A proposal to lift penalties for marijuana possession in Kansas City has been voted into action.
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PSA: Don’t Drive High Even When Chased By An Ax Murderer
PSA: Don’t Drive High Even When Chased By An Ax Murderer
The video is the result of a partnership between the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Ad Council.
The post PSA: Don’t Drive High Even When Chased By An Ax Murderer appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Do you like them BIG?
Building a Wick System: An Easy Way to Grow
This excerpt from my new book “Ask Ed: Marijuana Success” hones in on one of my favorite ways to grow cannabis at home with a wick system.
The wick container system is an easy way to garden because it’s self-watering and removes the uncertainty of when to water. It requires far less care than hand watering, and it’s simple, fast to assemble, and inexpensive to set up. The wick system is based on capillary action. One example of this is a tissue drawing up water from a puddle. The system we set up works on the same principle. Instead of tissue, we use braided nylon rope.
The wick system can support large plants.
Equipment Needed to Build a Wick System
Starting from the bottom, we need a tray that’s at least three inches deep and wide enough to support the plant container. The wider the container, the deeper the tray should be. For instance, with a 6-foot container, I use a 10-inch-deep tray, but with small containers, the tray is only 3–5 inches deep.
Holes were drilled in the trays for the wicks.
Next, we need some blocks to hold the container a few inches above the tray. Some possibilities are 2′ × 4′ or 4′ × 4′ boards, Styrofoam blocks, or an inverted plastic tray. The container is next. Select the same size container that you would normally use. I’ve used this system with four-inch containers and eight-foot-wide soft containers.
Pallets were used to support the tray above water.
Next is the wick. Nylon braided rope draws up water very well. These wicks last for a long time. I’ve used some more than 10 years. Select the wick size. The larger the container, the thicker the wick should be. A small container needs only a ¼-inch wick, while a large container, which is deeper than the small, can use wicks up to ¾ inches. Wider containers should have more wicks, so water is drawn across the entire bottom of the container by the wicks.
Next, the planting mix goes into the container. Once the water is drawn up the wick to the bottom of the soil level, the soil starts wicking it up vertically 8–10 inches. Many mixes are able to draw the moisture up, so try your favorite first. You probably have already seen the soil mix wicking when you watered a plant and excess water dripped into the tray below. A while later, the water disappeared as it was pulled up into the planting mix. The wick system works in the same way.
Container ready for potting mix.
Installation
Place the wood or plastic supports in the tray. Measure and cut the wick. It should start at the bottom of the tray, go through the drain hole in the container and stretch across the container bottom to the drainage hole on the other side and down to the bottom of the tray. The rope tends to fray at the ends. To prevent this, before you cut, use two twist ties, one for each end of the rope, to hold it in place. If the container is wide, use two wicks, one in each set of two opposite holes. You may have to drill holes in wider containers, such as kiddie pools or wide trays. Figure that each wick drop covers about two square feet. Fill the container with a planting mix. Plant the plant or seeds.
Complete systems: tray, blocks, container, wick, planting mix.
Maintenance
To start, add water to the container until it starts to drip into the tray. Fill the tray with water. Refill the tray as it loses water. You can also water the container from the top once in a while. The planting mix absorbs water from the wick automatically as the plant uses it.
The system was automated using a reservoir and a flush valve.
Options
This system can be automated. By placing a reservoir above the container level and placing a flush valve in the tray, the water level can be maintained for a longer time. A number of trays can be connected to a reservoir so the whole garden is irrigated just by filling the reservoir. The advantage of this system is that each tray receives water only as it needs it.
And there you have it- an easy, inexpensive but really effective way to set up your garden. Give it a try.
Ed Rosenthal
Father’s day is coming up June 21
If your dad’s an OG this might be the perfect time to update his grow manual…and if he’s not, it’s still a good time to own a grow manual.
The purpose of my books has always been to show how to grow high-quality grass easily and cheaply no matter where you live.
Support a local bookstore and pick up a copy or, for a more personal touch for dad, order from my website directly by June 15th and receive an autographed copy.
Asking yourself “what dispensary near me carry these products?” Browse our store menu HEREor come by for a visit today!
RIP Lester Grinspoon: The Forbidden Cannabis Professor
RIP Lester Grinspoon: The Forbidden Cannabis Professor
Lester’s courage and intellectual integrity will always stand as a rebuke to the cowardice and dishonesty of the medical establishment.
The post RIP Lester Grinspoon: The Forbidden Cannabis Professor appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Kansas City, Missouri Just Removed All Criminal Penalties for Pot Possession
The City Council of Kansas City, Missouri just voted to remove all penalties for cannabis possession from the city’s criminal code.
