New York Hits Snags In Cannabis Legalization

David Feldman

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February 18, 2020

New York Hits Snags In Cannabis Legalization

A majority of New Yorkers favor legalization, but that opposition from the medical community and law enforcement, among others, remains.

I am not, in general, a betting man. If so, I would have lost some hard-earned dough last year when I predicted that New York will legalize the adult use of cannabis in the legislative session during the first half of 2019.

There are a number of reasons the bill was not passed, but that analysis is for another day. Since that experience, one hopes that the Governor and his Democrat-controlled legislature would have learned from the experience as they try to legalize again this year. Is anything different?

Well, yes and no. What is the same is the strong view of some of Cuomo’s Democrat colleagues that taxes raised through the sale of legal cannabis be directed towards poorer neighborhoods that traditionally were disproportionately affected by the War on Drugs. Cuomo doesn’t necessarily disagree but would rather have a broader “cannabis tax fund” that the state can later decide how to divide up.

In addition, legislators would like to ensure that possession of up to three ounces of marijuana would not yield criminal penalties. Cuomo wants to limit that to one ounce. In a bit of a give as well, Cuomo agreed that the very powerful cannabis czar he proposed last year would be checked and overseen by a five-member board. He would like, however, for that board to include only members appointed by the Governor.

how gov andrew cuomo might legalize medical marijuana in new york — Photo by Freddy Marschall via Unsplash

What also has not changed is that a majority of New Yorkers favor legalization, but that opposition from the medical community and law enforcement, among others, remains. Real issues about impaired driving, for example, should be addressed in a final bill. Press reports are indicating that these various challenges and differences are creating uncertainty as to the ultimate fate of the bill.

Will the differences be rectified before the budget must be completed on March 31? I am no longer in the predicting game. What I do know: Gov. Cuomo this year has put a lot of political capital on the line for this. He gathered the Governors of multiple neighboring states to seek to coordinate efforts on legalization and vowed to get this done in his recent State of the State message. Former President Ronald Reagan once famously said, “[I]f I can get 70 or 80 percent of what it is I’m trying to get, yes I’ll take that and then continue to try to get the rest in the future. And maybe it’s easier to get it as they see that this works.” Nuff said.

This article originally appeared on the David Feldman Blog.

Divided Government Is The Reason Marijuana Isn’t Getting A Fair Shake

Mike Adams

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February 18, 2020

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Divided Government Is The Reason Marijuana Isn’t Getting A Fair Shake

For the marijuana debate to move forward anytime soon, the people are going to have to vote Democrat in November.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed Grim Reaper of Capitol Hill and longtime gatekeeper to the upper chamber, seems to have forgotten what it means to live in a democracy.

The lawmaker is presently sitting on nearly 400 pieces of legislation recently pushed through by the House of Representatives, including one marijuana-related bill, that he admits will not pass the Senate.

Democrats have been complaining about McConnell’s tactics for a while now, arguing that the lawmaker alone is what stands in the way of progress on several issues. Last week, during an interview with Fox News Friday, anchor Bret Baier asked McConnell if the accusations were real.

Not surprisingly, the senator, all cocky and contemptuous, straight-up admitted that no bill on the party’s agenda is going to get a fair shake in the Senate.

“It is true,” McConnell said. “They’ve been on full left-wing parade over there, trotting out all of their left-wing solutions that are going to be issues in the fall campaign. They’re right. We’re not going to pass those.” Instead, he continued, both chambers will “have to work on things we can agree” on, such as government spending, the Mexico-Canada free trade agreement and some environmental issues.

But as for marijuana, you had better believe it’s one of those “left-wing” issues that McConnell isn’t entertaining.

Last year, the House overwhelmingly passed a marijuana bill known as the SAFE Act. The bill was simple enough in design. It didn’t call for the legalization of marijuana at the national level or anything too severe, only that banks be given permission to do business with the cannabis industry.

The Connection Between Cannabis And Multiple Sclerosis — Photo by FilippoBacci/Getty Images

Regardless of its lightweight nature, the bill has been lingering in political purgatory for months waiting for the Senate to answer its call. House lawmakers have been pushing McConnell to respond to the bill, but he has continued to ignore it every step of the way. And from the way it sounds, the situation isn’t about to improve for cannabis reform in 2020. No sir, marijuana is pretty much a dead issue this year, no matter what type of legislative magic makes its way through the House.

