San Francisco’s 4th Annual S.F. Medical Cannabis Competition, The Patient’s Choice

It’s always a good sign when you can smell the party from blocks away. The day and the weather could not have been more perfect for San Francisco’s 4^th Annual S.F. Medical Cannabis Competition, The Patient’s Choice. After some rocking delays including moving the cannabis flavor festivities to a new location at the last moment, the Bacchanal of Buds went off without a hitch to the red-stain, blurred-eyed competition goers. Never feeling too crowded, there might have been a couple of thousand of people spread out through the day. Broken up into a few different areas; inside there were vendor booths, a chance to spin the wheel for free stoner gifts like a digital scale or a jeweler’s loupe with tiny flashlight, or the kewpie dolls of swag, a lighter. A huge dance floor catered to live bands playing tastefully great music, not overwhelming, almost like a soundtrack to the party while free food and drink was being served on the sides. Americans for SafeAccess, one of the cosponsors, and students for a sensible drug policy, had booths here also and were answering questions and handing out literature. It was hard not to be impressed with the spirit and enthusiasm of the students talking and educating the revelers about the movement and what’s happening now.

Moving outside to the patio was where the real party was going on. Smoking was only allowed outside, so most people after doing a quick tour of the operations, found their base camps and stayed. Like most parties, there was a VIP section where one could enjoy a free cocktail and slightly better food that the average stoner was getting for their eighteen dollar entrance fee. In the VIP area, film-makers and venture capitalists talked of the future of California post-Prop 19 over multiple joints and large glass smoking devices.  

It could easily be said that there wasn’t a part of the roughly one thousand square feet of fun space that wasn’t overtaken with the promise of WEED and getting high. Green Cross kept the party going by having incredibly hospitable young men bring around balloons of vaped smoke to their guests. Samples of edibles were available and for the most part groups shared their herb with strangers, you really had to be in AA or be wearing a gas mask not to get a whiff of the second-hand fumes or catch a small buzz.

There was food and drink all around. The host, Kevin Reed’s goal was to make sure no one passed out due to hydration and not having a little something-something in the belly besides laced peanut treats. The highlight for the munch-ridden group had to be the chocolate fountain. A three-tier fountain of chocolate with crème-filled éclairs, strawberries, and other fruit to be plunged and dunk like a French king, would have brought a gigantic smile to anyone’s face, whether doped-infused or not.

 But the real crowd pleaser of the day happened at 4:20, of course. A moose of a fellow pulled out the largest joint I’ve ever seen. Mind you I was a roadie for Reggae bands in the Eighties, so I know of what I speak. This rather happy fellow had a monstrous blunt about two-feet long and probably the width of a weight-lifter’s arm. The big guy got it started after a few ceremonious coughs and then passed it out through the crowd. Men and women of all nationalities and backgrounds step up to hit off that Hindenburg of a joint. The amazing thing was that the joint really did hit, it worked. It wasn’t for show. For this story, I made sure it was a working joint.

Good vibes and smiles was the uniform of the day. I spoke to a first-time attendee, Butch, a fifty-one year old real estate agent who drove up for the Competition from San Jose.

“I can’t believe something like this exists,” Butch says grinning over the tops of his glasses smoking a triangular shaped spliff. “Down in San Jose, the cops are busting us. Raiding dispensaries. Legitimate dispensaries who have all their paperwork together and everything. One of the reasons I’m here is because ASA (Americans for SafeAccess) picketed the in front of some dispensaries bringing awareness to what’s happening. They’re good people.”

As darkness came, so did more people. Being a Sunday night, as more entered, more left complaining of work and dragging their feet having to leave.

I was asked by some young dudes who mostly likely came through a tunnel or over a bridge, if I had some WEED for sale. One of them told me he didn’t have his card but wanted to score. I told him it wasn’t that kind of party. No one had WEED for sale here. It was against the rules to sell or buy, and no one did. But if you couldn’t get someone to give you a joint or a hit, it was you.

Just like last year, some growers were down from the North Country with product not only to be shown and displayed, if you knew how to ask correctly, but to celebrate another year of bringing in a harvest. A gentleman behind a green New Orleans-style party mask had the most incredible organic Sour Diesel that I’ve ever tasted. Thank you Masked Man.

