Free Republic

In the first two parts of this series, I explained the comparative dangers and health risks of alcohol and marijuana. To elevate one over the other is like saying a plain doughnut isn't so bad as a glazed one. The point is that neither of the drugs is good for us or our culture. We examined both of their addictive natures, the withdrawal symptoms and the hazards they create when those using them operate motor vehicles. We then looked at what science has concluded about their effects on our minds, bodies and relationships. (Of course, there are many other arenas...

A Texas teenager set his mother’s clothes ablaze after the woman refused to provide him money to purchase marijuana, authorities said. The Harris County Fire Marshall’s Office said John Carter, 18, started setting his mom’s wardrobe on fire after she declined to give him money for drugs. “Our investigation found that 18-year-old John Carter was angry at his mother because she would not give him money so he could buy marijuana, so he started setting her clothes on fire,” Lt. Dean Hensley with the Harris County Fire Marshal Office told KTRK.

You knew it was coming.With the legalization of pot in Colorado and other states, it has been discovered that over the past few months, purchases of marijuana in pot dispensaries have been paid for with cash from welfare benefits. The purchase of marijuana is strictly a cash business so it was obvious that ATM machines should be made available inside the dispensaries for easy access to money.That’s fine except that there is no distinction between a credit/debit card and an EBT card. Taxpayers have given this money to people that are “in need of assistance”, not to people who need...

There are things you expect to see at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and there are things you don't. One of the things you probably don't is an audience cheering and applauding arguments for legalizing pot and bemoaning the war on drugs. A panel titled "Rocky Mountain High" held Thursday afternoon started out as a debate between Mary Katherine Ham of Fox and Hot Air and Christopher Beach a staffer for former Drug Czar William Bennett's radio show. But as the debate wore on it became clear the real disagreement was between Beach and the overwhelming majority of the...

SEATTLE — More drivers tested positive for marijuana in Washington in 2013 -- the first full year after the state legalized pot -- but officials so far say there's been no obvious, corresponding jump in car accidents. The Washington State Patrol says 1,362 drivers tested positive for having active marijuana in their system -- a jump of just under 25 percent from the year before, even though the patrol had fewer troopers on the road and there was no overall rise in intoxicated driving arrests.

SONORA (CBS SF) — Three third-grade students at a Sonora elementary school were busted for smoking pot in the school’s bathroom last week. Two 8-year-olds and a 9-year-old were caught by another student, who immediately informed school administrators. Those officials then alerted local police. The students were questioned by officers, and later released to their parents on February 27th. Sonora Elementary School Principal Chris Boyles would not speak with CBS SF regarding the case, but Superintendent Leigh Shampain confirmed that the students were caught smoking marijuana in the school’s bathroom. He would not discuss how the students might be disciplined.

Consuming marijuana in a private home will no longer be a criminal offense in the nation’s capital under a measure that passed the D.C. Council on Tuesday and that instantly escalated a simmering national debate over loosening marijuana laws. Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) intends to sign the measure, a spokesman said, putting District drug law in conflict with federal law. The signed measure will go to Congress, which has veto authority over D.C. laws but has organized to override only three times since 1979. National advocates for marijuana legalization celebrated the 10 to 1 vote by the D.C. Council,...

Democrat Governor Jerry Brown opposed marijuana legalization during an interview on Meet the Press Sunday. By advertising and codifying the drug, Brown feared its acceptance and use could lead to a less alert and less competitive population. The problem with anything, a certain amount is okay. But there is a tendency to go to extremes. And all of a sudden, if there's advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world's pretty dangerous, very competitive. I think we need to stay alert, if not 24 hours a day,...

A few weeks ago, I began to show from extensive studies and evidence how alcohol use and marijuana use compare in terms of addiction, withdrawal and using motorized vehicles. This week, I will discuss in greater detail how alcohol and marijuana compare in their effects on our minds, bodies and relationships. And then I want to conclude by addressing the most overlooked aspect of the marijuana legalization debate: its effects on the youth of America. CNN recently reported on multiple studies on alcohol and marijuana use. Of course, we know that long-term drinking can lead to neurological and psychiatric problems,...

