CANNABIS CULTURE – As the “Pack a Bowl” pits Washington against Colorado on the gridiron, people still think marijuana legalization will weaken the US workforce.By Ellen Komp, Cannabis Culture – Monday, January 20 2014
Even as Northern Californians were rooting for the San Francisco 49ers in their playoff game against Seattle on Sunday, a few were secretly hoping that this year’s Super Bowl match-up would be from the two states that have legalized marijuana: Washington and Colorado. Stoners got their wish when the Denver Broncos defeated the Patriots and Seattle’s Seahawks bested the 49ers.
The great irony is that even as excellence and liberalism demonstrably can co-exist, politicians and pundits are hand-wringing over pot legalization and what it will mean for the US workforce.
First, the newly Americanized woman who takes down every magazine she works for – Tina Brown – tweeted, “legal weed contributes to us being a fatter, dumber, sleepier nation even less able to compete with the Chinese.”
Then, California Governor Jerry Brown told the Washington Post, “I do think America’s under a certain amount of competitive pressure. … So I think we have to stay alert and heads up. I don’t know if everybody’s going to pot that that’s going to be a positive path forward.”
But is that true? A recent article in Time magazine asked, “China makes everything. Why can’t it create anything?” pointing out, “Many of the products China manufactures today aren’t really Chinese at all. Apple iPads might be exported from assembly lines based in China, but the Chinese themselves do little more than piece them together.”
Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography of Apple founder Steve Jobs, published in 2011, documents Jobs’s use of marijuana and LSD in his youth. Isaacson, who also wrote biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein, called Jobs “a creative entrepreneur whose passion for perfection and ferocious drive revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing, and digital publishing. … In August 2011, right before he stepped down as CEO, the enterprise he started in his parents’ garage became the world’s most valuable company.”
Isaacson adds, “At a time when the United States is seeking ways to sustain its innovative edge, and when societies around the world are trying to build creative digital-age economies, Jobs stands as the ultimate icon of inventiveness, imagination, and sustained innovation. He knew that the best way to create value in the twenty-first century was to connect creativity with technology, so he built a company where leaps of the imagination were combined with remarkable feats of engineering. He and his colleagues at Apple were able to think differently.”
Bill Gates also indulged in pot and LSD, and Silicon Valley remains high on pot, and innovation. When our other pot-friendly and productive industry, based in Hollywood, took on Jobs, the actor chosen to play him was Aston Kutcher, the stoner/jock from “That 70s Show.”
Meanwhile, prosecutor-turned-TV-host Nancy Grace has practically been foaming at the mouth over the issue, so much so that Saturday Night Lives poofed her this weekend. Grace called cannabis consumers “lethargic, sitting on the sofa eating chips. Pot, it makes you fat and lazy.” She recounted a story of a stockbroker she’d seen in court who “got addicted to pot” and lost her job, home and family.
Meanwhile on Wall Street, Merrill Lynch circulated a memo recommending junior staffers take off at least four weekend days a month, a move that was necessary because young people are working nonstop (even as 22% of 18-24-year-old men report they’ve smoked pot on the job in the past week). The sad part about Leonardo’s post-Gatsby movie The Wolf of Wall Street is that he had to tell people it’s meant to criticize, not glorify. Maybe that’s because the fictional Gatsby is punished for his excesses that lead to Black Friday and the great depression, but today’s Wolfs are still on the loose.
When LeBron James admitted is his 2009 autobiography that he’d tried marijuana, he completed the triumvirate of MVPs (football, baseball, and basketball) who told all they’d toked that year, the same one top-Olympian-ever Michael Phelps admitted he’d hit the bong too. The world’s fastest man on land, Usain Bolt, also smoked pot in his youth.
Conservative Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker asks us to “Give marijuana smokers a little leeway,” writing, “let’s stop pretending that pot consumers are nefarious denizens of the underworld. Among those who enjoy a recreational smoke are the folks selling you a house, golfing on the ninth hole and probably an editor or two here and there.”
