Free Republic

#6. There's a Whole Industry Dedicated to Just Making Weed Pretty #5. The "Safe, All-Natural Drug" Could Actually Be Full of Serious Toxins #4. Weed Can Be Fairly Dangerous to Handle #3. Even Where It's Legal, It's Not Legal #2. The Legal Pot Industry Is Hurting the Environment #1. The Growers Don't Want It to Be Legal

Since Colorado voters legalized pot in 2012, prohibition supporters have warned that recreational marijuana will lead to a scourge of “drugged divers” on the state’s roads. They often point out that when the state legalized medical marijuana in 2001, there was a surge in drivers found to have smoked pot. They also point to studies showing that in other states that have legalized pot for medical purposes, we’ve seen an increase in the number of drivers testing positive for the drug who were involved in fatal car accidents. The anti-pot group SAM recently pointed out that even before the first...

Marijuana joined roses and dahlias Friday in blue ribbon events at the nation’s first county fair to allow pot competitions. This weekend’s Denver County Fair includes a 21-and-over “Pot Pavilion” where winning entries for plants, bongs, edible treats and clothes made from hemp are on display. Organizers say the marijuana categories this year — which come with the debut of legal recreational marijuana in Colorado — add a fun twist on Denver’s already-quirky county fair, which includes a drag queen pageant and a contest for dioramas made with Peeps candies. “We’ve been selling tickets to people from all over the...

WICHITA, Kan. — The Sedgwick County District Attorney is alleging that a foster father was high while a baby was left in a hot car last week. She later died. Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett read the allegations during a bond reduction hearing for Seth Jackson on Friday afternoon. Bennett said that Jackson had run out of marijuana on the morning of July 24. That afternoon, he reportedly took two children to meet with his drug dealer where he bought more. When he got home, Bennett said he left the 10-month-old girl in the car, went inside and smoked...

Urban Outfitters Pinpoints Hairroin Salons With Free Hypodermic Pens Urban Outfitters has teamed up with the NYC Hairroin Salon in glamorizing drug use at a time when heroin has devastated the city. Pinpointing Hairroin Salons in their stores that give away free hypodermic needle pens, it’s clear that Urban Outfitters has failed to learn their lesson. After previously pulling shot glasses designed as prescription medication bottles from its shelves after an uproar, the teen-focused store has actually teamed up with a hair salon with the name Hairroin in its latest New York City location. The so-called cutting edge salon glamorizes...

CLENDENIN, WV - A man is in jail after telling police that he snorted Hydrocodone tablets inside a vehicle that had three toddlers in it in Clendenin, West Virginia, in Kanawha County. According to a criminal complaint issued by the Kanawha County Magistrate Court, 33-year-old Ronald Adkins was arrested and charged with child neglect creating risk of injury. The complaint says that police observed a vehicle at the intersection of Elk River Road and Beech Street in Clendenin on Tuesday, July 15. After police went towards the vehicle, they found it had three women, three men, and three toddlers inside...

Given the link between alcohol consumption during pregnancy and birth defects, should expectant mothers who drink be arrested for assault? If not, it is hard to see why Mallory Loyola is in jail. Loyola, who was arrested last week after giving birth to a baby girl who tested positive for amphetamine, is the first woman to be charged under a new Tennessee law that criminalizes drug consumption by pregnant women. The law, ostensibly aimed at protecting children, is really about punishing what its chief sponsor described as "the worst of the worst": women who not only use arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants...

Mike Boyer, 30, was canned Tuesday after waiting 20 hours to buy pot and immediately going home to smoke. He was called up for urine analysis after he was spotted on TV buying the pot. Boyer told The News he 'regrets nothing.'His high was quickly brought low. A Spokane, Wash. man was fired from his job as a security guard the same day he became the first person to legally buy weed in the city Tuesday. “I don’t regret it,” Mike Boyer told the Daily News Wednesday. “I’m sad it happened but I got the title: I’m No. 1. I...

