cannabisnews.com: Greenfield Man Rolls Pro-Pot Ideas





Greenfield Man Rolls Pro-Pot Ideas
Posted by CN Staff on July 23, 2006 at 10:47:29 PT
By Adam Gorlick, Associated Press Writer
Source: Worcester Telegram & Gazette
Greenfield, Mass. -- Books on Buddhism and yoga mingle with business planners and a laptop computer. An acoustic guitar rests next to a shuffle of sheet music for "Mr. Tambourine Man," just across the room from a fax machine.And then there are the marijuana stalks. Towering six-footers. Pint-sized plants for personal medical use. He even has a few ripe buds kicking around on a desk, not far from his cell phone.
His stash is for sale, but it won't get you stoned. These lifelike botanicals are made of silk and wood.Behold, counterfeit cannabis.During the past two years, White - a trim 51-year-old with thinning hair and a small stud in his left earlobe - has rolled his pro-pot activism and business savvy into New Image Plants, a startup company that sells the make-believe marijuana online."The business name reflects exactly what I'm trying to do - create a new image for these plants," he said. "They're beautiful plants and people should be able to enjoy them without fear of arrest."White won't say whether he smokes pot or has in the past. But he began pushing for marijuana legalization about seven years ago after talking to one of his sons about anti-drug advertising."He wanted to know why adults were talking down to kids and trying to scare them," White said. While he doesn't condone the use of marijuana by minors, White rebukes the notion that pot is a harmful drug that inevitably leads to the use of harder drugs."Kids know those claims aren't true," White said. "So when they hear an anti-drug message like that, they just discount it."So he started a nonprofit group in 1999 called Change the Climate, which advocates for the legalization and taxation of marijuana and better education about the drug."My vision was that I needed to tell the truth about marijuana," White said.By getting his artificial plants into private residences and public spaces, White is betting that more people will start appreciating the natural beauty of the real thing's jagged, seven-point leaves, lithe stems and robust buds instead of thinking of marijuana as an evil weed.His early customers were people looking for gag gifts, party planners in search of unique decorations and law enforcement agencies needing replicas for training missions.Then Hollywood came calling, and New Image Plants hit a financial high.In April, White received an order for 355 plants from "Weeds," the Showtime cable television series about a single suburban soccer mom who deals marijuana to support her family.Julie Bolder, the show's set director, needed to concoct a grow room stocked with what would look like $1 million worth of marijuana. She called White after stumbling on his web site."I looked hard to find somebody to make us good weed, and Joe did the best job," Bolder said. White's pot will make it's television debut early in the show's second season, which airs in mid-August."All the weed you see on the show is Joe's weed," Bolder said.The order brought in about $40,000, about five times what White said his company had earned since it sprang up 18 months ago.Suddenly, the business became bigger than he expected - or needed.Along with his continued work for Change the Climate, White is the senior vice president of Share Group, a private organization that offers consulting, fundraising and marketing services to nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood.He is also the president of another marketing company that works with smaller clients.Although he isn't relying on New Image Plants as his main source of income, White sees no competition in the mock marijuana market and expects his sales to continue building from the interests of "the hundreds of millions of people who smoke pot and the hundred of millions of people who have no problem with it."The plants are assembled by White's manufacturing partner in Jupiter, Fla., by workers who attach stems and leaves made from imported Chinese silk to a thin, wooden trunk. The plants are wedged into a pot with a foam base, then topped with moss. The flowering marijuana models that sell for $80 to $190 come with a few buds attached. His hemp models, which do not have flowers, sell for $65 to $150.Until his order from "Weeds," White's biggest buyers were law