In Spain, financial crisis feeds expansion of a parallel, euro-free economy – The Washington Post.
In Spain, financial crisis feeds expansion of a parallel, euro-free economy – The Washington Post
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Category Archives: Shopping
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Ganja Vibes was in action this week as the Adult Novelty Expo & International Lingerie Show invaded Las Vegas, Nevada!
With great anticipation for the launch of our official website, BOY do we have some delectable goodies in store for all of you.
Very soon, when logging onto http://www.GanjaVibes.com you will find the latest in adult novelty, fetish, lifestyle accessories and what all will soon realize is the revolution in Canna Culture.
We look forward to bridging the gap and having SO MUCH FUN, you’ll never log off!
Twist one up, load it in, do what you do and get ready!
Thank you for your support!
Dutch Passion White Widow
Heather B having a good time at the Munkey Barz booth with none other than, Stevie Shae & Tara Lynn Foxx!! The hottest ladies at the whole convention.
Find these vixens: @StevieShaeXXX & @TaraLynnFoxx
Third Annual ‘Hemp History Week’ Kicks Off – Toke of the Town
We are definitely late for this, this year, in true smoker style. Yet, this is the best time to get ultra ready for next year.
There’s fantastic information provided in this article. Please do, take a look. It’s inspiring us to write some letters to stir up some friendships & hopeful partnerships.
Be well, support the movement, love the earth and all beings.
Third Annual ‘Hemp History Week’ Kicks Off – Toke of the Town.
In honor of the Kentucky Derby!
How to Wear a Hat – Women’s Hat Etiquette at Restaurants & Parties
You know you want to wear that hat but you are afraid to walk out the door. Don’t be. Here are proper fashion rules to follow or break. Either way’s okay.
Hat etiquette for ladies is quite different from hat rules for men. Up until the 1950s/1960s, there were specific headwear guidelines to follow, but now manners and customs are less clear. Yet, any woman can learn to wear a hat. Hats are hip, cute, and sassy.
Baseball Caps and Truckers Hats
The following information does not apply to baseball caps, trucker hats, beanies with twirly propellers, most cowgirl hats, some fedoras, or anything Rastafarian. Rain hats, ski hats, and fur hats, for outdoor weather protection, also fall into a different category.
Many headwear customs vary from country to country, so investigate dress codes and conventions before traveling to unknown parts of the world.
Ladies Dress Hats
Here are a few clarifications for those who did not grow up in the era of Easter bonnets and little white gloves. The rules explained below are for those hats specifically made for women, often embellished with veils, flowers, ribbons, embroidery, or feathers.
- Women’s hats are fashion accessories and are part of their ensembles. Therefore, ladies are not required to remove their hats when going indoors.
- Women may wear hats at formal teas, luncheons, and wedding ceremonies/receptions.
- Women do not take fashion hats off during the National Anthem, though they must take off men’s-style baseball caps, etc.
- Women are allowed to take off their hats, if they wish, in any of these circumstances.
Hats in Restaurants
A woman may wear a hat in a restaurant during the day. Actually, up until mid-century, a woman would not consider going outside in public without a hat. Therefore, she would, almost, never consider taking her topper off in a restaurant. See movies from the 1940s for reference.
- In the evening, a woman may wear a hat in a restaurant if she is wearing street clothes. (Women are not in “street clothes” when they are dressed for a cocktail party or a formal (black tie) event. Jog suits are not “street clothes” for anyone over 40 or 50 and no hat in the world will help.)
- Because so many sites get this wrong, I want to reemphasize this point with a quote from Gary Warth at VillageHatShop.com, “Women should not remove hats that go with dinner suits or dinner dresses throughout the evening.”
- The rules of etiquette confuse people because men must remove their hats in a restaurant or at a table. On the other hand, only Ronald McDonald would consider a hamburger joint to be a restaurant, so that would be a gray area.
Women’s Cloche or Small Brimmed Hat
A large brimmed hat, such as a sun hat, a floppy straw hat, or a Kentucky Derby / Ascot-style hat is inappropriate for a restaurant at night, as there is no sun. However, a woman should not feel forced to remove her hat if she finds herself in this situation.
The following hats are cute and are definitely chic enough for chicks to wear while dining in a restaurant or having drinks at a bar:
- Cloches – like a Roaring Twenties flapper hat
- Women’s fedoras - especially embellished styles
- Fancy berets – try one with sequins for clubbing
- Dressy Gatsby / Newsboy caps
Actually, any hat that has a small brim, or no brim, is fine at night. Some disagree, but historically it is quite correct for a woman to wear a small hat after 6pm, unless she is dressed (in a ballgown) for a formal event.
