My Iolite, The Next Generation in Vaporizers

Hey everybody, I just came across this little gem last week down at the New Amsterdam cafe on Hastings here in Vancouver and immediately fell in love. I ended up picking the piece up from the ladies at the Hempy’z booth at the Taboo show last sunday.

This box actually kinda looks like an Iphone box..

For the very reasonable price of $240 (after tax) I got the white Iolite Vaporizer and a free can of all natural butane. The Iolite comes in some impressive packaging that made me feel like I was unwrapping a new Iphone. It comes with a black travel case, spare parts and an extendable mouthpiece that comes apart in segments for easy transport in the side pocket of the case. Along with the spare screen and optional moisture collector, it came with pipe cleaners and a brass packing tool with a hollow tip to fit and pack around the center heating element.

Whats so amazing about this piece, made in ireland let me add, is the top quality construction. It’s easy to use and even comes with a 2 year manufacturers warranty. That alone gives me the peace of mind that I am making a solid investment.

The Operation:

So to get this thing up and running is so easy its amazing. You remove you Iolite from the packaging and fill it up with butane. Yes, butane. This piece has no batteries and runs by using butane to heat the coils. Fill her up, pack the bowl with your desired herbal blend which can contain any number of herbs including adding a little bit of fresh mint leaves into your mix for a refreshing breath freshening vapour hoot. Once you’re all set up you’re in business. Turn the device on by switching the power switch over to the  1 on the back, press the big button to spark the heating element and give it about 45 seconds.

You know you’re money when your little iolite starts making Darth Vader noises in the back of the movie theater. It is not very loud but it is distinctively Vader as it expels non toxic all natural butane from the side. When it is heating up you sill see a little orange/red light glowing under the side. When it has reached the optimum temperature the light turns off and its ready to medicate.

When your Iolite has reached temperature just pull through the mouthpiece and you’re in business. Allow it to heat back up to the perfect temperature every 30 seconds or so and wait for the red light to go off, it will do this automatically and it only takes a 10-30 seconds at the most between hits.

My Experience:

As I sit here and write I am finishing up packing my Iolite with some fresh herb, a beautiful Blueberry X Northern lights #5 cross, with a few little pieces of budderking budder thrown in the mix.

I just switched it on and it took about a minute to reach temperature. When you pull through it the vapour is warm and flavourful. The best part is that your exhalations are odorless except towards the end  it develops an almost popcorny smell and taste. By that point if you notice smoke coming out it is close to being done and you can go ahead and switch it off to cool down. The high is distinctively Vapourtastic as you stay clear headed and it is the perfect thing to get you through a day at work!

Tips and Tricks:

• Try to avoid packing it too much as i’ve found that over packing it can cause it to burn the herb and create a bit of smoke which is not ideal for incognito smoking in movies and restaurants and such.

• Try adding other Herbs such as mint or lavender for a different experience.

• I would recommend using the longer mouthpiece as it give the vapour a longer time to cool through the tube before reaching your mouth and provides a much more enjoyable experience.

• When sharing with friends do not pass the Iolite by the mouthpiece! it will pull out and dump your herb chamber!

• Save your left over cannabis! That brown used up weed still contains about 30% of the original THC and can be used effectively in either cooking, or used directly in or on top of your food. It does not need to be cooked because the THC has already been psychoactively activated by the heat of the vaporizer and can be ingested directly to achieve the desired effect.

Check out these pics and I hope you all get a chance to check out this cool device.

Peace and keep blowing that smoke proud,

~  The Hempen Journeyman

This box actually kinda looks like an Iphone box..

They come in all of these cool colours as well as some limited edition designs.

This is the small herb chamber, but despite the size it does the job.

Prepare herbs, insert herbs, inhale herbs

Marc Emery’s Final Hours of freedom

Marc's Final Farewell with his wife Jodie by his side.

It has been just over two months since my last post and I’m really sorry that this has to be my first post back.