enforcement agencies in Virginia and Ontario, Canada. And that was a hard fact for the dealer to deal with."I have deeply mixed feelings selling to law enforcement," he said. "They've been some of our largest customers. If an average order is $150, the average law enforcement order is over $1,000."But at least those tax dollars are coming back to help fund the reform movement," White said.So far, his products haven't disappointed even the most discerning customers."When you come through the door and look at them, you'd swear you're looking at real marijuana," said John O'Reilly, an instructor at the Ontario Police College in Canada. After finding just one other company that makes fake pot plants, the college purchased 30 of White's two-foot-tall stalks to simulate a homegrown marijuana cultivation operation."We've had people see them and want to know why we're growing marijuana."The New Image Plants have also fooled some other connoisseurs.After ordering a bogus bud online, one customer called White to ask how soon her shipment would arrive."I could tell in her voice that she thought she had ordered the real thing," White said. While he did his best to set her straight, the caller was adamant that actual marijuana could be bought through the Internet, he said. But he insisted that she not try getting high on the silk supply."We cannot be held liable for stupid people smoking our plants," he said.Complete Title: Greenfield Man Rolls Pro-Pot Ideas, Skills Into Mock Pot PlantsSource: Worcester Telegram & Gazette (MA)Author: Adam Gorlick, Associated Press WriterPublished: Sunday, July 23, 2006 Copyright: 2006 Worcester Telegram & GazetteContact: letters telegram.comWebsite: http://www.telegram.com/Change The Climatehttp://www.changetheclimate.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #28 posted by afterburner on July 26, 2006 at 13:25:00 PT
ekim
CN ON: PUB LTE: Pot User Weighs In.
by Alison Myrden, 
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n972/a05.html
(Sun, 23 Jul 2006)
Toronto Sun (CN ON)
 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #27 posted by afterburner on July 26, 2006 at 12:32:17 PT
More Marc Emery Wedding Stories
CN BC: Prince Of Pot Weds As Extradition Hearing Looms, Calgary Herald, (25 Jul 2006)
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v06/n969/a07.html?176
 CN BC: High On Emotion, Metro, (24 Jul 2006) 
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v06/n968/a08.html?176CN BC: 'Wedding Doobie' Lights Way For Prince Of Pot's Nuptials, Edmonton Journal, (24 Jul 2006) 
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v06/n966/a08.html?176
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #26 posted by ekim on July 26, 2006 at 08:05:43 PT
AB thank you for all your hard work
Congratulations due for Emery
http://lastonespeaks.blogspot.com/
Good news from Canada. Marc Emery and his co-defendants's case have taken a turn for the better with a new Canadian court decision, 
http://www.lastonespeaks.blogspot.com/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #25 posted by afterburner on July 26, 2006 at 07:35:08 PT
ekim #24 
Great info. I was going to source this out for another thread. Thanks, brother.Here the pdf for those who want a copy of the details:Guidelines for the
Community-Based
Distribution of
Medical Cannabis
in Canada,
May 2006
by Rielle Capler,
British Columbia Compassion Club Society, and Philippe Lucas,
Vancouver Island Compassion Society
http://www.thevics.com/PDF/medcan_guidelines.pdfI've met Philippe Lucas. He's a good man, dedicated to the cause.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #24 posted by ekim on July 26, 2006 at 07:05:33 PT
AB lotsa info here for da upers
Guidelines for the Community-Based Distribution of Medical Cannabis in Canada
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm
These guidelines carefully balance client autonomy, the diversity of individual dispensaries, local community concerns, and adherence to municipal, provincial and federal laws, all within the context of Canada's current cannabis policy. These have been endorsed by the majority of Canada's established compassion clubs and societies.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #23 posted by afterburner on July 25, 2006 at 22:21:08 PT
Dankhank #6, ekim #7, Wayne #5, gloovins #4
"Thirty-gram bags of dried buds, costing $150 each, are couriered directly to patients or their physicians." 
