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Colorado Newspaper Looking for Marijuana Reviewer 171

Westword, an "alternative" newspaper in Denver, has placed an ad for a medicinal marijuana reviewer. The paper has been running reviews by a staff writer, but the writer "wanted to return to the day job," opening up the position. Applicants must write a short essay on "What Marijuana Means To Me," and a MacGyver-like ability to make a bong out of common household objects is a plus.

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Colorado Newspaper Looking for Marijuana Reviewer

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  • Bong? (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:33PM (#29824733)

    Just a FYI, the medical marijuana community normally encourages the use of vaporizers instead of smoking. This involves heating the plant material just enough to vaporize the active ingredients, but not enough to ignite it and cause smoke/ash. The result is a smoother, easier administration of your medicine (or recreational drug) without the tar and carcinigans associated with smoking. It also doesn't stink up the house.

    • Re:Bong? (Score:5, Informative)

      by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:52PM (#29825005) Journal

      The medical marijuana community encourages the use of techniques including vaporizing, tinctures, hash oil and other concentrates, pot goodies like brownies, and other methods of reducing harm. People with severe HIV or cancer often can't even use a vaporizer, so edibles or tinctures are called for. People using marijuana as replacement therapy for harder drugs sometimes don't have the money for a vaporizer, and need a longer lasting high, so they are encouraged to try edibles.

      Remember, pipes and joints and even vaporizers spread hepatitis. Use a chillum when sharing.

      • But doesn't that lead to a vicious cycle?

        Man, those brownies were some good stuff. But now I've got a case of the muchies. Oh, look, brownies!

      • Use a chillum when sharing.

        Is the one in Maryland suitable for this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillum,_Maryland [wikipedia.org]

      • Remember, pipes and joints and even vaporizers spread hepatitis. Use a chillum when sharing.

        How does using a chillum differ from using a pipe? Perhaps "chillum" means something different to you and me--I hear the term in reference to a straight pipe; that is, the bowl is not at all angled and is directly opposite the mouthpiece.

        I would think a bong (properly used) would be the safest method of sharing, as at no point is any part of the piece in your mouth.

        • Re:Bong? (Score:4, Informative)

          by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:38PM (#29825725) Journal

          You are correct, a chillum is a straight pipe. It was designed to be held in a cupped hand, sticking up from between two fingers. Then suck from your cupped hand, rather than directly from the chillum. A bong must touch your mouth. Maybe not inside your mouth, but it must touch around your lips, so it isn't safe.

          • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

            Yeah and when you go to kiss someone, always kiss them through a large sheet of latex. Wear gloves whenever touching anything too. In fact, don't even look at anything!

          • Well I'll be damned. I had no idea they were intended to be used that way. Looks like I have some research to attend to. Thanks for the info.

      • by Khyber ( 864651 )

        The problem with edibles is that it takes upwards of six times the amount you'd normally combust to get the same effect.

        Edibles don't even work on me for some reason. I can eat a whole pan of brownies and don't feel anything.

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by spun ( 1352 )

          My guess is, you aren't making them right. When I worked in the business, my roommate, a chef with quite a bit of baking experience, made them regularly to sell to the clubs. He would use leftover trimmings that aren't really fit to be sold for smoking. His recipe consisted of a lot of clarified butter, a little vodka, and a lot of trimmings, simmer gently for 24 hours. Then squeeze through a cheesecloth and use the butter in recipes.

          I'm a heavyweight when it comes to pot, but I wouldn't want to eat more th

          • Re:Bong? (Score:4, Interesting)

            by abigor ( 540274 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @08:21PM (#29830591)

            Agreed, the most stoned I have ever been is from eating pot in one form or another - as in, not being able to move or speak stoned.

            As a side benefit, I've always found after eating it that I take the most amazingly satisfying dump the following morning, and I walk away from the toilet feeling like I'm floating through the air.

          • by Khyber ( 864651 )

            None have worked, not from clubs, not from homemade. What I make works on other people just fine, but it doesn't seem to work for me.

