Alysa Liu: From Oaksterdam to the Olympics

I've always loved figure skating, maybe since watching the graceful and glorious Peggy Fleming winning the Olympic gold medal in 1968 when I was just a girl. Where I grew up in Pennsylvania we skated in the winter, on ponds at our local mall that had an ice skating rink where scenes from the movie "Flashdance" were filmed. 

At this year's Olympics I fell for Alysa Liu during her short program, which placed her third going into her final triumphant free skate. Liu is an entirely different kind of skater, one more focused on her art than the competition, resulting in a relaxed and joyous presence on the ice that's captivated the world. 

Liu trained at the public rink in the city of Oakland, CA, just a few blocks away from the area known as Oaksterdam for its preponderance of Amsterdam-style cannabis shops that started springing up after California voters legalized medical marijuana in 1996. She gave a shout-out to her home city, pointing to an Oakland flag that a fan had brought, after her championship skate that was set to Donna Summers's disco version of "MacArthur Park," a 1970s song about a park in Los Angeles. 

Liu's father, who (as everyone knows by now), fled China after organizing protests against the government there, saw promise in his oldest child and paid for skating coaches, taking her to winning her first US National Championship at age 13 (the youngest female champion ever). At the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, she came in sixth despite the extra pressure of the Chinese government attempting to repatriate her, after sending spies to gather information on her and her father. Tired of the regimented and rapid-fire life of a competitive skater, she quit the sport that year at the age of 16, so that she could have more of a normal teenage life, going to concerts, taking her first vacation, and getting her driver's license. 

Describing going on a ski trip with friends in 2024, Liu said it "was such an adrenaline rush, to get down the mountain when your legs are that tired. It's hard, and you had to tap into that part of you that fights, and I hadn't felt that since I quit skating.....and I was like, if I can get what I'm feeling from skating, I should just do that." 

Liu told 60 Minutes that she initially went back to skating for "quick hits of dopamine." She told ESPN, "I have ADHD and I love situations that I'm not expecting. It gives me a dopamine rush. With little mistakes, I love working through it. I have to think. And although it's not ideal to make those mistakes in competition, it was made and my brain still was releasing those chemicals and I had to think, 'What next? I have to add a combo here and here.' It was a little bit of fun and a nice little challenge."

When Liu came back to skating at age 18, it was on her own terms. She hired her own coaches and told them she would be picking her music and costumes, and contributing to her choreography and practice schedule. And no one would be telling her what she could and couldn't eat. Her coaches marveled at how quickly her jumps came back, and how much more  womanly and artful her moves were. "I feel like I've rediscovered figure skating," Liu said in a video leading up to her final skate. "I still love to skate, and my mind is very peaceful." 

Liu had an advantage in her triple axel jump, something first performed by an American woman in the form of the working-class skater Tanya Harding, whose inability to compete with the high-class Nancy Kerrigan had tragic results. This year's competition to me had a bit of the Harding/Kerrigan vibe between the slightly raunchy and openly gay Amber Glenn and the elegant Isabeau Levito, who skated in what looked like a cocktail dress with gloves. Glenn muffed a jump in her short program, skating to Madonna's "Like a Prayer," but came back like a champ in the long skate to sit in the leader's chair for most of the night, ending up in 5th place. Levito finished 12th after an uncharacteristic fall on her triple flip early in her final long skate. But all three of the US "Blade Angels" were supportive of each other.

In a field of mostly willowy creatures looking nervous about their scores, Liu stands out as a strong, slightly chunky woman who has her own style and knows her own mind. Her spectacular smile is highlighted by a frenulum piercing that shows on her front teeth, and it's already been predicted that her groovy striped hair will soon be imitated, much as Dorothy Hamill's swingy short cut was (I plead guilty to that).

Hamill was present to watch her countrywomen skate, as were Bay Area native and 1992 gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi; Sarah Hughes, the last US woman to win the figure skating gold; and 90-year-old Tenley Albright, the first to do so. Commentating was Tara Lipinski, whose unprecedented triple-loop combo jump won her the gold in 1998, beating out the exquisite Nancy Kwan, who was admired by Liu's father. In 2019, when Alysa was named to the inaugural Time 100 Next list, Kwan authored the recognition article. 