Dennis Peron made an appearance to most people’s delight in the early evening. After his busts and sickness, whatever you think of the man, it was nice to see him out and about.

At around the Eight-thirty, the ballots were taken from its official perch and brought to an inner sanctum to be tabulated. To be sure of fairness, Mr. Reed had representatives from three of the City’s top dispensaries, besides his own, count the ballots for transparency.  

Just like the drama of the 2004 election, there was a recount because the voting was too damn close. The whole competition thing was taken very serious and when it was announced there would be a recount, most people, except the nervous and pacing growers and collectives who had skin in the game, went back to their packs of industrial smokers.

Around Nine-thirty, vendors started to strike their booths and folks started streaming towards the exits. Being Sunday night, the South of Market club we were in had very little street traffic. That was a blessing for many who forgot to look both ways as they stumbled across the street as the party-goers tried to remember where they’ve parked their cars.    

I fell in with an elite bunch. Many of us had been judges for the competition. We adjourn to another party in the Haight. The talk was about the party and the forty-two strains that were up for the competition.

About an hour into our after-hours bash, we realized we left before knowing the winning strain. As joint after joint was passed throughout the gathering, we laughed about what we saw and hear throughout the night. Actually, by that point, George Bush could have come in and told a joke and we would have cracked up.

Knowing the hoops that Kevin Reed had to jump through to get this legal pot party off the ground, everyone agreed it was a success. There were tales of High Times having lawyers present gather information to sue. People speculated whether there were undercover cops there ready to bust the fool who would sell bud. I thought about the B & T kids who wanted to buy some WEED from me. Was it a set-up?

Some said after 2012, this is how it’s going to be in California, that soon we will be legally able to smoke Pot freely in bars, outside like we did tonight. Then someone asks, “Isn’t legal already?”

We laughed some more.

I don’t know what the future holds for California and Pot. My bet is Colorado gets to Legalization before Cali. But these Pot Competitions and parties are the start. As long as so many people can come together without anyone getting hurt or harmed, maybe those scare tactics that played out the months before the election will fall on deaf ears next time. Maybe we can show the world that we can party and get home safe. While some of us activists and voters couldn’t agree on the language of Proposition 19, last Sunday night, we all came together over our collected passion. And it was nice…

And the Winner is…Boss OG Kush, Indoor Organic Hybrid. Collective/Grower: Boss



America's First Family of Hate

Westboro Baptist Church hate squad to picket Capuchino High School in San Bruno, November 8

Today the God Hates Fags people are coming to town again, this time to bring their gypsy-scam circus to Capuchino High School. So far the only reason locals can figure why Fred Phelps, Sr. and Fam are bringing their bogus-protest is because the public high school teaches science, not creationism. Otherwise, we’re not sure why?

I know I am a simply blogger. I am writer who has hopes of working for a big-time unit one day, whether national magazine or newspaper, but until that time I can only look forward to someone finding this article and bringing it to the attention of someone who has either more readers or more power.

The God Hates Fag bunch comprises a family out of Topeka, Kansas, named the Phelps. The Phelps run the Mothership of all-Hate Ministeries called the Westboro Baptist Church.

 I can only speculate what happens behind closed doors out there in the Middle West, but the Rev. Phelps and his large, extended family are primarily known for picketing the funerals of any fallen military personnel  who they perceive to be a Homosexual or doing the devils work.

They also stage their rallies against Jews, Gays, and that most hidden menace, the Swedes. Yes, the Phelps believe that the Swedes are immoral and an earthquake in 2004 that claimed many Swedish lives was seen as God’s revenge for the Swedish tolerant stance on Homosexuality.

In January of this year, I tried to infiltrate the Phelps family when they brought their Devil and Pony show to the Jewish Community Center in San Francisco.

The City had provided an area in front of the JCC to do their protest. I joined them behind the barricaded area to do my own rebellion.

My idea was to bring up the fact that most of the Christmas songs were written by Jewish composers. I rallied that it was time for us to come up with our own strictly Christian-written songs. I had songs like, “It’s going to be a really, White, White Christmas.” And “Oh Come, All Ye Hateful.”

