Pubdate: Thu, 21 Nov 2002
Source: Rocky Mountain Collegian, The (CO Edu)
Copyright: 2002 Rocky Mountain Collegian
Contact:  http://www.collegian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1370
Author: Rebecca LaPole

BLAZING IT UP!

Getting high, America's favorite recreational illegal activity has been 
gaining power and has been costing a higher price in recent years. Fort 
Collins bud smokers blaze different favorite strains and practice numerous 
methods of smoking the law-evading drug. Colorado is also a state that 
prides itself on having some of the best-tasting, take-you-the-highest Kind 
Bud. Many favorites of Fort Collins include: White Widow, Eleven, Fire, 
Hash, Blueberry, Blueberry Northern Lights, AK-47, Northern Lights, Jack 
Herer, Skunk, Cough, Bubblegum, Bubbleberry, Purple Haze and Afghani Hash. 
Regionally, Raspberry Bush hails from Brighton, Sugar Plant represents 
Winter Park and "Durward Hall's favorite bud," according to Ryan B, of 
Winter Park.

"Area 51 is a close second," Brett H, a CSU student from Philadelphia states.

BC Buds, or "Beasters" give a taste of Canada, from Vancouver, British 
Columbia-where smokers have found that the laws are extremely lenient when 
it comes to smoking pot.

Besides all of these different types of Kind Bud, there are the Homegrowns, 
Pretend-A-Kinds, Brick, Schwag and Dirt Weed. The prices vary depending on 
the quality of the product, and how well you actually know the dealer. But 
the basic prices remain similar according to the types, with Schwag costing 
about half as much as KB.

According to anonymous local dealers, Schwag will cost you $20 for a 
quarter ounce, whereas $50 will get you the smallest amount a dealer will 
normally sell of KB, an eighth ounce. While deals are rampant for 
bulk-Schwag buyers, an ounce costs $60; an ounce of KB will normally run 
about $325-$350. Compare this to the value of gold according to 
www.kitco.com: An ounce of gold is worth $320, however prices fluctuate daily.

"It is more profitable to work for Mr. Nice Guy than it is to work for the 
Shane Company," said Ryan B.

Fort Collins is a laid-back town; a lot of people you meet either get 
ripped or are cool with it, even if they do not smoke. Ways to create 
munchies differ for each user and depend on the type of weed.

A favorite Kind Bud method of getting stoned, called Hot Knives, requires 
two butter knives and a stove burner. The knives are heated on the burner, 
then used to pick up a nugget, squish it between the two knives and a 
funnel of some sort is used to inhale the smoke. It is a two-person method, 
and some CSU enthusiasts rave that it gets you BAKED.

Another power-stoner method of toking is a gravity bong, in which the laws 
of physics amaze potheads everywhere. A loaded bowl is placed in a 
bottle-lid of a bottle with the bottom cut off. The bottomless bottle is in 
a container of water, and while lighting the bowl, the bottle is manually 
raised by the smoker to fill the bottle with smoke. When the bottle is 
uncapped and dropped into the water, smokers inhale and feel the burn!

Bongs filter the smoke with water, as bubblers do on a smaller scale.

Steamrollers are a tube with a bowl on top that requires the smoker to 
cover one end of the tube while lighting and inhaling. Then uncover the end 
to inhale the smoke in the tube.

Pipes, aka bowls, a simple favorite, have diversity in length, size, shape 
and bowl capacity.

Joints and blunts are the cigarettes and cigars to the pot world.

Michael E, a magazine publisher from Brooklyn, a self-proclaimed long-term 
pot smoker, said his favorite way of smoking, and his own new slang term is 
to "Roll a bowl. It's when I want to roll a joint, but the bowl is just 
easier."

A brand-new way to smoke, called an Eterry, is "a well designed vaporizer 
[that] delivers "precision heating" under 400 F to liberate desirable 
compounds and thus avoid undesirables," states www.lightwell.net. At this 
Web site you can learn about and buy a vaporizer for about $180 that will 
get you "vape-d up."

As Patrick Stack in Time Magazine's Nov. 4, 2002 issue states, "the 
long-term trend [in drug policy] has been toward relaxation: Today, twelve 
states have enacted some form of marijuana decriminalization." Colorado is 
one of the few states; along with Washington, California, Alaska, Hawaii 
and Maine, where medical marijuana is legal.

Even when your eyes are all "Cheeched" out, getting busted with pot in Fort 
Collins these days is not as rough as it used to be. People who have been 
pulled over in cars with marijuana on them have testified. Front Range 
student Mary Jane said, "The cops took my weed and my pipe, but only gave 
me a paraphernalia ticket."

Susan Grey, a CSU senior, said "My gravity bong made out of a 20-oz. water 
bottle, a metal bowl and a Taco Bell cup was confiscated by the cops, and I 
didn't even get a ticket."

However, growers are the ones who see the most jail time when it comes to 
getting in trouble over weed. Todd, a grower from Indiana, with a prior 
cultivation charge there, was arrested in his Fort Collins home and taken 
to jail after an undercover drug officer found out about his grow rooms. 
After spending over 45 days in the Larimer County Detention Center (LCDC) 
for cultivation, he made several trips to court. There the police testified 
that the approximate value of Todd's marijuana was $300,000. The final 
verdict, which came about five months after the initial arrest, was five 
years of probation: requiring random urine analyses, Weekender programs 
adding up to 45 more days in LCDC, 29 drug classes and residence within the 
Fort Collins city limits. Not too bad for a man who was busted with three 
grow rooms, seven different strains of pot and 118 actual weed plants 
present. Todd said on the record, "The law is wrong. GROW, grow, grow!" He 
added, "Fire Weed rules!"

While not everyone has the same strong pro-pot opinion as Todd, the 
acknowledgement of marijuana as a medical treatment is getting higher 
across the nation. Those with prescriptions are clearly enjoying the many 
variations of pot and the ways to get elevated!
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom