"I will make sure it's good or it won't be on sale"

Singer Willie Nelson plans to launch his own brand of marijuana for recreational users who demand “the best on the market,” the 81-year-old country legend announced.

“Willie Weed,” from the newly formed company Willie’s Reserve, will hit dispensary shelves in Colorado and Washington, where legalization of recreational marijuana has created a booming industry, the Associated Press reports. Nelson said he would partner with growers in both states.

“I will make sure it’s good or it won’t be on sale,” the singer said in an interview with Rolling Stone.

It wasn't until a couple of years ago that I realised I had a crap birthday. It's one of those inconvenient dates, like Christmas or May-Day, where all my friends are off work celebrating something bigger than myself, and my getting-older always seems to go vastly unnoticed. As a result, 4/20 has developed from something I loved to something that irritates me year-on-year, not because I think I'm entitled to be celebrated more than weed, or because I end up getting high every year without fail, but because if you – like me – think we need serious changes to the Misuse of Drugs Act, blazing a spliff in Hyde Park is a surefire way to guarantee that doesn't ever happen.

DENVER, Colorado — The edibles market in Colorado is sweet on education.

But smoking marijuana and consuming a THC-infused edible create two vastly different experiences. So when the state legalized recreational marijuana, allowing any adult over the age of 21 years to purchase cannabis products, guidelines for edibles consumption needed to be put in place.

The dosages on marijuana edibles aren't just for those experimenting with cannabis for the first time — or the first time since their college days — they're for everyone. Prior to the state of Colorado setting a standard dosage, most people didn't know the size of a single-serving.

Single-serving cannabis-infused cookies.

The inception of the recreational marijuana market has caused medical sales to decrease significantly in the state of Colorado, according to a new report published by GreenWave Advisors.

Understand that Las Vegas is not the town it claims to be.

If you’re an adult in Las Vegas, you can do almost anything. On the strip, you can smoke, drink, and gamble. Drive an hour in one direction, and you can fire heavy weapons, legally. Drive an hour in another direction, and you can pay for sex, legally. But if what helps you relax is a prescribed dose of medicinal marijuana, you’re out of luck.

Marijuana prices have plummeted since stores opened last summer, and the average gram of marijuana in the state’s system now goes for about $12, according to the state Liquor Control Board (LCB).

When prices peaked last summer, a gram was fetching about $30 on average, according to data from the LCB.

The aggregated data doesn’t consider the quality of the bud or the effect of bulk pricing, but shows a clear downward trend since the state launched its regulated marijuana market.

Brian Smith, a spokesman for the LCB, said the agency was pleased with the trend.

The parallels between the injustices felt by the British during the Blitz and the persecution of cannabis smokers on 4/20 are plentiful, if a comparison is not too bold to propose. 

Acclaimed British author of Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell, wrote many pieces on the topics of war, oppression, poverty, social injustice and inequalities throughout his life. The most poignant example of his social commentary must be the opening of his essayEngland, Your England, which he penned whilst German bombers were flying overhead during the Blitz in 1941. 

"Two or three long puffs usually suffice after a while to produce a light jag," TIME explained in 1943. "The smoker is then said to be 'high'"

As Americans celebrate 4/20, pot culture's answer to Octoberfest, I'm getting pelted with questions about the growing legalization movement. What's the new pot like? What are you telling your kids? Right. I get those questions. But mainly I hear this one: Why is legalization happening now? 

Until recently, I cited two factors. First, the emergence of the Internet offered widespread access to scientific studies and counter-narratives that debunked the government's Reefer Madness line. Second, medical marijuana served as a 20-year pilot project that calmed the fears of a worried nation. Dispensaries opened, weed was openly sold, and the pillars of civilization did not crumble.