In the midst of dealing with the day’s pressing issues, we sometimes lose the thread of how much, and how quickly, things change. A couple of years before the Supreme Court upheld gay marriage in 2015, such a development was almost unthinkable. Tobacco use dropped by 68 percent in the years between… » Read More

In the summer before she was supposed to start third grade, Rylie Maedler’s teeth started falling out. The Delaware kid’s mom, Janie, also noticed an “asymmetry” in Rylie’s face. A CT scan revealed that a tumor was winding its way through the seven-year-old’s skull, the result of a rare disease, Aggressive Giant… » Read More

For all the struggles the cannabis industry is facing—slim or nonexistent margins, illicit sales, the enormous costs of running a dispensary—the industry has nevertheless exploded. One can only wonder how huge it would be if the federal government were to legalize weed. There are now more cannabis industry workers than there are… » Read More

Earlier today I had to call 911 from the brand new VTA/BART Berryessa station. When the operator asked me for the address, I could only give the bus stop ID number because it didn’t have a street address and there wasn’t one listed at the building. Fortunately, help had been called but… » Read More

People tend to think of the cannabis world as populated mainly by liberals. Most pot people do lean liberal. But the truth is that every political worldview is represented in weed. Even MAGA: over the weekend, Andrew Kyle of Dallas, who identifies himself as a “cannabis expert consultant” on LinkedIn, posted on… » Read More

A few weeks ago, the racial inequities of cannabis (both the illegal and legal kind) blew up amid the protests and riots following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Large groups of looters broke into nearly every dispensary in Oakland. Debby Goldsberry of Magnolia Wellness, a dispensary that was hit… » Read More

Last week, several dispensary owners in Oakland, who have been plagued by a string of robberies, kicked around ideas for improving security. One of those ideas: allowing owners and employees to pack heat. The notion of gun-toting weed merchants didn’t go over well, and the Oakland Cannabis Regulatory Commission rejected it. The… » Read More