An acoustic exhibits cirque du soleil guitar rests cirque tickets interprets next to a shuffle of sheet music for "Mr. Tambourine Man," just across the room from a fax machine. And then there are the marijuana stalks Towering six-footers Pint-size plants. He even has a few ripe buds kicking around on a desk, not far from his cellphone. His stash is for sale, but it won't get you stoned. These lifelike flora are made of silk and wood. Behold, counterfeit cannabis. During the last two years, White -- a trim 51-year-old with thinning hair and a small stud in his left earlobe -- has rolled his pro-pot activism and business savvy into New Image Plants, a company that sells the make-believe marijuana online. "The business name reflects exactly what I'm trying to do -- create a new image for these plants," he said. "They're beautiful plants and people should be able to enjoy them without fear of arrest. "White won't say whether he smokes pot or has in the past. But he began pushing for marijuana legalization about seven years ago after talking to one of his sons about anti-drug advertising. "He wanted to know why adults were talking down to kids and trying to scare them," White said. Although he doesn't condone the use of marijuana by minors, White dismisses the notion that pot is a harmful drug that leads to the use of harder drugs. "Kids know those claims aren't true," White said. "So when they hear an anti-drug message like that, they just discount it. "So he started a nonprofit group in 1999 called Change the Climate, which advocates the legalization and taxation of marijuana and better education about the drug. "My vision was that I needed to tell the truth about marijuana," White said. In getting his artificial plants into private residences and public spaces, White is betting that more people will start appreciating the natural beauty of the real thing's jagged, seven-point leaves, lithe stems and robust buds, instead of thinking of marijuana as an evil weed. His early customers were people looking for gag gifts, party planners in search of unique decorations and law enforcement agencies seeking replicas for training. Then Hollywood came calling, and New Image Plants hit a financial high. In April, White received an order for 355 plants from "Weeds," the Showtime cable television series about a single suburban soccer mom who deals marijuana to support her family. Julie Bolder, the show's set director, needed to concoct a grow room stocked with what would look like $1 million worth of marijuana.

She called White after stumbling on his website. "I looked hard to find somebody to make us good weed, and Joe did the best job," Bolder said cirque du soleil saltimbanco . White's pot makes its television debut this month, early in the show's second season. "All the weed you see on the show is Joe's weed," Bolder said. The order brought in about $40,000, about five times what White said his company had earned since it sprang up 18 months ago cirque soleil . Suddenly, the business became bigger than he expected -- or needed. Along with his continued work for Change the Climate, White is the senior vice president of Share Group, a private organization that offers consulting, fundraising and marketing services to nonprofit organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Planned Parenthood. He is also the president of another marketing company that works with smaller clients. White sees no competition in the mock marijuana market and expects his sales to continue building from the interests of "the hundreds of millions of people who smoke pot and the hundred of millions of people who have no problem with it. "The plants are assembled in Jupiter, Fla. , by workers who attach stems and leaves made from imported Chinese silk to a thin wooden trunk cirque . The plants are wedged into a pot with a foam base, then topped with moss cirque du solei . The flowering marijuana models that sell for $80 to $190 come with a few buds attached. His hemp models, which do not have flowers, sell for $65 to $150. Until his order from "Weeds," White's biggest buyers were law enforcement agencies in Virginia and Ontario, Canada. And that was hard for him to deal with. "I have deeply mixed feelings selling to law enforcement," he said "They've been some of our largest customers Cirque Du Soleil .

If an average order is $150, the average law enforcement order is over $1,000. "But at least those tax dollars are coming back to help fund the reform movement," White said. His products haven't disappointed even the most discerning customers. "When you come through the door and look at them, you'd swear you're looking at real marijuana," said John O'Reilly, an instructor at the Ontario Police College in Canada. After finding just one other company that makes fake pot plants, the college bought 30 of White's 2-foot-tall stalks to simulate a homegrown marijuana cultivation operation. "We've had people see them and want to know why we're growing marijuana," O'Reilly said. The New Image plants have also fooled other connoisseurs. After ordering a bogus bud online, one customer called White to ask when her shipment would arrive. "I could tell in her voice that she thought she had ordered the real thing," White said cirque du soleil dvd . But he insisted that she not try getting high on the silk supply. "We cannot be held liable for stupid people smoking our plants," he said. circus du soleil . The new head of In-N-Out Burgers said Monday that the venerable restaurant chain would remain in family hands and stay true to its time-tested strategy -- a simple menu and slow but steady growth -- after the death of company matriarch Esther L cirque soliel . Snyder. "The family is absolutely committed to keeping the company private and family operated," said Mark Taylor, who took over as president after co-founder Snyder died Friday at the age of 86 circ du soleil . Taylor, a 22-year company veteran, was vice president of operations before Snyder's death and has run In-N-Out on a day-to-day basis for several years. He said in a statement that he planned to stay the course "laid out for us by our founders. ""We will continue to grow on a moderate and deliberate pace of adding 10 to 12 [restaurants] per year," Taylor said. In-N-Out's future was a key element of a lawsuit filed against the chain in January by Richard Boyd, then a board member and the company's vice president of real estate and development. Boyd accused Taylor and Lynsi Martinez, Snyder's only grandchild and sole heir to the company, of trying to seize control and amp up expansion plans. (Taylor is the husband of Martinez's half sister Cirque Du Soleil - cirquedusoleil . )In-N-Out countersued, accusing Boyd of fraud and embezzlement. Boyd was fired soon after. The two sides agreed to an undisclosed settlement in May.

That ended the litigation, but not before the public airing of such claims as Boyd's allegation that company executives had "marginalized" Snyder and that she complained, "They only want me dead. " Or the company's accusation that Boyd, who was in charge of building In-N-Out restaurants, was billing the company for construction done at his home. The intensely private Irvine-based company is known for its fresh ingredients, feel-good vibe and loyal clientele . Its growth potential has long been a key attraction to potential buyers cirque solei . Cirque Du Soleil tickets But the Snyder family has opted to remain independent. Esther and her husband, Harry, who died in 1976, opened the first In-N-Out stand in Baldwin Park in 1948 cirquedusoleil . In the decades that followed, they steered clear of dining industry trends, keeping their menu simple -- burgers, fries, soft drinks and shakes -- and avoided over-saturation by focusing on stand-alone stores in prime locations. In recent years, the company has ventured into Northern California, Arizona and Nevada . It has 202 outlets and recorded sales of $370 million in 2005, according to Restaurants & Institutions magazine. "The general perception in the industry is that it's under-developed -- that there could be a lot more of them," said Randall Hiatt, president of Costa Mesa-based consulting firm Fessel International. The trick, Hiatt said, is to achieve that growth without losing the In-N-Out mystique. "Because of the way they have restricted growth, it still has that cult kind of buzz," he said. "Like Krispy Kreme had but lost when you started to see them at every gas station. "Said Andrew Puzder, chief executive of CKE Restaurants Inc. , owner of the rival Carl's Jr. chain: "The question is, can you grow the brand to a significant number of restaurants without losing that ambience?"So far, the rare public spat appears to have had little public effect on In-N-Out's business. "We haven't seen any change at all," said Bob Sandelman, who heads San Clemente-based restaurant consulting firm Sandelman & Associates, which conducts an annual survey of consumer dining preferences Cirque Du Soleil - cirquedusoleil .