FUGGEDABOUTIT
Hopes were high that New
York State would beat
a legislative deadline to
fully legalize cannabis, but
it was not to be, at least
not this year. Instead, the
State Assembly voted to
expand decriminalization
and expunge the records
of nonviolent weed-related
convictions. The decrim
expansion is important
and needed, but pot
advocates were hoping for
full legalization. The setback has been a boon for Massachusetts, which went legal last year.
The Theory Wellness dispensary in Great Barrington had to triple its staff to accommodate
business from its neighbor to the west, the Daily News reported. “We believe in equity in the
cannabis industry and we also believe in access to safe cannabis for all adults,” said Theory’s
CEO, Brandon Pollock. “So when a state like New York is so close to allowing access and fails it is
certainly very disappointing in our view because that just further delays people having access.”
Maybe next year.HOUSE RULES
The US House of Representatives have a
message for the Justice Department: Fuck off.
In June, the House approved a spending rider
(an amendment to an appropriations bill for
fiscal year 2020) to restrict the long arm of
federal law from interfering with states that
have legalized weed. “It’s past time we protect
all cannabis programs,” said Representative
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), co-founder of the
Congressional Cannabis Caucus and lead
sponsor of the amendment. “We have much
more work to do. The federal government is
out of touch and our cannabis laws are out
of date. I’m pleased that the House agrees
and we are able to move forward.” It remains
to be seen whether the rider will make it to
the final version of the appropriations bill,
but it does have bipartisan support. Some 41
Republicans joined 226 Democrats in support
of the amendment, which would also protect
US territories, Native American lands and
Washington, DC, from federal interference.
TOMB RAIDERS
Archaeologists in China have uncovered very early evidence of humans who
blazed. Scientists from China and Germany exhumed 2,500-year-old tombs
in Jirzankal Cemetery in the eastern Pamirs region. Their analysis of wooden
fragments and burnt stones from pots in the tombs yielded the unmistakable
chemical signature of cannabis. Their research was published in Science Advances.
It is widely believed that smoking herb began on the Central Asian steppes, but
that’s a theory hinging on a single text by the Greek historian Herodotus, from the
late first millennium BC. “The archaeological evidence for ritualized consumption
of cannabis is limited and contentious,” the scientists reported. “Here, we present
some of the earliest directly dated and scientifically verified evidence for ritual
cannabis smoking.” The early blazers weren’t puffing pipes, though. More
likely they torched up bunches of cheeba and hot-boxed it. The researchers
surmised that the weed was used for burial ceremonies, maybe even as a way to
communicate with the dead.Ancestral hot box28 HIGH TIMES I OCTOBER 2019
Blumenauer, representingHIGHWITNESS NEWSURINETOWN
Researchers in Washington State are not
letting wastewater go to waste. Scientists at
two sewage-treatment plants in Tacoma are
analyzing the stuff to measure THC-COOH,
the compound produced when humans
metabolize weed, which makes its way out
of the body in the form of pee. What they
found is that Tacomans—and undoubtedly
happy people in other parts of the state—have
doubled their THC intake between 2013
and 2016. The research was published in
the journal Addiction. Because metabolite
levels haven’t gone up as much as would be
expected from the huge increase in legal
sales, it appears that many users are former
black-market customers now using the legal
stuff. It’s unknown whether the increase in
metabolites means more people are toking
up or the same people are toking up more, or
that the weed being toked up is more potent
than it used to be. These are all good reasons. XIN
HUA^ WUJustice delayed