Health Canada: MMJ May Be Coming To Pharmacies 
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/21/thread21105.shtml"approximately one gram of high-grade marijuana packed inside each gumball"$5 gumballs??? ekim #7:In the promotion of Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, Upton Sinclair is quoted in ekim's link:
http://www.climatecrisis.com
"It is DIFFICULT to get a man to understand something when his SALARY depends on his NOT UNDERSTANDING IT." --Upton Sinclair Many years ago Upton Sinclair wrote a book called The Jungle, criticizing working conditions and sanitation in the food industry:"Upton Sinclair's muckraking masterpiece The Jungle centers on Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant working in Chicago's infamous Packingtown. Instead of finding the American Dream, Rudkus and his family inhabit a brutal, soul-crushing urban jungle dominated by greedy bosses, pitiless con-men, and corrupt politicians. While Sinclair's main target was the industry's appalling labor conditions, the reading public was most outraged by the disgusting filth and contamination in American food that his novel exposed. As a result, President Theodore Roosevelt demanded an official investigation, which quickly led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drug laws. For a work of fiction to have such an impact outside its literary context is extremely rare. (At the time of The Jungle's publication in 1906, the only novel to have led to social change on a similar scale in America was Uncle Tom's Cabin.) Today, The Jungle remains a relevant portrait of capitalism at its worst and an impassioned account of the human spirit facing nearly insurmountable challenges."
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=1593080085&itm=1Public pressure led the US Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, forerunner of the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), ironically one of the biggest threats to pure food and pure drugs in America today. What a shame that the corporate interests have co-opted the very agencies designed to protect us from their abuses and then use the same agencies to prevent competition and to protect their ill gotten gains and poisonous products!Wayne #5:Midnight Candidate:"Zeese, 50, best known for his activism to end the war on drugs and as former executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, is running as the nominee for the Green, Libertarian and Populist parties."Strange bedfellows (it is said that politics makes them). "Green, Libertarian and Populist parties": sounds like a winning coalition. That's the ticket!
 gloovins #4:"Thomas Jefferson & George Washington 
are rolling in their graves...."Yeah, rolling a big fattie.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #22 posted by Wayne on July 25, 2006 at 07:17:18 PT
news flash
CNN had a quick news story about Joseph White's business this morning. It was actually nice, it was pretty much a carbon copy of this article, and they didn't have any opinions about it. They just presented the story and that was it. I can only hope that it's a sign of changes to come in the media.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #21 posted by FoM on July 24, 2006 at 17:27:09 PT
Just a Note
I thought I should mention that tomorrow I might be off line and won't be able to look for news. Hopefully we will be able to move the satellite dish and get the siding on and get back on track without needing to find a technician. If I am not back sometime tomorrow then I am having trouble and will be back as soon as I can. I don't want to wish the summer away but elections this fall will give me hope if we vote in democrats and vote out republicans. That is the light at the end of the long tunnel of summer for me.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #20 posted by Max Flowers on July 24, 2006 at 15:48:24 PT
Kouri, blithering idiot
"Most experts agree that there is enough THC in one gram of high grade marijuana to produce a lethal overdose that could result in death if swallowed by a toddler."Again I have to say that's the most absurd thing I've ever heard. Who are these "most experts"? I'd like to see their credentials. But I won't see them, because they don't exist. It's pure BS. Also, notice how the moron says "enough THC to produce a lethal overdose that could result in death"... gee, what other kind of result, besides death, is there to expect from a LETHAL overdose? What colossal stupidity!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #19 posted by Sinsemilla Jones on July 24, 2006 at 09:09:38 PT
The gumball "reporter" bio -
Jim Kouri, CPP is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional. He is a Staff writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc."Most experts agree that there is enough THC in one gram of high grade marijuana to produce a lethal overdose that could result in death if swallowed by a toddler."Sounds like someone wants to be the next Drug Czar.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #18 posted by FoM on July 24, 2006 at 06:26:26 PT
BGreen
Thank you. I know herbs like Kava Kava aren't water soluble and I thought Cannabis wasn't either. Maybe if a person ate cannabis and drank Vodka or some other powerful alcohol it would activate but there again that's just what I thought.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by Wayne on July 24, 2006 at 05:33:45 PT
was it just me?