It was hard not to think the US's karma was at play when our "Quad God" Ilia Malinin fell twice in his long skate, blowing his lead and knocking himself off the podium altogether. But it seems California has escaped the black cloud of fascism that hangs over our country, and perhaps women have too: the US hockey team also scored gold last night, beating out Canada in overtime. 

It's Time for the NYT To Admit It Has an Editorial Problem

A discussion titled, “Marijuana is Everywhere. That’s a Problem” with New York Times editorial writers Emily Bazelon, David Leonhardt and German Lopez, who co-wrote Monday’s NYT editorial calling for greater regulation of cannabis, focuses on theory rather than practicality, except when used for prejudicial purposes. 

The conversation starts with the clarification that, like the famous NYT editorial series of 2014, theirs is pro-legalization, due to the harms of cannabis prohibition—namely huge numbers of arrests, disproportionately for people of color. They pointed out that they say in the editorial that they oppose the current ballot measure in Massachusetts that would re-criminalize cannabis. 

During the discussion, both Leonhardt and Lopez went right away to the fact that things are too loose now because marijuana can be smelled walking down the street. In Lopez’s case he says he was offered a hit on the street in his native Ohio, and Leonhardt talked about the streets of NYC and DC, where he spends time. Leonhardt also seemed distiurbed by the proliferation of cannabis shops in Colorado. 

Lopez expressed concern that legalization has increased use, drawing on his perspective reporting on the opioid crisis. He was also alarmed that we have “culturally embraced" cannabis. “You see Gwyneth Paltrow investing in Big Weed in CA,” was an example he used, picking up on the prohibitionist organization SAM’s drumbeat about Big Weed.  

Other issues like increasing numbers of people in polls saying they have problems with marijuana, and emergency room visits for CHS, were mentioned. Also mentioned, as in the editorial, were names of products that sounded like cookies and were marketed to kids (something that isn’t permitted by licensed vendors in California and elsewhere). 

Much was made of the 2024 NSDUH survey finding that more people smoke cannabis daily than use alcohol, with everyone assuming this meant people get totally stoned all day long. Leonhardt said twice that he “very much likes” alcohol or his martini, and Lopez said he “partakes" himself. But apparently everyone else who uses cannabis does so problematically in their eyes. People who have a problem with pot aren’t productive, and create problems for society, is Lopez's opinion. "We’ve gone way too far it glorifying its use,” he said.

On medical marijuana, while it was acknowledged that some people in pain or with specific ailments might benefit from it, cannabis hasn’t gone through the rigorous studies and government oversight needed to establish it as a true medicine, and we should re-think a system by which cannabis dispensaries sell a product claiming medical use, the speakers said. 

The number one thing to change about cannabis legalization is taxation, Leonhardt said. He pointed to tobacco as having great success with lowering youth use due to high taxes. The beauty of higher taxation, he claimed, is that it doesn’t affect the occasional user but helps curb overuse. Cannabis is taxed at “pennies on the dollar,” Lopez claimed, while alcohol they said is taxed at a higher rate. This is absolutely not true in California, where the excise tax on a glass of wine is one cent, and on a cannabis pre-roll it's over $1.

The tired old ideas of criminologist Mark Kleiman, who took off from the idea that something like 80% of any product’s sales come from the top 20% of its users, were harkened to. Lopez spoke about Kleiman’s policy of “grudging toleration,” and expressed alarm that some people celebrate the positive effects of cannabis. Corporations have an incentive to market to their heaviest users, he said. “And youth!” chimed in Leonhardt, saying there are products named Trips Ahoy and Double Stuff Stoneos, from "the classic playbook of corporations that care more about profits than the well being of Americans."

The speakers pooh-pooed the idea that high taxation sends people to the illicit market, citing studies about other substances rather than looking at the very real-world situation brought about by 100 years of marijuana prohibition. It’s “really nihilist” to say that there should be no laws just because people can get around them, Leonhardt said, comparing cannabis laws to taxing the rich. The tiny illicit market in tobacco or alcohol vs. the mature one in cannabis wasn’t considered at all, nor was the potential fallout of the Times’s idea to re-criminalize marijuana products of over 60% potency. 

The only useful idea presented was that perhaps cannabis should be taxed based on its potency, as alcohol is. It was acknowledged that alcohol should be taxed at a higher rate. The problem of people smoking pot in public could be solved by allowing more indoor places where people can consume, but this wasn’t mentioned.  

Kevin Sabet of SAM called the NYT piece "gargantuan." The organization last week banned participants from Students for Sensible Drug Policy from its annual convention. Dark Money is funding SAM, and campaigns to repeal marijuana legalization in at least three states. Meanwhile, outlets like the Daily Caller, The Hill and Politico are reportedly taking $100-$500K to produce one-sided media forums for those like SAM who can pay. 

It's a Green Day in the Bay

Lost in the controversy about Bad Bunny appearing at the Super Bowl halftime show is the fact that the cannabis-loving band Green Day will kick off the music portion of the Super Bowl with a performance at the game's opening ceremony.

In 1987, guitarists Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt, both 15 years old at the time, along with bassist Sean Hughes and drummer Raj Punjabi, a fellow high school student from Pinole, CA, formed the band Desecrated Youth, later renamed Sweet Children. 

After signing with Lookout! Records in 1988 and before releasing their first EP in 1989, the group adopted the name Green Day. In the Bay Area, where the band was formed, "green day" was reportedly slang for spending a day doing nothing but smoking marijuana.

The band's name "was absolutely about pot," Armstrong told Bill Maher, adding, "We were trying to be the Cheech & Chong of punk rock." Armstrong went on to say that he stopped smoking weed after he had children, and then described a gravity bong to Maher. "I like burning the substance" as opposed to vaporizing, he said, because he "it smells good, it fills the room." Vaporizing felt like "one more reason to hide the fact that it should be legal." 

The band's 1977 album "Nimrod," scored with the acoustic ballad "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)," which won the band an MTV Video Award for Best Alternative Video. The other singles released from Nimrod were "Nice Guys Finish Last," "Hitchin' a Ride," and "Redundant," all with rockin' riffs and rebellious lyrics of the type that the 60s hippies wrote. 

Green Day's "American Idiot" won the 2005 Grammy for Best Rock Album and was nominated in six other categories, including Album of the Year. The album helped Green Day win seven of the eight awards it was nominated for at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards; the "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" video won six of those awards. A year later, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" won Grammy Award for Record of the Year. 

  

The musical "American Idiot" based on the album opened in the Berkeley Repertory Theatre at the end of 2009. On April 20, 2010, "American Idiot" opened on Broadway, and Green Day released the soundtrack to the musical.

As they sang while undercover busking at a New York subway station with Jimmy Fallon, Green Day's song "Basket Case" asks, "am I just paranoid, or just stoned?" 

Meanwhile, there's increased scrutiny around alternative Super Bowl performer Kid Rock's lyric about "underage girls" being not statutory by mandatory. And Bill Maher has redubbed today "Super Bet Sunday" for "Wager League Sports" as the NFL partnered with DraftKings online sports betting and that drug (gambling) was permitted to advertise a special $300 bonus—not in dollars, but in betting credits. 

POST GAME UPDATE: The broadcast did warp the word "mindfuck" but the others in "American Idiot" came through loud and clear. All after "Time of Your Life" was used like a graduation day song to introduce NFLers like Lynn Swan, Payton Manning, and Joe Montana.

According to AlternativeNation.net, amid rumors that ICE would be present at the Super Bowl, as well as speculation that Bad Bunny might call out the agency during his live halftime performance, Green Day played a warm-up show at San Francisco’s Pier 29 on Friday night (Feb. 6th). Partway through the set, Armstrong said, “This goes out to all the ICE agents out, wherever you are. Quit your sh*tty ass job,” Armstrong said. “Because when this is over, and it will be over at some point in time. Kristi Noem, Stephen Miller, JD Vance, Donald Trump – they’re gonna drop you like a bad f*cking habit. Come on to this side of the line.” 

During the song "Holiday," which he dedicated to Minneapolis, Armstrong changed the lyrics from "the representative from California has the floor" to "the representative from Epstein Island has the floor." And he continued his long-running criticism of the MAGA movement, changing the lyrics in "American Idiot" to say, "I'm not part of the MAGA agenda."

A video featuring Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart was aired during the pre-game, celebrating Bob Weir and the band's love for the 49ers, and their choice of Levi's stadium for their 50th anniversary shows. 