            • by spun ( 1352 )

              Weird. Never met someone they just don't work on at all, but I have to take your word for it. It's too bad, I find the high from edibles to be great, long lasting fun.

              • by Khyber ( 864651 )

                Good pot only lasts about 1 1/2 hours before I have to toke up again. Even the melatonin supplements can only help out so much.

    • Just a FYI, the medical marijuana community normally encourages the use of vaporizers instead of smoking.

      Who is "the medical marijuana community"? Sure, there are many folks who advocate vaporizers, but there are also many fully satisfied with joints and bong hits, and the dispensaries will certainly dispense the medicine in any form. I'd bet that the overwhelming majority of medical pot is smoked in the usual ways, not vaporized or consumed in brownies.

    • by adisakp ( 705706 )
      Interesting tidbit: Alinea [alinea-restaurant.com] provided a "legal" reason to allow herbal vaporizers to be imported into the US [gizmodo.com].
  • Hey!, I'll volunteer.
    • Well, you certainly have an oddly appropriate name for a marijuana reviewer! It wouldn't be my first choice of names for someone I was seeking to hire for programming, however.
  • by u4ya ( 1248548 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:40PM (#29824845) Homepage
    But what would you do to relax after a long day's work?
  • I wonder (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:42PM (#29824881)

    I wonder if you have to pass a drug test.

    • by spun ( 1352 )

      Sure, they test you to see how many drugs you can do and still write a comprehensible sentence in English. After finishing the test I can assure you that barn owl first window, uh, the sunshine, look at the colors, man, I can taste them!

    • All this time, my parents were after me saying I'd never get a good job and be successful if I did drugs. Then I find out about this.

      • Yeah, I used to get that, especially the one about "no-one's going to get you out of bed in the morning to go to work." One of my favorite old bosses would come by every morning with a steaming cup of Peet's, to see if I was busy.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by xanadu113 ( 657977 )
      The bad news is, you tested positive for marijuana metabolites.

      The good news, you've got the job.

      Can you start tomorrow at 4:20?
    • I wonder if you have to pass a drug test.

      You do, but its pretty simple: "Can you roll a tight one?"

  • by smitty777 ( 1612557 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @12:47PM (#29824947) Journal

    It's a tough job, so let's get rolling.

  • by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:02PM (#29825169)
    Did he run out of new and interesting ways to say, "This is some good shit!"
    • by smellsofbikes ( 890263 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:59PM (#29826065) Journal
      For what it's worth (since I live in Denver and read the Westword every week) the problem is that a reviewer should have a recognized medical condition for which a doctor has prescribed medical marijuana. The previous reviewer had an injured back for which he'd gotten a prescription but A: he was already writing other stuff for Westword, and B: he doesn't actually smoke, so he questioned whether he was a good fit long-term. As such, they're looking for someone who fits the job better.
  • by jayspec462 ( 609781 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:06PM (#29825217) Homepage

    The first person who both desires this job and a) has a resume, b) manages to find the motivation to print a copy of the resume, put it in an envelope, and send it to the HR department, and c) remembers to attend the interview gets the job automatically.

    I suspect the position will go unfilled for some time...

    • It's kind of a catch-22 because the person who meets those qualifications probably doesn't actually have the requisite experience.

  • Does the position include free munchies?

    I can imagine the first review.

    So, dude, like, I'm totally snarfed up on this good shiznet, and, oh, God there's a whole universe in my thumbnail man. Anyway. Just got back from scarfing another 5 pounds of free munchies. Wow, the cheetos are amazing. It's like life, in a little foil wrapper. You know I could make a few hats out of these, but hats are a sign of The Man. Oh, no, speaking of - there's The Man coming in and nattering something about deadlines on a

    • by Petersko ( 564140 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @02:28PM (#29826527)
      "oh, God there's a whole universe in my thumbnail man."

      Think you might have mistaken marijuana for mushrooms.

      Now if you were staring at your thumbnail, and suddenly realized you didn't know WHY you were staring at said thumbnail... now THAT'S marijuana.
      • My bad. Never tried either. :)

      • by rbrander ( 73222 )

        Actually, it's your sig I'm going to argue about. The Holocaust body count exceeds Jonestown by some four orders of magnitude. (918 vs nearly 9 million - or more than 9 million if you just blame them for all deaths in WW2).