Evening Hats
Traditionally, fashion hats are not worn with formal evening gowns or cocktail dresses. Women, instead, wear:
- Fascinators
- Cocktail hats
- Veils (often attached to small hats)
- Fancy combs or other embellishments
- Beautiful scarves tied as headbands, when nothing else works
Where Women Don’t Wear Hats
Women do not wear hats in their own homes or at a friend’s home. However, this is not a hard and fast rule. Women sometimes wear small hats at a friend’s dinner party. Other rules:
- When at a theater, women should remove large hats. It is common courtesy to remove hats when they might block someone’s view of a stage or screen.
- Women remove their hats at work in an office.
- Women are not required to remove large hats in churches.
Etiquette Exceptions
There are times when a lady would choose not to follow traditional hat rules and two common examples are:
- When a woman wears a hat or headcover for religious reasons.
- When a woman wears a hat to cover hair loss from illness, age, or alopecia.
Hat Manners
Some girls were never taught proper hat etiquette by their grandmothers. Also, fashion rebels (and eccentrics) scoff at some old-fashioned customs. However, any woman with good breeding will know that it would be a horrible breach of manners to:
- Point out another woman’s faux pas.
- Ridicule a woman (or young lady) about a slight of etiquette.
- Cause anyone discomfort by making a big deal out of something as silly as the “correctness” of one’s chapeau.
Be proud. Be stylish. Be chic. Be brave and pop on that hat.
How to Wear a Hat – Women’s Hat Etiquette at Restaurants, Parties
Read more at Suite101: How to Wear a Hat – Women’s Hat Etiquette at Restaurants, Parties | Suite101.com http://christina-gregoire.suite101.com/how-to-wear-a-hat—womens-hat-etiquette-at-restaurants-parties-a230451#ixzz1tqCoGDGZ
Marisa Miller Raawrr Baby!
“Wal-Mart of weed” weGrow opens in Washington D.C.
By HeathPop Staff
WeGrow franchisee Alex Wong, left, and WeGrow founder Dhar Mann, right pose inside the WeGrow store in northeast Washington on March 29, 2012. (Credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
(CBS/AP) A company dubbed the “Walmart of Weed” is putting down roots in America’s capital city, sprouting further debate on marijuana — medical or otherwise.
Just blocks from the White House and federal buildings, a company that candidly caters to medical marijuana growers is opening up its first outlet on the East Coast. The opening of the weGrow store on Friday in Washington coincides with the first concrete step in implementing a city law allowing residents with certain medical conditions to purchase pot.
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Like suppliers of picks and axes during the gold rush, weGrow sees itself providing the necessary tools to pioneers of a “green rush,” which some project could reach nearly $9 billion within the next five years. Admittedly smaller than a big box store, weGrow is not unlike a typical retailer in mainstream America, with towering shelves of plant food and vitamins, ventilation and lighting systems. Along with garden products, it offers how-to classes, books and magazines on growing medical marijuana.
“The more that businesses start to push the envelope by showing that this is a legitimate industry, the further we’re going to be able to go in changing people’s minds,” said weGrow founder Dhar Mann.
Although federal law outlaws the cultivation, sale or use of marijuana, 16 states and the District of Columbia have legalized its medical use to treat a wide range of issues from anxiety and back pain to HIV/AIDS and cancer-related ailments. Fourteen states also have some kind of marijuana decriminalization law, removing or lowering penalties for possession.
Nearly 7 percent of Americans, or 17.4 million people, said they used marijuana in 2010, up from 5.8 percent, or 14.4 million, in 2007, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. A Gallup poll last year found a record-high of 50 percent of Americans saying that marijuana should be made legal, and 70 percent support medical uses for pot.
For many states, there’s no way to tell how many people have medical marijuana cards. California only has 9,637 valid card holders, but registration is voluntary. In Colorado, where you have to sign up, there 82,089 valid ID cards since December 2011. If Californians signed up at the same rate as Colorado, more than 615,000 would have had cards by now.
Marijuana advocates also tout revenue benefits, as well as cost and efficiency savings for not prosecuting or jailing people for pot.
But a recent push from the federal government to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries has led several states to delay or curtail their dispensary programs for fear of prosecution. It means some medical marijuana users may seek to grow their own– paving the way for companies like California-based weGrow to open a budding number of locations across the country to help legal users and larger cultivators grow their own pot plants.