Or did the DOJ article say NOTHING about the gumballs being fatal?And didn't they use to make cannabis candies back in the day before prohibition? They were never fatal, why would these be? AND, I've never had kids before, but isn't there a certain age minimum that you're not supposed to give gumballs of any kind to a toddler, no matter what's in them? The only way they would be fatal is if the kid choked on them.These people are IDIOTS!!!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by whig on July 24, 2006 at 00:19:30 PT
I guess I should clarify...
The killer gumballs story originated as a Press Release from Narconon.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by whig on July 24, 2006 at 00:18:29 PT
Narconon is Scientology
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narconon
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by greenmed on July 23, 2006 at 23:56:42 PT
OT - but interesting destination
COCAINE IN WICKER BASKETS AT THE GEORGE BUSH INTERCONTINENTAL AIRPORT, HOUSTON, TEXASThe Houston Police Department Crime Laboratory (Texas) recently received 38 well-crafted decorative wicker baskets (three different sizes) suspected to contain cocaine. The baskets were shipped as air freight on a flight arriving at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport from Peru, and were seized in a combined operation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel and the Houston Police Department. The vertical supports in the baskets actually consisted of plastic drinking straws wrapped with wicker-colored paper and capped at both ends with genuine wicker plugs, to give them an authentic appearance; each straw contained a fine white powder. There were approximately 200 straws in all, containing a total net weight of 12.3 kilograms of powder. Analysis by GC/MS, FTIR ATR, and UV/Vis confirmed 76 percent cocaine hydrochloride. Unusually, the cocaine in (only) the smaller baskets was also adulterated with lidocaine (not quantitated). This was the first such submission to the laboratory.From the DEA website; consider if you really want to visit.www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/microgram/mg0606/mg0606.htmlPhotos of the "killer gumballs" are here:www.usdoj.gov/dea/programs/forensicsci/microgram/mg0506/mg0506.htmlalso at the DEA website.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by BGreen on July 23, 2006 at 23:14:55 PT
You're right, FoM
Cannabis needs an emulsifier for the body to properly absorb the cannabinoids. It's possible to have eaten enough oil or fat in their diet to act as an emulsifier, but the emulsifier is usually consumed with the hash or plant material for the best results.I like to (in Amsterdam, of course LOL) mix hash with some cream and chocolate for a shot of joy. I also really liked dipping a bud into extra virgin olive oil (which I love) for the emulsifier and then dipping it into honey (also LOVE it) and then letting them set up in the freezer. This is great for those buds that smell so good you want to eat them.As for toddlers eating cannabis and dying, it has never happened in recorded history so by all odds it isn't possible. The LD50 and LD100 of a particular substance still holds true whether in adults or infants because the LD50 and LD100 are based on body weights. The LD50 and LD100 are so high that they've never been documented in humans, so if a 30 pound toddler is less than 6 times smaller than me then it should only take ingesting 6 grams to kill me.6 grams, by the way, is less than I consumed in five hours at the harvest party in Haarlem, and I was smoking it which has a much quicker onset and absorbtion rate than eating it.I was absolutely, perfectly coherent and in control as we headed off back to Amsterdam. I wasn't sick, unconscious, disoriented or in any way abnormal. According to the gum/toddler/death idiots I should have been on the edge of death. I even smoked another joint when we go back to our apartment.Nope, not dead, but I sure had one hell of a time that I'll remember for the rest of my life.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by FoM on July 23, 2006 at 22:34:12 PT
Dankhank
I thought that a person couldn't get high from eating Cannabis. I thought alcohol or oil was needed to activate Cannabis. I could be wrong but that is what I believe. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by Dankhank on July 23, 2006 at 22:24:16 PT
sadly ...
