For a moment two years ago, Los Angeles officials thought they knew how many marijuana dispensaries the city had: 186. That's how many registered to operate under the city's moratorium. The city quickly lost control, and the number soared: 500, 600, 800, now perhaps 1,000.

On Tuesday, the City Council will grapple with a question it has barely debated since the number started to rise: How many is too many?

Councilman Jose Huizar, whose district includes Eagle Rock, one of the first neighborhoods to recoil from the influx of dispensaries, has suggested a cap of 70. The proposal is one of more than three dozen amendments the council will weigh when it resumes debate on its proposed medical marijuana ordinance.

"Since this is a new frontier for the city to engage in, we want to make sure that we can do everything that's possible to monitor them," Huizar said. "We've got to take this in incremental steps, and I'd rather start with a low number."

The city attorney and L.A. County district attorney vigorously oppose the sale of medical marijuana at dispensaries, saying it violates state law, and have asked the council to ban it. But council members appear inclined to disregard their advice.

Cities have limited the number of dispensaries in two ways. The most common is to require them to be a certain distance from places that children frequent, such as schools and libraries. That's the approach in the proposed city ordinance. Less common, but gaining in popularity, is a cap on the number of shops.

Officials in cities with caps -- including Oakland, Berkeley, West Hollywood and Sebastopol -- say caps allow them to select responsible operators, keep a close eye on them and shut them down more easily if they become a nuisance.

I think we can all learn something from this.

The idea that salvia “could become the next marijuana” (as the Associated Press warned last year) is mostly misbegotten. The salvia experience is so unpredictable, so incompatible with social interaction, and so frequently boring or unpleasant that it’s safe to assume the herb will never be as popular as pot. But the comparison rings true in several other respects: Both salvia and marijuana are psychoactive plants linked in the public mind to Mexico, both appear to be nontoxic for all practical purposes, and both have intriguing medical potential. Salvia’s detractors, like marijuana’s in the 1920s and ’30s, claim it causes insanity and violence. In both cases prohibition occurred at the state level first. If salvia continues to follow the pattern set by marijuana, it will ultimately be banned throughout the country, despite a dearth of evidence that it poses a serious threat to individual health or to public safety.

The article is dense and quite interesting, catching up with salvia enthusiast Daniel Siebert and really taking a solid look at what a joke it is that so many people are so frightened by a drug that for some is a deep & introspective experience, while for many others is a one time curiosity that doesn't bear repeating.

[Thanks Thomas!]

btw: how come this hasn't found its way to youtube yet?

Yesterday, Rick Doblin presented a Google TechTalk on the topic of "Mainstreaming Psychedelics." According to the introduction to the video of his talk, "Google TechTalks are designed to disseminate a wide spectrum of views on topics including Current Affairs, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Business, Humanities, Law, Entertainment, and the Arts."

The abstract of the talk:

We're now in the midst of a worldwide renaissance in psychedelic research, after decades of political suppression. Scientists from around the world will present their new findings at the largest psychedelic conference to take place in the US in 17 years, on April 15-18, 2010, in San Jose, CA. Even media reports, which usually mention in passing the widespread use of psychedelics by the counterculture in the 1960s, are more hopeful than alarming. In this talk, we'll review the factors which led to the backlash and the lessons to be learned, discuss how the FDA opened the door to research around the world, how the ghost of Timothy Leary was buried at Harvard, and how Burning Man struggles to respond to people who have difficult psychedelic experiences. We'll conclude by explaining how non-profit drug development, initially of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for postraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), can transform psychedelics into FDA-approved prescription medicines and can lay the groundwork for the successful, long-term integration of psychedelics into the mainstream of medicine, religion, art, creativity, and celebration.

The title itself, "Achewood", is a slanted reference to wormwood and absinthe, which comes up every now and then in the comic.

The sequence starting 2 or 3 after that is a pretty funny stoned/hallucination sequence...

Pablo Amaringo, an outstanding researcher, artist, teacher who was passionate about Peruvian Amazon, passed away at age 71, in Pucallpa.

Amaringo showed from a very early age an acute insight into the cosmological nature of the world.

He wanted to learn about life; why we are born, grow up and die. His curiosity led him to wonder whether there are other worlds in the universe and if someday he could visit these cosmic astral worlds.

He published his first book of shamanic visions in 1991; he afterwards succeeded in the United States, Europe and Asia, being recognized as World Artist Painter in 1992.

That same year he was awarded by the United Nations with the “Global 500” prize and was declared as a pioneer of Ucayali Pucallpa, by making the Ucayali and Amazon culture known around the world.

He created in 1988 the School of Amazon Painting Usko-Ayar Prince. Amaringo was acknowledged last August as a “Meritorious Personality of Peruvian culture” for his outstanding work as a scholar of Amazonian cultures.

Showcase has given the green light to six episodes of The Drunk and on Drugs Happy Funtime Hour (working title), brought to you by none other than the former Trailer Park Boys....

The premise is a little convoluted, so stay with us here. It includes three grown men working on a children's show in the sleepy town of Port Cockerton (of course) called The Happy Funtime Hour. But they don't stray that far from their drunk and cursing former selves.

The guitarist from the rock band Rush, Alex Lifeson, shows up as a scientist to teach children about nutrition, but somehow creates an addictive hallucinogen from local berries. The cast then unknowingly ingests the drug and begins to believe they are the characters they are portraying on the show -- including deranged pirates, playboys from a 1980s television show and a group of not-very-super superheroes. There is also the added problem of a dysfunctional crime family that runs Port Cockerton, and a dangerous cult somewhere in there.

And then the series promises to turn all this into a Monty Python-esque sketch show.

This is what they mean by "appointment TV" if you ask me.

The Greeks and Romans used opium, anticholinergics, and numerous botanical toxins to induce states of mental euphoria, create hallucinations, and alter their own consciousness; this is an indisputable fact.

This fact has been intentionally ignored and covered up by historians. Recreational drugs have been translated out of classical literature in the same manner as bawdy sexual references were until recent decades.

This graphic illustrates the popularity of marijuana consumption, the federal tax dollars spent to keep marijuana illegal, and the possible tax revenues that could be generated if marijuana production were legalized and taxed like any other agricultural product.

Thanks Psilo!