Add to that, innovators, business scions, and sports champions.
Ellen Komp is Deputy Director of California NORML and a regular contributor toCannabis Culture. She manages the website VeryImportantPotheads.comand blogs at Tokin Woman.
First Bong Bowl? Matchup highlights NFL’s pot stance
20 states have legalized medical marijuana. But NFL players who live there can’t use pot.
Jolie Lee, USA TODAY Network // 12:20 p.m. EST January 20, 2014
Bong Bowl. Reefer Bowl. Stoner Bowl. These names are emerging leading up to this year’s Super Bowl matchup between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks.
Colorado and Washington are the only two states with legalized recreational marijuana in the country.
Despite marijuana’s growing legalization — medical marijuana is legal in 20 states, plus D.C. — the National Football League bans marijuana use for all its players, even if they live in those states.
TIMELINE: Marijuana, tobacco policy: How times have changed
MAP: Which states have legalized medical marijuana?
Marijuana falls under the league’s substance abuse policy, which is collectively bargained with the NFL Players Association.
“If our medical advisers informed us that medical marijuana may be used, then it’s something we would discuss with the NFLPA. Advisers are not telling us that now,” said NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy, in an e-mail to USA TODAY Network.
The Marijuana Policy Project, a group advocating marijuana legalization, has been pushing the NFL to allow players to use marijuana.
In September, MPP posted a billboard for a month outside the Denver Broncos stadium encouraging the NFL not to punish players who use marijuana.
“Players can consume as much alcohol as they want without fear of punishment by the league. If they prefer to use marijuana, they risk losing their livelihood,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for MPP, in a phone interview with USA TODAY Network.
MPP also created an online petition on Change.org, calling on NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to change the league’s marijuana policy. The petition, now closed, received more than 11,800 signatures.
Last week, in response to a question about allowing marijuana use in the NFL, Goodell said, “I do not know what is going to develop in medicine as the next opportunity, to evolve either to help with pain or help with injuries. But we will continually support the evolution of medicine because we believe it is important to our players,” according to ESPN.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick recognized the temptation of legalized marijuana to his players. He warned them not to “be stupid” about using marijuana before Sundays’ American Football Conference Championship game in Denver.
Despite the ban on marijuana, two former NFL players point to marijuana use in the league. Former NFL offensive tackle Lomas Brown told The Detroit News in 2012 that at least 50% of NFL players likely smoke pot. Former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson wrote in his book Slow Getting Up about his personal use of marijuana to manage pain. Jackson wrote pain is a “big problem” in the NFL.
Regardless of the trending names like #BongBowl and #WeedBowl on Twitter, don’t expect fans to smoke up at the actual game — it’s taking place in New Jersey.
Follow @JolieLeeDC on Twitter.
Article Source USA Today
Denver Broncos, Seattle Seahawks Set Up 420 Super Bowl
The Seattle Seahawks came from behind in the fourth quarter against the San Francisco 49ers in tonight’s NFC championship game, joining the Denver Broncos, who defeated the New England Patriots in the earlier AFC championship game, in heading to the Super Bowl. Both teams hail from states, Washington and Colorado, that legalized marijuana at the ballot box in 2012. Recreational marijuana went on sale at government-licensed shops in Colorado at the start of this year. But you won’t be able to light up at the Super Bowl, being held in two weeks in New Jersey (with an assist from the NYPD), where recreational marijuana remains prohibited and the implementation of medical marijuana is going on at a snail’s pace. Players with the Seahawks and the Broncos won’t be able to light up, either. Their contracts with the NFL prohibit the use of marijuana, irrespective of its legal status where they live. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, meanwhile, is only at the stage of contemplating letting players use medical marijuana, much like Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
Some related reading: Colorado and pathetic pot prohibitionists, Ted Cruz blames Obama for not imposing marijuana prohibition on Colorado and Washington, a DEA agent freaks out about the drug war gravy train in peril.
And here’s a Reason TV video on how football fleeces taxpayers: