2015: The Year In Weed

Image via Complex UK

If an online petition on the official UK government website gets over 100,000 signatures, it has to be considered for debate. In July, a call for the legalisation of weed got over the support of over 150,000 people in just four days. The debate took place in October, but MPs did little but pay lips service to the issue.

Reddit user sammyfrisa posted the screenshot above, with the caption: “Was pretty stoned last night, I wonder why I didn't get up on time”. Good work, kid.

The MediPen, the UK's First All-Natural Legal Cannabis Vaporiser, hit the market this year. It contains a high-strength blend of Cannabidiol (the principal non-psychotropic constituent of the Cannabis plant) and Pharmaceutical Grade Coconut Oil. It’s completely natural, chemical & additive free, and cames in 15 flavours. Sound to good to be true? The catch was that it didn’t actually contain any THC, hence why it was able to get away without breaking any laws.

Do you want to dedicate yourself to religion, but your smoking just keep getting in the way? The First Church of Cannabis was founded in Indiana this year—and was even granted non-profit, tax exempt status, making it a legit religion in the eyes of the law. Founder Bill Levi (the crazy guy on the right, who looks exactly as you'd expect the head of the First Church of Cannabis to look) was quick to point out: “FOR THE RECORD: We DO NOT worship cannabis. We Celebrate Life's Great Adventure... We celebrate love in our lives and pray with cannabis.”

Well, duh. The 22 year-old Ohio man told police he couldn’t fell his fingers because he'd "smoked too much weed."

Don’t let anyone tell you smoking weed will stop you achieving anything. New scientific evidence found this year suggested that William Shakespeare—only the greatest playwright of all time—may have enjoyed a puff or two between sonnets.

In an interview with The Daily Beast, Morgan Freeman opened up about his pro-legalisation views. We’ll never look at The Shawshank Redemption the same way again.

Friday was 20 years old this year, and we looked back on what makes the film so great, two decades later. We weren’t the only ones to sing its praises, as it got a nice shout-out in Straight Outta Compton, and even a re-release in US cinemas on 4/20.

With marijuana legalisation slowly growing amongst US states, it’s only a matter of time before it becomes big (legitimate) business. And the wheels started rolling this year with the news that PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel and his investment company Founder's Fund were looking to take a minority stake in Privateer, a company that owns Leafly.com, a website known as the Yelp of weed.

When police told an Israeli pizza seller to put "put whatever he wanted" as the topping, he thought ‘synthetic weed’ was a good answer. It was not, and he was promptly arrested. 

Do you keeping getting down when a girl swipes right on you, then you notice she has ‘non-smoker’ or ‘straight edge’ in her bio? Is your whole game just turning up at hers with an eight, some Domino's, and a Parks and Recs box set? Then you need High There!, the dating app tailor made for people who love the ganj.

Well, sort of Meowijuana is actually just high grade catnip made to look like cannabis. There is no actual weed in its product — even though its tagline is "For cats who need the weed." Still, all cats do is lie around all day and eat, so it’s not like they need anything to make them lazier.

Parents just don’t understand. In March, a 58-year-old Michigan man had some brownies that his 17-year-old daughter had baked the night before—only he didn’t realise they were from here special stash, and not for Home Ec class. He freaked out, thought he was having a stroke, and ended up in hospital.