Oh, and Bad Bunny did some stuff too. 

"Join the Club" Film Tells the Story of Dennis Peron and Medical Marijuana

"Join the Club" is a powerful documentary about Dennis Peron and the origins of the medical marijuana movement, set in the gay rights movement and the AIDS crisis in San Francisco. The tactics of the US war on drugs that began with Richard Nixon and was carried on by successive US presidents is also presented in the film, making the DEA and its multi-jurisdictional forces look like the ICE of its day. 

Filmmakers Kip Andersen and Chris O'Connell were able to conduct the last interview with Peron just before he died in 2018, and his story is told in flashback with remarkable footage of Peron's historic Cannabis Buyer's Club, including police video from an officer who infiltrated the club, news reports, and interviews all skillfully edited together. 

Born in the Bronx, Peron was drafted into the Vietnam War where he recounts seeing 1000 dead soldiers the month that he arrived. Eschewing alcohol as "the war drug," Peron smoked his first joint instead, and the filmmakers do a wonderful job of depicting how that changed his life. Bringing back three pounds of marijuana when he returned from Vietnam launched his career as a pot dealer and activist in San Francisco. 

Peron began his political involvement as a supporter of Harvey Milk, who was the first openly gay man elected to public office in California when he became a San Francisco supervisor. The assassination of Milk and Mayor George Moscone highlighted the terrible ongoing prejudice against the gay community, as did the arrests and police shooting of Peron. 

The film does an excellent job of taking us to the origins of the AIDS epidemic and the relief that patients were getting from cannabis. The death of Dennis's young, beautiful lover Jonathan West from AIDS catapulted him to begin distributing cannabis to AIDS patients and operating what was described as the first AIDS hospice, where patients could gather and support each other in community.

Interviewees include Cal NORML's Dale Gieringer, who played a key role in taking the medical marijuana movement statewide with California's breakthrough Prop. 215 in 1996, along with Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, Peron's right-hand man John Entwhistle, journalist Fred Gardner, artist Ruth Frase, and activist Terrance Alan, among others. Peron's attorneys Tony Serra and David Nick are interviewed, as are Dan Lungren, the conservative CA AG who brutally went after Dennis, and Joe Bannon, the country's first openly gay policeman who was reviled when he went undercover to take down the cannabis club. 

Footage highlights Brownie Mary Rathbun, a sweet little old lady who was arrested for baking and distributing cannabis brownies to AIDS patients. Also in the film are Gilbert Baker, the designer of the Pride rainbow flag, Wayne Justmann, the OG medical marijuana card holder who was a fixture in the movement, and San Francisco's progressive DA Terence Hallinan (whose policies were adopted by his successor, Kamala Harris). 

After his interview for the film, which was conducted after Peron had a stroke and had difficulty speaking, the filmmakers reported that he seemed to be at peace, as though he knew his story would be told. He died a few months later. 

"Join the Club" was shown as part of the SF Indie Fest at the Roxy Theater to a crowd of activists and supporters that thoroughly enjoyed it, cheering for the heroes and jeering the opponents. So far, it's only been making the festival rounds since its release in May 2024, but hopefully will soon see a broader release. 

A "Jewel Robbery" with a Marijuana Twist

Kay Francis is offered a marijuana cigarette by William Powell in "Jewel Robbery"

In the pre-Hayes Code film "Jewel Robbery" (1932), William Powell ("The Thin Man") plays a suave jewel thief who romances a bored, jewel-grubbing Baroness played by Kay Francis. "In my own eyes, I'm shallow and weak," says Francis. "I fly about all day, pursuing furs, jewels, excitement....In the morning, a cocktail, in the afternoon, a man, in the evening, Veronal [a barbiturate]."  

After invading a jewelry store where Francis and her elderly husband are picking out a large diamond ring, Powell congenially holds everyone hostage and robs the store's inventory. He then takes the unusual step of offering the shop's owner a marijuana cigarette, saying, "Do smoke one of my cigarettes. Now, inhale deeply...." 

Despite having just been robbed, the man begins giggling so vociferously that Francis asks Powell, "What did you give him?" Powell replies, "A pleasant, harmless smoke. He'll awake in the morning fresh and happy, with a marvelous appetite."  

