Uncle Spliffy is the nickname of former Portland Trail Blazer and 18-year National Basketball Association-veteran Cliff Robinson. Robinson admits he was blazing while playing for the Blazers in the early 1990s, and says that smoking cannabis helped calm his nerves. Robinson also thinks team doctors should treat player pain with cannabis when indicated. In the […]
Steve Holmes
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals 3/30-4/6
A new perspective on the war on drugs
Thanks to the War on Drugs, America now has the highest incarceration rate in the world. In the summer of 1969, President Richard M. Nixon called the use of illegal drugs like cannabis a growing menace and a serious national threat to the personal health and safety of millions of Americans. Nixon declared illegal drugs […]
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals: Oregon Dept. of Agriculture Issues Pot Pesticide Warning
One of the many strange consequences of America’s paradoxical cannabis laws is that there are currently no pesticides specifically labeled for use on cannabis crops. Most cannabis consumers are like most consumers of other food products in that they prefer to consume cannabis that has not been treated with pesticides. That’s because pesticides have been […]
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals 3/16-3/23
The MFL—Marijuana Football League
American football is a brutal sport. Many players leave the NFL disabled and many die young. For professional football players, “your job automatically gives you the symptom of chronic pain,” says Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Eugene Monroe. Currently, most NFL team physicians, like most physicians nationwide, prescribe opioids for pain relief. But these drugs come […]
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals 3/9-3/16
The Million Stoner March
Last week, Smoke Signals explained how the federal government’s classification of cannabis as a very dangerous drug with no medical value has stymied experimental scientific research into the actual benefits and/or dangers of cannabis. We also explained that President Barack Obama has the legal authority to change this classification – without legalizing cannabis – so […]
Posted inCulture
Change Schedule 1 Classification
A federal law known as the Controlled Substances Act sets cannabis as a Schedule 1 drug, meaning that it is considered to be a dangerous substance with no accepted medical value. By comparison, cocaine, meth, and hydrocodone are Schedule 2 drugs, meaning they are deemed less dangerous than cannabis under this law. In the 44 […]
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals 2/24-/2
Around Oregon in weed—starting at home
Last month, the City of Bend began accepting applications for local land use approval for cannabis businesses. Continuing the tradition of making things as difficult as possible for cannabis business owners, the city’s regulations required existing business owners to get in line early and beat would-be competitors to the clerk’s office or risk losing their […]
Posted inCulture
Smoke Signals 2/17-2/24
The cancer-suppressing properties of THC, CBD and cannabinoids
What if cannabis can prevent and/or cure cancer? This is not a question that comes only from the wide-eyed rantings of stoned hippies. There is a substantial and growing body of research published in scientific journals after peer review that indicates this is a reasonable question informed by the best evidence available on the topic. […]
Posted inCulture
The Green Gold Rush
Keeps on Rushing
Legal cannabis could be America’s fastest growing industry. Americans bought $4.6 billion worth of legal cannabis in 2014, $5.4 billion in 2015, and this year, Americans are expected to spend $6.7 billion on legal cannabis. See where this is going? Sales are expected to hit $21.8 billion just four years from now, in 2020. Nonmedical […]
Posted inNews
Smoke Signals 2/3-2/10
Letter to the VA: End Prohibition One of the key benefits of military service is free health care provided by the federal Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, for our many veterans who return from their deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other painful and debilitating medical conditions, that benefit is seriously limited by […]
