RIPAC is holding a community meeting tonight for patients, caregivers, advocates, and anyone else interested in learning more about medical marijuana. Meeting starts at 7:00pm in the Arnold Lounge of Keeney Quadrangle at Brown University (Benevolent Street between Brown and Benefit Streets/ map). More information at RIPAC or call 401.861.1601.

No wonder the General Assembly tabled progress on and the Governor vetoed dialogue about medical marijuana compassion centers… just look at what’s happened in California! In this week’s New Yorker, David Samuels offers an insanely long insider’s look at the cannabis culture of California post-Proposition 215 and (the aptly named) Senate Bill 420. Here’s a taste:

One of Captain Blue’s regular marijuana customers was a dispensary in Venice Beach. The store, which has cement floors, a glass display case, and a couch the color of aluminum, looks like a cross between a photographer’s loft and a Kiehl’s boutique. When I last visited, large Mason jars in the display case were filled with designer strains of weed selected by the owner, Cindy 99, whose nickname refers to a variety of designer pot. In a refrigerator, and marked “For medicinal use only,” were treats such as marijuana granola and marijuana milk chocolate with crispy wafers. Above the counter hung a notice: “To our valued patients: in accordance with California law, we are required to add 8.25% sales tax.”

And this excerpt is my favorite:

Growing ganja lets you feel that you’re still living on the edge, especially when you’ve become a little complacent politically. Emily nodded, and took another puff. “The forest is still getting cut down or whatever,” she said, watching the fragrant smoke swirl in the breeze. “But you’re still working out here. You’re still subverting the Man. And you’re getting people high.”

[Full disclosure, since some of our readers have a tough time with sarcasm and send angry e-mails: compassion centers are a really good idea. A ridiculous number of pot-smoking hippies who benefit from the arrangement are merely collateral damage.]

This is a Community Meeting. RIPAC director Jesse Stout welcomes all Rhode Islanders interested in medical marijuana for a discussion of this topic and to meet other patients, caregivers, and advocates. The meeting will be held in the Keeney Quad at Brown University, in the Arnold Lounge.  For info call 861.1601.

7PM to 8:30PM/July 15/Benevolent Street near the corner of Brown Street

Attention artists. Help RIPAC design their new T-shirt and if your entry is chosen you can win… a brand new T-shirt! Well, it’s all about the glory really. And the cause. RIPAC is the medical marijuana advocacy coalition that helped our enlightened legislators make marijuana possession legal for qualified patients. But the battle for availability continues. Our decidedly unenlightened governor has vetoed a bill that would have formed a study commission to look into the creation of Compassion Centers. (Musn’t have information… might be dangerous to learn things.) So the sale of the new totally awesome T-shirts will help fund RIPAC’s continuing efforts in this area. (And yes, we all love Harold and Kumar, but this is about medical marijuana.)

deadline for entries July 29/one or two colors only/send entries or questions to RIPAC, 145 Wayland Avenue, Providence 02906/or info@ripatients.org

… you could stay home and watch Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, 9PM on Comedy Central. Then, if the movie makes you hungry, head down to Stanley’s, 371 Richmond Street, open Saturday nights until 2AM. They are rounder but quite delicious. If you must have an original White Castle burger, I think the closest one would be in Astoria (you can not go into midtown on a Saturday). Just take the Van Wyck to the Queens Midtown Expressway, then head south on route 278…. and… then… I think you can see it from there. If you miss the exit continue on to South Amboy.

Come to the State House this afternoon at 3pm to let the House of Representatives know you want a vote on the Compassion Center bill. This bill would allow the Department of Health to establish and regulate a dispensary to grow and distribute medical marijuana to patients and their caregivers. Patients need safe access to medical marijuana and, according to RIPAC executive director Jesse Stout, most state reps have already indicated support. Get over to the State House on Smith Street in Providence at 3pm Wednesday afternoon to help lobby for a Compassion Center, and bring as many friends/family/neighbors as you can. Remember, you may need this someday, so help now. For more information call RIPAC at 861-1601.

Check out the June issue of Providence Monthly (no reading it online, you must pick up a hard copy) for a piece on the Compassion Center Bill currently working its way through the RI legislature. Spearheading this effort is RIPAC executive director, Jesse Stout (seen here speaking at last year’s annual NORML convention). The bill would address the problem of safe access to medical marijuana for the patients and caregivers who are now legally allowed (under RI law anyway) to possess it. The new law would “direct the Department of Health to license and regulate a nonprofit distribution center, providing patients with a safe and reliable source of quality, affordable marijuana”.

The article is written by the always cuddly John Taraborelli, who may or may not be responsible for the photo caption identifying Mr. Stout as “The Mariju-Warrior”. (Did he say “ju”? I distinctly heard him say “ju”.)

To help support this initiative, go to RIPAC. Also read Mr. Stout’s June 2nd Pro-Jo op-ed piece.

I once met a guy who said he and some friends dug up H.P. Lovecraft’s skull and drank whisky from it under a full moon. I wonder if I should have believed him.

But Police did not believe a Houston surburban kid named Kevin Wade Jones, Jr. when he told him how he and two of his friends dug up a body from an area cemetery and smoked pot from the skull.

It wasn’t until they went to another of the boy’s homes, and upon asking him about the story, he “regurgitated in his plate of food.” Vomit makes a believer out of me, too, Serge.

From the Houston Chronicle Front Page:

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