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Posts published by “Fred Gardner”

Judge James A. Washington

The fact that people of color are punished disproportionately by drug prohibition is now widely acknowledged in the United States. Just last week in the New Yorker David Remick quoted the President stating: “Middle-class kids don’t get…

Defending Dennis Rodman

Dennis Rodman's recent trip to North Korea with a team of retired NBA players to take part in an exhibition game was akin to John Lennon and Yoko Ono going to bed in public to…

The Meaning Of Mistletoe

Why does the presence of mistletoe — a parasitic plant that roots in oaks and other host trees — confer the right to kiss whoever you're with? The answer occurred to John Lee, MD, a…

The Ballad Of Dennis Peron

The Emerald Cup, the sprawling Cannabis festival launched in Laytonville by Tim Blake in 2004, will be held at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds this weekend, and Dennis Peron is getting a lifetime achievement award. The marijuana legalization movement would not have achieved its great breakthrough in 1996 without Dennis, the founder and maitre’d of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club. Proposition 215, which legalized the herb for medical use in California, was a collective effort, but Dennis was the indispensable organizer.

Autumn 1963

Friday, November 22, was going to be my last day of civilian employment in Manhattan, barring a miracle. I was supposed to start basic training at Fort Polk, Louisi­ana, on Sunday the 24th. I had…

Wayward Press Clips

A front-page article in the New York Times Oct. 27,  headlined “Few Problems With Cannabis for Cali­fornia” takes a common-sense, macro-level look at what 17 years of medical use hath wrought in the Golden State.…

Comes Now Epidiolex

In response to urgent need expressed by parents of children with intractable epilepsy, the US Food and Drug Administration is allowing Investigational New Drug (IND) studies of purified CBD (cannabidiol) as an anti-seizure medication. The…

Senate Debates Marijuana Prohibition

This week’s US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on "Conflicts between State and Federal Marijuana Laws" will get infinitely more media attention than the July 12, 1937 hearing at which a subcommittee of the Senate Finance…

Some Call It Legalization

Attorney General Eric Holder phoned the governors of Colorado and Washington August 29 to advise that the U.S. Department of Justice will allow implementation of the marijuana-law reforms enacted by voters in 2012. Some call…

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