Veteran marijuana activist Douglas Hiatt, right, says Washington's Initiative 502 establishes a "Soviet style" market for marijuana and won't work. “You’re going to have people selling grams of pot for $25? What, are you kidding me?” Hiatt says. “You can get the best pot you have ever smoked for 10 bucks a gram at a [medical marijuana] dispensary or from someone else who's going to give you a better deal than the state.” There’s no way they are going to eliminate the black market with something that’s totally unresponsive to a market at all,” Hiatt says. "You're going to see...

DENVER, July 9 (UPI) --President Obama turned down a hit of marijuana during a visit to a Denver bar with Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper. The man who offered the president some weed posted video on Instagram to document his story. The presidential motorcade also passed two people holding up signs offering Obama free marijuana but did not stop. During his evening out, Obama also ate at a pizzeria with several people who had written him letters.

(CNN) — Some Colorado marijuana sellers are challenging Uncle Sam. They’re filing a lawsuit — saying the IRS shouldn’t be allowed to collect taxes on marijuana sales because marijuana is illegal under federal law. Attorney Rob Corry says forcing Colorado’s recreational marijuana businesses to pay violates the United States Constitution. He has filed a lawsuit in District Court on behalf of clients, some of whom say taxes could be used as evidence in any future prosecution. “They’re open records and they are admitting to a federal crime. It’s still a federal crime to sell marijuana,” Corry said.

Maureen Dowd travelled to Colorado in January, ate a bit too much of a marijuana-laced chocolate bar and proceeded to have a Valley-of-the-Dolls-style meltdown in her hotel room. Here's how she describes the experience in her Wednesday New York Times column: "I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn't move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the...

A small fire at a West Berkeley business Tuesday, which sent a man to a San Francisco burn center for treatment, appears to have been caused by what police described Wednesday as “a hashish production operation.” Scant information was available from authorities, but officer Jennifer Coats, Berkeley Police spokeswoman, said that officers who responded to the fire Tuesday found an illegal marijuana grow and hashish production operation on-site.

Rep. Jared Polis will gladly visit a marijuana dispensary in his home state of Colorado. He’ll stand in a fluorescent-lit room with hundreds of skunky plants, discuss the different types of high someone gets from Willie’s Wonder versus Super Lemon Haze (one’s a “creative upper,” the other “uplifting and euphoric”) and ruminate on the local ban on edibles. Just don’t try to take his picture in the grow room. “It’s like, that could go viral,” Polis says, leaving Choice Organics in Fort Collins. “I don’t shy away from the issue; we talk about it, whatever. But the problem is, we...

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Just back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol -- and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign. He said the next race is "an opportune time" for an independent...

ust back from his part-time home in Mexico, former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura dangled the idea Friday that he could run for the U.S. presidency in 2016. Ventura eagerly volunteered the possibility while at Minnesota's Capitol - and pushed back against skepticism that he would re-enter the political fray after being out of office since 2003. It's hardly the first time the publicity savvy Ventura has broached the idea he would run for the White House or Senate, only to pass on a campaign. He said the next race is "an opportune time" for an independent like him to run...

BETHANY NICOLE WILLIAMS, 24 years old of Flippin, called the Detention Center several hours after being released saying she had left a small container in her jail uniform when she was booked out and wanted to retrieve it. Jail staff searched the uniform BETHANY WILLIAMS had been wearing. They found a small plastic container in one of the pockets. This container had inside of it eight (8) white pills identified as Trazadone and one clear rock substance that tested positive for methamphetamine. BETHANY WILLIAMS returned to the Detention Center on May 20th at approximately 3:30 PM to retrieve the container....

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Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson said Monday he thinks President Barack Obama will defeat Mitt Romney to win a second term. “I think Obama’s going to win, that’s what I think,” Johnson told POLITICO in an interview. “[My vote is] really spread out, meaning I don’t think there’s any state that I’m going to do better than another.” Johnson, who’s on the ballot in 48 states and the District of Columbia, hovers in single digits in the polls. The former two-term New Mexico governor declined to single out any state where he expected to do particularly well but said...