How to Get a Pot Card: The Music Video

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Just in time for 4/20, here’s a sassy number from the comic troubadours Garfunkel and Oates. It’s as if Snoop Dogg and Feist had a lovechild (or two):

Given my professional interest in pot cards, I decided to see what Garfunkel (a.k.a Riki Lindhomeand Oates (a.ka. Kate Micucci) had to say about the issue:

Mother Jones: How did you get the idea for this?

Garfunkel: We live in California and medical marijuana is pretty easily obtained here. There’s more pot stores than Starbucks. And yet it’s still technically illegal. So it’s kind of hypocritical.

MJ: What kind of research did you do on pot card procurement?

Garfunkel: We just Googled it and found the official list [of ailments treatable by pot]. It’s really, really long.

MJ: According a leading chain of California pot docs, there are 198 different maladies that qualify.

Garfunkel: It’s pretty much any part of your body followed by the word “pain.” Elbow pain, spleen pain, face pain, whatever.

MJ: It’s striking how many seemingly contradictory illnesses qualify, such as anorexia and bulimia.

Garfunkel: My neighbor said you can quit smoking by it.

MJ: Are you a California pot card holder?

Oates: I am.

MJ: If it’s not too personal, what’s your medical need for marijuana?

Oates: Anxiety and insomnia.

MJ: Mine is writer’s cramp.

Oates: Big problem!

MJ: How long have you had your pot card?

Oates: I’ve had it since last Wednesday (laughs). I actually felt the need for it, which is why I got it. I didn’t feel like I needed it before then. I wasn’t a frequent smoker. But given recent events it felt necessary. Medically. Honestly. So.

MJ: I hear that releasing a potentially viral video about pot cards can be stressful.

Oates: Exactly! 

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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