Kansas City voters already decriminalized minor cannabis possession in 2017 by way of a local ballot initiative. Under this measure, the penalty for possessing 35 or fewer grams of weed became a $25 fine, and possession of over 35 grams became a $500 fine, with no chance of jail time or a permanent criminal record.
Although the original decriminalization measure kept minor pot offenders out of jail, it didn’t stop city cops from continuing to bust people for weed. Last month, Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas proposed a new ordinance that would completely strip all penalties for pot possession off the books. This Thursday, this new measure was approved by the City Council with a 9-4 vote.
“State and federal law remain clear with marijuana,” said the mayor, according to ABC affiliate KMBC News 9. “The city doesn’t need to be in that business; instead, we remain focused on how we can help open doors to new opportunities and empower people to make a decent living.”
The new policy is only the first step in the mayor’s long-term plan to reduce unnecessary interactions between the community and city cops. Lucas introduced a separate resolution to the council that directs the City Manager to review all ordinances that “undermine fairness and equality in the relationship between local government and members of the public, are impermissibly discriminatory, unreasonable, unduly burdensome, or duplicative.”
“One of the ways we improve police-community relations is by eliminating laws that for too long have led to negative interactions, arrests, convictions, and disproportionate rates of incarceration of Black men and Black women,” said Mayor Lucas, KMBC reports. “Reducing petty offenses – such as municipal marijuana offenses – reduce these negative interactions each day.”
The rest of Missouri is still lagging behind Kansas City’s progressive cannabis policy. Earlier this year, campaigners began collecting signatures to place an adult-use legalization measure on this year’s state election ballot, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the campaign to suspend its efforts until next year. And other than proposing a joke bill that would have required lawmakers to get high before every vote, it doesn’t look like legislators are ready to discuss cannabis reform on a larger scale.
State voters did approve a ballot measure to legalize medical marijuana in 2018, but although 35,000 patients have registered for the program, the state has yet to open even one single medical pot dispensary.
5 Tips That Can Help You Start Meditating Successfully
5 Tips That Can Help You Start Meditating Successfully
Meditating can be tough if you don’t know where to start. Here are some things that can help you.
The post 5 Tips That Can Help You Start Meditating Successfully appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
Most Americans Want Full Weed Legalization, But Biden’s Task Force Doesn’t Advise It
Two-thirds of Americans want to put an end to cannabis prohibition, according to Newsweek. Even so, a criminal justice task force co-created by Joe Biden did not include legalizing weed among its recommendations to the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate.
The task force was co-created by Biden’s former campaign rival Bernie Sanders. The Vermont senator does advocate full federal legalization for adult cannabis use — as do five of the eight individual members of the task force.
Regardless, a 110-page policy document issued by the task force just effectively reiterated Biden’s existing stands on the issue. Biden has come out in favor of decriminalization and legalizing medical marijuana on a federal level, but would leave recreational weed laws up to individual states.
Earlier in his campaign, Biden said cannabis should be rescheduled and the country should move away from putting people in jail for it. “[Cannabis] should be changed to a Schedule II drug. We should move in a direction to make sure it’s not a criminal offense, it’s a civil offense. Any conviction at all for marijuana now or in the future or in the past, your record should be wiped clean. It’s not something that is going to send anybody to jail.”
I think we can all agree that his statement demonstrates some progress. But, to consider cannabis an “offense” of any kind is still a demonstration of an archaic, Drug War mentality. As of now, the task force has made the following recommendations:
– Decriminalize marijuana use and legalize marijuana for medical purposes at the federal level.
– Allow states to make their own decisions about legalizing recreational use.
– Automatically expunge all past marijuana convictions for use and possession.
– Lift budget rider blocking D.C. from taxing and regulating legal marijuana and remove marijuana use from the list of deportable offenses.
– Encourage states to invest tax revenue from legal marijuana industries to repair damage to Black and brown communities hit hardest by incarceration.
Responding to the policy document, Bernie Sanders tweeted: “Though the end result isn’t what I or my supporters would’ve written alone, the task forces have created a good policy blueprint that will move this country in a much-needed progressive direction and substantially improve the lives of working families throughout our country.”
Erik Altieri, Executive Director of the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML), took umbrage with the findings and stated, ‘“It is impractical at best and disingenuous at worst for the Biden campaign to move ahead with these policy proposals. Rescheduling of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act would continue to make the federal government the primary dictators of cannabis policy, and would do little if anything to address its criminal status under federal law.”
As for President Donald Trump, he said of recreational weed legalization: “I think it’s bad, and I feel strongly about that.” So eloquent, isn’t he?…
Marc Lotter, director of strategic communications for Trump’s re-election campaign, further clarified, “I think the president is looking at this from a standpoint of a parent — a parent of a young person — to make sure we keep our kids away from drugs. They need to be kept illegal. That is the federal policy.”