Today MarijuanaDoctors.com began airing a television commercial that looks to be the first ever marijuana commercial on a "Major Network". The spot began airing in New Jersey and is believed to be the first time that any major television network in the U.S. has allowed a commercial addressing the controversial subject matter and advertising the first ever medical marijuana service. The commercial will be on the COMCAST system and the networks that will air the commercial include: A&E, AMC, FOX, CNBC, CNN, COMEDY CENTRAL BRAVO, DISCOVERY, ESPN, FX, FOOD NETWORK, HGTV, HISTORY, and several others. With Comcast considered the largest...

LANDIS — A Rowan County school bus driver remains in jail today after Landis Police say he allowed students to smoke marijuana on the bus. Police say it wasn’t the first time he allowed students to smoke on the bus. Brian Davis Overcash, 30, was charged with four counts of misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The incident occurred Feb. 20 after Corriher-Lipe Middle School assistant Principal Matt Krome contacted authorities. Krome told officers with the Landis Police Department that Overcash, who drove bus No. 162, told the assistant principal that several students were on the bus smoking...

While Drug Enforcement Administration agents in California are cracking down on the popular new drug known as “wax,” people in Colorado are rushing to embrace it. Wax, the ultimate distillation of marijuana, is so potent that it is said a single hit will keep a person high for more than a day. “There is no weed out there that possesses the punching power that the wax does,” an undercover DEA informant who asked to remain anonymous told ABC News’ “Nightline.” “And it’s like smoking 20 joints of the best grade of weed that you have into one hit of the...

A legal Rocky Mountain high Marijuana, still illegal under federal law, is now at the center of a thriving industry that’s attracting a new breed of entrepreneurs, as Colorado becomes the first state to allow the sale of pot for recreational use. Colorado made history as the first state in the U.S. to legalize marijuana for recreational use. NBC News correspondent Harry Smith tells the story behind this stunning development, which has been called one of the great social experiments of the next century. Premieres Wednesday, February 26th at 10p on CNBC TV

DENVER (AP) – A southern Colorado county with two recreational marijuana stores has become the first in the state to announce tax totals from the new industry. Pueblo County finance authorities announced Monday that its two shops had about $1 million in total sales in January, producing about $56,000 in local sales taxes. ... snip ...

The study draws its conclusions from statistics on more than 23,500 drivers who died within one hour of a crash between 1999 and 2010. The toxicology tests were performed on victims from six states including: California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and West Virginia. While alcohol related traffic fatalities remained steady at 40% throughout the decade, drug related deaths soared from 16% in 1999 to a whopping 28% in 2010. Significantly, the study cites marijuana use as the leading culprit for the swelling number of drug related traffic deaths, contributing to 12 percent of 2010 crashes. This represents a...

Marijuana can be deadly, according to German researchers who claim to have discovered the first deaths caused by cannabis. The researchers in Düsseldorf, North-Rhine Westphalia, have been investigating cannabis-related deaths since 2001 and performed post-mortem examinations on 15 people whose deaths were linked to the drug. […] Benno Hartung from the University Hospital in Düsseldorf said he and his colleagues performed autopsies and toxicological tests to rule out other causes of death such as liver disease and alcohol use. …

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Police say some of the merchandise at a medical marijuana dispensary in South Los Angeles went up in smoke Monday morning after someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window. The fire bomb went through the glass of a dispensary in the 5300 block of South Hoover Street at about 3 a.m., Los Angeles police Sgt. Rick Rodgers said.

All the buzz at the National Governors Association meeting over legalizing pot, some say, is just smoke. Nearly three months after Colorado began selling recreational marijuana, the nation’s governors are taking a cautious approach to loosening their drug laws despite growing support for legalization. Republican and Democratic state chief executives meeting in Washington this weekend expressed broad concern for children and public safety should recreational marijuana use spread. At the same time, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is warning other governors against rushing to follow his lead. …

RICHLAND, WA-- A Richland medical marijuana patient recently applied for a Concealed Pistol License, but was denied by police. Medical marijuana is legal under Washington state law, but the federal government won't make an exception for that when it comes to getting a Concealed Pistol License. Richland police sent the medical marijuana patient a letter stating that federal law prohibits anyone who uses a controlled substance from "shipping, transporting, receiving or possessing firearms or ammunition." And even if marijuana is legal here, it's still illegal at the federal level. When anyone applies for a concealed weapons permit with Richland police,...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)DENVER — Colorado welfare recipients are using ATMs located inside marijuana retail shops to withdraw cash. The money was given to them by taxpayers to help their families survive, but an exclusive Fox31 Denver investigation found some cash benefits most likely going toward marijuana purchases. FOX31 Denver asked the Colorado Department of Human Services for its “Quest card” database of Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cash transactions for the month of January, 2014. That is the first month in which Colorado marijuana dispensaries were regulated and open for recreational sales. The FOX31 Denver investigative team matched the addresses of EBT cash...

