caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE We have to be careful about how we are documenting marijuana. If we aren't, future generations might be forgiven for thinking that cannabis culture occurred solely in courtrooms and during federal raids. After all, when do you read an account of a really great high, or the everyday reality of scoring from a dealer (and not going to jail for it, natch) off the pages of High Times?Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE It's Sunday afternoon and the hosts of Mutiny Radio's Cannabis Cuts: The Next Generation have effectively commandeered the smoking lounge at SoMa's Igzactly 420. They are deep into solving the world's problems.Read more »

The tallest structure in Germany is a sky needle with a majestic ball sitting well up its length. Due to some vagaries of the physics of light and the shiny, Epcot-like nature of this ball, Berlin's Fernsehturm (a.k.a., television tower) casts the shadow of a cross over the city, much to the consternation of its East German builders.Read more »

HERBWISE A few days after House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi finally voiced her displeasure that federal agencies were making moves to curtail medical marijuana access, I was touring the hallway outside her offices in Washington DC.

"Access to medicinal marijuana for individuals who are ill or enduring difficult and painful therapies is both a medical and a states' rights issue," said Pelosi in a statement released on May 2.Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE On the occasion of leaving our gentle green bubble in the Bay, I often find myself in the position of explaining what it is I write about. Sometimes I am satisfied with focusing on my federally legal interests as the Guardian's culture editor. But other times I am compelled to stretch the limits of my extended family's imagination, which usually leads to some pretty interesting conversations.Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE As excited as I was for our Guardian Stoned Soul Picnic 420 party, not everyone in our office was convinced the afternoon at El Rio on Friday, April 20 would pass without incident.

"I'm a little bit worried about getting raided," said my publisher Bruce Brugmann, towering over my cubicle earlier that day.Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE Last year when event producer Michael Gosney staged the first Deep Green Festival at Craneway Pavilion, he was mostly focused on raising awareness of hemp as an environmental and economic resource. But then the past 365 days happened — and with them, the attendant audits, raids, and federal persecution of marijuana dispensaries.Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

HERBWISE Say "cannabis," not "weed." Couch discussion in the language of medicine, not intoxication. There are a lot of rules when it comes to talking about marijuana — and the country's most beloved cannabis publication breaks most of them.Read more »