In Alphabet City

A drink called Legal made a splash in the market with a catchy, charming ad campaign giving a weed product mainstream appeal.

As the Oregonian notes Legal's "retro label and stubby brown bottle could easily be mistaken for the latest kombucha or craft beer. The ad doesn't feature pot leaves, green crosses or bikini-clad women, some of the more common images associated with marijuana...[in an attempt] to pitch the drink like wine or high-end tea."

Check out their awesome commercial!

Outside the pearly gates of heaven, the angel asks the man, "To Heaven or Hell?" The man asks to see both locations before deciding.

They first visit Hell and the man can't believe his eyes. Rows upon rows of beautiful, luscious cannabis plants extend as far as the eye can see. A rolling paper factory produces a variety of different papers with no lack of supply.

Excited the man turns to the angel and exclaims, "If this is hell, I don't need to see heaven!" The angel nods.

The man walks up to the plants and selects a nug of quality top shelf weed he could only have dreamed to see while alive and spends time carefully choosing the perfect paper. He rolls himself a nice long joint, one of the best he had ever rolled. 

He stops a young man passing in front of him and asks "Excuse me, have you got a lighter?" The young man laughs, "If we had fire, this would be heaven!"

A new study claims to have an accurate estimate based on federal arrest data, and no, it's not the full gram that High Times leads you to think it is. 

In describing what regular weed enjoyers already know, there is not a lot of weed in one joint: just 0.32 grams. To put it into context, the amount of weed people smoke in a joint is less than a 1/6 of a teaspoon of sugar. 

The figure is based on weed purchase data collected from more than 10,000 interviews with people arrested from 2000-2003 and from 2007-2010 under a DOJ program. 

Weed's shifting perception is helped by studies such as this that provide a more detailed, contextual understanding of weed enjoyment. 

As the New York Times notes, "arriving at a trustworthy estimate is important for many reasons, including informing policy makers, law enforcement officials, health care providers and researchers... Many users report marijuana consumption in terms of joints smoked, a statistic that is useless to researchers, authorities or policy makers without an accurate approximation of what that means." 

Hungover today? Me too. Here's Anthony Bourdain on his hangover cure, as part of an article for Men's Journal titled "Anthony Bourdain's Life Advice":

"Look, you’re screwed in any case, especially the older you get. There’s no escaping it, and they get worse and worse as you get older. The best all-around cure I’ve found — and this is the best-case scenario, meaning, presumably, if you’re going to go out and drink too much... Wake up as soon as you can. [Drink] a cold Coca-Cola, or Pepsi. Wash down a couple aspirin. Smoke a joint. And the joint will help you to develop an appetite at which point, have some really spicy food. Some spicy leftover’s, like — leftover Kung Pao Chicken would be perfect."

From first glance, the article reads like a scene from High Maintenance, the popular series about a pot delivery guy: at a party, a call is placed and a nondescript-looking man arrives to showcase a variety of locally produced weed brands for people to choose from. This being fact not fiction is only made surprising by the setting: Iran.

Yes, the same country whose law prescribes 99 lashes as a penalty for alcohol, cares little about weed. 

The NYTimes reports that gol, or flower, as weed is called in Iran, "is mentioned only vaguely in the Islamic penal code, and the police pay it little heed... there are no prison sentences or lashings prescribed for people found carrying small amounts of pot.

... [As a result], the skunky smell of marijuana smoke wafts through restaurants in the ski resorts of Dizin and Shemshak. In the winter months, young skiers and snowboarders can be seen casually rolling joints while riding the chairlift up the mountain... The aroma is routinely detected in Tehran’s public spaces... In college dormitories, students use it to relax or concentrate, and during parties in private houses joints are passed around as comfortably as they might be in Boulder, Colo., or Amsterdam. Dealers are just a phone call away, and as common as the people who sell illicit DVDs or alcoholic drinks."

Two Texas lawyers put a creative spin on marketing legal services, uploading to YouTube a video PSA about what to do when caught with weed. Titled “Don’t eat your weed," the guitar-playing duo of the firm Hutson and Harris sing a clever song about the dangers of tampering with evidence, melodically explaining that possession of two ounces or less of weed is only a class B misdemeanor in Texas, but tossing your weed out of a car window or eating it while standing next to a police officer makes the charge a third-degree felony. 

In an article for GQ, Taffy Brodesser-Akner writes about spending one Shabbos taking her 68-year-old Hasidic mother to Hempcon for a medical marijuana lollipop. A  condensed version of her experience is provided below: 

"My mother can't sleep. Night after night, no rest, and it's ruining her. It's maybe post-menopause, maybe just old age...She tried sleeping pills, but they didn't work. She takes Xanax, but its effectiveness has waned, and she's worried that if she starts taking more, it'll work even less. (Also, Xanax can't help you relax if taking Xanax is something that's making you nervous.)

She's decided to try pot, but...how will it look to the gossips and matchmakers in her tiny community when it (definitely) comes up that she knocked on their door one day and asked to borrow a cup of marijuana?

