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Posts published by “Fred Gardner”

Phony Baloney from Brennan & Sony

A week ago, two big stories had just broken: "Senate Exposes CIA Torture" and "Sony Chiefs' Racist Emails Revealed."In response —and in concert— the National Security Apparatus denied the torture charge and Sony staged a…

Seattle Hempfest To Add “Adult Use” Smoking Areas

Seattle’s first retail outlet for marijuana opened in July, some 20 months after Washington state voters passed Initiative 502. Legalization as defined by I-502 is now becoming real — but it doesn’t apply to people…

Barbara McNair’s Unsung Heroism

When Barbara McNair died in February of 2007, not a single obituary mentioned her role in bringing down the lawyer who effectively owned Erhard Seminar Training (est) and the pitchman himself, Werner Erhard. The obits…

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.

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