Recent content by SmokeDog420

Get caught trafficking drugs, go to jail. No ifs, ands or parole. Any questions? That was the message behind Congress' 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act. The law created mandatory minimum penalties for first-time drug traffickers, which based jail time on the amount of drugs found. Carrying 5 grams of...

The deputy drug czar was in Alaska last week speaking out against the evils of Proposition 2, the most recent attempt to legalize marijuana in Alaska. Many of us were shocked to discover the deputy drug czar had such strong feelings about pot. I remember saying, "Boy, that deputy drug czar...

San Luis Obispo -- The federal government says marijuana is dangerous and illegal, but 79-year-old Bill Denneen says the drug keeps him from losing his sight. As the San Luis Obispo City Council decides Tuesday whether to allow a center for the distribution of medicinal marijuana in town...

San Luis Obispo -- The federal government says marijuana is dangerous and illegal, but 79-year-old Bill Denneen says the drug keeps him from losing his sight. As the San Luis Obispo City Council decides Tuesday whether to allow a center for the distribution of medicinal marijuana in town...

'There's hemp oil in this? You're kidding! I've been buying this soap for years and never realized that," Tamra Miller said. She was at the Ocean Beach People's Organic Food Market examining the label of a gallon jug of "Dr. Bronner's 18-in-1 Pure Castile Soap." A key ingredient is hemp oil...

District Attorney Norm Vroman met with local police chiefs Thursday morning to discuss the problem of marijuana gardens in residential areas. Vroman wanted to make it clear that his office is not the place to look for a solution to what many in the community believe is out of control pot...

To establish my credentials, you should know that I practiced family medicine for 40 years in Kodiak. My special interests were drug abuse/addiction and psycho-somatic medicine (now mind/body medicine). I was a founder of the Kodiak Mental Health Center in 1970, the Kodiak Council on...

Everyone has heard the joke about how you can tell when operatives from the Bush administration are lying–their lips are moving. Given the Bush presidency's horrid record of lying about everything from preemptive war to domestic issues such as the environment, health care and education, it...

As final briefs were filed Wednesday in a critical medical marijuana test case, set for argument in the U.S. Supreme Court next month, California got some unlikely allies. A trio of Southern attorneys general submitted a brief saying that when states decide to let their citizens light up, the...

As final briefs were filed Wednesday in a critical medical marijuana test case, set for argument in the U.S. Supreme Court next month, California got some unlikely allies. A trio of Southern attorneys general submitted a brief saying that when states decide to let their citizens light up, the...

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sided with two medical marijuana patients Wednesday in their U.S. Supreme Court battle with the Bush administration, arguing that patients who use locally grown marijuana in states that allow it should be protected from federal drug enforcement. "The...

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer sided with two medical marijuana patients Wednesday in their U.S. Supreme Court battle with the Bush administration, arguing that patients who use locally grown marijuana in states that allow it should be protected from federal drug enforcement. "The...

If a new ballot initiative succeeds, Alaska will become the only state where it's legal to smoke, buy and sell pot. Alaska has flip-flopped on its marijuana laws a few times over the last 30 years, starting back in 1975, when it became legal for adult Alaskans to possess small amounts of...

I've avoided using marijuana all my life, not easy in a generation where it's been a primary cultural currency. It wasn't from moral reservations; smoking pot just wasn't to my taste. On the rare occasions when I felt a need to alter my consciousness, I preferred to get drunk or take a nap. I...

Helena -- In the last few months of his short life, Travis Michalski of Helena had lost a third of his body weight. His skinny frame was wracked with so much pain, he couldn't bear his families' hugs. And the powerful medications his oncologist gave him to combat the torment of terminal cancer...