The Triple-Pot Latte

There's nothing quite like the vigor and vim that comes from a large cup of strong coffee loaded with sugar. The caffeine lights the fire, and the sugar feeds the flames. What previously was urgent is suddenly imperative, what was impossible is delightfully doable.

How, one wonders, might this be improved?

The other day I ordered a latte at a local espresso stand before going on into a theater to see "The Metropolitan Opera Live in HD". They had no interesting syrups to sweeten it with. No peppermint, no hazelnut, no chocolate or vanilla. Only agave syrup. I tried it. No flavor to speak of. Its flavor was subtle, as they say.

The next other day, I was browsing online the cannabis edibles I could enjoy if I were simply to move to Colorado and what did I see?  Agave syrup.

What was inconceivable became delightfully doable.  A medium latte contains two shots of espresso. Add three shots of cannabis agave, and what do you get?  How will you know?

It's time now for this blog's yearly April 20th look at how the holy weed of the ancient San Franciscans has been doing lately, a review delayed slightly this year for ahem personal  reasons.

For those in a hurry, Huffington Post hits the highlights with their yearly review.

 11/09/2012 - Counties in Washington State drop marijuana possession cases in response to vote.

 4/05/2013 - Seattle police return marijuana taken from street dealers

 4/20/2013 - Prohibition now costs the government $20 billion a year.
Imagine the improvements if that much money were spent on education.

 May 17th - The Organization of American States said that countries should consider decriminalizing drug use.

 May 24th - Marijuana cannabinoids slow brain degradation and aging, reverse dementia

 May 25th - 47 percent of Americans say pot should be legal to grow.

 Jul 21st - A new federally funded study proves that marijuana is safe and effective as a medicine.
Not what they planned to prove, but what can they do?

"The goal of the study was to disprove the many other studies that show cannabis to be safe and effective in treating symptoms, side-effects and diseases. Guess what? The CMCR came to the same conclusion as those other studies: marijuana is medically useful and effective. Oops. That’s rather inconvenient, isn’t it?"

Aug 7th - CNN's Sanjay Gupta says Americans terribly and systematically misled about marijuana. He stated that the DEA has no scientific basis for the claim that marijuana has no medical value.

Aug 12th - A Dr. Sanjay Gupta Special: WEED shows how kids sick with epilepsy are helped by cannabidiol.

Aug 12th - AG  Eric Holder presents new Justice Department drug sentencing reforms.

Aug 18th - A report from Hempfest in Seattle:
"I haven't been to it in a few years, but I had to go do THIS one... the first one where marijuana is legal!"

Aug 19th - 82% of Americans believe that the US is losing the war on drugs.

Aug 20th - White House won't say if federal position on medical marijuana will be swayed by the Sanjay Gupta video.

 Aug 21st - State officials say DOJ has given 'tacit approval' for legal marijuana

 Aug 26th - The Senate Judiciary Committee invites AG Holder to discuss clash between fed and state marijuana laws.

 Aug 29th - DOJ will let the Washington and Colorado marijuana laws go into effect.

 Aug 30 - Is the war on drugs coming to an end?
"The Justice Department's announcement that it would not block Colorado and Washington from implementing state laws legalizing marijuana marked a sea change."

 Aug 30 - Police groups furious about AG Eric Holder's mrijuana policy 

 Sep 05 - Republican John McCain says "Maybe we should legalize. We're certainly moving that way as far as marijuana is concerned. I respect the will of the people."

 Sep 12 - Even Neo-con Grover Norquist and the tea party favor equal government tax treatment for legal marijuana businesses.

"Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, the group that pressed congressional Republicans to sign a strict anti-tax pledge, stood alongside Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) and Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), a tea party favorite, at a Thursday press conference to advocate for the change."

At issue is a section of the federal tax code that prohibits businesses considered drug traffickers from taking basic tax deductions for business expenses.

 Sep 20th - NBC News reports that cannabidiol (CBD) turns off the cancer gene involved in metastasis findings.


 Sep 26 - Colorado marijuana industry gets $1 million from an investor group. 

 Oct 17 - California is poised to legalize recreational marijuana in 2016.

 Oct 31 - One in four Americans would buy pot if it were legal. This is not a trivial market.

 Nov 05 - Portland, Maine, legalizes recreational marijuana. Adults may possess up to 2.5 ounces legally.

 Nov 09 - The NAACP supports marijuana rights:  "the NAACP's Board of Directors passed a resolution last month in support of H.R. 1523 -- the Respect States Marijuana Laws Act."


 Nov 21 - Feds and the local police raid pot shops as they prep for January openings.
"Just weeks before shops are to start selling marijuana for recreational use in Colorado, federal and local law enforcement raided stores across the Metro area Thursday morning."

 Dec 29, 2013 - Colorado prepares for legal recreational sales.

 Jan 1st, 2014  - The nation's first legal recreational pot market opened in Colorado today.

 January 3rd - Bill to legalize pot introduced in Vermont.

 Jan  6th - Ad agencies prepare for the legal marijuana market. "Their goal is to make it not only acceptable, but hip..."   Uh...

 Jan 15th - The New Hampshire House just became the first state body to ok recreational use.

 Jan 19th - President Obama says that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol.

 Jan 27th - Bush holdover DEA chief slams Obama for saying marijuana less dangerous than alcohol.

 Feb 28th - Alaskans will be able to vote for recreational marijuana on their summer ballot

 March 9th - In California, the Democratic party platform backs legalization.

 March 10th - Colorado collects $2 million in recreational pot taxes in January alone.

 March 14th - Stephen Colbert  "The market has spoken and the market is toking."

 March 24th - A state lawmaker plans to introduce a bill to legalize recreational use in New Jersey

 April 1st - DC mayor signed a bill decriminalizing up to an ounce of marijuana.

 April 4th - Attorney General Eric Holder said that he would be glad to work with Congress to reschedule marijuana.  It isn't addictive, toxic, or lacking in medicinal uses, and it looks kind of funny up there at the top of the dangerous drug list.

 April 7th - Michelle Leonhart, Bush-holdover DEA chief, thinks marijuana legalization will kill puppies. After all, you only have to look at the dogs that have already died from the illegal usage.

 April 14th - Maryland has decriminalised marijuana. Under 10 grams is a civil offense, now.

 April 15th - Tourists flock to Colorado, where crime is down and marijuana is up.


 April 16th - Can smoking marijuana "change your brain?"   Bad science says "yes!"



 April 16th - The ZaZZZ cannabis-edibles vending machine from American Green will be installed in the Herbal Elements dispensary in Vail, Colorado. Very soon.


 April 24th - John Paul Stevens, retired Supreme Court Justice, thinks marijuana should be legalized.

 May 5th - The chief of the DEA, a Bush hold-over, refuses to support drug sentencing reforms, although her boss the Attorney General is all for them.

 May 5th - The federal government just ordered a thousand pounds of marijuana. They need to do research, so the DEA upped their yearly allotment from 21 kg to 650 kg.

 May 6th - Nobel Prize - winning economists say we should end the war on drugs.

 May 6th - An army base was broken into and covered in pot seeds. "A group of anti-war Italians opposed to a US Army base in their midst broke into said Army base last week, where they planted about 200,000 marijuana seeds, reports Stars and Stripes."

 May 8th - Oklahoma initiatives for the November ballot would make marijuana a legal, exportable cash crop.

  May 14th - Kentucky sues the DEA to free its impounded hemp seeds. They were intended for agricultural research.  The win could be big if the judge bases it on the following:

"The public interest is not served by allowing unaccountable federal agencies to exercise arbitrary and capricious powers, not rationally related to carrying out any legitimate governmental purpose."  says the Kentucky Department of Agriculture lawsuit.

 May 21st - Colorado will spend $10 million researching marijuana's medical benefits

June 3rd -  Denver Post's Marijuana Reviews are Smokin'  -  "I found my legs tethered to the ground with my head meandering in the sky.”

June 3rd - Obama signs farm bill which legalizes hemp growing.

 June 4th - NYT columnist Maureen Dowd over-ate pot candy in a lonely Colorado hotel room and lived to write about it.

June 4th - California weed industry worth $31 billion a year. "... more than the combined value of California’s ten largest agricultural commodities."

June 8th -  Denver crime falls over 10 percent in wake of pot legalization

June 8th - Mexican President open to legalization.

 June 11th - New report blasts DEA for spending 40 years obstructing marijuana science.

June 13th - Jamaica to decriminalize personal marijuana possession - less than 2 ounces in a public space is legal. In a private space...?

 June 19th - The Senate could follow the House in blocking DEA enforcement against medical marijuana use. A bill has been proposed. The House passed their version of it with surprising alacrity.

 June 19th - The Philadelphia City Council voted to decriminalize marijuana.  Up to an ounce, oh my... ...  . . . (I use www. realtor.com for all my re-location daydreams...)

 June 20th -  And finally, the pope, after cancelling his appointments for the next month, has declared recreational drugs bad. Doesn't lead to the desired results, he says. Patience, o holy one. Sometimes it takes a party or two to realize the jubilee that is going on inside you.

 Says this ancient former San Franciscan candlemaker.