Today was a sad day for so many people as we watched Marc Emery, the leader of the BC Marijuana party and the self proclaimed “Prince of Pot”  head in to the Supreme Court of BC to be sentenced for marijuana trafficking to the United States. He will be taken today after his hearing and held in a BC prison until the extradition order is signed and Marc is shipped to some US federal prison.

The throng of people crowded outside the courts today here in Vancouver to hear Marc and Jodie give their final press conference together before Marc’s five year sentence was inspiring. We all gathered at 9:00 this morning, some of us missing work, some skipping school and other travelling in from all over the the greater Vancouver area to show their love an support for not only Marc, but for his wife Jodie as well who will continue his work in his absence.

At the end of the press conference everyone said their final farewells with hugs and tears as we saw Marc off into the courthouse. I hope everyone out there will look at this situation and realize that this ridiculous war on drugs has just destroyed another family by tearing a husband from his wife for the sale of a plant.

Today for the first time in my life I am not proud to be a Canadian because of the lack of respect and support our government has shown for this honest, hard working and inspiring man who by our laws has committed no crime. The fact that our own Vancouver Police Department conspired and worked along side the DEA allowing them not only into our country, but into our city to destroy a man we all love.

All I can hope is that this ordeal will bring some coverage to the issue of prohibition and show that Marc who has done no damage to anyone has been wrongfully persecuted by the United States government and that cannabis has no victims. The only victims are those of the prohibition.

To Marc and Jodie, I hope only the best for your both. Stay strong and you both can get through this knowing that your sacrifice has not been in vain, the legalization movement will continue to grow and that someday your lost liberties and happiness will be returned to you both.

This is David Malmo-Levine who stood up to speak his mind on not only Marc’s but his own pending incarceration.

Oakland Passes Landmark Marijuana Tax!

So guys its been a little while due to me being real busy finishing up school and living the life up here in Vancouver. The sun’s been shining and I’ve been out enjoying the gorgeous pacific northwest so I haven’t been inside with the computer much.

But for this news I am sitting and hacking away at the keys to spread the news that Oakland has passed a new ordinance that raises the tax paid on the sale of medical marijuana. This is great news for the simple fact that it brings a solid legitimacy to the sale of marijuana. Oakland is now the nation’s first city to directly tax the herb and support the sale of medical marijuana.

The city set at 1.8% tax on medical marijuana sold in the city. This tax is expected to raise at least $400,000 and perhaps more that $1 million annually according to the wall street journal. The city of Oakland is currently suffering from a 83 million dollar shortcoming on a $455 million budget.

About 80% of voters backed the marijuana tax and with the backing of the oakland city council, this legislation shows just how widespread the acceptance of the normalization of cannabis really is.

With the polls showing  56%  of californians in support of legalization and taxation, this experimental tax of cannabis is exactly what other politicians need to show them that legalization and taxation can really help with the state deficit.

Legalization 2010!!! For AB390 to pass californians are going to have to band together and gather enough signatures to get it on the ballot.

Lets go fellow Californians!!! I wish I could be down there doing my part alas I am living up here in the north and can’t.

Check out news on CNN Politics HERE

Peace, and keep blowing that smoke proud.

~ The Hempen Journeyman

Best Pot Commercial Ever!

Well Guys, this just blew me away.

As far as anti drug commercials go this one is absolutely fantastic because it just about sums up my daily life! I don’t know what they hoped to achieve with this commercial but this is exactly what we need on TV to push the normalization and acceptance of marijuana.

Thanks Guys anti-drug warriors, way to take one for the team.

Enjoy, and keep blowing that smoke proud.

~ The Hempen Journeyman

Senate Commission to Study Cannabis Decriminalization

Great News from Rhode Island!  - Sourced from CannabisNews.org

Providence, R.I. — Weeks after legalizing the sale of marijuana to sick people, lawmakers have voted to explore how much Rhode Island might collect in revenue if it were to make all sales of marijuana legal and impose a “sin tax” of $35 per ounce.

During the General Assembly’s aborted rush to adjournment Friday, the Senate approved a resolution — introduced earlier the same day — to create a nine-member special commission to study a swath of issues surrounding marijuana.