...[My mother] doesn't believe there's a way to participate in pot culture without becoming a pothead. “You can't associate with these people without being one,” she tells me. I tell her she is classist, and she says yes, but not economically so. She is classist for good taste and bad taste. My mother, unlike me, does not mince words. What she means is: There is no slippery slope. There is a cliff.

...The truth is, weed's movement for dignity is often hilariously at odds with weed culture and its pot-leaf couture. My mother takes Xanax, but she never wears a shirt or a hat or a pair of above-the-calf sweatpants with pictures of Xanax on it. The acid-reduction pill I take doesn't have a lifestyle. My birth control pill is far more political than any plant, but there is no strain of female contraceptive called Legion of Bloom.

...Weed is coming out of the closet, and my mother, who has surveyed the field, has seen enough and is going back in."

A new study published in Health Affairs finds that weed legalization changes doctors' clinical practice and lowers Medicare spending. Most significantly, it is another confirmation of weed's potential to serve as a substitute for opioid painkillers and antidepressants.

Using data on all prescriptions filled by Medicare Part D enrollees from 2010 to 2013, researched found that states that legalized medical marijuana saw drastic declines in the number of Medicare prescriptions for drugs used to treat seizures, chronic pain, depression, psychoses, anxiety, nausea, and sleep illnesses. As The Washington Post depicts in chart-form, "the average doctor prescribed 265 fewer doses of antidepressants each year, 486 fewer doses of seizure medication, 541 fewer anti-nausea doses, 562 fewer doses of anti-anxiety medication...[and most strikingly] 1,826 fewer doses of painkillers in a given year."

Moreover, the study revealed that medical marijuana saved Medicare about $165 million in 2013. Researchers estimate annual spending on pharmaceuticals for disabled Americans and those 65 and older would decline by $470 million if medical marijuana were available nationwide. 

Great moment on the Tonight Show when Steve Harvey hosts a round of Family Feud. Fast forward to 5:25 to see the answers to Question 2: Name Something You Might Do At A Concert ;)

Whoopi Goldberg, EGOT winner, View co-host, and an outspoken weed enjoyer (she has written about how it relieves her glaucoma-related headaches), has teamed up with Maya Elisabeth of Om Edibles to launch Whoopi and Maya, a line of edibles, tinctures, topical rubs and a relaxing bath soak designed to provide relief from menstrual cramps. 

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Whoopi said she wanted to create a product for women that was discreet and would provide natural relief without getting high.

"Smoking a joint is fine, but most people can’t smoke a joint and go to work....This, you can put it in your purse...You can put the rub on your lower stomach and lower back at work, and then when you get home you can get in the tub for a soak or make tea, and it allows you to continue to work throughout the day.” 

In an article for The New York Times Magazine, Mattathias Schwartz discusses his recommendation for whittled-looking vaporizer called the Magic-­Flight Launch Box. An except from the article follows below:

"Marijuana, I found, is a fine office drug. Not only is it more healthful than the ubiquitous conference-­table bottle of Knob Creek, it’s also a sharper creative spur. It makes work feel more like a rapturous Frisbee game, less like an assembly line. Solo brainstorms take on an almost yeast-like generativity. And contrary to popular notions from the end of the last century, much of what bubbles up is worth keeping.

One of the wisest things I’ve read about cannabis was written by [the celebrated astronomer, public champion of scientific inquiry and avid pothead, Carl Sagan as the anonymous ‘‘Mr. X’’] in the 1971 book ‘‘Marihuana Reconsidered.’’ While meticulously cataloging how pot enhanced his life as a 30-­something professional, X wrote that 'the devastating insights achieved when high are real insights.' They can survive the state of mind that caused them to arise. The difficulty is how to capture a bit of this precious ore. You will need a notebook and some mental pruning shears, to avoid chasing down every dopamine-­inspired tangent. 'Ten even more interesting ideas or images have to be lost in the effort of recording one,' is how X put it." 

In our quest to be the most productive potheads around, we're always looking for ways to bring efficiency to our lives. One tip is to buy weed in bulk. Below is the argument, from Elite Daily.

"Picking up $20 of weed at a time definitely makes it harder to be a functional stoner. You’re constantly scrambling to find someone to pick up from, and you’re worried about when you’re going to run out. Sometimes you end up bumming a dime bag off a friend, which just ends up making you look desperate.

Picking up eighths or quarters at a time and learning to stretch that for a couple weeks helps save money, and it also helps stop you from building up a massive tolerance." 

Andy Cohen asks actress Jennifer Lawrence three revealing questions during Plead the Fifth! Find out which one she refuses to answer! 

I pretty much only use oils for my daily moisturizer since learning that Sophia Loren claimed she got her beautiful skin through olive oil. I love other oils, too. Castor oil works magic on cuticles, coconut oil breaths new life into my damaged hair, and even cannabis weed balm for my chapped lips ;)

That's why I was so honored and excited when Ko & Humble, a fantastic company that supports the Fresh Start Women's Foundation, sent me three beautiful face oils to try! Seen here, from left: argan oil, passion fruit seed oil, and golden jojoba oil. 