        Arguably, there ARE some IT projects that hold more than 918 lives in their digital fingers. But I have to admit, "drinking the kool-aid" is no more likely to come up in a discussion of aircraft or nuclear plant control systems than it is for a web development environment.

  • by zannox ( 173829 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:14PM (#29825305)

    Staff meetings will be held at 4:20?

  • Sigh... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by blhack ( 921171 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:30PM (#29825601)

    I am a HUGE advocate for medical marijuana. It find it absurd that I have a bottle of hydrocodone (which is an opioid [like heroin or morphine]) in my cabinet and can take it whenever I need to, but if a doctor wanted to prescribe me marijuana, she couldn't.

    Guys, even if it's a placebo, even if it is really doing *NOTHING* to help people physically and it is all mental (although recent research suggests that placebos can produce physical results), it's still helping; it is still making somebody who might be in pain be able to feel just a little bit better.

    A major frown to those who oppose the idea of giving medicine to sick people

    Another major frown to this idiotic newspaper. Do you realize what you're doing? You're playing exactly into the fears that the people who oppose this drug have; that it's just a bunch of potheads that want it. Do you review xanax? Vicodin? Perkaset? No? Well then fuck off.

    • by Bigbutt ( 65939 )

      Honestly dude, those drugs are provided by a pharmaceutical company and have precise amounts of drug and bonding agent. Medicinal Marijuana is grown at each of the clinics or by an authorized grower. Short growth years, different fertilizer, watering schedules all make up differences in taste and potency I'm sure.

      Someone has to test the differences between Wild Boulder, Longmont Green, Broomfield Gold, and Erie Black.

      Westword is actually a pretty good paper most of the time, much like DC's City Paper, the o

    • If it was just a placebo effect then why bother with the pot at all there would be much easier ways to administer it so really if it's being perscribed its almost certainly doing better than placebo in trials.

      As for reviewing it medicinal pot unlike a pill like vicodin is not allways going to be the same, it will come in different strengths, taste different, give different highs (side effects I guess) and this can not and is not tested and controlled in the same way that every vicodin pill is exactly the
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Just Some Guy ( 3352 )

      You're playing exactly into the fears that the people who oppose this drug have; that it's just a bunch of potheads that want it.

      For every chronic pain or nausea victim, there are 20 stoners saying, "right on, dude!" Know what? More power to 'em. If you can go out and get staggering drunk legally, you should be able to go out and get staggeringly stoned legally. I'm not a stoner, but I believe in your right to be one. So stocking caps off to Westword for admitting what everyone else already knows: a big chung of the legalization movement consists of normal, otherwise law-abiding people who want to get stoned.

      • by blhack ( 921171 )

        If their goal is outright legalization, then their stated goal should also be outright legalization.

        Suggesting that pot should be something that you get from a pharmacy and with a prescription when, in reality, you believe that you should be able to grow and use it yourself is disingenuous and counterproductive.

        • I agree wholeheartedly, which is why I'm more supportive of outright legalization pushes than I am of some kid playing ultimate and claiming "it's for the sick people, wink-wink." Not that there aren't people legitimately calling for legal medical usage - and a lot of them! - but I still claim that far more people are using it as a means to different ends.
        • If their goal is outright legalization, then their stated goal should also be outright legalization.

          Suggesting that pot should be something that you get from a pharmacy and with a prescription when, in reality, you believe that you should be able to grow and use it yourself is disingenuous and counterproductive.

          Not at all. One of the big obstacles to legalization is the populace's current misperceptions, which have been largely driven by US government propaganda. For example, common objections include, "Why would we want more incapacitated drivers" which implies the belief that pot impairs coordination and heightens risk taking like alcohol does, which is false. Or,"the pot these days is so much stronger, it's a different, more dangerous drug", which is a failure of reasoning (is wine less dangerous than brandy

          • by xaxa ( 988988 )

            is wine less dangerous than brandy?