But to my surprise, I was outed by the Jews who were picketing the God Hates Fag people for being Jewish. I don’t see it but some twenty others did.

My plan failed. But what did happen was this, for about thirty minutes I was up close and personal with the Phelps.

I looked into the eyes of the leaders and more importantly, their brain-washed daughters. While Dad and Mom directed the proceedings, the protest against the JCC and the all the evil it represents by having a swimming pool that allows anyone with a membership to use, I spoke to the daughters.

These young women were programmed. They spoke in sound-bites that Frank Luntz could only dream of. One told me that my head was empty and the spaces were causes her to get sick. After trying to figure out what she just had said, I tried to talk to her further. By that time one of the Elder Sisters came in between us and I was disbarred from the Phelps.

Between the Jews yelling at me for being a turn-coat and the Phelps on to me as being an interloper, the heat was on and I needed to get out.

Being that close to the Phelps family I saw and felt their self-righteous pain and anger. And I think that’s what we’re supposed to see.

Because they are a scam.

You can look online and find the Phelps protesting schedule. You won’t be able to join because they have their demonstrations orchestrated down to the minute and seconds. These demonstrations are staged to incur the wrath of those around them. The Phelps are very much in control at these rallies. They fake left, on the hopes that you will attack with your right. It’s a lot like the wresting I used to see as a kid on TV. Just like All-Star Wrestling, the Phelps matches are all staged.

The Phelps just recently had their case before the Supreme Court. They are allowed to protest under the First Amendment. What they do is legal. And they count on that.

When they are attacked or confronted with violence, even water-balloons, they sue. The Phelps only has their large immediate family at the protests, barely a third cousin to be seen. But they have an army of Lawyers in waiting ready to pounce and sue.   

How can they afford all their protests? Google their schedules. Who supplies them with the bucks to fly across the country at a moment’s notice? Check their record for their court wins. Cause they win all the time.

There is something not right in Topeka.

I was an anti-war protester in the Sixties and Seventies. It has been said that the returning soldiers coming back from Vietnam were spit on. I hope that wasn’t true. I’ve heard it was a myth and then I’ve heard otherwise. The debate still continues to this day.

I might have been a protester but I am also the son of a veteran of World War II and Korean Conflict, I have respect for anyone who served. Even back then.

Could it be true that the servicemen were spit on?

I don’t know, I never saw it. Would we allow a family to fly to funerals all across this great country of Ours, to spit on the graves of servicemen and women now, with full knowledge of it happening?

I guess so. I’ve seen it.

The Phelps family has been allowed to protest for over ten years now. They have this road-show they lovingly call, ‘I’ll spit on your grave’. I just have to make airline reservations first. And we can’t stop them.

They are the most modern family in America. They get to be outlandish. Inappropriate. Hostile. Troublemakers. And at the end of the day, they can sue whoever tries to stop their hate.

It will be just a matter of time before they get their own reality show.

 On one level, they are geniuses. The more you hate them, the more money they bring in. It is like a Ponzi scheme for the hateful. The more they piss off, the more their monetary intake.

Couple of weeks ago, America found out that gay teens are dying because of bullies.

Well, let me introduce you to America’s First Family of Bullies, the Phelps of Topeka, Kansas.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWfjng2Avpc]

Whose the Enemy?

The world of Marijuana is changing. There is fear of the Mega-warehouse business-farmer taking over. There is fear of places like Orange County and San Diego jumping into the Pot game with venture capitalists having deep pockets that seem never ending when it comes to the Green Rush. This change has the average Pothead crying, “Wal-Mart is here! Wal-Mart is here!”

It is also changing how we get our pot. The days of meeting in alleys and in parking lots are over. Going to your dealers, hanging, smoking, until next week when you repeat the same process. Now, many of us get our pot from dispensaries, at least here in California.

What hasn’t changed is… someone has to grow it.

While warehouse pot is just now getting off the ground, the Mendo-Humboldt area has been cultivating Cannabis for more than fifty years. They know a little about growing weed.  