SUGARCREEK, Pa. —An act of charity may end badly for one donor to a Pennsylvania Salvation Army outlet. Sugarcreek Borough police say they were called when workers found a large plastic bag of marijuana among some donated clothes. Police Chief Matt Carlson tells the (Oil City) Derrick (http://bit.ly/1gnLZm2 ) he suspects the owner of the drugs has noticed them missing by now, if only because the bag contained a "substantial quantity" of pot. Police were working with store employees to determine who donated the clothes and when. Police say the drugs were found earlier this week.

Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes. The proposal outlines plans to spend some $99 million next fiscal year on substance abuse prevention, youth marijuana use prevention and other priorities. The money would come from a statewide 12.9 percent sales tax on recreational pot. Colorado’s total pot sales next fiscal year were estimated to be about $610 million. Retail sales began Jan. 1 in Colorado. Sales have been strong, though...

The transformation of America is proceeding apace this week, with the Obama Administration clearing the way for banks to legally get involved with drug dealers. The Justice Department and Treasury Department on Friday issued guidelines for banks and other financial service companies to get involved with marijuana growers and distributors in states where the drug is legal. Washington and Colorado in January became the first two states to completely legalize pot. Other states, such as California, have legalized "medicinal" marijuana. The new guidelines were intended to allow banks to serve pot distributors while still ensuring the legitimacy of the businesses...

But the U.S. government won’t let scientists try out this promising treatment on humans. On a warm summer day in Chicago at the International Cannabinoid Research Conference, hundreds of marijuana researchers were giggling. It wasn’t the groundbreaking research they’d just heard—proving the ability of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana, to stave off HIV (or RIV in monkeys)—that did it. Nor was it the author of the study, Dr. Patricia E. Molina, who had them laughing. It was the rogue researcher daring enough to taint the victory with a harsh dose of reality: “What’s next, testing this on...

DENVER — Bankers should beware of the Obama administration’s newly issued green light for banks doing business with the legal marijuana industry, according to the head of the Colorado Bankers Association. Memos released Friday by the Justice Department and Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network were intended to give banks leeway to open accounts for marijuana businesses in states like Colorado and Washington that have legalized retail pot. Instead, the guidance “only reinforces and reiterates that banks can be prosecuted for providing accounts to marijuana related businesses,” said the CBA in a Friday statement. “In fact, it is even stronger...

SEATTLE (AP) — For marijuana dispensaries around the country, the days of doing business in cash — driving around with bill-stuffed envelopes to pay the rent, or showing up at a state revenue office with $20,000 in paper bags for the tax man — can't end soon enough.

US regulators gave banks the green light to accept money from legal marijuana businesses but cautioned that they expected financial institutions to conduct “thorough due diligence” and report possible criminal activity. The guidance from the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and the Department of Justice is meant to tackle one of the biggest challenges for a growing industry that is legal in a score of states but prohibited by federal law. Banks have shied away from doing business with marijuana groups for fear of prosecution. Unable to make deposits or accept credit cards, many “cannabusinesses” operate entirely in cash,...

The Obama administration on Friday issued new law-enforcement guidelines aimed at encouraging banks to start doing business with state-licensed marijuana suppliers, like those in Colorado, even though such enterprises remain illegal under federal law. Administration officials said the policy shift seeks to address problems faced by newly licensed recreational marijuana retailers in Colorado, and medical cannabis dispensaries in other states, that must operate on a cash-only basis, without access to financial services or credit. It remained to be seen whether many banks would feel sufficiently assured by the new policy, which the Justice and Treasury departments outlined in writing to...