He then offers her a cigarette, saying, "They're harmless, really. Two puffs, and you'll be hearing soft music. The world will begin to revolve pleasantly. Three, a beautiful dream." She asks, "How do you know this?" and he replies, "Experience. I assure you, all the ladies fall asleep happily." "So that you steal their jewels in peace, I suppose," she replies. Refusing to smoke, she says, "I prefer to keep my wits about me, thank you" (which, considering her circumstances, was rather wise). 

Powell then hornswoggles a security guard into carrying his loot out to the getaway car, and gives him as a tip his box of marijuana cigarettes. The guard fully enjoys smoking one of the joints, inhaling deeply. When he is questioned by the police, he offers the chief one of his stash and the two are soon yukking it up fully. Francis of course falls for Powell, but never gets a chance to try another of his cigarettes. 

Two years later, Gertrude Michael sang "Sweet Marijuana" in the 1934  film "Murder at the Vanities," apparently released just before the Motion Picture Production Code (known as the Hays Code) went into effect. 

Following a series of Hollywood scandals involving drugs in the 1920s, legislators in 37 states introduced almost 100 film censorship bills in 1921. The studios chose to self-regulate, hiring Presbyterian postmaster Will H. Hays, a former head of the RNC, to head the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America. Hays reviewed scripts and in 1924 he introduced a set of recommendations that forbade depictions of drug trafficking and urged caution in depicting drug use, among other proscriptions like not ridiculing clergy. These evolved into the Production Code, with input from a Catholic editor and a Jesuit priest. 

The Hays Code forbade the use of graphic violence, profanity, obscenity, promiscuity, miscegenation,  homosexuality, criminality, and substance use. It disallowed any sort of ridicule for a law or "creating sympathy for its violation." A recurring theme was "that throughout, the audience feels sure that evil is wrong, and good is right." The code was replaced in 1968 by the motion-picture rating system still in use today.

In 2009, the movie "It's Complicated," in which Meryl Streep and Steve Martin smoke pot, was slapped with an "R" rating from the MPAA, said to be due to a lack of "a negative consequence for their behavior." 

Cannabis in the Epstein Files

The DOJ's online searchable (and heavily redacted) Epstein Library reveals that convicted sex trafficker / financier Jeffrey Epstein seemed to be tracking marijuana legalization globally, and may have invested in a cannabis company in the US Virgin Islands months before he was re-arrested and died in his prison cell in 2019. 

Epstein pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2008 by a Florida state court of procuring a child for prostitution and of soliciting a prostitute in a sweetheart deal that didn't seem to affect his business or other activities. 

An MD with a redacted name wrote to Epstein on 9/5/2010, "AND do you know WHO aside from the Israelis owns most of the water capture technology.... Hint...I adore him and he just cut off all his hair and I will see him in concert at the state fair on the 16th... (scroll down) WILLIE NELSON! Maybe marijuana does make you a better you." (Nelson played the Puyallup, WA state fair on 9/16/2010. His hair did look shorter in photos from the fair. Reportedly he did own a water capture company.) 

On Sep. 21, 2013, [REDACTED] wrote: "[REDACTED] suggested perhaps medicinal weed for me ;)" Epstein replied: "Yes, my 2nd great idea after Zombie Porn! They say these things come in 3's So we should all cash in on the next one!" Hong Kong based academic and tech bro Gino Yu sent Epstein a link on August 23, 2016 to an article titled, "Researchers find lab rats on marijuana just can't be bothered" with the comment, "Roaches on dmt next?" One of Epstein's attorneys Erika Kellerhals wrote in an email on September 7, 2016,  "All these marijuana guys are stuck using credit unions because no banks will take their money. IBE angle..." probably referring to International Banking Entities. In December 2018, Epstein received a pitch about a cannabis investment fund.  

David Mitchell, a longtime investor and financier who connected Epstein to Todd Boehly, co-owner of the LA Dodgers and Lakers in 2011, forwarded Epstein an article on February 1, 2019 titled, "Meet Israel's many medical marijuana millionaires - including former Prime Minister Ehud Barak." On March 1, 2019 the article Mitchell forwarded was, "Martha Stewart Will Advise Cannabis Grower on Products for Humans and Pets." And on March 7 that year, he forwarded a Statement from FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on signing of the Agriculture Improvement Act and the agency's regulation of products containing cannabis and cannabis-derived compounds. Analyses of the cannabis market from Harvest and Akrell Ventures are part of the files. 