Proposition 19 brought out the best and worst of our Pot Generation. While many tended the fields, pounding the pavement, knocking on doors and spreading the message, others bemoan the movement. I do not fault those that found Prop.19 lacking. I could only agree with that assessment. But to attack those who live and sometimes die by the weed, I’m shocked by people’s outrage.

Yesterday I wrote about some growers who were voting against Prop.19. And yes, I stated they did it for business reasons. But I want to be clear that business up in what is commonly referred to as the Emerald Triangle, is not the same as business elsewhere.

I could safely say that eighty percent of the growers I know give part of their crop back to their community in one form or another. I know a few who give ten percent like the Bible says you should. In previous columns I’ve talked about the ‘Pencil Patch’ and the others like it I saw in Humboldt. The Pencil Patch is a grow whose profits are set aside for the schools of Humboldt. There are also dedicated grows or gardens that are set up for community needs with profits from their crop going to civic causes like rec-centers and crazy enough, fire trucks.

I know two growers personally who’ve set up an education fund with the money they’ve made from growing.  They’ve sent four kids, who otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance, to college; this wouldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for a couple of grows off of North 101.

Tim Blake, who I had interviewed for yesterday’s piece, had just recently donated to a local program that was hurting and needed help to get it right.

The communities of Humboldt and Mendocino and the others that make up the Triangle are somewhat isolated and operate by a different set of rules. This has been the way it’s been since the first L.B. was brought down to San Francisco.

While the passage of Proposition 215 changed the game dramatically, growers still played by the same general rules as before, only more open and transparent. Well, some did. Others still grow where they can and how they can. That’s what it means to be a grower. To take chances.

Last week a woman in Ukiah shot and killed an intruder who thought he might take a short cut to getting some weed. Home invasions are up and the creeps doing it are as sophisticated as the cops who chase them. The bad guys are using night-vision goggles. Glocks and machine guns are standard. Growers all have dogs. These are the first to go, whether by the bad guys or the cops who might raid an illegal grow.

Then there’s mold and fungus. A whole crop can die in an afternoon if you’re not careful. And then there’s the partners that get greedy with dollar-dreams and steal the crop in the middle of the night.

Trimmers. Some are good and work quick and honest. Others are opportunists who are there to rip-off you off and take what they can. I can’t imagine what it is like to let someone into your home and trust them not to bring down the operation. If something went wrong, you could lose the roughly eighty to one hundred grand that you’ve invested into your business.

And that’s just the half of it.

There’s family shit. The product gets in the way of doing regular stuff. From harvest to buds-in-the-bag, it is non-stop work. Between drying, trimming, bagging and counting, you can easily put in a sixteen hour day. Forget the family picnics.

And then you have to get it to market without getting busted or ambushed.

And now in 2010, the dispensaries are king. They control the prices in California, not the growers.  Now, they just grow the stuff. In some places, the kids don’t mind that their weed isn’t organic and has been juiced indoors just to try to replicate that outdoor feel.

So if the growers in Humboldt and Mendocino seem self-serving, think again. They’re in the business for the long haul. They don’t set up a grow room and run. No, they live where they grow. They pay taxes where they grow. They defend their homes and fields where they grow.

They have different concerns than us. We care about getting our stuff. They care about getting stuff to us.

There are some very unscrupulous growers out there, for sure. But for the most part, most of the growers I’ve met are concerned about their families and communities and grow with that in mind. If half of them believe Proposition 19 was going to be bad for them, so be it, who are we to say? I’m not the one sitting up with a Glock to make sure my home is safe.

It is different up north. Life is hard but very rewarding for the right individual. Not everyone can live up there.

The Marijuana industry is changing. Let’s make sure we know who the real bad guys are before we start calling the growers greedy because some voted with their pocketbooks. Let’s not forget who has been getting us weed for these past five decades.

Let’s learn from Prop.19.

The first lesson: The enemy isn’t us.

