Urban Hippie

As a staunch member of Bachelor Nation, I watched last week's premiere of season 24 with enthusiasm, and was ready to watch Peter Weber's "journey to find love." Partway through the episode, I could not help but notice how contestant Katrina Badowski — who was later eliminated during the first rose ceremony — seemed a bit...elevated.  "You need to risk it for the biscuit," Badowski said. "And he looks like a really fucking hot biscuit." The biscuit she was referring to was, of course, Bachelor Peter. As someone who partakes in cannabis (only in places where it is legal and not in my apartment minutes before this episode started, of course), something about Badowski's look, mode of speech, and the content of what she was saying led me to believe that she was possibly, to put it bluntly, b

Your boomer relatives may be more chill than you think.  Recreational marijuana is legal in 11 states, and medically legal in 33. This month, Michigan opened its first legal dispensaries, and Illinois is set to do the same in January.  As weed becomes less taboo, older Americans who grew up in an era of cannabis prohibition are showing more interest in using it; a 2018 study in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence Journal found that since 2006, the number of baby boomers who have used marijuana doubled. In 2015, the Pew Research Center reported that 38 percent percent of Republican boomers and 66 percent of Democrat boomers support weed legalization. Another Pew Research Center poll taken this year saw that number jump — 49 percent of Republican boomers and 81 percent of Democrat boomers now fa

"SpaceX is about to send hemp to the ISS" is maybe the most perfectly 2019 sentence, and thankfully, it's true. Specifically, an upcoming research project will use a March 2020 SpaceX flight to send plant cultures of hemp and coffee to the International Space Station for studying. This is all thanks to a collaboration between Front Range Biosciences, SpaceCells USA, and BioServe Space Technologies at the University of Colorado.  SEE ALSO: SpaceX launches even more satellites into space Front Range will supply the plants, SpaceCells the management and funding, and BioServe the hardware to take care of the plants. BioServe will also monitor the hemp and coffee remotely from Earth to monitor whether radiation and lack of gravity mutate the plants in any way. After 30 days, the plants will com

There may only be 12 days of Christmas, but there are approximately 12 million CBD products trying to capture your attention. And most of them you shouldn’t buy. It’s hard enough to get a handle on what CBD will actually do for you. Picking which product to buy amid the plethora of options — which face little to no regulation — adds an extra layer of difficulty. Then there’s the wrinkle of buying CBD as a gift. Any time you use a CBD product, you’re basically acting as a guinea pig. When you buy CBD for your mom for Christmas, you’re treating her as one, too.  As Martin Lee, the director of CBD advocacy group Project CBD says, "There’s good-quality products, and there’s a lot of crap out there." Read more...More about Cannabis, Cbd, Gift Guide 2019, Culture, and Health Source: Marsha

It's rude to show up somewhere with two arms the one length.  Snoop Dogg cannot possibly be accused of doing so, because when he rocked up at the set of A Little Late with Lilly Singh, he brought a ton of weed with him that he promptly handed out to her staff. They each came to him with various fake ailments and Snoop "Doc" (as they called him) prescribed something medicinal for them.  Who needs gin and juice?  Read more... More about Weed, Snoop Dogg, Entertainment, Talk Show, and Music Source: Marshable

With more and more states legalizing cannabis, the stigma against the plant is, thankfully, weakening. So this holiday season, why not embrace the weed lover in your life and give them gifts that will make consuming even more fun? 1. Donation to the ACLU Image: ACLU First and foremost, we must acknowledge that many people, especially people of color, are still imprisoned for cannabis charges while others (primarily white people) profit from legal weed. The ACLU recognizes this and will fight for those imprisoned to seek justice. What's a better gift than a contribution to justice, given in your weed lover's name? Read more...More about Cannabis, Gift Guide 2019, Culture, and Drugs Source: Marshable

Around the holidays there is occasionally a "hot toy" for kids that flies off the shelves and winds up on eBay with a huge up-charge. This was the case for Furbies in my youth and more recently, Hatchimals.  In adulthood, though, these must-haves are fewer and farther between. Sure, there may be clamoring for the latest iPhone when it drops, but Apple has learned how to keep up with demand in recent years. And in the age of dystopian Amazon warehouses and click-to-buy, anyway, is any "hot item" truly limited? Yes: Puff the Squeaky Chicken, and it’s what you imagine it is: a rubber chicken bong, complete with a squeaker that works upon inhale. The bong is made by MSCHF, the prankster group behind Jesus Shoes and the fake astrology stock app Bull & Moon.  Read more...More about Weed, Cul

Weed tech is finally getting some mainstream recognition. Well, sort of.  CES, the world's largest consumer electronics convention held in Las Vegas, announced KEEP Labs as a 2020 Innovation Awards Honoree in the Home Appliance Category on Thursday. It's the first time the conference has awarded a cannabis tech company.  KEEP designed a smart stash box that connects to an app via WiFi and Bluetooth to allow cannabis users to responsibly contain access to their weed. The box can be unlocked via biometric touch or using the app, which can send notifications to the synced device if anyone attempts to move or access the box when it's locked.  Read more...More about Ces, Cannabis, Weed, Tech, and Web Culture Source: Marshable