US Virgin Islands Governor Albert Bryan, Jr. signs medical marijuana law on 1/19/2019. 

American businesswoman and former US Virgin Islands first lady Cecile de Jongh, who was on Epstein's payroll, responded to a Jan. 19, 2019 email from Epstein asking, "any feed back from albert?" [USVI's new Governor Albert Bryan, Jr.]. De Jongh responded, "I see that he got back to STX [St. Croix] this afternoon to sign the medical marijuana bill." Mitchell wrote to Epstein about the new law on the following day, asking, "what name should I put the shares into?"

Epstein was arrested again six months later on July 6, 2019, on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors in Florida and New York. He died in his jail cell on August 10, 2019.

In May 2023, JPMorgan Chase & Co. "unveiled new accusations that the U.S. Virgin Islands was complicit in Jeffrey Epstein's sex crimes, including that a former first lady for the territory sought student visas for some of the disgraced financier's victims," according to Reuters.  De Jongh worked with Epstein in 2011 when the USVI was drafting new sex offender laws, JPMorgan said. "This is the suggested language; will it work for you?" de Jongh asked Epstein in a May 2011 email.

Epstein also got involved in helping get jobs, clients, or academic placements for his friends and their children.  Marijuana use didn't seem to matter to them.

Attorney Jack Goldberger wrote to Epstein on June 8, 2009, "I told them about his misdemeanor marijuana conviction. 'if we kicked everyone out who had marijuana convictions we'd have no one working here' Its ok but don't highlight it." Epstein replied, "forward to joe." The subject was "axel," perhaps referring to Richard Axel, a Columbia University Professor, Nobel laureate, and co-director of the Zuckerman Institute. The Guardian reported that, in 2010, Axel attended a birthday party in Paris for Epstein, and that Axel had earlier said of Epstein, "He has the ability to make connections that other minds can’t make... He is extremely smart and probing." Mortimer Zuckerman, a prominent Columbia donor, invited Epstein to join then-University President Lee Bollinger, Law ’71, at two dinners in 2013 to celebrate the $200 million University neuroscience institute that Zuckerman endowed in 2012. 

Victims of the Epstein / Maxwell sex trafficking ring were asked in depositions about their marijuana or drug use, and their admissions were used to smear them in court. 

One victim whose name is redacted is said to have boasted about her marijuana use her MySpace webpage, where admissions of purchasing and using marijuana and marijuana paraphernalia were found. She reportedly stated she "can't wail to buy some weed!!! ... 1 can't wait!!! . . . (hold on: let me say that again) I can't wait to buy some weed!!!.. . I also want to get a vaporizer so I can smoke in my room because apparently there 'narcs' everywhere." She was also said to have posted a photograph of a marijuana cigarette and labeled it "what heaven looks like to me." This information and supporting documentation was provided by the defense to the Palm Beach Police Dept. 

Another victim who was 16 when she met Epstein "currently uses marijuana every day for anxiety," according to the files. (No wonder.) In a heavily redacted deposition, a girl who was 14 or 15 when she met Epstein said she used only marijuana before she met him, but began using cocaine and Ecstasy after meeting him. She recounts a woman performing oral sex on her while Epstein had sex with the woman from behind. In an FBI interview where a victim was also asked about smoking pot, she said that Epstein had a "weird shaped penis" with a "peehole on the side of his dick."

A big reason for Epstein's meteoric rise in the financial world was his relationship with James Cayne, who became a director at Bear Sterns in 1985. Epstein names Cayne as an executor in a will found in the DOJ files. 

Cayne is mentioned in the 1/4/2026 New York Times Magazine article "Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich," which says, "Rumors, perhaps fueled by envy, began to spread that Epstein was helping Cayne to pursue women and score drugs, according to several of their colleagues." His relationship with Cayne "really catapulted" Epstein, and the two were described as "sleazeballs."