WeGrow doesn’t sell pot or seeds to grow it. The store, however, makes no secret that its products and services help cultivators grow their own plants for personal use or for sale at dispensaries. Selling hydroponic and other indoor growing equipment is legal, but because those products are used to cultivate a plant deemed illegal under federal law the industry has tried to keep a low profile.
“For the longest time, it’s been a don’t ask, don’t tell industry,” Mann said. “Most people still want to hide behind that facade.”
Mann, who opened the first store in Sacramento last year, said he started his venture after he was kicked out of a mom and pop hydroponics store in Berkeley, Calif., just for mentioning marijuana. HealthPop reported the first 10,000-foot weed emporium grew out of a warehouse called iGrow.
WeGrow has since opened a location in Phoenix and also will open stores in San Jose and Flagstaff, Arizona, in the near future. The company has franchisees in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and plans to expand into Oregon, Washington state and Michigan.
The frankness of the business comes as public attitudes toward marijuana use and legalization in the U.S. transform. But federal pressure on customers means companies catering to the marijuana industry could take a hit — in their wallets and with jail time.
“There’s a whole host of risks associated with investing and opening up shop here,” said Jason Klein, a D.C. attorney who represents medical marijuana operators. “These entrepreneurs see themselves as doing yeoman’s work, putting themselves in personal risk … to get medicine to the sick people who deserve it.”
D.C. officials on Friday are set to announce those eligible to apply for permits to grow and sell medical marijuana to dispensaries under the district’s 2010 law. Applicants must sign a statement saying they understand a license doesn’t authorize them to break federal law.
“They do so at their own peril because I can’t imagine that the federal government is going to allow marijuana selling for any purpose right in their backyard,” said Kevin Sabet, a former senior adviser to the president’s drug czar and a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Substance Abuse Solutions.
“Whether it’s D.C. or all the way out in California, the government’s been pretty clear that medical marijuana doesn’t pass the giggle test.”
Sabet said the idea of dispensaries trying to be passed off as a medical establishment is a joke, adding that the grow store will be the first in a series events where people are going to try to “make big money off an illegal drug.”
The national medical marijuana market was estimated to be worth $1.7 billion in 2011 and is projected to reach $8.9 billion within five years, according to an economic analysis done for the American Cannabis Research Institute. The study also says that nearly 25 million Americans are potentially eligible to use medical marijuana based on current state laws.
“There’s great potential for the industry across the country,” said Steve Fox, a spokesman for the National Cannabis Industry Association, a D.C.-based trade group representing marijuana-related businesses. He said support for the businesses has emerged in states like California, Colorado and Washington state. “They are showing that just like any other industry, there’s a demand for a product and these businesses are sprouting up to address the need.”
The issue of marijuana in the nation’s capital isn’t new. A public referendum to legalize medical marijuana overwhelmingly passed in the late 1990s but Congress blocked it from taking effect for years. Allowing the city’s latest move on medical marijuana use could also indicate an attitude shift on a federal level.
“The political winds on a federal level really affect our ability to get things done on a local level,” said Brendan Williams-Kief, spokesman for D.C. councilmember David A. Catania, who co-sponsored the medical marijuana legislation. “When the (legislation) was passed, it happened at a time when there was a Congress that was less-inclined to exert their will on the District. … But they’re always up there on the Hill looking down.”
Klein believes that, despite being next door to Congress, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the Department of Justice, the D.C. medical marijuana program will avoid the ire of the federal government because it was crafted to tightly control the industry.
“It’s the sort of thing the feds will probably just look the other way elsewhere, but given the fact that it’s right under their noses, is going to really be unique conundrum,” Klein said. “I’m really looking forward to getting a couple of Congresspeople in a cab and caravaning them over to a dispensary … so that they can see that this is not the danger that they imagine it might be.”
For Alex Wong, the franchisee of the D.C. weGrow store, his involvement in the industry is both personal and professional. The mid-40s entrepreneur was drawn to the business after seeing the firsthand effects of his mother’s colon cancer and learning that medical marijuana might have made her more comfortable during treatment.
“It is a viable medicine,” said the. “All I can do is use my small business expertise to lend a hand in this movement.”
Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy, issued a statement saying science and research — not politics — should drive the approval process for medicine, and to date the “smoked form of marijuana has not met the modern standard” established by the Food and Drug Administration.
“Chronically ill and suffering patients deserve access to modern medicine that is proven to be effective and safe,” Lemaitre said. “We ardently support continued research into medical uses for the components of marijuana and will continue to do so.”
Mann, however, says medical marijuana cultivation and distribution is going to happen with or without federal government approval.
“Regardless of how rigorously they want to enforce intervention, it’s not going to stop the industry,” Mann said.
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