The vote:

Statewide with 92.9% reporting:

Yes 3,256,959 46.2%

No 3,783,190 53.8%

Lost by 7.6%

Source: http://www.sos.ca.gov/contest_summary.pdf

Humboldt County with 97.71% reporting:

Yes 17,702 46.8%

No 20,130 53.2%

Lost by 6.4%

Source: http://co.humboldt.ca.us/election/results/2010/2010nov-final-report.pdf

Mendocino County with 100% reporting

Yes  9315 47%

No 10,503 53%

Lost by 6%

Source: http://www.co.mendocino.ca.us/acr/cgi-bin/current.pl

Trinity County

Yes  40.4%

No  59.6%

Lost by almost 20%



The Day After

 

Richard Lee’s office is issuing the statement about how close we came. “That the fight isn’t over. Forty-four percent of Californians are for Legalization. This is all very positive. This is just the beginning…” I’m paraphrasing.

We owe a lot to Richard Lee and I’m sure he owes a lot to many different people today. He put his name and money on the line and paid the penalty of being demonized by his own side, pot smokers who were suspicious of his motives. Yet it was Richard who was aggressively pushing Proposition 19 throughout the state with his army of Oakerstamians, his political power and his dough. Every good campaign needs a leader. Richard, along with many others who knocked on unfriendly doors, called the voters during game time and made an effort where others sat; they deserve our respect and gratitude.

For the weeks leading up to the election, everyday there would be door-hangers with a new political message or candidate advertisement, seeking my vote and endorsement. Because I’m a registered Democrat, I only had the Dem’s literature hanging from my knob daily seeking my vote. Not one of the candidates, whether it was Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer, some Democrat running for dogcatcher, etc…Not one of them would endorse Proposition 19. That’s a bad sign. That needs to change.

I reported last week that the growers up north were having a change of heart concerning Prop.19. Many of the people who I spoke to told me, “We’re voting for it, no matter how many people say we’re not.” Well, that didn’t happen. I called up north this morning to talk to some of the growers and apparently they had another change of heart, and voted against Prop.19.

“When the economical climate is rough, people get desperate,” one grower said. “The growers up here aren’t any different than anyone else when it comes to money. The Rand think-tank had something to do with it. When they stated growers would get less if Prop.19 passed; that woke a lot of people up.”

I asked Mendocino Icon, Tim Blake what he thought.

“I knew every grower was against it. There really isn’t an upside for us up here. If it passed, many, many people would lose money. The language of the bill was bad and the growers couldn’t be sure where the market was going to go. Then there was that Eric Holder thing where he said he’d bust us even if it passed. Most growers would rather go back to the old days, the old way of doing things. And why not? You’re making three times what you used to in the old days.”

What do you think is going to happen next?

“I think people are going to rework the bill. This time have it much clearer concerning commerce, transportation and cultivation. Don’t leave it up to each county to decide their individual laws. We’re in a shocked and rocked economy. That is why the scare tactics from the other side worked. Let’s take two years and get this right. Fair for everyone,” Mr. Blake said.

What do you think the ratifications are for you and the growers up north because of Prop.19 not passing?

“I don’t know, too early to tell. But I’ll tell you one thing. For being on the losing side, we’re doing pretty good.”



Today’s the Day for Straight Talk

Proposition 19 shimmers out there like a dream to many. To some, it is a pipe-dream if you think we’re going to let the hippies have their way smoking their Marijuana.

To people like me, who are over forty, in a way, we thought a day like this could never come.

We’re so close; it’s going to be a heartbreaker if it doesn’t pass.

I will argue all day if you want and agree with the contingency that believes that Prop.19 doesn’t go far enough or doesn’t cover enough of the unknown territory like it should.

Agreed.

But at the same time, this is the closest we’ve ever been to have Marijuana available to the general public. Proposition 215, the Grandmother of all props, is fourteen years old. Fourteen years, and because it is in a teenage infancy, it is still being worked out and expanded. That’s right, expanded.

Fourteen states have Medical Marijuana, because of California, and the work that activists and regular individuals have done in each of those states.

Proposition 215 is a foundation to be built upon.

Prop.19 is unclear on many levels. The counties of Cali are going to have the power on deciding their own revenue future. Whether to embrace the taxation that will come from it or run from the fear that has taken hold since 1937.

But it can all be worked out.

