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Happy 4/20

It has been one hell of a year since we last celebrated the increasingly official holiday of the cannabis community. It's been a bumpy ride for marijuana reform, but no one said this struggle was supposed to be easy. The challenges of 2012 are also an opportunity to build a bigger and better movement, and that's exactly what we'll do.

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Freedom Fighter of the Month

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I’ve been named Freedom Fighter of the Month in the November issue of High Times. I think this happened either because of that incident where we crashed the White House contact page, or because they ran out of other people to give it to. In any case, I think it’s pretty cool.

Washington State Marijuana Bill Should Reflect Shift in Culture (Editorial)

The Spokesman-Review opines that because Congress refuses to update the absurd Controlled Substances Act, states are trying to figure out the best ways to implement the sane and popular wish that marijuana be made available for medicinal purposes. The newspaper says Washington's bill should put patients first by not erecting barriers that make it more difficult to legally obtain medical marijuana, and that the House should strip the bill of these excessive limitations. It says the bill represents a cultural shift in attitudes toward marijuana, and that regulation and enforcement ought to reflect that reality.

Publishers High on Marijuana Books

Former actresses are doing it. New York Times journalists are doing it. Screenwriters are doing it. Writing about marijuana, that is. With the changing legal times, and the jaw-dropping reality that pot has become a $35 billion legal industry in the U.S., the subject is drawing a motley crew of authors exploring everything from agriculture and big business to socioeconomic norms and the joys of toking. Agents say the surge in books about pot speaks to the fact that the subject matter is that rarest of things: serious and fun.

Medical Marijuana Ads Help Sagging Media Profits

Medical marijuana advertising is taking off, propping up the fortunes of ailing media companies that have seen income from other business sectors plummet in the recession. Advertisements offering free edibles for new patients and products such as "super silver haze" are helping to keep the San Francisco Bay Guardian, SF Weekly and East Bay Express in business. Similar ads have even started cropping up — tentatively — in more staid publications, such as the San Francisco Chronicle.

"I'm Dangerous with Love" Opening

 

Can a psychedelic plant release your demons?

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE
An underground adventure into shamanic ritual

Opens at New York’s IFC Film Center on Wednesday January 12, 2011

"Bursts on the screen like a circus fire. A movie you'll never forget." 
- D A Pennebaker & Chris Hegedus

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE is about addiction and rehabilitation, activism and shamanism. It features Dimitri Mugianis, once the heavily addicted front man for the band Leisure Class, who finally ended his long drug and alcohol addiction with an experimental treatment that uses the hallucinogen Ibogaine, and now devotes his life to helping others overcome addiction through the treatment.

African shamans have used Ibogaine in their rituals for centuries, but in the US it is classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance and illegal, so Dimitri must  work in underground networks to guide addicts through the same detox that he says saved his life.

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE traces Dimitri's risky journey as he treats desperate drug users. It follows this man of edgy energy as he goes from one addict to the next without stopping to catch his breath. It also follows him on his own search for recovery when one session goes bad in a remote snowed-in Canadian home, and a quiet young man almost dies. Dimitri must decide whether or not to continue his mission. Is he serving the addicts or simply releasing his own demons? To find answers, Dimitri travels to Gabon, West Africa, to consult with Bwiti shamans, and puts himself through a punishing Iboga initiation. Filmmaker Michel Negroponte follows him on this journey to find his own answers.

"A haunting, visceral exploration of addiction and one contemporary man's fearless and determined quest for healing and redemption through the ancient wisdom of the Bwiti and their 'magical' plant, Iboga. For those seeking a path out of darkness, this film is not to be missed." Charles Shaw, AlterNet

“A powerhouse: brutally honest, hilarious, incisive, heroic. It capture’s a character who lives against the odds. Negroponte doesn’t just go the extra mile to capture story and character – he goes an extra light year and takes the audience with him. Its one of those docs that’s going to walk all over the festival circuit like it fucking owns the place.” -Sheffield Doc/Fest

"Laced with decidedly dark humor, I'm Dangerous with Love is both a compelling character study and an exciting excursion into an underground subculture." John Berra, Electric Sheep

"Negroponte turns a compassionate eye on the world of drug addiction, and one man's personal passionate crusade to rescue the addicted, one addict at a time.  An absorbing and at times exhilarating film that boomerangs from the underbelly of Manhattan to the jungles of Gabon and back again."  Ross McElwee

I'M DANGEROUS WITH LOVE
2009 85 minutes, USA, digital video, English, Color 
Directed by Michel Negroponte • Written by Nick Pappas and Joni Wehrli • Animation by Lisa Crafts • Music and Sound Design by Brooks Williams and Beo Morales • Photographed and Edited by Michel Negroponte • Executive Producers Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens • Produced by Blackbridge Productions in association with Cactus Three

 

michelnegroponte.com/imdangerouswithlove.html

 

Drug Wars and Drug Laws: Addiction Treatment Through the Lens of Politics, Race and Culture

Featured speakers:

Cheryl Grills, PhD, Loyola Marymount University, President of the Association of Black Psychologists

Ethan Nadelmann, JD, MA, PhD, Executive Director and Founder of Drug Policy Alliance

Race, class and culture are integral aspects of any clinical treatment; they particularly impact the treatment of addictive disorders.  Just recently we have seen the repeal of the Rockefeller Drug Laws, the implementation of Mental Health Parity and National Health Reform.  The country is in economic crisis, and we are in the midst of political sea change.

We will examine how these issues impact drug users and problematic drug use, and how they enter into the clinical situation, especially as expressed in transference and counter-transference experience. The conference is designed to help clinicians better address issues of race, culture and politics in their work with substance users.

For more information, and to register, please visit http://www.nyspa.org/index.php?option=com_jcalpro&Itemid=257&extmode=view&extid=184.

London Exhibit Examines Centuries of Drug History

"High Society," an exhibition opening today at London's Wellcome Collection museum, examines the history of opium, from pre-biblical practices to today's entire prohibitionist drug market, which is worth an estimated $320 billion per year, according to the United Nations. One of the aims of the exhibit is to de-stigmatize today's illegal drugs and show there is more to the subject than visitors may have thought. After all, substances that many people ingest freely today — alcohol, caffeine and tobacco — have all been criminalized in years past or are still illegal in some parts of the world.
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