This is the real reason Democrats are hellbent on taking back control of the Senate, something that is possible in the November election. All of the power on the Hill would mean that their agenda could move forward without much drag at all, which is something that the Democrats have been missing for years.

And, to be quite honest, their chances at winning are good.

Several Senate seats are up for grabs this year, and the Dems are strategically working to see that they get filled with all the right people. Unfortunately, this means the anti-Trump part of the population could lose their presidential candidate of choice. Ever since Democrat Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire primary last week, reports have been circulating about how the powers-that-be probably will not nominate him to be the face of their campaign. They are worried that his socialist views might prevent them from gaining the necessary votes to win the Senate.

This strategy, however, could end up backfiring. Even with the Democrats in control of both the House and Senate, their mission to further marijuana reform (and many other issues) will go down in flames if President Trump wins a second term. Although it worked out for him in the end, Trump isn’t about to forget that it was them that fought tooth and nail to have him impeached. Therefore, we could see a situation next year where bills are getting vetoed as quickly as they are passed.

It’s impossible to predict how the government will look come 2021. But for the marijuana debate to move forward anytime soon, the people are going to have to vote Democrat in November.

But will they?

That’s tough to call, as well. Right now, not only is the government divided but so are the people. A recent Gallup poll finds that roughly 28 percent identify as Democrats, 28 percent as Republicans and 41 percent as independents. Unfortunately, the marijuana issue alone is not strong enough yet to create a united front – this in spite of the fact that 66 percent of the population supports the cause.

This Molecule Helps You Get Un-High

David Hodes

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February 18, 2020

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Olivetol is a tiny molecule that competes with THC for binding to the CB1 receptor, which is the receptor in the human body responsible for the psychoactive effects of THC.

Welcome to today’s buzz choices: High as possible, high as quickly as possible, hardly high at all, or un-high in minutes.

Cannabis product makers are addressing an increasingly large number of first-time consumers still a bit wary about the product, and offering new strategic products.

Now you can get as high as you want as fast as you want, get just as little high as you want, and even reverse the high you have so that you are not high at all.

Back in the day, say, 2014 or so (now ancient history in the cannabis world), it used to be that consumers were just looking to get as high as possible. “They found out that they couldn’t keep doing that,” said Bob Eschino, founder and president of Medically Correct. Medically Correct makes one of the first cannabis edible brands, Incredibles.

As new-to-the-experience consumers began buying edibles, Medically Correct introduced micro-dosed products with 1, 2 and 3 milligrams of THC, along with a new line of edibles called Quiq that get you high in five to ten minutes instead of the usual 30 to 60 minutes. “I was shocked to find out how little THC it took for someone to feel the effects,” Eschino says about the evolution of his product line. “It didn’t matter age, weight, the shape you were in or even your tolerance level.”

But now you can get unhigh? Sure, why not.

It comes down to one molecule — olivetol.

Olivetol is a tiny molecule that competes with THC for binding to the CB1 receptor, which is the receptor in the human body responsible for the psychoactive effects of THC. Olivetol gently replaces the THC at the site, occupying it temporarily, interrupting the psychoactivity within about 15 minutes, and boom, you’re not high anymore. Bring on the in-laws for a surprise visit!

It’s that molecule discovery that is at the heart of Undoo, a soft gel capsule made with olivetol, vitamin E and olive oil.

“Younger consumers find that they can actually use it as a strategic tool, because there are times when you want to be clear headed and times when you don’t want to be clear headed,” said Sarara Corva, CEO of Undoo.

It does not stop the medical therapy of the cannabis, she says. “Everything you took it for, you continue to get from it. The only thing that stops is the psychoactivity. We call it the cannabis safety net.”

Consumers Go For Cheap Weed Instead Of Top Shelf

Brendan Bures

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February 18, 2020

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Consumers Go For Cheap Weed Instead Of Top Shelf

The cannabis consumer has spoken with their wallets and what they want is affordable marijuana with high THC content.

In recent years, a string of marijuana companies has rushed to establish top-tier, premium cannabis products on dispensary shelves. The belief was that consumers would gravitate towards luxurious cannabis goods, much in the same way as craft beer and aged whiskey dominate a specific foothold within the spirits industry. This would be especially true for older crowds and newcomers, who would buy top-of-the-line weed to assuage any concern about this brave new world of marijuana.