Among them: “The experience of individuals and families sentenced for violating marijuana laws … The experience of states and European countries, such as California, Massachusetts and the Netherlands, which have decriminalized the sale and use of marijuana.”

The sponsors of the eleventh-hour measure — which requires no further action — include Senators Joshua Miller, D-Cranston; Leo Blais, R-Coventry; Rhoda Perry, D-Providence; Charles Levesque, D-Portsmouth, and Susan Sosnowski, D-South Kingstown.

In a brief interview Wednesday, Miller said the resolution was sparked by the referendum-driven move to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana in Massachusetts, and by what he perceives as “a national trend towards decriminalization.” In November 2008, Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100.

Asked why he waited until what was to be the last day of the session to introduce the measure, Miller said he and his fellow sponsors felt it was “very important” for this study to be “defined as an issue” completely separate and apart from the passage — over Governor Carcieri’s veto — of legislation allowing the creation of state-regulated dispensaries to sell marijuana for medicinal use.

Miller said it also “took that long for it to be taken seriously.”

The resolution creates a “Special Senate Commission to Study the Prohibition of Marijuana” made up of “elected members of the Rhode Island Senate, local law enforcement officials, physicians, nurses, social workers, academic leaders in the field of addiction studies, advocates or patients in the state’s medical marijuana program, advocates working in the field of prisoner reentry, economists, and members of the general public.”

The measure poses a number of specific questions for study, among them: “Whether and to what extent Rhode Island youth have access to marijuana despite current laws prohibiting its use. … Whether adults’ use of marijuana has decreased since marijuana became illegal in Rhode Island in 1918. … Whether the current system of marijuana prohibition has created violence in the state of Rhode Island against users or among those who sell marijuana. … Whether the proceeds from the sales of marijuana are funding organized crime, including drug cartels. … Whether those who sell marijuana on the criminal market may also sell other drugs, thus increasing the chances that youth will use other illegal substances.”

The resolution also cites questions about the “dangers associated with marijuana resulting from it being sold on the criminal market, including if it is ever contaminated or laced with other drugs.”

The panel has until Jan. 31, 2010, to report its findings and recommendations to the Senate, though it would stay alive through Jan. 31, 2014.

Miller, a bar owner who says he does not use illegal drugs — or even drink liquor more than a few times a year — said he is not hoping or expecting any specific outcome. “I am more open-minded that that,” he said. “I am hoping to react to the best research and data we can get out of looking at it.”

A year ago, Carcieri vetoed a joint House and Senate call for a study of the wisdom of creating state-regulated marijuana dispensaries.

But “since this was only a Senate resolution, it does not come to the governor for his approval,” Carcieri spokeswoman Amy Kempe said.

In February, one of the cosponsors, pharmacist Leo Blais, proposed a bill — The Sensible State Marijuana Policy Act — that would have decriminalized the possession of an ounce or less of marijuana, reducing it to a civil offense for which anyone age 18 or older would face a $100 fine and forfeiture of the marijuana. The bill never made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

As of Wednesday, no person or group had formally applied for the license to run the first of the three marijuana dispensaries allowed by the so-called “compassion centers” bill.

Both the House and Senate have each passed, for the second year in a row, their own versions (S39 and H5007) of a bill to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes.

But no one version of the measure has yet cleared both chambers, in this year when the House and Senate went on hiatus, with no certain return date, and no final action on a bevy of high-profile bills.

Source: Providence Journal, The (RI)
Author: Katherine Gregg, Journal State House Bureau
Contact: letters@projo.com
Website: http://www.projo.com/

Table Top Hemp Wick

Hey everybody I am here to fully endorse the use of hemp wick when medicating with your bong or pipe or just about anything you are smoking. It is a healthy alternative to a butane lighter and burns extremely clean being that it is nothing but organic hemp and bees wax.