As promised, the Obama administration has now officially spoken on the matter of banks and pot dispensaries. According to a memo from the Justice Department, the Treasury will allow banks to accept accounts from marijuana shops. This announcement is meant to encourage banks to do business with legal state dealers, despite the fact that selling marijuana is still illegal under federal law. It's unclear whether banks will take this encouragement to heart. As Ryan J. Reilly at The Huffington Post explains, "The DOJ memo falls short of expressly protecting banks that work with state-compliant marijuana businesses from prosecution. It states...

Leftist lawmakers in Mexico City’s legislature introduced a bill Thursday that would legalize the sale of marijuana within the capital, expanding on a national law that already decriminalizes the possession by users of small amounts of pot throughout the country. It wasn’t immediately clear how wide support was for the idea within the local assembly, which is controlled by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, but Mayor Manuel Mancera backed the idea and the legislature is one of the most liberal in Mexico. It has previously legalized abortion and gay marriage.The ambitious plan is sure to create controversy in a country...

While it may be logical to view the “research university” as a hijacking of higher education, universities could, nonetheless, learn a thing or two from their research wing. Some universities have become so unintentionally comical that they are beyond satire. Nevertheless, those same universities are capable of churning out solid research. Consider Columbia. “Columbia University and Barnard College students filmed a feminist pornographic film in Columbia’s Butler Library to fight what they see as ‘gender tension’ at the school,” Katherine Timpf reported on Campus Reform, a Leadership Institute web site. “The NSFW film, titled ‘Initiatiøn,’ was filmed as a feminist...

The emergence of Twitter as a social media goliath has unleashed gossip and speculation as a media force. The long term consequences are unknowable, but in the meantime, with a far left president with a dicey past, it is producing some highly amusing results. Last night, President Obama explained to Bob Costas of NBC Sports why he wasn’t attending the Sochi Olympics, but the substance of what he had to say was lost in the controversy that erupted on Twitter over whether or not he was stoned. Yahoo writer Mike Oz took the high road, as would nearly any journalist,...

Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News. The researchers found that drugs played an increasing role in fatal traffic accidents. Drugged driving accounted for more than 28 percent of traffic deaths in 2010, which is 16 percent more than it was in 1999. The researchers also found that marijuana was the main drug involved in the increase. It contributed to 12 percent of fatal crashes, compared to only 4 percent in...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Enough petition signatures have been verified to place an initiative seeking to legalize marijuana on the ballot this summer in Alaska, election officials said Tuesday.

SEATTLE (CBS Seattle) – According to a recent study, fatal car crashes involving pot use have tripled in the U.S. “Currently, one of nine drivers involved in fatal crashes would test positive for marijuana,” Dr. Guohua Li, director of the Center for Injury Epidemiology and Prevention at Columbia, and co-author of the study told HealthDay News. Researchers from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health gathered data from six states – California, Hawaii, Illinois, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and West Virginia – that perform toxicology tests on drivers involved in fatal car accidents. This data included over 23,500 drivers that...

New York cops have just made 4 ARRESTS in connection with Philip Seymour Hoffman's death … Law enforcement sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ. Our sources tell us … police have obtained a search warrant and are currently on scene at a NY apt. We're told police are targeting two individuals who they believe sold PSH heroin. Sources say cops raided 3 units in the same building. Read more: http://www.tmz.com#ixzz2sS8X0iZL

President Obama may have raised expectations too high when he vowed last week to take unilateral action to get around Congress — since his speech he has been flooded with requests and complaints from some of his staunchest supporters wondering why he left their issues out of his executive to-do list. Immigrant rights advocates say he should have extended his existing non-deportation policy to cover all illegal immigrants, while marijuana advocates said he could follow through on his recent statements on pot by unilaterally taking the drug off the strictest tier of controlled substances. Gay rights groups said Mr. Obama...

For the past four months, Sarah Callaway has had to watch as her daughter Greylynn’s body has been wracked by uncontrollable spasms several times a day. “They don’t hurt her. But they scare her, and she cries. And you can’t do anything for her except comfort her,” said Callaway, a Chatsworth resident. “That’s the most frustrating part. I just say to her, ‘I’m sorry I can’t do anything for you. I’m sorry.’” When Greylynn was born six months ago, doctors diagnosed her with a brain malformation and gave her only weeks to live. She survived, but her condition has left...

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal tells CNN's Candy Crowley they are looking at lowering pot penalties in his state. Video at link.

