1. History of 4/20 with comparison to current event.
2. Resources = Sites, Facebook, Twitter feeds, etc.
3. Video interview, or day-in-the-life, of someone who works at or owns a MMJ dispensary. I think many people who do not have their medical marijuana cards or who have never been inside of a dispensary (like myself) would not know what it's like to work in or be in one of those facilities. I'm not sure how friendly they will be to having a student journalist with a camera in their dispensary, but if so, I think it's a great opportunity. An interactive map of the dispensaries, as far as infographics go that would be fairly interesting, and would have information about the medical marijuana presence in Boulder.
4. Do an interview with Boulder Police and ask them about what type of impact 4-20 has on the community, if there is more violence or more crime in general, and how have the MMJ dispensaries impacted Boulder more broadly other than just for 4-20.
5. Go to the psychological/substance abuse services on campus or in the community and try to do an investigative piece on the real affect of marijuana on individuals. Is it really a "gateway" drug? Maybe we could do some sort of animation or interactive diagram of what weed does to the brain.
6. A historical look at the prohibition of marijuana in the United States. What were the reasons why marijuana became such a taboo, as opposed to cigarettes and alcohol?
7. Do something with the fast food restaurants that are near campus? I’ve seen some of them at about 5 p.m. and they are packed. Do they ever run out of food? What is the most ridiculous order they’ve ever gotten?
8. we should either set up a Facebook or Twitter account and use crowd sourcing to see what other people around the country would like to see covered in terms of 4/20.
9. We could have a section of the Web site dedicated to pictures of celebrities/well-know figures smoking on 4/20.
10. We could post a debate between two of our classmates on the pros and cons of the 4/20 event.
11. We link to other 420 celebrations around the world!
12. How about a how-to guide? FAQ? How to use a pipe, and the different kinds there are to use. There are definite physics that go into the smoking process, yeah? Carbing? Huh? In other words, give the first-time smokers an idea of what to do.
13. Take a look at NORML at CU. A bunch of pot promoters, perhaps, but maybe they have some serious input, at least as far as the legalization process goes. It’s important to look at the intelligent argument about marijuana, especially when it’s coming from students.
14. An in-depth look at the history of marijuana, from it’s discovery to current legislation surrounding its use as a medicine.
15. A multi-media slide show of anti-marijuana/ anti-4/20 individuals and businesses in the Boulder area, with audio of their opinions and images of them, protesters, etc.
16. Arrest/incident statistics over the years. Thanks to Kaely’s story I know that the current administration has focused on communicating that 4/20 is not a university sanctioned event, and that they are not out to “bust” people because of the dangers that could come of a confrontation in a crowd that size. But what do the arrest numbers look like? Have they gone up or down, etc.
17. Traveling for 4/20- 4/20 attracts thousands of people to Boulder for the day from places ranging from other Colorado towns to cities across the country. It would be interesting to look into the travel portion of 4/20 by talking with taxi services, RTD bus drivers, shuttles to and from airports, etc. to determine trends in travel surrounding 4/20. We could interview specific bus drivers about the days leading up to, the day of and the days after 4/20 and how they differ from an average day. We could find travelers from different cities/states and create an interactive map of their hometowns, which when clicked upon provide a short blurb about the person and perhaps leads to a small video interview.
18. Safety/Accident Info - A large crowd of people most times attracts accidents and because of the somewhat distorted state of the majority of this crowd, accidents may be bound to happen. Another angle we could approach is the accident/safety side of 4/20. We could gather information from hospitals as to how they go about preparing for the event, common accidents they see on 4/20 (if any), any out of the ordinary experiences they have had in the past, etc.