            Yes. It's much easier to drink so much you poison yourself with brandy compared to wine.

            This is part of the reason many European countries allow you to buy wine at age e.g. 16, but brandy only at age e.g. 18. It also means in countries without this distinction (e.g. UK) teenagers buy bottles of vodka to get drunk quickly, which increases the risk of harming themselves -- particularly if they're inexperienced.

            It's an easy problem to solve though: if cannabis is legalised, require clear labelling of the "stre

            • Well, I was speaking more to the dangers of alcoholism, liver damage, interaction with other drugs, etc. Pure alcohol poisoning is a relatively rare occurrence. For the more common negative effects of alcohol, there isn't much difference between beer, wine and liquor. Three beers is about like three glasses of wine, which is about like three shots of whiskey.

              In the case of pot, in the US there is much hue and cry over the reputedly greater strength of modern pot, and there are claims by the antis that thi

    • by geekoid ( 135745 )

      If it si a placebo, the it shouldn't be prescribed due to ethics concerns.

      "(although recent research suggests that placebos can produce physical results"
      No, it doesn't, but I'd like to see your citation.

      What few actually studies there are of marijuana do indicate a real effect, and it's plain wrong that it can't be prescribed without a major fit.

      What this paper is doing is a good thing; they are making people aware that medical marijuana is out there, and what it's good for.
      It's just more religious right c

  • by dirk ( 87083 ) <dirk@one.net> on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @01:35PM (#29825685) Homepage

    This article pretty much covers why medical pot is having such a hard time. The cause has been co-opted by people trying to use it as a backdoor to get pot legalized. California is having a lot of problems and people are turning against medical pot because it is being abused so much. A lot of the prescriptions are handed out without an real medical exam for generic things like "chronic pain". Chronic pain is a real condition, but it is being used as an excuse for people to legally get pot.

    I'm all for medical pot, but it should be handled like any other medicine. It should be prescribed by a doctor for a legit condition and filled by a pharmacy, not by guys growing it in their back yard. If a doctor is prescribing it needless, he should be prosecuted the same as if he was handing out Ritalin or some other drug to people who don't need it. Unfortunately, many people are more interested in getting high than actually helping people who actually need ti for medicinal purposes.

    • by spun ( 1352 ) <loverevolutionary&yahoo,com> on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @02:01PM (#29826099) Journal

      No, it should be handled like alcohol and cigarettes, both much more harmful recreational drugs. Here's a news flash, medical marijuana was ALWAYS a back door to legalization because complete legalization, along with subsequent regulation and taxation, is the only legitimate action the government should take regarding such a harmless drug. No one has ever died from pot. No one gets high and starts fights. No one steals to pay for pot. About the worst you can say about it is that it makes dealing with boredom a little too easy.

      I challenge you to find one legitimate reason, backed up by published science, that pot should be illegal.

      • by Da_Biz ( 267075 )

        I realize you may have been staying this to make a point, but "no one" is a bit of an exaggeration.

        That said, it's pretty telling when things like pot are way down on the list of what causes impaired driving. Of course, the top five includes things like lack of sleep, prescription drugs and (shocker) alcohol.

        I don't even recall pot making it into the top 10.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by melikamp ( 631205 )

        When you're high, you can do everything you normally do just as well – you just realize that it's not worth the fucking effort.

        -Bill Hicks

      • Whatever, keep telling yourself that. The statement "No one steals to pay for pot." is fully ridiculous. I have had plenty of potheads steal from me. I am not sure exactly what they used the money for but buying pot seems a likely possibility.

        I am not sure whether pot should be legalised. But one thing I am sure of is that the dumbass potheads that are abusing the medical marijuana laws are making a lot of people in California regret they ever voted for those laws. In fact these potheads have very clearly p

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      This article pretty much covers why medical pot is having such a hard time. The cause has been co-opted by people trying to use it as a backdoor to get pot legalized.... It should be prescribed by a doctor for a legit condition and filled by a pharmacy, not by guys growing it in their back yard....