The passion fruit seed oil is delicious and smells terrific! I can't wait to test out the rest. 

Elle Woods of Legally Blonde once proclaimed: “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands.” Can’t argue with that logic, right? Problem is, this iconic quote is based on outdated scientific assumptions about endorphins.

As Gretchen Reynolds writes in the New York Times, “endorphins may be unfairly hogging the credit for making workouts enjoyable.” Scientists actually realized some time ago that endorphin molecules, which are known to have pain-relieving properties in the muscles, are too large to pass through the blood-brain barrier; since then, research studies have been trying to determine which other substances could be responsible for the positive mood changes that originate in the brain. Endocannabinoids, the naturally-synthesized compounds that activate the same receptors as marijuana, are an obvious candidate to study in attempting to crack the mystery of “runner’s high.”

A recent study used lab mice to parse the effects of endorphins vs. endocannabinoids on post-run anxiety. They found that when endocannabinoid receptors were blocked in mice, they no longer exhibited their usual chill demeanor after running. On the other hand, when endorphin response was blocked in the mice (while the endocannabinoid system was left alone), the mice had less anxiety and were less sensitive to pain. This strongly implicates endocannabinoids, and not endorphins, as the main contributors to runner’s high. As Reynolds reminds us, there are some important things to consider before drawing conclusions; for one thing, is it too early to extrapolate these findings to humans. For another, we may need to run a whole lot in order to feel these effects (the tiny mice in the study ran an average of three miles a day). For now, this new research may be just another step to uncovering the full extent of the cannabinoid system’s role in making us feel calmer and happier.

In a endearing and edifying piece for GQ, Chris Heath profiles the indomitable weed advocate and country god, Willie Nelson. It's full of gems like uncovering who Willie smoked weed with on top of the White House roof (a member of the President's family!), his  emergency pension plan  (selling his braids that recently were auctioned for $37,000), and the story, produced below, about his first time smoking weed. 

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“[Willie] Nelson believes that he tried pot for the first time when he was 11 or 12, though he didn’t realize it until much later on. 

“I was with a cousin of mine, he was about 15. He had asthma and the doctors gave him a cigarette to smoke. An asthma cigarette. And he offered me a puff off it, and I didn’t particularly care for it so I handed it back to him. But years later, when I smoked my first what-I-knew-was-marijuana, I said, ‘Wait a minute—I’ve had this before.’ And it took me right back to my cousin with the asthma cigarette.”

That seems like weird medicine for asthma—I ask whether it worked for his cousin.

“Yeah,” he replies, as though the notion that a joint would be the best medical treatment for asthma were the least unlikely part of the story. ”Oh yeah.”

Women's influence in the world of cannabis is flowering, if you will. Publications including The New York Times (In Colorado, a Rebranding of Pot Inc.), Bloomberg (Weed Entrepreneurs Woo Women in Bid to End the Ganja Gender Gap), and Fortune (High times: Behind the Scenes at a Women's Pot Conference) have all published articles citing the rise of female support for and involvement in the marijuana industry. Even Fox News announced that "the future is female."

Time Magazine describes how women have been directly challenging the traditional cultural perception of pot smokers as “lazy dude[s]." Female characters in the TV shows Broad City and High Maintenance, pot-smoking celebrities like Sarah Silverman and Rihanna, and groups like “Marijuana Moms” have helped promote the idea that women from all walks of life can be marijuana enthusiasts. This growing acceptance of women as participants in weed culture has played a crucial role in the legalization movement. In discussing this trend, Dockterman quotes author and weed proponent Cheri Sicard: “Society seems to take notice more when women say it’s okay."

As more women have openly joined the ranks of marijuana customers, there has been a push for greater representation on the supply side. In an article for Newsweek, Gogo Didtz writes in depth about how women are changing the face of the fast-growing marijuana industry. With the spread of legalization, women have been finding and taking advantage of niche opportunities in the pot business. These jobs range from pot farmers to cannabis scientists to edible chefs to lawyers specializing in weed business law. Networking group “Women Grow,” founded by Jane West, has been instrumental in connecting women potrepreneurs and lobbying Congress for legalization and drug reform.

So, “who run the world” of weed? If these trends are any indication, the answer to this question may echo Beyoncé and become “girls!” very soon.

How many of us have stringent rules about the foods we will purchase and consume, insisting on pesticide-free apples or hormone-free milk, yet have no qualms about smoking whatever weed our dealer shows up with?

The New Yorker's Michael Spector discusses how little is still known about the effects of pot on those who partake. He raises several important points: for one thing, the U.S. government does not provide funding for research on the measurable effects of marijuana, so our knowledge of how much is too much or what levels should disqualify someone from driving is grossly insufficient.

Furthermore, as the potency (i.e. THC levels) of cannabis has increased tremendously over the last few decades, so too has the risk of adverse reactions like psychosis. Finally, he implies that there is a lack of curiosity among marijuana users about “how high [we] are getting and what it is [we] are smoking.”

Organic apples are all well and good, but it might to time to call for more hard science on the pot that ends up in our brownies and pipes.