In 2008, Cayne cashed in his share of Bear Stearns for $61 million, sending their stock down 5%, and stepped down as chief executive before the firm went bust. The Wall Street Journal blog said that during 10 critical days of the bank's crisis in July 2007, Cayne was playing in a bridge tournament in Nashville, Tenn., without a cell phone or an email device. The WSJ also reported that Cayne sometimes smoked marijuana after bridge tournaments, citing interviews with attendees at the tournaments. He  denied one alleged incident in 2004, but when asked whether he smoked pot during bridge tournaments on other occasions, he said he would respond only "to a specific allegation." 

In one of his last acts as CEO of Bear Stearns, Cayne made a payment of around $2 million to a woman who was poised to file sexual harassment charges against its chairman, Alan "Ace" Greenberg, according to The Daily Beast. 

In one of many articles over the years speculating how Epstein accumulated his weath, he was said to run money for the Bronfmans, the Canadian family that made a fortune pushing liquor into the US during alcohol prohibition, something denied by Cayne. 

It's time to lessen laws, taxes and regulations on legitimate cannabis businesses worldwide to get the holy herb out of the hands of sleezeballs like Epstein, who traffic in human beings, and the scumbags he serviced. 

Bye Bye Bobby

Some deaths hit you hard. Bob Wier, who was still in his teens when he hooked up with Jerry Garcia to start making music, passed on January 10 after a brief illness, and Deadheads everywhere mourned and celebrated his life. 

I first saw the Grateful Dead on their "Live at Last" tour in the late '80s, after Garcia came back from a coma to re-learn the guitar. I thought, "This is where the 60s went" when I saw the parking lot scene: hippie selling colorful crafts, grilled cheese sandwiches and other goodies in a makeshift community that followed the band from show to show. I saw them play with Bob Dylan and several other shows back in the day when you could send in for tickets as part of a lottery for big shows. 

Bill Clinton float with a phattie at the 1993 Grateful Dead Mardi Gras show.

My hemp activism started when a cute hempster guy invited me to the 1991/92 New Year's Eve show at the Oakland, CA colosseum he'd pulled tickets for. It was an unforgettable show, with Baba Olatunji starting it out drumming through the crowd, and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones blowing us away with a drummer whose kit looked like a guitar. It was the year the band's manager Bill Graham died, and since he would traditionally come out as Father Time at midnight at their epic NYE shows, film of him playing Father Time year after year was shown instead. 

I also got to their Mardi Gras show in 1993, when one of the floats depicted the newly-elected Bill Clinton with a saxophone in one hand and a huge burning joint in the other (pictured). As a hemp activist, I wo-maned a table selling tie-dyed hemp shorts and shirts at a string of shows in Sacramento and at Shoreline amphitheater in the Bay Area. The band's keyboardist Vince Wellnick stopped by the booth and picked out our most colorful shirt, which he wore onstage. I ran into Wellnick later on his way to Wier's wedding in Mill Valley. 

A memorial for Wier was held Saturday in downtown San Francisco where thousands gathered. 

Joan Baez spoke, saying Wier was part of a group that created a loving, caring community. "I didn't get it. I was a Mom saying, 'You can go, but don't smoke any of that dope.'....It's been a long journey for me. My own kid, who I was not that present for, found a family with you, Bob, and your people."

John Mayer, who Weir recruited to step into Jerry Garcia's (by way of Trey Anastasio's) huge shoes to  form Dead & Co., shared at the memorial that he and Bobby were born in the same day, exactly 30 years apart. "I come from a world of structural thinking....Bob learned early on that spirit, heart, soul, curiosity and fearlessness was the path to glory. He taught me to trust in the moment, and I like to think I taught him a little bit to rely on a plan. Not as a substitute for the divine moments, but as a way to lure them in a little closer."  

"How many nights we all lived so fully in each second, following the music around twists and turns, through forests and over majestic vistas, taking in the magnificent inner views and wondering how we all got so lucky to have found this music invited into this dream together," Mayer recalled. 

Wier's wife Natascha (left) and daughter Monet (right) notice a hawk flying over the crowd
as daughter Chloe (center) speaks at the memorial. 

When Bob's youngest daughter Chloe ("the other daughter") spoke about azimuth, a nautical/navigational term Wier used to describe the connection between the band and their fans, a beautiful red-tailed hawk began to circle the crowd, joined in the end by a second hawk before flying away. Bob would say that Garcia never really left him, that he still found him up on his shoulder. He and Jerry died 11,111 days apart. 

