, Tangie is responsible for the wave of orange-nosed flower that’s been hot in recent years.
Energizing, uplifting, and ultimately euphoric, it’s great for daytime use, capable of making even the glitchiest Zoom meeting bearable. Hicham, a 32-year-old account manager for an IT company in Amsterdam, relies on calming yet energetic strains like Tangie to get through long days without getting couch-locked, or worse, annoyed. “My days are quite long, from 8 AM to early in the evening, usually with two-hour-long customer calls throughout the day,” he said. “It’s a customer-facing job with high levels of interpersonal interaction.”
“During the day, I enjoy smoking something tasty, but not too strong so I am not tempted to crawl on the couch and watch TV … I go for strains like Tangie because it allows me to smoke a bit to get through people’s bullshit without freaking out or losing focus.”
Find thousands of strains on Weedmaps
Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
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The 2020 election showed yet again that marijuana legalization has widespread, bipartisan appeal. And the mainstream nature of the issue is demonstrated clearly when comparing the support that cannabis reform got at the ballot box this month to that brought in by major candidates for president, Senate and other offices.
In a year that saw the highest level of voter turnout in American history—in no small part due to the heated presidential race where the incumbent was ousted—cannabis legalization ballot measures were approved in red and blue states, proving to be more popular than many candidates seeking to represent those jurisdictions.
In most cases, candidates who were outperformed by marijuana at the polls declined to endorse the reform ahead of the election—perhaps something that politicians in states where cannabis is on the ballot in 2022 will take note of.
Here’s a breakdown of what the election showed about the popularity of drug policy reform in 2020:
In Arizona, an adult-use marijuana legalization proposal passed by a sizable margin, with 1,951,877 total votes—just four years after a similar measure failed in the state 2016.
This time, cannabis beat out both President Trump (1,657,250) and President-elect Joe Biden (1,668,684). Biden has so far refused to join the supermajority of Democrats who back marijuana legalization and instead supports more modest reforms such as decriminalizing possession and expunging records. Trump, for his part, has said that states should be able to set their own cannabis laws without federal interference but has not strongly backed any specific reforms.
The Arizona marijuana vote total also exceeded that of Democratic Senator-elect Mark Kelly (1,712,777) and incumbent GOP Sen. Martha McSally (1,637,651). Kelly said when pressed ahead of the election that he was inclined to support legalization, though he did not actively campaign on it. McSally pivoted away from questions about the issue by saying it was up to voters to decide.
The measure also won more voters than a separate initiative to increase income taxes to fund education (1,672,212).
More voters in conservative Mississippi voted to enact a medical cannabis program (774,386) than elected to put Trump (747,398) or Biden (520,937) in the Oval Office.
Legalizing medical marijuana was also more popular than Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (700,501) and her Democratic challenger Mike Espy (559,508).
That’s according to an Associated Press tally, which shows the current estimated total at 99 percent of expected votes processed.
A voter-approved measure to legalize marijuana in Montana received more votes (341,031) than Biden (244,783).
It also outperformed Republican Governor-elect Greg Gianforte (328,543) and his Democratic opponent Mike Cooney (250,855).
GOP Sen. Steve Daines also got fewer votes than legal cannabis (333,163), as did his challenger, outgoing Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock (272,457).
Republican Representative-elect Matt Rosendale (339,165) and Democratic House candidate Pat Williams (262,336) also pulled in less support than the marijuana reform did in their race for the state’s only congressional district.
None of those candidates endorsed the cannabis legalization measure that ended up getting more votes than they did.
The legal marijuana initiative also passed more handily than a separate ballot measure to remove localities’ ability to regulate concealed carry of permitted firearms (298,347).
Trump got slightly more votes than cannabis legalization did, at 343,597.
In New Jersey, a referendum to legalize cannabis for adult use was overwhelmingly approved with 2,637,630 votes.
That exceeds the votes for Biden (2,509,428 ) and Trump (1,817,925).
Democratic Sen. Cory Booker (2,433,494), who campaigned for the reform measure, and his Republican challenger Rikin Mehta (1,756,206) also got fewer votes than legal marijuana did.
Those tallies are based on a projection from the Associated Press, which is reporting 95.9 percent of the expected vote as of Wednesday.
South Dakota voters passed measures to legalize marijuana for both medical (291,754) and recreational (225,260) purposes.
Both initiatives received more votes than Biden (150,471), Democratic Senate candidate Daniel Ahlers (143,987) and Libertarian House candidate Randy Luallin (75,748).
Additionally, the medical cannabis proposal got more votes than Trump (261,043), GOP Sen. Mike Rounds (276,232) and a proposal to legalize sports betting (239,620).
Marijuana wasn’t the only drug policy issue on the ballot on Election Day.
Oregon voters made history by approving separate measures to decriminalize possession of all currently illicit drugs (1,322,078) and legalize psilocybin mushrooms for therapeutic purposes (1,259,243).
The drug decriminalization initiative landed more votes than incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley did (1,310,753).
Both drug reform measures received more votes than Democratic Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum (939,161) and her Republican opponent Michael Cross (926,339).
They also both beat out Trump’s tally (949,572) and that of Republican Senate candidate Jo Rae Perkins (904,689).
Only Biden gained more votes than either of the drug policy reform proposals, though fairly narrowly, at 1,329,549.
A proposal to decriminalize a wide range of psychedelics like psilocybin and ayahuasca was approved in D.C., for example. And that one got 195,773 votes, which is far more than Trump did (16,306) in the heavily Democratic city.
Biden and Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) beat out the vote count for the psychedelics reform measure, however, with 285,728 and 255,060 votes, respectively.
All told, the results in each jurisdiction show that marijuana and drug policy reform is very popular with voters, in many cases much more so than individual politicians are.
Featured image by Gina Coleman/Weedmaps
This article has been republished from Marijuana Moment under a content-sharing agreement. Read the original article here.
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These Drivers Test Positive For Marijuana More Than Any Other Substance
Repeat offenses could put the driver in a position where their driving privileges could be revoked.
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FDA Approves First COVID-19 Rapid Self-Test
Speed is of the essence as the United States is seeing an alarming spread of the COVID-19 virus with little end in sight.
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Already Got Your Christmas Tree Up? Here’s Why That Might Be A Good Thing
With less family members to account for and less hassle to deal with this year, a lot of people are considering setting up holiday decorations early. Psychologists don’t think it’s a bad idea.
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