Now I just happened to have this little spice jar that used to have diced onions in it. I tend to keep anything made of glass because it always comes in useful some time in the future. In this case it had some little holes in the top that worked perfect for dispensing the hemp cord as is uncoils inside. As it burns it feeds more out and when you’re done its got a black twist on lid that disguises it and keeps it clean and looking mighty sophisticated.

This is the best addition to my smoking devices in a long time. It burns so clean and enhances the taste as well as burning hotter than a regular lighter allowing you to take larger, healthier hits.

So check out my new Hemp wick and table top dispenser and consider adding one to your coffee table. Cheers.

Enjoy and keep blowing that smoke proud,

~ The Hempen Jouneyman

Hemp Wick Lit

Hemp Wick Top

Hemp Wick with the Lid off

Hemp Wick Dispenser, Closed

CA Senate support for legalization!

Heads up people, big news coming out of the NBC Bay Area newsroom

The smokes a brewing in San Francisco! State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, introduced a resolution Monday urging the federal government to end medical marijuana raids in California.”

The measure, if passed, would also “let people 21 and older possess an ounce and grow plants as long as the ‘garden’ is no bigger than 5 by 5 feet.”

If this legislation were to pass, counties would then be able to tax and regulate it.

This is great news because this means that there is growing

political support for Tom Ammiano’s bill!

2010 is looking like its gonna be a big year for the cannabis legalization movement!

Read the Original Article Here HERE.

Keep posted people and keep blowing that smoke proud.

~The Hempen Journeyman

P.S. For those of you who notice the name change, I’ve took on the new title to signify the start of my physical as well as mental journey  further my knowledge  of the cannabis plant and the hemp industry.

Journey Down the Hempen Road

Hello everybody I am sorry for the lack of postings, but I have started on a new film project!

Once we get past the initial planning I will start posting updates and news and clips and pictures from the journey, but until that time I will be putting this blog on hold.

If some exciting news catches my attention I will be sure to post it up here, so don’t forget to check back once in a while but unfortunately the majority of my energy will be put in to this new project for the time being.

But as always keep it live folks and keep blowing that smoke proud!

–   Kid Kulture

Let me leave you with a few snapshots of my recent journey to Lynn valley with the infamous Uncle Weed. Cheers.

Life Goes On In Vancouver

Hey everybody, sorry for the lack of new posts lately. I’ve been taking care of some issues that have kept me pretty busy for the past week or so.

Today I have a few cool things for all of you hippies out there!

#1 Season 5 Premier of Weeds comes out june 8th!!

Check out the sneak peak on CelebStoner.com HERE!

I love Weeds not only because of the incredibly attractive Nancy Botwin, played by Mary-Louise Parker, but also because of the fact that the producers of weeds are doing incredible things for the legalization movement! They have created a show that has brought about more acceptance for the herb and the industry behind it. The show portrays a good loving mother who is forced to deal with bad people because of the fact that cannabis is illegal. All she wants to do is provide for her family and she is forced in to a world full of danger and corruption simply because of the prohibition. In addition to the show, weeds has worked with other activists to get the message out including being highlighted in CNN’s Marijuana inc. documentary about the marijuana industry in California. Not too long ago the creators of weeds released this short promo/doc about the history of weed. Check it out.

Next up we’ve got a little blazing treat here in vancouver that Canadian’s will be passing across the country In a beautiful display of unity and world wide acceptance.

Thats Right! The Olympic Joint!

The Olympic Jay blazing across Canada

The new design for the olympic torch is a perfectly ironic representation of our beautiful Vansterdam. From the pinched ends to the slight twist in is body, this is a beautiful modern take on the classic spliff. I personally think this is a brilliant symbol for the olympics. Nothing brings people together like a good session and what better metaphor than jog jog passing this joint across the country to bring the world together for the 2010 olympics.

My only complaint is someone’s gotta fix that run.. is burning a bit uneven.

Peace and keep blowing that smoke proud,

Kid Kulture

Athletes for Marijuana

I am excited to see this for the first time. An athlete and positive role model who shows his full support and is even sponsored by MediCann!!

Inspirational stuff, check it out.

Peace and keep blowing that smoke proud,

Kid Kulture