Illegal Drugs

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Weed picking up speed?

When the Phoenix published a cover story about the potential tipping point in the fight to end marijuana prohibition, we smelled something in the air: it seemed more than ever that such a resolution might be possible.
Just say now
By MIKE MILIARD | July 10, 2009

Art appreciation

The recent Phoenix editorial on state-government funding for arts and culture highlighted many of the challenges we face as we try to meet our aspirations as a community amidst a very difficult economic environment.
Letters to the Boston Phoenix editor, June 12, 2009
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 12, 2009

An old dog teaches his tricks

"You can call me a pothead," slow-talking Harry Brown tells me, roughly 15 minutes into my visit to his 80-acre farm in Starks, Maine.
A Maine marijuana icon hopes to reinvigorate his cause
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 12, 2009

Legalize pot now

The Obama administration, already overtaxed with two foreign campaigns, made headlines this past week when the White House's newly minted director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy called for an end to the "War on Drugs."
With support from the unlikeliest circles, this could be marijuana's moment
By MIKE MILIARD | May 29, 2009

From the mouths of innocents

It has become an unwelcome reality, living from paycheck to paycheck and worrying about job stability, but what about being born a guiltless young person growing up with a drug-addicted parent, no job skills, and no home?
Modern poverty
By SONYA TOMLINSON | May 15, 2009

The Big Hurt: Devil music

When I was around 10 years old, I wandered into a rural flea market and found one of the greatest pieces of music journalism ever written: a forgotten crank masterpiece called Backward Masking Unmasked that had been written in 1983 by Texan minister
sgurd fo stros lla od ot su slepmoc nataS
By DAVID THORPE | May 08, 2009

Hemp — the law, the musical

When liberal congressmen like Barney Frank begin co-sponsoring bills with libertarians like Ron Paul, there must be something funny in the air.
Dept. of Really Strange Bedfellows
By CHRIS FARAONE | May 01, 2009

Going to pot

The state's medical-marijuana laws, which govern how patients can access pot for medical purposes, is on the brink of significant change.
State medical marijuana law advances
By DEIRDRE FULTON | April 17, 2009

NFL follies

Not only was Donte Stallworth officially charged with DUI manslaughter, but another former AFC East star, former Buffalo Bill running back Travis Henry, reached a plea agreement on drug charges.
Pro football gets tossed around. Plus, Kirk Snyder goes to the dentist.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 10, 2009

A dog's life

Advice from the magical marijuana guinea pig
Failure
By KARL STEVENS | April 01, 2009

Rick Ross

It was fine when Rick Ross was just another average tattooed black guy who was claiming to be a drug dealer without ever having pushed a nickel bag. But he was really a corrections officer, and for a rapper that's less sexy than blowing your hype man on
It was fine when Rick Ross was just another average tattooed black guy who was claiming to be a drug dealer without ever having pushed a nickel bag. But he was really a corrections officer, and for a rapper that's less sexy than blowing your hype man on stage.
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 26, 2009

The Big Hurt: Weezy goes free, Miley turns bitter, Martin still lame

The good news: the 2006 drug charges against Lil Wayne have been dropped after a judge ruled that the search leading to his arrest wasn't proper.
Music news in brief
By DAVID THORPE | March 19, 2009

Wideouts gone wild

Late February is a heavy-arrest period in American sports, for the simple reason that the college-football season is over, spring practices have not yet begun, and they have not yet deployed armed alcohol-sniffing police robots on college campuses arou
Lock the liquor cabinet and hide the keys — it's that time of year again
By MATT TAIBBI | February 18, 2009

You're Probably in a Drug-Free School Zone Right Now

Ever seen a crack dealer brandish a chrome tape measure and inch his way out of a "drug-free school zone" before slinging fat rocks to pregnant teenage mothers? No?
For all the good it does
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 11, 2009

Question 2 backlash heats up

Since Question 2 was activated on January 2, it's been difficult to walk the streets of Massachusetts without encountering red-eyed hordes of marijuana-blazing vagrants.
Rolling the Genie Back in the Bag
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 28, 2009

The DEA says no (again) to medical marijuana. Now what?

Rick Doblin, president of Belmont-based Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), can't believe how long it's dragged on.
High on Obama?
By MIKE MILIARD | January 14, 2009

Blount's blunts

Let’s just say it’s been a while since we’ve seen a pound-worthy entry to the annals of pot busts, as we did this week.
Sports blotter: "Gone to pot" edition
By MATT TAIBBI | December 17, 2008

Letters to the Portland editor: December 19, 2008

By | December 17, 2008

Drugs and culture

University of Southern Maine professor Wendy Chapkis usually studies, teaches, and writes about gender issues, so her latest non-fiction outing, Dying to Get High: Marijuana as Medicine , might seem like a bit of a departure.
Books
By DEIRDRE FULTON | December 03, 2008

Freedom watch: Jailhouse bloc

With aromatic puffs of change, Bay State stoners rejoiced on Election Day.
Want to know the real reason the law-and-order set backs mandatory-minimum sentencing? They get their pockets lined by the 'prison-industrial complex.'
By HARVEY SILVERGLATE AND KYLE SMEALLIE | December 03, 2008

Letters

Harvey Silverglate’s " The Gray Lady in Shadow " (January 6) was excellent and raised extraordinary concerns.
GUNNING FOR THE TIMES
By | October 27, 2008

Max Payne

No longer the undercover DEA agent of the game, Max oversees NYPD “cold case” files. They don’t come much colder than this one.
Bloodless, PG-13-rated action noir
By BRETT MICHEL | October 21, 2008

Pilgrims’ progress

India, 1838. The opium business is booming, and drug money fills the British Empire’s coffers, offsetting a trade imbalance created by imports of Chinese tea and silk. But now the emperor wants the drug trade stopped.
Amitav Ghosh's Sea of Poppies
By CHRIS WANGLER | October 08, 2008

Blunt object

Question 2 supporters claim Massachusetts district attorneys committed “at least 15 violations of Massachusetts campaign-finance and election laws” in the runup to the marijuana-decriminalization vote.
The political fight over a November marijuana-reform ballot question has sparked a Battle of the Bong
By CHRIS FARAONE | September 24, 2008

High times in Canada

Two weeks ago, we ran a story about how the seemingly tranquil, inoffensive, and pristine little Canadian province of Prince Edward Island was actually a relative hotbed of marijuana growing.
Letters to the Boston editor, August 29, 2008
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | August 27, 2008

Smoke screens

What does it say about America that marijuana movies are a hot genre right now, perhaps hotter even than in the heyday of Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong’s 1978 Up in Smoke ?
Does a surge of stoner movies mean America is going to pot?
By PETER KEOUGH | August 13, 2008

Pot Edward Island

It seems modern-day islanders have discovered another way to smile through the summer and avoid the blues during the bleak local winters.
Canada's most picturesque province is surprisingly also the fertile center of an underground marijuana explosion
By ALAN R. EARLS | August 13, 2008

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