Some companies even believed a demand would exist for $100 marijuana grams. That isn’t happening, not yet anyways. Since the Canadian cannabis market opened last summer, customers have gravitated toward cheaper cannabis goods and mid-to-high tier goods have lost their market share.

Aurora Cannabis CFO Glen Ibbott said on a conference call last week that cheap weed accounted for only 2% of the Canadian cannabis market last summer. That number has now jumped at 17%, with cheap marijuana qualifying as anything less than C$9, which is $6.79 in U.S. dollars. In the same time span, premium marijuana has dropped from a market share in the mid-30s to just 17%.

would medicare for all open access to medical marijuana for patients — Photo by David McNew/Staff/Getty Images

That badly hurt Aurora Cannabis, which focused on selling premium product. The company posted a $1 billion number in quarterly losses and saw its stock prices drop by 80% in the last 12 months. Aurora CEO Terry Booth announced he would step down, and the company has announced a sweeping cost-cutting plan. As you might expect, Aurora revealed this week it would launch a cheaper marijuana called The Daily Special.

The cannabis consumer has spoken with their wallets and what they want is affordable marijuana with high THC content. In other words, people want big highs with low costs. While PI Financial analyst Jason Zandberg told MarketWatch he expected the market would eventually demand for such product, many executives and insiders were caught off guard that it would happen this soon.

“Clearly, there is more production of cannabis than demand, but I didn’t expect downward pricing pressure for weed this soon, just over a year into the legal market,” Zandberg said.

New Search With Marijuana And Parkinson’s Disease

Kate-Madonna Hindes

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February 18, 2020

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New Search With Marijuana And Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers say a new strategy is ‘a potentially promising way to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and related neurological disorders.’

New research coming to light about how Parkinson’s disease progresses is helping scientists better understand the complex proteins involved. Just unveiled in the scientific journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the research titled, “Translation of the intrinsically disordered protein α-synuclein is inhibited by a small molecule targeting its structured mRNA,” illuminates a barrier that could be put in place to prevent the progression of Parkinson’s.

Knowing that Parkinson’s disease and dementia both could be caused by elevated levels of a-synuclein, a protein located in the brain, scientists thought on a much, much, smaller scale to find a solution. Instead of trying to manipulate the protein that could cause Parkinson’s directly, scientists looked to encode or program another molecule to change its behavior towards the protein.

Interestingly, scientists were successful when targeting RNA, a single strand molecule that encodes or programs the a-synuclein protein. Designing a small molecule that targeted the RNA to turn off a-synuclein, scientists also found that the compound they used was cytoprotective, meaning it could act as a shield to cells when needed.

An exciting advance for science and Parkinson’s patients, researchers said, “This strategy is a potentially promising way to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and related neurological disorders.” According to the Parkinson’s Foundation, almost one million individuals will have Parkinson’s disease by 2020, more than those with muscular dystrophy, ALS and MS combined, making this discovery a fantastic step towards the future of care.

Also getting attention for its potential effects on Parkinson’s disease is marijuana, which is being investigated both in labs and throughout the country to see if it may alleviate symptoms and give a better quality of life to patients. The Parkinson’s Foundation recently launched an initiative to study their members’ views on marijuana and gain insight from the community on its effects.

Does Marijuana Actually Ruin Your Memory? — Photo by Yuichiro Chino/Getty Images

Explaining the importance of the study, Parkinson’s Foundation Chief Scientific Officer, James Beck, PhD, explained, “When it comes to research, this is an unexplored area that has the potential to treat Parkinson’s symptoms.” Held after the organization hosted its first-annual medical marijuana research conference in March 2019, the foundation shared results from an earlier study in understanding how patients use cannabis.

According to their study:

80% of patients with PD have used cannabis
23% of doctors received formal education on medical marijuana
95% of neurologists have been asked to prescribe medical marijuana

Research in the past decade has showcased possible benefits and risks of cannabis for individuals with Parkinson’s and dementia. A 2015 study published in the journal Movement Disorders found no benefits for tremors but possible help for tics associated with the disease. The University of Colorado recently began research on the subject as well, helping Parkinson’s patients like Gary Griffin to raise his voice on how medical marijuana has helped him to live a longer, better life.

A 2019 study published in Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience on marijuana and Parkinson’s may sum it up best: While Parkinson’s has many of the same debilitating conditions for patients, each human body reacts differently to medicine and more research is needed. With small sample sizes of studies and a cited lack of standardized clinical outcomes, many organizations like the Parkinson’s Foundation have taken to beginning their own non-scientific research, rather than waiting for approval from the FDA.

The Easy Way To Grow Medical Cannabis Seeds

Mary Schumacher

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February 17, 2020

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The Easy Way To Grow Medical Cannabis Seeds

The question is whether or not you want to grow a whole lotta seeds or enough to stock your grow room for the next stretch.

As a responsible cannabis grower, you’ve likely done everything you could to keep males out of the garden. Growing your own seeds on a very basic level, however, requires a healthy, flowering male plant. Yes, keep him separate from your garden still, but the first step to breeding or growing your own seeds is picking a hearty male of the strain you want and growing him out.

Now, the question is whether or not you want to grow a whole lotta seeds or enough to stock your grow room for the next stretch. Remember that the following methods do not guarantee female seeds; you’ll still have to grow and sort, but it will be with seeds of your own creation. Here is the easy way to grow medical cannabis seeds.

Pick a female of the same or a different strain, remember this is essentially your foray into breeding as well as producing dank seeds if you cross two strains, but also remember that you’re creating seeds that are going to be used, so try and envision the strains together, from growth patterns to THC/CBD ratios and beyond.

For the whole plant method, when the female you’ve chosen is also flowering, take her into an isolated room with the male. Give the male a good few shakes to really get the pollen stirred up and then let nature take its course for a few days. When you return the female to her proper room or grow space, she’ll soon be pregnant with a whole mess of seeds.

When you just need a few good seeds or you want to ease into the seed growing experiment, do just a branch or two at a time. This will preserve the beautiful buds on other branches from being pollinated and you’ll have the best of both worlds.

Simply clip a six inch flowering branch from the male and place it in a paper bag. Carefully and in a completely still room, slide the bag over a flowering female branch and tie it off tight, just don’t break the branch. After a few hours, the magic will have worked due to their close proximity and you’ll be on the way to growing your own seeds in no time flat.

Check that your seeds are ripe before harvesting. This can be done via a squeeze test — if it breaks, it’s not ready — and by observation. You’ll want them to be flush in color or stripes or a pattern that’s taken over the outside of the seeds. Happy harvesting and growing anew!

Here Are 11 U.S. Presidents Who Smoked Marijuana

Brendan Bures

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February 17, 2020

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Here Are 11 U.S. Presidents Who Smoked Marijuana

Through documentation and research, we can firmly conclude at least four modern president used cannabis.

Modern presidents often face a rigorous background check into possibly checkered histories. We put them through the wringer, separating them apart to discover what drives them underneath. One of those oft-asked queries includes cannabis usage.

Through documentation and research, we can firmly conclude at least four modern president used cannabis. Others range from speculation to possible hemp consumption. In one way or another, however, these 11 presidents were fans of the green.

No. 44 Barack Obama

Rescheduling Marijuana — Photo by U.S. Department of State/Flickr

Prior to entering the political sphere, Barack Obama wrote Dreams from My Father back in 1995. In the memoir Obama referenced dabbling with both marijuana and cocaine.

“When I was a kid, I inhaled,” he admitted during an interview leading up to his presidential campaign. “That was the point.”

No. 43 George W. Bush

In a conversation taped by former George Bush Sr. aide Doug Wead, Dubya tacitly acknowledged marijuana usage. “I wouldn’t answer the marijuana question,” he says. “You know why? ‘Cause I don’t want some little kid doing what I tried.” The conversation was taped without Bush’s knowledge, though he did also cop to cocaine usage and a drinking problem. He also said, “”Do you want your little kid to say ‘Hey daddy, President Bush tried marijuana, I think I will’?”

No. 42 Bill Clinton

Always the clever rhetorician, Clinton copped to and condemned his possible marijuana usage with one quotation. “When I was in England I experimented with marijuana a time or two, and I didn’t like it. I didn’t inhale it, and never tried it again,” he publicly said.