Reports from the trickle of western visitors to North Korea consistently indicate that cannabis is actually widely tolerated in the Hermit Kingdom- in fact, it's not even considered a drug there. Travelers speak of pot growing wildly by the side of the road, sold, rolled, and smoked openly- right in the heart of the most repressive Stalinist regime on Earth... A recent visitor to the capitol Pyongyang said he went and purchased a substantial 'shopping bag' of the wacky tabacky at an open-stall vegetable market (at a rock-bottom price), no problem. There is simply exists no taboo around pot smoking in the DPRK- foreign businessmen say...

Through the course of thirty-five years of practicing psychology, I have come to believe that the key to happiness and success in life resides in the power of valuation. True valuation is the ability to recognize the most important value in every circumstance and to behave in order to actualize that value. The happiest people automatically recognize and act upon true values. Applied psychology has not fulfilled its potential to make the world a better place because it has not focused on the powers of valuation. America's happiness and success as a nation have resulted from the one-pointed emphasis on...

resident Obama says he opposes marijuana legalization but thinks Colorado and Washington should be able to try it. Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who sought to run against Obama in 2012 as a Republican presidential contender, takes the same position. You might call this policy federalism -- but not if you are Barack Obama. According to the president, he has the authority to enforce the federal ban on marijuana even in states that have legalized the drug. But he chooses not to exercise that authority, because he is curious to see how these experiments turn out. In an interview with The...

“In some ways I think the best thing that could have happened to the anti-legalization movement was legalization, because I think it shows people the ugly side,” said Kevin A. Sabet, a former drug policy adviser to President Obama and the executive director and co-founder, with Mr. Kennedy, of Smart Approaches to Marijuana. The group, founded last year, supports removing criminal penalties for using marijuana, but opposes full legalization, and is working with local organizations around the nation to challenge legalization.

Considering the way things are heading, should we now ask every person with whom we conduct business (especially medical professionals) if they use marijuana?

I understand the arguments for the legalization of marijuana: It can generate tax revenue. It can reduce illegal supply and demand. It can strip power from cartels and lessen crime across and at our borders. And it isn't so dangerous as other illegal drugs or alcohol. President Barack Obama even claimed one of those arguments when he recently told New Yorker Editor David Remnick, "As has been well-documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through...

Please enjoy my pithy posts from Facebook. They’re brilliant, or reasonably insightful, or at least not stupid in most cases. If a male politician found a sugar mommy to pay his way through school, and to accept and raise his children as her own without him, he wouldn't dare make heroic single daddy-hood the centerpiece of his identity and campaign. If he tried, the media would slaughter him. If he were a Republican, anyway. Liberals think people are too flawed to make it in life without paternalistic restraints and controls. Conservatives think people are too flawed to be trusted with...

Floridians will vote on medical marijuana come November, after a divided Florida Supreme Court ruled Monday that ballot language for a proposed constitutional amendment meets all legal requirements. If at least 60 percent of voters agree, Florida could become the first Southern state to legalize use of marijuana for health-related reasons.

With bartenders naming cocktails after Seahawks players, it’s no surprise a local pot grower has come up with a strain called “Beast Mode,” in tribute to Marshawn Lynch. “It’s extremely strong,” said Nate “Diggity” Johnson, owner of the Queen Anne Cannabis Club, which carries the strain named after the burly Seahawks running back. Most of the weed sold in Seattle medical-marijuana dispensaries has a THC content between 12 and 20 percent. An indica-dominant strain of the OG Kush family, Beast Mode has a THC content of 17.6, according to testing by Analytical 360, Johnson said.

TAMPA -- Some Florida Republicans fear, and some Democrats hope, that a November referendum on legalizing medical marijuana in Florida will drive young and liberal voters to the polls, helping Democratic candidates including gubernatorial challenger Charlie Crist. The initiative, still not certified for the November ballot, is generating charges of political motives from both sides. Some Republicans call it an expensive ploy by Crist's backers to help him win. "It is no coincidence that Charlie Crist's law partner and biggest supporter, John Morgan, is financing medical marijuana," said Gainesville-based GOP consultant Alex Patton. "It's a plan." Some Democrats, meanwhile, say...

The Florida Supreme Court has approved medical marijuana initiative for November ballot.