Free Republic

The proof is in the pee. A federally funded study has confirmed, not surprisingly, that marijuana use went up in Washington state after its first legal pot stores opened in 2014. In fact, consumption appeared to double, at least in one major city, over three years — a conclusion scientists reached by way of the unglamorous work of analyzing raw sewage. “It’s stinky,” said lead author Dan Burgard, a chemist at the University of Puget Sound. “But we’ve worked with urine, we’ve worked with wastewater, and we’ve worked with port-a-potties. It’s not as bad a port-a-potties.” The research entailed driving...

The returns are in on Colorado’s decision to legalize marijuana: (1) Large amounts of money are being made thanks to legalization, privately and by the state; (2) “horrible things are happening to kids.” The quotation is from psychiatrist Libby Stuyt. She treats teens in southwestern Colorado and has studied the health effects of high-potency marijuana. Stuyt says: “I see increased problems with psychosis, with addiction, with suicide, with depression and anxiety” stemming from legalization in the state. Stuyt’s report won’t surprise anyone who has read Alex Berensen’s book Tell Your Children, which I discussed here. Berensen noted that over the...

The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana are starting to grapple with teenagers' growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales. Though the legal purchase age is 21 in Colorado and Washington, parents, educators and physicians say youths are easily getting hold of edibles infused with tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the psychoactive component that causes a high, and concentrates such as "shatter," a brittle, honey-colored substance that is heated and then inhaled through a special device. Each poses serious risks to adolescents' physical and mental health. "Underage kids...

(CNN) — Starting in 2020, Nevada employers cannot refuse to hire a job applicant for failing a marijuana screening test, making it the first state to pass such a law.....

A bill to legalize recreational marijauna in Illinois needs only the signature of Gov. J.B. Pritzker to become law. Colorado has had legal recreational marijuana since 2014. The Colorado Division of Criminal Justice last year came out with an analysis of the effects of the state's legalization of retail sales of marijuana since it went into effect in 2014. It found teen use had not increased, but hospital visits and fatal accidents associated with marijuana use increased. The authors cautioned that many factors can influence the statistics in the report, including people's willingness to admit marijuana use now that it's...

Most of all, advocates have told you that marijuana is not just safe for people with psychiatric problems like depression, but that it is a potential treatment for those patients. On its website, the cannabis delivery service Eaze offers the “Best Marijuana Strains and Products for Treating Anxiety.” “How Does Cannabis Help Depression?” is the topic of an article on Leafly, the largest cannabis website. But a mountain of peer-reviewed research in top medical journals shows that marijuana can cause or worsen severe mental illness, especially psychosis, the medical term for a break from reality. Teenagers who smoke marijuana regularly...

Cannabis businesses owe millions in overdue taxes to the Oregon Department of Revenue. The latest numbers show 176 businesses owe a total of $15.7 million. . . . The Oregon Department of Revenue says the top 10 businesses with outstanding balances owe more than $600,000 each.The problem is getting worse. Since July the total owed to the state has gone up by $3 million. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission says it does not have the ability to immediately pull licenses like its counterparts in Washington and Colorado. That's because the tax money is collected by the Department of Revenue and...

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer threw down the gauntlet on Thursday for Michigan residents who are both sick of the state’s abysmal road conditions, and also not nearly high enough.“At its height, the taxes for marijuana will raise about $42 million dollar per year for infrastructure. We have a $2.5 billion dollar problem,” Whitmer said at the Mackinac Policy Conference, referencing the state’s 10% excise tax on its newly legalized recreational weed industry—a portion of which is allotted for infrastructure repairs. After explaining that she gets asked about using marijuana funds to fix the roads so often, she ordered her staff to crunch...

Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed, that if growing it were to stop today, it would take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now the state is planning to curb production. Five years after Oregon legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers have given the Oregon Liquor Control Commission more leeway to deny new pot-growing licenses, based on supply and demand.

About one in five Canadian adolescents uses cannabis and its recent legalization across the country warrants investigation into the consequence of this use on the developing brain. Cannabis use was linked to impairments in working memory and inhibitory control, which is required for self-control. Cannabis use was also linked to deficits in memory recall and perceptual reasoning. Alcohol use was not linked to impairments in these cognitive functions, suggesting cannabis could have more long-term effects than alcohol. Adolescent exposure to THC induces changes in specific a region of the brain called the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and in a brain circuit,...