We go to war without a clue about the terrain, the indigenous people and why we’re really there. I’ve been in the anti-war movement my whole life and I’ve never seen anyone inquire about the future of our aggressive agenda. We just go to war and work it out as needed.

And we can’t do that with Marijuana?

Feds Vs. State’s Rights

When I moved to California in the Seventies, what freaked me out the most? That you could sell liquor in grocery stores right along side of the eggs and milk.

Where I grew up, liquor was only sold in liquor stores and they closed at Eight pm weekdays, Ten pm, for the ungodly weekend nights. Of course, closed on Sunday.

I couldn’t believe that people weren’t getting more drunk and wild because of it. I was told growing up that if you sold alcohol past Eight pm, bad things happen.

But the bad things never happened. People continued to be adults. California grew into the seventh largest economy in the world, since I moved here. I guess the alcohol didn’t stop the future from happening. People still went to work, got on with their lives, and some even quit drinking.

If we could go backwards, the very first thing I would do is change Marijuana from a Schedule One drug to, something else. I don’t even want to play the Schedule game. Marijuana shouldn’t be included along side with Heroin and Cocaine.

The whole reason the Feds are involved is because one very smart badguy, made Marijuana a Schedule One drug, knowing very well how hard it will be to over-turn that drug’s classification once established that Marijuana is as bad for you as Heroin and Crack.

By changing the status of Marijuana, this would in turn call off the Federal dogs.

That is one of the first things that need to happen.

Now for the emotional…

I’ve been in jail for Marijuana. Not prison but many jails throughout this great country of ours. I could say I was stupid and young, but mostly that wasn’t the case.

I got busted at a rock concert where someone was smoking a joint and we all were rounded up. I got busted in a car that had two joints hidden in the trunk. I got busted when a friend of mine was busted and I had to take the stuff otherwise he would have been sent to prison for his SECOND offense.

Dealers and Suppliers aside, your average dope smoker in prison or jail shouldn’t be there. We make fun of Pot smokers for being too hippy-dippy. For being too mellow and unable to understand reality. Yet we put our young people next to murderers and violent inmates because why? Oh yeah, they broke our laws. The Law of the Land. Who makes the Laws of the Land? We do. So it is up to us to change it.

Right now health care is under a microscope. Will Obama’s plan work?

Have we ever thought about taking the money we use for the War on Drugs, which has no up-side; we lose money chases the druggies. How about we go after the Medicare cheats? The people who rip us and stop others from getting the help they need. Why don’t we go after crime where we could show a profit from?

I know why. Look at Arizona’s Governor, Jan Brewer. She is working with her For-Profit Prison systems, to get those beds filled. If she has to draw up a law that states, it is illegal not to be white in the State of Arizona, she’ll do it.

This is why Prison Correctional Officers Union is the greatest donors against Proposition 19. The prisons lose money with the Legalization of Marijuana.

It’s that simple.

Mid-terms, Smid-terms…

It doesn’t seem that long ago that Karl Rove and his goons were able to scare America with the Gay-Threat. Karl the Genius of Fear was able to convince otherwise silent majority to get out there and vote, unless you want the Gays to take over the world with their fabulous Gay Agenda.

And it worked.

Mothers and Fathers voted against their gay children. For the months surrounding that mid-term election, those of us on the other side had to retaliate or let the message stand. We were being drawn into a fight that we didn’t want to be a part of in the first place.

Why can’t we scare the Moms and Dads? Do they want their kids in prison? Could their kid make it through that first night or would they find an alternative to being locked up?

My friends up north in Mendo and Humboldt are voting for Prop 19, no matter what you’ve heard. They don’t like the way the bill is now, but they know it better than nothing. And yes, they will lose money at first, if this bill is passed.

We’re not at a crossroads. We’re not at a fork in the road. We’re on a path.

The Feds have okayed Medical Marijuana for veterans. In a way, that is a huge mistake if you think you can overturn that once it gets started.

Marijuana is medicine for many individuals. And for others, it is a recreational drug. Yes, it can be all of those things. And sadly for others, it represents fear and the unknown.

Legalization would be a huge change for America, but I think we could handle it. We are ready. We’ve been practicing since high school. 14 million Americans smoke Marijuana.

What are we waiting for?