He might not have been lying about the inhale part. Christopher Hitchens attended Oxford University around the same time as Clinton. In his memoir Hitch-22 he wrote, “He preferred, like many another marijuana enthusiast, to take his dope in the form of large handfuls of cookies and brownies.”

No. 35 John F. Kennedy

The biography John F. Kennedy: A Biography reveals that the President used marijuana to deal with back problems. One excerpt from the book reads: “On the evening of July 16, 1962, according to [Washington Post executive] Jim Truitt, Kennedy and Mary Meyer smoked marijuana together. … The president smoked three of the six joints Mary brought to him. At first he felt no effects. Then he closed his eyes and refused a fourth joint. ‘Suppose the Russians did something now,’ he said.

No. 14 Franklin Pierce

Prior to running for President, Franklin Pierce was just a soldier in the Mexican-American War. In correspondence back home, he wrote marijuana smoking was “about the only good thing” regarding the war.

No. 12 Zachary Taylor and No. 7 Andrew Jackson

Though the evidence isn’t as documented as previous entries, both Taylor and Jackson were said to have smoked marijuana alongside their troops.

No. 5 James Monroe

When he served as the ambassador to France, James Monroe openly smoked hashish and continued to do so until his death at 73.

No. 4 James Madison

The Father of the Constitution once claimed that hemp inspired him to create a new democratic nation. As one source notes, “It is likely that President Madison is referring to the industrial variety of cannabis so prized by the early colonists. Still, some believe that the “insight” part refers to the mind-altering properties of an ingested variety of cannabis.

No. 3 Thomas Jefferson

Speculation abounds regarding Jefferson’s usage. He was a known hemp farmer and thought to be cultivating the plants for himself. This remains unconfirmed, however. Though it is worth noting that Jefferson was an ambassador to France during the hashish era.

No. 2 John Adams

America’s second president was known to be a huge proponent of industrial hemp. In a postscript, he wrote under the pseudonym Humphrey Ploughjogger for the Boston Evening-Post in 1763, “we shall by and by want a world of Hemp more for our own consumshon.”

No. 1 George Washington

Like other presidents on this list, George Washington grew hemp. In a letter of correspondence he wrote, “Began to separate the male from female plants rather too late…Pulling up the (male) hemp. Was too late for the blossom hemp by three weeks or a month.” The implication here is that Washington was chasing the female plant for its higher THC content.

5 Things You Can Do To Protect Your Heart Health

Maria Loreto

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February 17, 2020

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5 Things You Can Do To Protect Your Heart Health

Here are some small and meaningful steps you can take at any age that can protect your heart health and decrease the odds of you developing heart disease in the future.

People in their 20s and 30s don’t tend to worry about their heart health unless there’s family history. Although this is understandable, heart disease is the leading cause of death for men and women in the U.S.. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in every 4 people in America dies from heart disease, a pretty damning statistic.

Luckily there are small and meaningful steps you can take at any age that can protect your heart health and decrease the odds of you developing some form of heart disease in the future.

Here are 5 everyday changes in your life you can embrace in order to improve your heart health; the sooner you adopt these, the better:

Get regular check ups

Don’t skip out on your annual check ups. These routine visits help you get a clear picture of your cholesterol levels, blood pressure, and more, which is important for maintaining heart health.

Learn your family history

Kevin Smith's Doctors Say Marijuana Saved Him From Heart Attack — Photo by PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay

When it comes to heart disease, your immediate family history plays a significant role. Get informed about your family’s history with high cholesterol, blood pressure and strokes, especially if these issues presented to your parents while under the age of 65. Keep the research limited to your parents, aunts and uncles.

Learn about different kinds of food

Americans aren’t the best when it comes to food, reporting high amounts of obesity and heart disease. Fast foods are delicious, quick and cheap, making them a hard habit to break. Still, there’s plenty of great foods that are healthy. The best way to approach this problem is to learn about these foods and to get into the habit of eating them and making the time to prep them yourself.

Be more active

Why Many Weekend Warriors Workout With Marijuana — Photo by Brodie Vissers via Burst

Adopting a more active lifestyle isn’t just limited to visiting the gym a few times a week. Small goals like walking more often and taking the stairs over using the elevator make a difference and remove some of the pressure from the gym. Cardio workouts that improve heart health can be conducted 30 minutes a day, and can be completed in sequence or split up in 10 minute intervals throughout your day. It doesn’t matter how many calories you burn, what matters is that you move.

