Despite a lead single about “women, weed and weather,” Kendrick Lamar will likely not spark a blunt when the clock strikes high during Saturday’s concert. See, way back when Lamar was Kendrick Duckworth he unintentionally smoked a joint laced with PCP (hence M.A.A.D aka “My Angel’s on Angel Dust”). For anybody who has seen Training Day, you can imagine what a profoundly unpleasant surprise that must have been. Though a point of debate on the kanyetothe forum (check it out if you like forum beef), Kendrick’s weedless lifestyle is a confirmed fact. While many rap artists swear by the chronic, Lamar insists that “it was never a dependent for [him]” and that he no longer bothers with it. So hold your joint high at 4:20 p.m. tomorrow, just don’t be discouraged when Lamar fails to join the festivities. The true letdown, however, is that Dr. Dre’s claim that he “pass the blunt then pass the torch” to K.Dot is really just speech in the rap vernacular and not an account of any actual blunt-torch passing.

In 2012, Rhode Island passed a law to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. This law is currently in effect as of April 1, 2013. This is not an April Fools joke, but rather an effort that Senator Joshua Miller, D-representing Cranston, and state Representative Jay Edwards, D–representing Tiverton and Portsmouth, have been working to pass for the past five years. A first-time offender who possesses one ounce or less of marijuana will now see a $150 civil fine, and no jail time.  An individual who is charged with possession three times in 18 months, however, must pay the original $500 civil fine, and will most likely spend a year in jail.

The implications are huge. The law hopes to debunk the “forbidden fruit” nature of the drug, which is why many young adults may find it so appealing in the first place. Perhaps more importantly, a portion of the money collected from fines will now go towards drug treatment and education programs. Now that possession is no longer criminal, it is hoped that people can seek proper treatment rather than becoming lost in the criminal justice system. This will save the state a great deal of money down the road by relying more on prevention and less on incarceration.

[Read more →]

Rhode Island is working on it.

Rhode Island is officially looking to help you enjoy your favorite weekly daily never 4/20 activity. Following Colorado’s and Washington (state)’s successes in November, your friendly neighborhood State Representatives and Senators have a filed a bill to legalize marijuana for students adults 21 and older.

Federal law still technically has a ban on the substance, a bill to give states the right to do- ahem- whatever regarding pot will be introduced next Tuesday to the House of Representatives.

RI State Rep. Edith Ajello believes “it is time for Rhode Island… to adopt a more sensible approach [to pot] just as our nation did with alcohol 80 years ago.”

Today, illegal substances don’t give way to fun speakeasies and awesome flapper dresses (i.e. Gatsby trailer). Today there are just more crowded dorm rooms. No awesome dresses.

Legalization will help the economy in ways that I don’t quite understand (I am taking Econ S/NC)… but it’ll create jobs, tax revenue, and other stuff, I think. Plus, we’ll be able to smoke.

(That is, if the bill passes…)

Brown Visiting Lecturer in Ethnic Studies Marie Myung-Ok Lee provides a pointed perspective on medical marijuana in her three-part series for Slate explaining why she gives pot to her nine-year-old autistic son. Check out parts one, two, and three.

Here’s a brief excerpt:

A friend whose child was once diagnosed with autism, but no longer (he attends school at his grade level and had three developmental assessments showing he no longer merits the diagnosis), wanted to embark on a kind of karmic mission to help other children. After extensive research, she landed on cannabis the way I had. “It has dramatic implications for the autism community,” she says, and it’s true. We have pictures of J. from a year ago when he would actually claw at his own face. None of the experts had a clue what to do. That little child with the horrifically bleeding and scabbed face looks to us now like a visitor from another world. The J. we know now doesn’t look stoned. He just looks like a happy little boy.

Retro-style “Diamonds and Coal” from The Herald’s issue on February 9, 2007:

A diamond to those enrolled in Rhode Island’s Medical Marijuana Program who get their medical marijuana from a friend, who gets it from an unknown source. Yeah, that’s how we get ours too.

Can’t get enough D & C? Read slightly more current incarnations in yesterday’s Herald, or submit your own at DiamondsandCoal.com!

A state commission to study marijuana prohibition in Rhode Island has just released its final report, in which the group recommended decriminalizing possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for 18-year-olds.

“The majority of the Commission agrees that marijuana law reform will not only benefit the state from a budget perspective, but would also avoid costly arrests or incarcerations due to simple possession,” the report reads.

The commission wasn’t unanimous in its conclusions, drawing dissent from some law enforcement officials on the board. No word yet on how Professor of Economics Glenn Loury voted.

Stay tuned to The Herald in print and online for more.

A jar of “Juicy Fruit” at the Green Cross dispensary in San Francisco. Meri Simon / San Jose Mercury News

The Rhode Island health department will start accepting applications from hopeful medical marijuana dispensary operators starting Thursday, just in time for St. Joseph’s day. Don’t get too excited; dorm rooms and off-campus apartments aren’t zoned for this sort of thing.

The General Assembly passed a bill this summer allowing for the creation of up to three “compassion centers” in the state. Rhode Island has had a medical marijuana program for years, but before now, patients needed to grow their own marijuana or buy it on the street.

Pictured: Grad Center, the site of famous weed-and-fireworks parties. Kim Perley / Herald

The Corporation convening on College Hill this weekend is not, for better or for worse, the same as the “Corporation” with 400 customers which sold pot, hashish and acid on campus in the early 1970s.

Details of this Corporation’s operations were printed in a disdainful-quotation-mark-filled May 1971 Providence Journal article based on an interview with a student who identified himself as the group’s president. The prez told tales of wild “pot parties” with 400 people and fireworks on the Grad Center terrace, chemistry PhDs inspecting their supplies, and marijuana sold at $15 an ounce — yeah, right, and hamburgers for a nickel!

The unabashed leader of the University’s “highest” governing body told the Journal his merry band was dissolving after two years because they were all graduating. “I’ve even vacuumed my room several times,” he said. Still, he had no regrets about his enterprise or his middling profits due to giving away free samples: “We should have made more than $20,000, but it was more fun this way,” the anonymous dealer said.