DIME BAGHDAD

Man, the news from Iraq is, like, a major bummer. Read the mainstream press and all you get is bombings, murders, uprisings, riots and hostages. Fortunately, one publication dares to print the news that won’t kill your buzz.

That publication is High Times, the marijuana magazine now celebrating its 30th anniversary. And the news is this: There’s plenty of weed in the new liberated Iraq.

“There are few laws in Iraq right now,” writes Dave Enders, High Times’ man in Baghdad, “so although drug possession was punishable by death before, you can now pass a spliff openly in front of the cops.”

Enders, a freelancer from Michigan, covers more than just the dope scene in Baghdad. He also writes about U.S. soldiers and the nutty do-gooders who have swarmed into Iraq and about Hamid, “a 26-year-old translator/bodyguard/heavy-metal fan.” Hamid was an Iraqi soldier until he deliberately shot himself in the leg to avoid fighting the Americans; he now smokes weed and writes protest lyrics set to the tune of “The Wall” by Pink Floyd: “We don’t need no occupation/ We don’t need no CPA. ...”

I'm sure Hamid's mother is proud...

Meanwhile Hamid is apparently happy to bite the hand that weeds him.