Your Dose of Pop is DPA’s contribution to a balanced media diet. Here’s your latest serving of culture and entertainment news.
Ben & Jerry Know You Want Weed-Infused Ice Cream
Give the people what they want.
It’s not like folks haven’t been de facto-infusing their Wavy Gravy ice cream with marijuana already. Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield are hip to the fact that the newly legal marijuana market can make this process all the more efficient.
The dons of dairy recently announced via HuffPo Live that they would be more than willing to make marijuana-infused versions of their delicious, creamy catalogue of goodness available in states that have legalized.
Jerry said that he and Ben have had “previous experiences with substances,” and “I think legalizing marijuana is a wonderful thing, rather than putting people in jail.” #Blessed
Larry Wilmore Takes on Pot: Solid Points with a Dash of Cheesy Stoner Jokes
Former Daily Show correspondent, Larry Wilmore now has his own show, aptly called The Nightly Show, which in an episode last week took on the topic of marijuana.
There were a few predictable stoner gags about forgetfulness and slacker tendencies but some noteworthy moments made our day.
First, the show cited the Drug Policy Alliance’s very own status report on the first year since marijuana was legalized in Colorado. Go us!
Second, DPA’s board member and cultural phenomenon, Dr. Carl Hart of Columbia University joined the panel discussion and, along with pundit, Roland Martin, made excellent points about the hypocrisy, non-science, wastefulness and racist origins of marijuana prohibition.
Meanwhile, Adam Carolla wore a weird outfit and said predictably cringe-worthy things with anti-gay undertones. But in Carolla’s defense, he recently did a pretty informative interview on his podcast about the drug war and the case for decriminalization with Chasing the Scream author Johann Hari.
So Many “White Boy Rick” Movies in Development
Hollywood seems to love a good story about a scrappy ambitious white dude from Detroit. Deadline Hollywood reports that Studio 8 has acquired “White Boy Rick,” a script inspired by the story of Richard Wershe Jr., a notorious undercover informant in the mid-80s who has been incarcerated for 27 years after being sentenced to life without parole under harsh mandatory minimum laws in Michigan that have since been repealed.
When Wershe was only 14-years old, he started working as an informant. He quickly rose in influence and ended up going from a law enforcement asset to a target for the DEA, which eventually brought down Wershe at age 17 with a charge of possession of 17 pounds of cocaine with intent to distribute.
The story is compelling – a 9th grade dropout who got turned into a kingpin by the feds at 14, and then targeted for a big fall that would lead him to a life in prison under draconian laws that are no longer on the books.
Although Rick has had an uphill battle in his campaign for parole, Hollywood is itching to get his saga to the big screen. Deadline says there’s another major studio project on Wershe from Universal Pictures in development.
Perhaps all this interest will prompt the state of Michigan to reconsider the life without parole sentence Rick was given as a teen.
Sharda Sekaran is the managing director of communications for the Drug Policy Alliance.
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Author: Sharda Sekaran
Date Published: March 11, 2015
Published by Drug Policy Alliance
Via:: Ddrug Policy Alliance