Don’t forget about your mental health

It’s easy to forget that heart health is influenced by your physical health and your mental headspace. The Heart Foundation explains that people who have depression, are socially isolated and have poor social support are at a greater risk of developing a heart condition. It’s important to be aware of your mental health and to speak to a professional when something feels off.

Does Jennifer Lopez Smoke Weed?

Maria Loreto

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February 16, 2020

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Jennifer Lopez has enjoyed a decades-long career as both a musician and actress. Does she smoke weed?

Jennifer Lopez appeared on our radars in the 90’s with her role in Selena, where she played the titular character. It was a demanding part, one that asked her to capture the spirit of a beloved artist, to sing, dance and to represent an icon of the Mexican-American community.

While Lopez is Puerto Rican, her work in Selena made her into a Hollywood superstar, one who’s had the chance to work with the most famous actors and directors in the world and who’s maintained an incredibly prolific music career. In 2019, she made Hustlers, a film everyone thought would nab her an Oscar nomination. She didn’t get that, but she performed in the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

RELATED: Does Brad Pitt Smoke Weed?

Now, moving on to what we want to know: does Jennifer Lopez smoke weed?

There’s a minuscule amount of data out there regarding Lopez and marijuana, meaning that her publicist does a great job of keeping her image clean or that she isn’t at all interested in the drug.

J-Lo's Bedazzled Starbucks Cup — Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Staff/Getty Images

In the music video for her song “Dinero,” made in collaboration with Cardi B and DJ Khaled, you can see models taking hits out of vape pens, something that weed websites have brought up hundreds of times. While this doesn’t mean much since this is a common sight in hip hop music videos, it does imply that she doesn’t mind being associated with cannabis.

When discussing Lopez’s youthful skin, her make up artist explains that Lopez uses cannabis infused lotions and balms to prevent wrinkles and blemishes. “Her beautiful eyes, free from dark circles and bags under the eyes, have EyeMATRIX from Biotulin to thank,” said Lopez’ makeup artist Scott Barnes.

The lotion contains cannabis sativa seed oil and Biotulin, an organic gel that’s rumored to rival the effects of Botox without the need of chemicals and injections.

Lopez is known as a bit of a health nut, eating cleanly and working out regularly. News outlets say she avoids alcohol, coffee, late nights and tobacco, meaning that there’s very few odds of her picking up a joint and lighting up. Maybe she eats an edible on the rare celebratory occasion, but that could just be me projecting.

Stop Blaming Satan For Marijuana And Drug Use

Mike Adams

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February 16, 2020

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Stop Blaming Satan For Marijuana And Drug Use

There isn’t any direct connection between marijuana use and people praising the Dark Lord. In fact, most traditional Satanists do not support the use of cannabis at all.

Despite all of the momentum the marijuana movement has experienced over the past few years, make no mistake about it, there are still plenty of naysayers-of-the-nug out there, fighting against it at every turn.

Some of them have legitimate concerns. They are worried that more access will create an uptick in minor consumption, while others are afraid that stoners will take over the roadways and kill everything that moves. There are those, however, whose trouble with the cannabis plant is entirely off the rails, bat-crap insanity. To say it goes above and beyond the antiquated ethos of reefer madness would be the understatement of the decade.

During a recent marijuana legalization meeting in North Dakota, where cannabis advocates are trying to get the issue of adult-use on the ballot in 2020, residents were allowed to provide testimony regarding the measure. Many, of course, were all for it, while others came with negativity.

One protester, a man by the name of Winston Satran, a former warden at the North Dakota State Penitentiary, told the group that “marijuana-related convictions and the prevalence of the drug in the prison system” was responsible for “the suicide deaths of two inmates, including one who was ‘obviously mentally ill and also a Satanic worshiper,'” according to the Grand Forks Herald.

Whoa! It’s almost as if Satran is trying to convince the fine people of the 701 that legalizing marijuana may cause an uprising in Satanism in their neck of the woods. Sure, it might sound utterly outlandish to those people in-the-know, but to others, the God-fearing residents of the state and abroad, it may invoke enough fear to keep them from so much as uttering the word “marijuana” for many years to come. It could also prevent them from ever supporting such a common sense idea as marijuana reform.