A meme posted to Facebook claimed that “nearly every state that has legalized [marijuana] has also legislated that you lose your right to own a gun if you are prescribed it, or buy it recreationally.”“Pot legalization is turning out to be a back-door way for the government to get you to voluntarily give up your gun rights,” reads the image.

Both groups were surveyed on a host of factors, including their use of marijuana and other drugs. The study’s authors concluded that “people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times."

HOUSTON, Texas — The Drug Enforcement Administration in Houston is looking for a contractor to burn 1,000 pounds of marijuana per hour through September. The DEA’s posting says the contractor would need to have enough space and resources to burn the marijuana for eight consecutive hours per day. The burns are needed to reduce unneeded evidence from the DEA’s inventory. The incinerator must burn 1,000 pounds of marijuana per hour, which would be delivered in “bales” or “bricks,” each weighing up to 200 pounds. DEA agents would accompany the contractor during the burns, and all employees would receive drug tests...

Alex Berenson .. people who think marijuana is medicine and a safe alternative to alcohol are fooling themselves... The industry’s money and political influence, along with the media’s acquiescence, have obscured the scientific links between marijuana and mental illness... “The problems are real and right in front of people,” he told a crowd at the History Colorado Center in Denver on Wednesday. It was his third Colorado talk in two days to discuss his new book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.” “It’s like we all need glasses. ... The connection to psychosis is real.”...

TALLAHASSEE - Without much debate and two days before Gov. Ron DeSantis’ deadline, a bill to repeal a ban on smoking medical marijuana has finally rolled onto the governor’s desk. The Florida House affirmed the right to smoke medical pot Wednesday afternoon, approving the Senate bill to include “smoking” to the language in the medical marijuana constitutional amendment. The bill allows patients to receive up to 2.5 ounces of whole flower cannabis every 35 days as recommended by their qualified doctor. The bill passed 101-11. Seven representatives were not present for the vote. DeSantis in January tasked the Legislature with...

<p>Maybe this is why Gregory and Marcia Abbott allegedly bought their daughter’s way into college.</p> <p>Their “rapper” son, Malcolm, popped out of the family’s Park Avenue building to smoke a giant blunt — while defending his parents and bragging about his latest CD.</p>

A Salisbury University student has been charged with illegal wiretapping after prosecutors said he streamed a meeting with a congressional staffer for Maryland Rep. Andy Harris via Facebook Live without permission. Jake Burdett, 20, was charged last week with two felony counts of making an illegal recording and distributing the video filmed during a Maryland Marijuana Justice rally at Harris’s Salisbury office in October, the state prosecutor’s office announced Thursday. Marijuana legalization protesters have long tangled with Harris, who in 2014 worked to block full legalization of the drug in the District of Columbia. A protest outside the Republican’s Capitol...

Ten states and Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Twenty-two other states, along with U.S. territories Puerto Rico and Guam, allow marijuana to be used for medical purposes. Let’s examine some hidden issues about marijuana use. Before we start, permit me to state my values about medical or recreational use of any drug. We each own ourselves. If we choose to take chances with substances that can ruin our health, lead to death and otherwise destroy our own lives, that’s our right. But we do not have a right to harm others in the process of harming...

Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., said in a new interview that she supports the legalization of marijuana — admitting that she has used it herself, and unlike Bill Clinton, she inhaled. “I did inhale,” Harris said, laughing, during a discussion posted Monday by “The Breakfast Club” on New York’s 105.1 FM. “It was a long time ago, but yes. I just broke news!” “Listen, I think [it] gives a lot of people joy,” she added. “And we need more joy.” Harris, a candidate for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, looked to dispel a rumor raised by co-host Charlamagne tha God that...

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., introduced a bill on Friday to decriminalize marijuana and allow for it to be taxed and regulated. The bill is titled S. 420, in a reference to marijuana culture. The proposal, identical to a bill in the House, aims to ease the longstanding conflict between states where cannabis is legal in some form and the U.S. government, which categorizes marijuana as a dangerous illegal drug, similar to LSD or heroin. The American Civil Liberties Union estimates that around half of all drug arrests are for marijuana possession. Many politicians have framed legalization as a criminal justice...