      You have the dynamic exactly backwards. The medical cannabis has had a hard time because the law enforcement-prison industrial complex has refused to treat it according to law and science, seeking to keep it classified as the most dangerous drug in existence (more so that cocaine and heroin!) as a way to maintain criminalization for all uses.

      If federal law and its own regulations were actually followed by the DEA cannabis would be listed as a Schedule V drug (the least restrictive category) rather than Sche

      • My friend, Bob (Unix, not MS), was forbidden by the judge to mention his medical condition or doctor's recommendation when he was tried in Sacramento for cultivating his personal garden. My observation is that people in the "criminal justice" careers have a much lower per-capita level of law compliance and observance than average human-types. Also if you read the text of Prop. 215, you may notice that it does not lend itself to legal interpretation as much as a common-sense one, hence the courts have had a

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Co-opted or not, it should be legalized. It should have never been prohibited in the first place, just like alcohol should have never been prohibited in the 20s. It was a very large, costly, and deadly mistake. Everybody loses, except the architects of prohibition at the top of the power pyramid who cash in big time.

      The US now has the highest incarceration rate in the entire world -- even higher than totalitarian regimes such as china -- and this is largely the result of drug prohibition. A very large perce

    • exactly like other legal drug, ethanol and nicotine are administrated ?

      The simple matter of fact is that THC is as dangerous as the other aforementionned poison. But it is culturally OK to poison yourself with alcohol (a bit less accepted for smoking) but less or downright not culturally accepted to smoke pot. There is NO REASON whatsoever to have one prescribed and the other free for sale in supermarket.

      That said, I do not consume either of those 3. But I dislike the hypocrysis people show when they
    • by sponga ( 739683 )

      Yep that is 100% correct and I can contest to that.

      Even during our senior year in high school all of us seemed to have our medical marijuana cards even though we couldn't even buy alcohol/cigarettes. Although fake ID's were a lot easier to get back than before 9/11.

      It is bad in Los Angeles County in some areas, you have all these gangsters who see these places as a huge lottery if they get in there. Not only do you get the weed but also lots of cash moving through these places, guys showing up drunk to thes

    • As opposed to the amount of Opiods being handed out without a real medical exam for generic things like "Chronic Pain"? Prescription Painkiller abuse is really rampant right now. Hydrocodone/APAP is by far the most prescribed drug in America right now, and I imagine that a great deal of those 127 Million Scripts [imshealth.com] are not being taken as directed. Oxycodone is also on the list at #20. Hydrocodone is more popular because it is only schedule 3 and refills can be written, but there is still a ton of Percocet

      • Acetaminophen always made me queasy, then I looked it up in the P.D.R; I can't believe that shit is legal. Avoid it. Really. And DON'T Take it when you have a hangover. It WILL destroy you. As our chickenshit doctors kowtow to our Evil Overlords, I dread my next week's root-canal experience, knowing that, once again, I will be forced to endure days of needless pain. I am going to experiment with grapefruit, so that I just might be able to ingest a useful dose of the opiate without suffering a lethal dose of

    • by Shihar ( 153932 )

      No, it should be handled like alcohol. It is laughably absurd that a drug like alcohol can be bought anywhere in the US, but pot is illegal. There is no one who can, with a straight face, claim that alcohol is a safer drug than pot. People don't OD on pot, but they sure as shit do in alcohol. Pot does not induce violent rage, but alcohol certainly can. The amount of alcohol it takes to incapacitate a persons judgement is trivial. The physical damage alcohol inflicts upon the body is high. If you do v

  • They should also make this person the restaurant critic!

  • Schedule 1 Status (Score:3, Informative)

    by BlueBoxSW.com ( 745855 ) on Wednesday October 21, 2009 @04:20PM (#29828091) Homepage

    The root of the problem is that pot is still a schedule 1 drug.

    This means it is "highly addictive with no medicinal value".

    Until you get it reclassified, nothing can be done on the federal level in the US.

    The British removed it from their equivalent scale last year.

    Mexico recently changed their possession laws to match those of Amsterdam.

    Bet you didn't hear that on the 6 O'clock news.

  • Anyone else (of the few who don't use adblock or the likes) happen to see an anti-drug ad just below the story?

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