Silicon Valley Reportedly Full of Stoners

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/silicon-valley-reportedly-full-stoners



Another major marijuana stereotype just got blown totally out of the water -- this time the idea that consuming cannabis is for unemployed slacker types. In fact, pot is wildly popular in one of America's economic centers, Silicon Valley. According to a new report in Bloomberg's Businessweek, the "physical toll" of computer coding has made Silicon Valley workers key consumers in the medical marijuana industry.

In San Jose, which Businessweek dubs the "Bay Area capital of medical marijuana," 106 medicinal marijuana dispensaries span the city's 177 square miles, more than adequately serving its 967,000 residents. One of those dispensaries, Pallative Health Center, told Businessweek that tech workers make up an estimated 40 percent of clients.

“We’re seeing people from some semiconductors, lots of engineers, lots of programmers,” Ernie Arreola, 38, the assistant manager, told Businessweek, which noted, "That makes sense, because the shop is an easy shot from some of the area’s biggest employers—Cisco Systems, Google, Adobe Systems, Apple, EBay—and a short drive from dozens more. Also, people in Silicon Valley do like their pot."

One medical marijuana executive told Businessweek that marijuana-infused chocolate toffee is a favorite among tech workers, who he says represents about 15 percent of customers. “It does not give the high or intoxicated feeling that you would typically get from a lot of medical cannabis,” Doug Chloupek, CEO of MedMar Healing Center, told Businessweek. “Those who are coding for 15 hours a day with cramping hands, that is the product that allows them to have mental clarity and still get pain relief.”

[Scuba]

1. Meanwhile, on Wall Street ...

http://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-cocaine-stories-2012-7?op=1

[talkingmime]

2. There's a news flash. Without pot, the entire computer industry would be stuck with refrigerators.

I'm serious. The original computers were fucking huge - refrigerators with flashing lights (only to impress the people footing the bill - the lights were just bling). It was the stoners who created the mini and micro computers and gave us laptops, cell phones, and all of the new junk I don't own because I'm happy with what I've got. Pot was the driving force for all of that. If you can't imagine it, you can't create it.