The taste of raw Cannabis is not exactly unpleasant, but not particularly pleasant to me.I agree that a child would likely spit it out.Hemp Seed Oil takes some getting used to if consumed from a spoon, as castor oil was.I found that a shot of OJ was indicated after a spoonful of the oil. By the second bottle I was acclimated.A friend once ate an eighth ounce and got a very intense body high resembling what I have heard Marinol is like. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by FoM on July 23, 2006 at 21:53:46 PT
Killer Gumballs
I don't think there is any recorded report of anyone ever dieing from eating too much cannabis. I think a person couldn't possibly consume a fatal dose because they would fill up their stomach with an herb. You don't get any effects from eating cannabis since it isn't water soluble. A person would get a serious upset stomach if they ate a lot but that's all. What a dumb thing to even think that a person would eat cannabis to the point of death even a child. A child wouldn't like the taste and would spit it out. Where do they come up with this stuff?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by ekim on July 23, 2006 at 21:44:31 PT
never heard that a gram eaten will kill you
sad that what they fear the most is from cannabis prohibition.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by FoM on July 23, 2006 at 21:38:33 PT
Ekim, Dankhank and Wayne
Really good stuff you just posted. Thanks!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by ekim on July 23, 2006 at 21:31:06 PT
 melissa ethridge --- good theme song
 went to see -an inconvenient truth -- al gores movie -- was good went back to his ol farm days and tobacco grown days said it was what did in his sis. i wish he could have taken the cannabis stand as countless times in the movie the mention of loss of green space and increase in co2 rasing temp and destroyen the barrier reef and all other manner of systems like melting ice and the ocean conveyer swooping up and layen down the great salt waters pumping like the heart of earth. how with just a little injection of fresh water the pump will lose strength because of the salt water when cooled off plunge into the depths and create a pumping that is cut down if the new water is lighter as in fresh water that has no salt and thus less downward pressure. well i just wish that al could have mention the prohibition of cannabis has been one of the most damaging laws that the nation has had. it is costing the whole planet as we use so much of the energy -- we should be acting responsible and leaving the place as good or better for the kids. we know how to make less co2 which fuels to help get us there.
 
gee come on al say it ------ you were good friends with Frank Zappa for "all our sake". Just to honor his name come on al say it the cannabis prohibition is the worse law to be enacted on this great nation, you will be able to sleep at night. 
http://www.climatecrisis.com
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by Dankhank on July 23, 2006 at 21:30:30 PT
Alert ...Alert ...Killer Gumballs ...
Gotta read this one ...http://newsbyus.com/more.php?id=4573_0_1_0_M
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Wayne on July 23, 2006 at 21:08:28 PT
yeah, but...
I bet they're having fun watching this guy. Check this out, I'd vote for this guy in a heartbeat...
The Midnight Candidate
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by gloovins on July 23, 2006 at 20:03:35 PT
Thomas Jefferson & George Washington
are rolling in their graves....
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Wayne on July 23, 2006 at 12:13:53 PT
well yeah
True, cannabis has MANY beautiful properties. But I think the article brings up the interesting point that it has physical beauty also, which I think is often forgotten. Especially the ones with really furry buds on the top!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Global_Warming on July 23, 2006 at 12:09:50 PT
It really is a beautiful plant
It has healing properties, It is Cannabis
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by Wayne on July 23, 2006 at 11:49:49 PT
interesting
This will present a problem for law enforcement agencies who like to use no-knock tactics. I could only imagine the fallout if someone was shot to death by a cop because of a FAKE marijuana plant. There would be, and should be, a huge public outcry if, God forbid, that ever happened. This should theoretically force police to rethink their strategies.Or, what would happen if our idiot legislators pass some stupid law making it a crime to possess FAKE plants also. Again, there would be, and should be, a huge public outcry if, God forbid, that ever happened. Wasting our dwindling supply of tax dollars on plastic plant legislation, indeed. It really is a beautiful plant. I bet they would give a really nice accent to our flowerbed out front. Maybe someday...
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment