5 September 2012 - The Obama Campaign's ad for the Democratic National Convention featured the president acting in a sketch alongside famed stoners John Cho and Kal Penn, who appeared watching cartoons on the munchie-littered sofa of their bong-toking counterparts Harold and Kumar.
Publicising this weeks Democratic National Convention, the ad featured the president making an important sounding phonecall to someone later revieled to be Penn, who worked for the Obama administration in between making the cannabis flicks. Penn was the host of the convention, lending his relaxed image to the campaign; an effort that will surely be influencial in claiming the younger voters.
But what does this say about the presidents policies on pot?
31 August 2012 - The effort to legalize the production of hemp has had a rare moment of progress, as Sen. Rand Paul (with the backing of Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Corner) states that he will revive the dissassembled Kentucky Hemp Commission. Started a decade ago, with the sole purpose of examining the effects of legalizing a hemp industry in the state, the commission never even convened.
"The rest of the world can grow hemp and we're not, so we're losing out on that product", Paul, said. "You know our farmers are one of the greatest parts of our economy. We do things very well in agriculture. If we could legalize hemp I think we would be one of the leaders of the world. I think we have a change of passing it".
The Senator and son of the son of three-time candidate for President of the United States, Ron Paul, is also on the forefront of the effort to assure the federal government legally achknowlege the difference between industrial hemp and the psychoactive marijuana plant, which are currently lumped together as Schedule 1 controlled substances. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Paul and Sen. Ron Wyden, would allow farmers to grow hemp and operate on a state-to-state basis.
13 July 2012 - As the race heats up in US Presidential Election, Barack Obama 's capaign adds a surprising new product to their 2012 Campaign store: a hemp-based scarf, for the environmentally concious supporter. The scarf, priced at US$95, is made of 45% organic cotton, 55% hemp, and was designed by one of the first lady's personal designers, Monique Péan.
But this is not the first sign that Obama may have a soft spot for the hemp industry; he voted for industrial hemp twice during his time as a Senator in Illinois.
Barbara Filippone, owner of EnviroTextiles, the company that makes the fabric for the scarf, was elated to hear that the President was using a hemp-based product as part of his campaign. “This is wonderful news!” she proclaimed, “The President can now educate the special interest lobbyists of America’s original industrial hemp policy."
Hopefully she's right and this marketing decision spells the end of the nonsensical laws that make it a crime to grow the materials used for Obama's scarfs.
31 March 2012 - Dancehall star Sean Paul has given up smoking cannabis - he now drinks it in his tea instead. Sean Paul has released hit singles called We Be Burnin', Gimme The Light and Ever Blazin' – yet there are few references to smoking weed on his new album, Tomahawk Technique.
Laughing down the phone to The Sun, he explains why: "I've found a different method to, how shall I say, consume. I make tea with it every day now." The Jamaican star continues: "I don't smoke any more. After 15, 16 years of smoking every day it was bad for my voice. I was having trouble breathing, man.