Smuggling Weed In From A Legal State? Don't Get Caught By Doing This — Photo by Tunatura/Getty Images

The thing is, though, there isn’t any direct connection between marijuana use and people praising the Dark Lord. In fact, most traditional Satanists do not support the use of cannabis at all.

The Church of Satan, an organization established in the mid-1960s by Anton LaVey, is against all drug use. Despite the Satanic Panic perpetuated by the media in the early 1980s — one that struck fear in daytime television-watching Americans by convincing them that Devil-worshippers were using heavy metal music and drugs to recruit teens — the church has always maintained a strict no drug policy. LaVey felt “drugs are great for slaves, but no good for the masters.”

“If a substance is legal, a Satanist may or may not choose to indulge in it. “Indulgence, NOT compulsion” is your guide. Since survival is the highest law, the Satanist will not ruin or poison his or her body, even if it is legal to do so,” reads a passage of the Church of Satan’s drug policy. “This is an important distinction. Self-destructive, suicidal hedonism — via whatever means — is ultimately un-Satanic as it threatens the very thing a Satanist holds most dear: his own life. There is no mystical Scoreboard in the Sky dictating whether such an act is wrong or right; it simply is, and dead brain cells, blackened lungs and non-functional livers are not a matter of opinion.”

Still, some Satanic groups do not share in Lavey’s views on sobriety. The Satanic Temple, a 100,000-plus member organization out of Massachusetts, does not support any illegal activity. Yet, the church recognizes unjust laws, such as marijuana prohibition, and believes that citizens should be given the right to use it in a responsible fashion. So, the church does not forbid its members from ingesting chemicals or plants. It believes in free will. The only stipulation is that a person not put themselves at risk with their drug-idled behaviors. It’s about freedom, not debauchery.

So, you can rest easy, America. Satanists are not out there trying to recruit your teens by getting them stoned on pot. Furthermore, just because someone uses marijuana for one reason or another doesn’t mean that they will soon be dressing in all black and acquire an affinity for fire. Marijuana might have some negative connotations, but turning people into Satanists is not one of them.

The Fresh ToastThe most trusted name in cannabis

New York Hits Snags In Cannabis Legalization

A majority of New Yorkers favor legalization, but that opposition from the medical community and law enforcement, among others, remains.

Divided Government Is The Reason Marijuana Isn’t Getting A Fair Shake

For the marijuana debate to move forward anytime soon, the people are going to have to vote Democrat in November.

This Molecule Helps You Get Un-High

Olivetol is a tiny molecule that competes with THC for binding to the CB1 receptor, which is the receptor in the human body responsible for the psychoactive effects of THC.

Consumers Go For Cheap Weed Instead Of Top Shelf

The cannabis consumer has spoken with their wallets and what they want is affordable marijuana with high THC content.

New Search With Marijuana And Parkinson’s Disease

Researchers say a new strategy is ‘a potentially promising way to slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease and related neurological disorders.’

The Easy Way To Grow Medical Cannabis Seeds

The question is whether or not you want to grow a whole lotta seeds or enough to stock your grow room for the next stretch.

Here Are 11 U.S. Presidents Who Smoked Marijuana

Through documentation and research, we can firmly conclude at least four modern president used cannabis.

No. 44 Barack Obama

No. 43 George W. Bush

No. 42 Bill Clinton

No. 35 John F. Kennedy

No. 14 Franklin Pierce

No. 12 Zachary Taylor and No. 7 Andrew Jackson

No. 5 James Monroe

No. 4 James Madison

No. 3 Thomas Jefferson

No. 2 John Adams

No. 1 George Washington

5 Things You Can Do To Protect Your Heart Health

Here are some small and meaningful steps you can take at any age that can protect your heart health and decrease the odds of you developing heart disease in the future.

Get regular check ups

Learn your family history

Learn about different kinds of food

Be more active

Don’t forget about your mental health

Does Jennifer Lopez Smoke Weed?

Jennifer Lopez has enjoyed a decades-long career as both a musician and actress. Does she smoke weed?

Stop Blaming Satan For Marijuana And Drug Use

There isn’t any direct connection between marijuana use and people praising the Dark Lord. In fact, most traditional Satanists do not support the use of cannabis at all.

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