WASHINGTON — Musicians, visual artists and other creatives know a little something about passing around the donation cup, having all performed at least a gig or two funded by the dollar bills or even change in the pockets of the audience. They’re probably less used to having to sing for their money in front of […]Read More
The Oakland City Council will consider a resolution next week that calls on California state lawmakers to enact policies decriminalizing or legalizing a wide range of psychedelics and allowing local jurisdictions to permit healing ceremonies where people could use entheogenic substances. Activists with Decriminalize Nature (DN) have been working with legislators to expand upon the […]Read More
PORTLAND, Ore. — One morning this fall, Sary Leu was over it. She grabbed the closest black marker she could find in the little employee break room and wrote the following on the whiteboard: “Swazi journalists, human rights activists and members of parliament are being arrested for speaking out. Small Swazi farmers’ fields are being […]Read More
It happens without fail. I’ve been lecturing about Prohibition — the booze soaked, anti-booze period in the 1920s — and leading Prohibition-themed tours around the nation’s capital since 2006. On every talk, someone in the audience asks how Prohibition compares to the War on Drugs. Did I mention that this is completely unprompted? Few things capture […]Read More
DENVER, CO. —When you get down to it, nobody knows exactly how much illegal marijuana is in Colorado. But it’s out there somewhere – in that nebulous place we call the “black market.” Colorado was the first state to legalize recreational marijuana in the US. There were many reasons (consumer safety and restricting sales to […]Read More
COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Back on Aug. 19, the Maryland Department of Health reported several incidents where patients experienced hallucinations and exhibited erratic and combative behavior at Baltimore’s Union Memorial Hospital. Those patients had one thing in common: they all took a substance — well, substances actually — called “trash can.” It’s been circulating around […]Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States House of Representatives is scheduled to make history later this week when lawmakers make a historic vote on legislation to decriminalize marijuana. When House lawmakers vote on the MORE Act Thursday or Friday, it will mark the first time either chamber of Congress has cast a historic vote to […]Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the grainy cell phone video, the scene is tense. Surrounded by onlookers, a Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer points his unholstered gun at Renita Nettles who nevertheless continues to advance with blurry, if potentially deadly, objects in both hands. “Tase her!” one of the many onlookers yells. Firefighters carrying a heavy […]Read More
The perpetual-envelope pushing, extreme sport icon Travis Pastrana has received his fair share of gold medals over his record-shattering career that’s most commonly noted for his single handedly raising the already insanely high bar for X Games athletes (and yeah, he’s reportedly garnered lots of commas on his checks, along with too many broken bones […]Read More
Midway through the new BET documentary “Smoke: Marijuana + Black America,” we’re introduced to Wanda James and her husband, Scott Durrah — both military veterans and established entrepreneurs — who faced astounding and absurd obstacles on their road to launching and running Denver’s Simply Pure, America’s first Black-owned marijuana dispensary (today, only 4 percent of […]Read More











