Hash Bash Video Poem

 This is the only video footage I can find of me speaking in front of 5,000 people at Hash Bash last April. Four words at 41 seconds, "dismantle the drug war." A lovely piece really.



Hashsourcing... A Video Poem from Jesse Cherniak on Vimeo.

LEAP: National Black Police Association Endorses Marijuana Legalization (Press Release)

LEAP: National Black Police Association Endorses Marijuana Legalization (Press Release)

You Can Love Your Work

by Charmie Gholson

originally published in Current Magazine, June 2004

In 1996, I was managing at Whole Foods Market. I liked my work, liked my co-workers, but I was not a spectacular bakery supervisor.

One day, my favorite teacher from high school came in. I was carrying a story with me, obsessing about it, working on it during breaks. I asked him to read it.  He said sure. I was elated.

He was back the next day. "What are you doing behind this counter?" he asked. "You need to go back to school and make a living with your writing."

"I can't," I told him as I handed a customer their bread. "I'm a single parent. I work."

US CO: Medical Marijuana To Treat Tourette’s?

Yes, I know there's a great joke in here somewhere.

 I"m basically just posting this because I'm so jealous that Colorado has it's regulatory act together, compared to Michigan. And at least one CO legislator understands that legislator aren't physicians, that they should honor the will of the voters. When will Mi get there too?

Pending approval this fall, people with Tourette’s Syndrome may be able under state law to use medical marijuana to help quell symptoms of the disorder. Colorado voters approved a citizens initiative in 2000 allowing the using of medical marijuana to treat a variety of ailments. State regulators wield the authority to fine-tune the list of allowable uses of medical marijuana.


A formal request, as required by law, by the health department to add the disorder to the list of treatable ailments was submitted Tuesday to the Department of Regulatory Services, which has the authority to approve or deny the request. Tourette’s is a neurological disorder that causes involuntary motor or vocal “tics” that are repetitive and rapid such as blinking, twitching, or grunts. Symptoms range from moderate to severe, and treatments vary.

END THE DRUG WAR Michigan’s’ Civil Asset Forfeiture Laws Encourage Policing For Profit

This article was originally published in The Midwest Cultivator, summer issue


Ed Boyke, a former General Motors employee who served in the Navy, became disabled in 1996 after undergoing two brain surgeries due to a tumor and epilepsy. 

Boyke was approved for medical marijuana due to a pinched nerve that causes him severe back pain. He is his own caregiver and also a state-sanctioned caregiver for one additional patient.

On April 15, Boyke stepped outside of his Saginaw Township home and was surrounded by Saginaw County Sheriff’s deputies and U.S. DEA Agents. With weapons drawn, they served Boyke with a federal warrant to search his residence, based on confidential information that he had violated marijuana laws. They handcuffed Boyke while they executed the warrant.

Thanks Homeland Security! Naked pictures=Safety!

Opposition is growing to the use of full body, see –through-your-clothes scans at airports, brought to you courtesy of our US Office of Homeland Security.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has filed a petitition for review and motion for an emergency stay, urging the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to suspend the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) full body scanner program.

Did YOU know about this pipeline before it started leaking?

Did YOU know there is a 30-inch pipeline that carries millions of gallons of oil each day from Griffith, Ind., to Sarnia, Ontario? How many others are there, like this one now leaking crude oil into the waterway leading to the Great Lakes, our Earths largest reserve of fresh water? How many "warnings" have they all received about insufficient monitoring? What are the consequences of their neglect? Of our ignorance or downright denial? I bet Tyson Slocum knows...