But the federal policy in this country is outdated. The mindset of Americans is vastly different than it was just 50 years ago — even 20 years ago. We need to revamp the drug laws in this country — along with every other interwoven system built into the American structure — and it starts with cannabis. If federal legalization doesn’t happen, prohibition will continue to stifle the evolution of the American collective.
We don’t have time for that bullshit anymore. Give the people what they want: Legal weed without criminal offense.
COVID-19 And Cannabis: What’s The Latest In Treatment?
COVID-19 And Cannabis: What’s The Latest In Treatment?
With the widespread impact of COVID19 on the nation’s health, alternative treatment sources are being studied with enthusiasm.
The post COVID-19 And Cannabis: What’s The Latest In Treatment? appeared first on The Fresh Toast.
3 weed products rap legend Wyclef Jean can’t live without
Wyclef Jean is a music legend and international icon. Without this man, the world would never have heard the SHAKIRA! SHAKIRA! battle cry. Talk about cultural contributions.
Since his first album with the Fugees, Blunted on Reality, Wyclef has long been an advocate for cannabis and its legalization. Now, he’s moving into the cannabis industry as an owner and partner in order to create opportunity for his people.
“I come from Haiti, where 80% of the population is living on less than a dollar a day. And I think that the future for a lot of these third world islands and third world countries is going to be galvanizing the Farmers’s Union. The production of cannabis hemp will literally start to bring billions of dollars of export that did not exist,” he tells Weedmaps.
“So we’re hoping that this partnership we have in America with Cali Life is going to galvanize the Caribbean to do more. And we get more legislation passed moving forward so we can start organizing these farmers.”
In addition to his work in cannabis, Clef also told us some of the smokeables that he rocks with. Here are a few cannabis products Wyclef Jean can’t live without.
BOOM BAP
Cali Life Cannabis is a cannabis brand in California that was established in 2018. They produce flower, hemp pre-rolled blunts, vapes, and BOOM BAP, their hemp blunt collaboration with Wyclef Jean.
Over 45 companies have approached Jean with branding opportunities, but he felt like Cali Life’s values aligned with his mission. “I’m not in the business of building strains, I’m in the business of building countries.”
The BOOM BAP line consists of three flavors of infused hemp blunts inspired by Wyclef’s hit songs: Fast Car Banana, Faded Butterfly Clementine, and Gone ‘Til November Mango.
Fast Car Banana is labeled as a sativa, made with flower, kief, and distillate, plus added Banana flavoring from food-grade botanical terpenes. Faded Butterfly Clementine and Gone ‘Til November are the hybrids made the same, but with added Clementine and Mango terpenes, respectively.
This the one Clef be totin’. His words, not mine.
Available: California
ISLAND MAN
ISLAND MAN is another one of Wyclef Jean’s cannabis brands. There is very little information about it online, but a google search leads you to this portfolio by Lindsay Hill Design where she has mockups for BOOM BAP and ISLAND MAN.
Going by this, it would appear ISLAND MAN is a line of cannabis products that includes infused beverages, CBD oil for humans, CBD oil for pets, and a moisture recovery cream topical.
You’ll need to stay tuned to Wyclef Jean and Cali Life Cannabis’ social channels for more official information on BOOM BAP and ISLAND MAN.
Cookies
With most celebrities in the weed game, they aren’t going to talk too much about other products. But every now and again, they’ll keep it G with you and give props to other great brands. “I mean, I like the Cookies product. I think they make some good stuff,” Wyclef says of the California staple Cookies.
You know Cookies. But if you don’t, it’s a California brand from rapper, cannabis mogul, and Taylor Gang plant father, Berner. He came from a collective of growers in the Bay Area called the Cookie Family who gave the world G.S.C., Gelato, and Cherry Pie.
Since, Berner has gone on with Cookies as his own cannabis lifestyle brand. Originally all about merch and cannabis-adjacent products, the brand has spawned into production over the past few years, blessing the cannabis world with heavy hitters like Gary Payton, Runtz, and Cheetah Piss. There’s also a Berner’s Cookies G.S.C. phenotype floating around out there.
Available: California
Interview by Lesley Nickus. Written by Dante Jordan. Graphic design by David Lozada.
The post 3 weed products rap legend Wyclef Jean can't live without appeared first on Weedmaps News.
Biden-Sanders Task Force Does Not Recommend Legalizing Marijuana
Biden-Sanders Task Force Does Not Recommend Legalizing Marijuana
While the unity taskforce pushed Biden farther left on cannabis policy, the former Vice President still doesn’t support ending prohibition.
The post Biden-Sanders Task Force Does Not Recommend Legalizing Marijuana appeared first on The Fresh Toast.