Wier's wife Natascha lead the crowd in 108 seconds of silence, something Bob would call "Taking a Holy Instant" in the day. To end the gathering, Mayer played "Ripple" (a Garcia/Robert Hunter tune) on Bob's guitar, and the crowd sang along: 

If my words did glow with the gold of sunshine
And my tunes were played on the harp unstrung
Would you hear my voice come through the music?
Would you hold it near as it were your own?

....If I knew the way, I would take you home. 

A song Bobby wrote and sang, "One More Saturday Night," took the crowd out and Chloe, holding a red rose, boogied down with Baez. 

Now everybody's dancin' down the local armory
With a basement full of dynamite and live artillery
Temperature keeps risin', everybody gettin' high
Come the rockin' stroke of midnight, the place is gonna fly...

Wier's Politics, and Pot

Deadheads also gathered last week at 710 Ashbury Street, the house bandmembers were living in when, on October 2, 1967 the place was raided by San Francisco narcotics officers, and Wier and Ron "Pigpen" McKernan were arrested for pot possession. The arrest made national news, and Garcia's picture was reportedly used to represent a lawless hippie in an ad for Nixon's presidental campaign the next year. When the band was busted in New Orleans in 1970, they made music out of it for one of their most famous songs: "Truckin" (above).   

Rock/pot journalist Steve Bloom recalled working at High Times when the Dead were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1994: "During the media session I fired off a question about Deadheads getting busted by narcs at shows for marijuana and LSD. The band members (Garcia was not there) seemed surprised by the question, but then Bobby stepped forward, decrying the situation and calling for drugs like that to be legal." 

In 2015, NORML was invited to table at the "Fare Thee Well" shows in Santa Clara, the 50th anniversary celebration that many thought would be the last Dead shows. HeadCount, the better-funded group that organized the "Participation Row" there that I participated in, noticed the long lines at our booth and soon started a campaign to register pro-pot voters, which doubtlessly helped with coming ballot measures. 

According to the LA Times, Dead & Company said they would bring at least 300 supporters of legal pot to their May 10, 2016 performance on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” when a legalization measure was heading for the California ballot. "Members of organizations including the California Cannabis Industry Assn. and the Los Angeles medical marijuana collective Buds & Roses were encouraged to wear T-shirts, carry signs and even dress up as giant joints to get their message seen on national TV," the Times reported. [UPDATE: Word from someone who was there said that when supporters showed up dressed as a giant pot leaf, they were kicked out because "it was a family show."]

The band hoped marijuana-advocacy groups could sponsor their Kimmel appearance, but programmers wouldn't permit a cannabis ad to run (they still don't). “The folks it would be hitting on that broadcast would be outside our normal sphere of influence,” Wier said in an interview. “We’re about music, but we’re about other stuff as well, and we always have been. We need to make our feelings on the subject as apparent as we can.” 

Nancy Pelosi spoke at the memorial about Wier being a lifelong Democrat who loved his country, and who tried to get her to flash a "Vote" sign in a Grateful Dead motif at an event, but she insisted he do it instead. He gave her the sign though, and she showed it this time. His daughter said he would always speak of finding ways to get along with "our friends the Repubs." 

Bob and the band at the Kennedy Center in 2024

Pelosi noted, "Isn't it great that Bob got the last Kennedy Center Honor (when they were truly Kennedy Center Honors)." Interviewed on the red carpet at the event, Wier said that the band was persona non grata for most of its history, but now "everything's changed. Except us....That roar that I'm hearing is the sound of doors opening." Indeed, Dead & Co.'s 30-night residency at the Las Vegas Sphere was followed by another 18 nights to celebrate their 10-year anniversary in 2025.  And their three days of shows at Golden Gate Park drew 60,000 fans each night and raised 2.2 million for charity (NORML, which could really use some $$s right now, wasn't among the recipients).  

With a name that practically spelled "Weird," Bobby was unique. Will anyone step into his huge sandals and keep the music going? One way or another, it's bound to happen. It was said that Bob imagined the band's influence lasting 300 years; symphonic, bluegrass, and other forms of interpretation of their extensive catalog of songs have been mentioned and imagined.