Kevin Durant explains why he smokes weed in an interview on Netflix

Brooklyn Nets player Kevin Durant opened up about his marijuana use in an interview with David Letterman on Netflix. Part of the new season of My Guest Needs No Introduction, the interview will be available on May 20.

Leading up to the interview, Durant talked about his cooperation with Weedmaps, an app that helps users locate marijuana stores in their neighborhood. According to him, the goal of the partnership is to de-stigmatize marijuana use among athletes.

Durant then revealed that he first started using marijuana when he was 22 years old. Since the NBA no longer conducts random drug testing but nevertheless prohibits the use of marijuana, his statements have made headlines.

When asked why he smokes pot, Slim Reaper likened the experience to sipping a glass of wine. During his interview with Letterman, he admitted that he was really stoned at the time.

“For me, it takes the distractions out of your brain a bit. Installs you. It’s like having a glass of wine,” Durant said. “I’m actually stoned right now.”

For the past few years, Durant has been a strong supporter of medical marijuana. When it comes to painkillers, he sees cannabis as a safer, non-addictive option.

Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ryan Reynolds and Will Smith will all appear in the upcoming season of My Guest Needs No Introduction. Letterman has previously interviewed Barack Obama, Dave Chappell, and Kim Kardashian in previous seasons, among others.

SANTA FE, NM (KRQE) — The countdown is on for recreational pot sales. Although time is running out to put a plan in place, some want to make it easier for you to get started growing and selling cannabis. Whether it’s increasing the number of plants you can grow or cutting licensing costs, lawmakers are ready to grow more potted plants ahead of sales.

“We’re going to continue to learn from this industry as we open it up,” said Rep. Andrea Romero, who serves Santa Fe County. days.”

Much of Senate Bill 100 increases the number of plants growers can have. For micro-producers, it is planned to increase from 200 to 1,000.

“Part of fairness is allowing micro-producers to be licensed. That makes it really lucrative for them,” Romero said. “It really puts them on a foundation of potential growth and a truly competitive market that we would like them to enter.”

Earlier Monday, the state’s Regulatory and Licensing Department, which oversees the Cannabis Control Division, said it had made its own licensing changes. In addition to increasing the number of plants, they also cut the cost per plant in half, from $10 to $5.

“Cannabis growers weren’t increasing their plant count,” a representative said at the meeting. “What we learned is that the reason they weren’t is the cost associated with it.”

The new legislation also allows business owners who already have an alcohol license to also be allowed to sell cannabis. However, it still cannot be under the same roof.

“If you’re an entrepreneur who owns a lot of restaurants or a lot of businesses in one place, that shouldn’t preclude you from being able to license both cannabis and alcohol if it’s all under your own name,” Romero said. “The whole point of our original legislation was to make sure there was no confusion. You wouldn’t be able to buy both things at the same place.

Romero says other areas like security requirements have already been worked out with those who have already received their licenses. However, she hopes these latest additions are the last necessary step for the state’s newest industry.

“I hope this will continue to build the capacity of entrepreneurs to get into the business,” Romero said. “And I feel very good about the way these licenses are issued.”

Even though the reduced fees would mean less money from the pot, lawmakers hope the affordability will instead encourage industry growth, bringing big money down the line. While the state must begin cannabis sales no later than April 1, regulators haven’t ruled out kicking off sales earlier if things fall into place before then.

COLTS NECK, NJ – The Colts Neck Township Committee recently passed an ordinance banning any cannabis-related businesses from operating within city limits.

At a recent meeting, the committee voted to pass an ordinance prohibiting pot growers, delivery services, manufacturers, retailers and distributors from operating in Colts Neck.

“The township has determined that businesses selling marijuana and farms growing marijuana require special attention for safety, security and location,” the order said. “There is no area in the township that can safely house a business selling, manufacturing or growing marijuana and / or paraphernalia that facilitates the use of that marijuana. The township committee believes that is in the best interest of the canton and the public welfare in general. prohibit any business [sic] sell marijuana and / or paraphernalia that facilitate the use of marijuana and the cultivation or manufacture of marijuana in the township.

While New Jersey voters chose to approve the legalization of marijuana in the November 2020 general election from 67.1% to 32.9%, local municipalities can still ban pottery companies from selling or cultivating. in the city. In Monmouth County, the vote is reduced from 65.6% to 34.4%.

Several other municipalities in Monmouth County are considering the pot‘s role in the city, including Manalapan, Holmdel and Marlboro. Freehold has also taken steps to categorically ban pot retailers, manufacturers, and growers within city limits.

Any action will need to be taken quickly by cities in New Jersey, as the exact deadline for passing an ordinance banning or limiting the number of cannabis establishments and establishing civil penalties for violation of ordinances is August 21, according to the law. New Jersey State League of Municipalities. Related: Marijuana Is Legal In New Jersey. But can cities still ban it?

Residents of Colts Neck should also be aware that whatever businesses may operate in town, it will not limit their ability to consume cannabis or have cannabis delivered by an outside service. Adults 21 and older are permitted to consume cannabis on private property. Cannabis has also been decriminalized in New Jersey, and you can own up to six ounces of marijuana or 17 grams of hash without penalty. Read more: 5 things you need to know about legalizing marijuana in NJ

The BC Chamber of Commerce wants the province to “modernize” recreational cannabis by, among other things, allowing in-app delivery of products from private retailers.

A new chamber report says BC’s recreational pot industry is missing out on opportunities with current regulations.

The chamber makes 13 recommendations for rules regarding the retail sale and delivery, licensing and taxation of cannabis businesses.

“Implementing the…recommendations will unlock billions of dollars of private sector investment,” Fiona Famulak, president and CEO of the chamber, said in a statement.

“This will create more jobs for British Columbians, increase tax revenue and position BC’s cannabis sector as a leader in Canada and abroad.

One of the report’s sponsors, Eleanor Lynch, chief operating officer of Kiaro Cannabis, said it was time to look at the BC rules and how they could be changed to improve the experience. consumers, help regulated businesses thrive and further reduce the illicit market.

Competing with the illicit market

Among the report’s recommendations is a call for the province to allow private hot pot retailers to accept online orders and for delivery services like Uber Eats and Skip the Dishes to be able to bring their orders to customers.

The chamber also wants cannabis producers to take advantage of the agritourism boom by allowing “on-farm” sales directly to customers, much like wineries can sell their vintages to visitors.

The province is currently working on an on-farm program, Solicitor General Mike Farnworth said, which is expected to launch in the spring.

“The thrust of the paper is to address some of the market imbalances where consumers still don’t have easy access to regulated cannabis,” Lynch said, adding that regulated retailers are still struggling with the illicit market.

“It’s very frustrating for you to go out and market, raise your own capital… And then, you know, maybe an illicit operator opens up on the street.”

Municipal bureaucracy in the crosshairs

The report also calls for simplified licensing for retailers, especially when it comes to municipal issues.

It also calls for an end to the 20% tax on cannabis vapes in British Columbia and calls on the province to work with the federal government to reduce and streamline taxes on regulated cannabis.

Lynch argues that if taxes on cannabis vapes are too high, young consumers are more likely to buy unregulated vapes, but health officials have said the vaping tax is important for tackling smoking for young people.

Lynch said the report was given to various politicians and policymakers for review.

Loose joints, tattered throw pillows and a conga drum recreated a famous 1990s Gainesville lounge — dubbed Fort Ganja — in downtown Gainesville on Saturday. Stocked with more than 1,000 cannabis cigarettes, the city’s original ‘doobie tosser’ was set to recreate the stunt that led to his arrest and police crackdown on marijuana 30 years ago.

But the crowds at Hemp Fest, he said, didn’t justify it.

Police arrested Dennis “Murli” Watkins for throwing “doobies” into the 1994 Gainesville Hemp Fest crowd at Bo Diddley Plaza. He, along with other designated pitchers, pitched 3,000 pre-rolled cigarettes that year, Watkins said.

He wanted to be arrested, he said. He wanted the opportunity to challenge the criminalization of marijuana in the Supreme Court.

