Today is 4/20, National Marijuana-something Day so listen up. Legislation to make marijuana legal for adult recreational use is before the general assembly, and director of Regulate Rhode Island Jared Moffat urges us to lead the way here in the northeast. When it comes to the potential economic benefits, being first matters.
With 57% support among Massachusetts voters, it looks like their ballot initiative to make marijuana legal for adults in November has a very good chance of passing. #ItsTime for the Rhode Island General Assembly to hold a vote on this issue. Go here to contact your legislators.
Let’s hope our state leaders have read the recent The New York Times article about the Colorado marijuana tourist boom — “The Promised Land of Pot.” Not surprisingly, entrepreneurs have found that food-related businesses are a big draw . . . but cooking classes?
Our class that morning was led by a graduate of the Johnson & Wales culinary school, Travis French, who instructed us in the preparation of weed chicken tacos, weed guacamole and weed-infused jicama slaw.
Unfortunately, the photo of Travis that ran in the hard copy of the Sunday NYT Travel section is not included online. (An aside here: I may be wrong but NYT editorial choices (headline, photographs) for online versions of stories always seem aimed at appealing to the millennials. Which is of course not going to work.)
Another fun fact from the article, one dispensary director working with My 420 Tours estimated that 60 percent of his clients are from Texas, adding “It’s a weed-repressed society.”
Disclosure: I am a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) an organization of criminal justice professionals who bear personal witness to the wasteful futility and harms of our current drug policies.