Sweet Releaf

Eighty years after cannabis was banned in Oregon, it's legal again this week.

Countless lives have been ruined in the meantime—very few by addiction and none by homicidal madmen driven loco by marihuana, as the propaganda warned back in 1935.

So here we are. Oregon is among the first states to finally fix the mess of marijuana prohibition, with the most liberal laws the nation has yet seen.

You can carry an ounce of marijuana in your pocket. You can grow four plants in your home, enough to yield a half-pound come harvest if you've got a green thumb (we've got some tips). Come October, it's looking like every medical dispensary in town will be able to also sell recreational weed, at least on a temporary basis (start window-shopping now). Thanks to Measure 91 initiative's ban on add-on taxes, Oregon's legal weed will probably be the cheapest in the nation, just like our previously illegal weed.

We are pioneers, charged with creating one of the modern world's first official markets for an ancient plant.

In this issue, we memorialize the absurd prohibition eras in Oregon, of both cannabis and alcohol. We also look at some of the people who kept the candle burning through the inhospitable years, including a woman who dared to open the nation's first cannabis cafe and the couple who has run the city's oldest head shop, in North Portland, for close to 40 years. We also look toward a muddy near future where former allies in the marijuana and hemp communities are feuding over their outdoor grows. 

This week is about more than a common-sense social and legal acceptance of weed and recognition that criminalizing marijuana is idiocy. It's also the beginning of an economic transformation that could be as important to the Oregon economy, if not more so, than this state's wine and beer industries.

When you toke today, you're not just getting high, you're living history. So consider getting a loose-leaf vaporizer and making yourself a special blend befitting the occasion.

It's been a long time coming.

Party Like It's 1934 | The Future of Drug Testing | Portland's Oldest Head Shop

The Triumph Return of the World Famous Cannabis Cafe 

Historic Cannabis Landmarks In Oregon | Weed War II: The Battles to Come

Blending Buds and Learning Terps | Pick Your Loose-Leaf Vaporizer 

What You Need to Know to Grow | A Directory of Dispensaries

High Cinema | Stoniest Portland Albums

WWeek 2015