According to Watkins, organizers gave out 300 joints in 1992 and increased it to 1,000 in 1993. In 1995, the year after Watkins was arrested, they threw donuts away to avoid another confrontation with police. , which was fitted with riot gear.

At this year’s festival – held just weeks after Watkins’ marijuana charges were dropped in 2019 – 1,300 were ready to be thrown. The crowd, made up mostly of original festival organizers and attendees, did not warrant an orchestrated cash out, Watkins said.

“It wasn’t going to happen today,” he said. “There was nobody.”

As the political and legal landscape surrounding marijuana has changed since the glory days of Hemp Fest, Watkins has found himself surrounded by former peers who continue to fight for the full legalization and decriminalization of marijuana. It was like a meeting, he said.

A difference in culture and community could explain why younger, college-age people didn’t populate the square, said MaiTreyi Michel-Trapaga, Watkins’ 27-year-old daughter. Her parents had to find a community in order to fight the stigma associated with marijuana. Young people today – who are more isolated in a post-COVID world – might be comfortable with legalizing medical use, but Watkins’ generation remembers what it took to get there .

Only two officers from the Gainesville Police Department attended Hemp Fest at Bo Diddley Plaza on Saturday – a day after two officers were suspended after an internal investigation uncovered inappropriate posts about Black resident Terrell Bradley Gainesville who was mauled by a K-9 cop.

The two officers left about halfway through the event, while vendors, volunteers and locals crowded the plaza from noon to 4 p.m. before moving to a smoke-free afterparty in Depot Village.

“It’s weird that there isn’t more smoked pot,” said Devin Meyers, a 45-year-old original doobie pitcher.

The crowd and atmosphere were different from his last experience at the 1994 festival, Meyers said. When a friend led him to a teepee in the middle of the crowded square, he didn’t know what he was getting into; but he accepted the bag given to him and began scattering its contents at 4:20 p.m.

“Florida is going to have to catch up with the rest of the country,” he said. “There’s a ton of money they could make out of it.”

While Florida is not included with the 19 states and the District of Columbia in legalizing recreational marijuana use, it legalized medical use in 2016. At least 15 dispensaries populate Gainesville, and recent local reforms made possession of 20 grams a civil rather than a criminal offence. .

Alix Knowles, a 31-year-old registered nurse and representative of the Vidacann dispensary, said access to medical marijuana would likely have greatly improved her mother’s palliative care experience.

Education, she said, is key, adding that people should understand that access to medical marijuana can mitigate the risks of buying weed and other drugs on the street that could be mixed with deadly substances, such as fentanyl.

Governor Ron DeSantis recently advocated increasing the amount cannabis operators pay for licenses.

“I would charge them an arm and a leg,” DeSantis told reporters August 25. “I mean, everyone wants those licenses.”

Jodi James, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, likened her work — trying to legalize marijuana under DeSantis — to running hot coals barefoot.

Earlier this month, James joined Nikki Fried, state commissioner for agriculture and consumer services, to discuss reversing DeSantis’ emergency decision limiting medical doses the previous week.

The emergency rule — announced Aug. 26 and effective Aug. 29 — set a 70-day total supply limit of 24,500 mg of THC for non-smokable marijuana and established dosage caps for different routes of administration such as edibles, inhalation and tinctures.

Years of activism have earned them a medical use, but there’s still more to be done, James said.

“It’s still illegal and it’s still selectively enforced,” James said. “And while I could probably walk down the street smoking a doobie, if we were in a different neighborhood, I would go to jail.”

While statewide marijuana arrests have plummeted, thousands of people are still being arrested. In 2018, approximately 38,000 people were arrested for possession of marijuana. In 2020, that number has dropped to around 18,000.

Although Saturday organizers announced that smoking and vaping were banned in the plaza, some attendees took to the surrounding sidewalks to celebrate the anniversary of Watkins’ arrest.

“I followed the scent around the corner,” said 21-year-old Gainesville resident Brenden Gonzalez.

In moderation, Gonzalez said, weed can be very cathartic, tranquilizing, and euphoric. Throughout his youth in Miami and his recent move to Gainesville, he said, the police never gave him a hard time smoking.

“Too many people are being arrested, incarcerated and losing their careers due to outdated policies that seek to criminalize and demonize a largely victimless act,” said Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson, D-Gainesville,

People who smoke weed don’t cause riots, host Tom Miller said, they eat gummy bears, watch South Park, make music and laugh.

Miller refuses to adhere to extreme division along party lines, he said.

“The reality is we’re all one, we’d all like to have fun, we’d all like to figure things out together,” he said. “And where we disagree, something that takes the edge off would be a big seal.”

South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently signed a $ 900 million contract with Viacom. What do they plan to do with all this money?

“I think we’re really going for the first time to bring Tegridy Weed into real life,†Stone said. says Bloomberg. He did not develop.

South Park has a long history of grass jokes. But the Tegridy Farms theme that ran through Season 23 was something else. Producer Randy Marsh is trying to root out local competition and go into business with China. A episode mocks Med Men and corporate takeover of cannabis.

Matt Stone: “I think we’re really going to bring Tegridy Weed into real life for the first time.”

In 2010, Westword wrote: “Is the Tegridy Farms tease just the South Park the crew fucking with us? Probably. After all, it would be a very Cartman decision if Stone and Parker entered the pot business: two rich white people making money from legal cannabis would be very similar to what they laugh at MedMen for trying to do. .

Still, you can imagine the names of the strains: Cartman Kush, Randy’s Moonrocks, Parker’s Pot, Matt’s Stones, Towlie’s Dream.

Do you want Tegridy? Take a look below.

Become a patron!

Steve bloom

Editor of CelebStoner.com, former editor of High Times and Freedom Leaf and co-author of Pot Culture and Reefer Movie Madness.

Planned pot plantings for Winchester Canyon Road raised objections from the city of Goleta in 2019, as the county finalized its cannabis rules, with the city pleading for a mile between crops and homes. Now that a cannabis farm just outside the city’s borders has received county approval, Goleta has signaled his intention to appeal the project.

The applicant, White Light Cannabis Cultivation, plans to plant 17 acres of cannabis at 222 Winchester Canyon Road, both in nurseries and outdoors. The 349-acre property sits approximately half a mile from the Winchester Canyon and Winchester Commons neighborhoods along the west side of Cathedral Oaks Road, and it has registered cannabis odor complaints in 2019 and 2020. The canyon is also known for the occasional drift of hydrogen sulfide, a gas which is “extremely flammable” and “highly toxic” and whose effects “can occur even at low concentrations,” said Peter Imhof, planning director of the town of Goleta.

Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) has a strong rotten egg smell because of the sulfur it contains. Dangerously, the human nose quickly adapts to the smell, which has resulted in fatalities in industrial refineries from accidental releases. The property held permits related to oil and gas well exploration in the 1980s, and the last high-profile hydrogen sulfide release from Goleta in 2016 was attributed to an agricultural well being drilled in Winchester Canyon. People up to Ellwood Bluffs, about a mile and a half away, got sick and reported headaches and nausea.

Although White Light has offered to add H2S monitors to the cannabis farm, the city believes the monitors are inadequate and that an environmental impact report specific to this property is needed.

Sign up for Indy Today to receive fresh news from Independent.com, delivered to your inbox every morning.

To accommodate the hundreds of ongoing cannabis projects, the county has drafted a Programmatic Environmental Impact Report, or PEIR, to cover them all as it prepares its land use regulations for cannabis, that do not set any buffer between homes and properties zoned AG-II. Imhof observed that the county PEIR considered all AG-II plots to be away from residential uses; However, he said, “this project is next to a large existing residential area.” He added that “continued drought can exacerbate H2S odors with less readily available groundwater and a need to pump from deeper sources and / or for longer periods.”

In addition to the smell of H2S, the project’s odor reduction plan only affects its drying and processing buildings, Imhof said. The odors are also believed to come from sources other than produce, argues the city, as well as nursery and waste storage areas. Traffic impacts were another feature of the project that was not adequately addressed for this area of ​​the PEIR, he said, which only offered a “one size fits all†condition for management. of transport demand.

Discern who owns what is opaque in the world of land use, as partnerships form, dissolve and are frequently renamed. The cannabis applicant for canyon ownership is Winchester LLC, according to County Planning records. The LLC shares an address with Paul Garrett, a name that appears on the property’s permit file dating back to 2003; Garrett is a Temecula-based real estate investor. The claimant, who is locally represented by private developer Jay Higgins, did not respond to requests for comment.

Support it Independent from Santa Barbara by a long-term contribution or a one-off contribution.

Add to favorites

Stay one step ahead

In the legal profession, information is the key to success. You need to know what’s going on with customers, competitors, practice areas and industries. Law360 provides the intelligence you need to stay an expert and beat the competition.

• Access to case data in articles (numbers, filings, courts, nature of lawsuits, etc.)
• Access to attached documents such as briefs, motions, complaints, decisions, motions, etc.
• Create custom alerts for specific article and case topics and more!

TRY LAW360 FREE FOR SEVEN DAYS

TRAVERSE CITY – When Traverse City began accepting applications for medical cannabis licenses in 2019, more than 70 potential suppliers applied.

Now, as the city prepares to approve licenses for adult-use cannabis retailers, otherwise known as recreational marijuana dispensaries, they have a slightly smaller slate of candidates ahead of them. As of last week’s deadline, the city clerk’s office reports receiving 16 applications, including a 17th after the deadline.

That’s two-thirds of the maximum 24 licenses city leaders agreed to in May, when they set the rules for new establishments.

This means applicants will not have to be ranked against the additional scoring rubric the city has established to narrow down applicants.

And it may also mean that the industry has ‘slowed down’ since its inception and retailers aren’t chasing a place in every market that opens up. It could signal that the days of land grabbing and speculation associated with the marijuana trade are over in Traverse City, a local leader suggested.

“We saw this kind of gold rush – I think they called it the ‘green rush’ back then – in our real estate market when we opened up medical, and we were hoping it wouldn’t happen. not this time,” said Amy Shamroe, city commissioner and pro-tem mayor. “And so far, from what I’ve heard, that’s not the case.”

Shamroe said she wasn’t necessarily surprised by the lower number of applicants this time around and the result was about what she hoped.

Shamroe was part of the ad hoc committee that established Traverse City’s marijuana ordinance and licensing rules, including the competitive scoring process that would have been implemented if the city received more than eight applications. additional. The city had previously attempted to establish limits and a scoring rubric for adult-use cannabis applicants, but those rules were blocked in 2020 when a dispensary owner sued alleging they were too restrictive.

Early City Commission discussions raised the possibility of setting the maximum even lower, ranging from four to 12, according to earlier reports. The final decision split the commission 4-3, with the holdouts all expressing a preference for a lower number.

But Shamroe said she believes 24 is reasonable, allowing established medical cannabis supply centers to apply for adult use licenses, without excluding potential lottery-passed retailers from city medical licenses.

As it stands, all 12 current medical marijuana establishments have applied for a recreational marijuana license.

Now, the Traverse City Clerk’s Office and the Traverse City Police Department will spend most of the next year reviewing the many supporting documents that accompany applications.

This includes documents such as financial history, industry experience, background information on major investors, and proof of legal ownership. In total, these documents may contain a few hundred pages, said City Clerk Benjamin Marentette.

“Even though we haven’t received more applications than available licenses, that doesn’t mean that all applicants will get a license,” he said. “That’s our hope, but we have to do our due diligence.”

He expects all applications to be complete by March 2023.

Eventually, applicants will have to go through the urban planning department to have their site permits approved.

“That’s what we do here every day and deal with those requests,” planning director Shawn Winter said. “We have a fairly efficient system, so I don’t care about that.”

Going forward, Shamroe said she hopes retailers that open will be good neighbors to their surrounding businesses, residents and homeowners. Due to the smaller numbers, as well as the fact that on-site use won’t be allowed, she said she doesn’t think Traverse City will become a “hub” for the industry, as some had fears. Instead, cannabis may be just another of the many goods people can buy when they’re in town.

“That’s what people do here,” she says. “They buy wine, they buy alcohol distilled from distilleries that are made here, if they choose to buy cannabis here too, it’s certainly legal, and there’s nothing wrong with that. .”