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Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk has smoked marijuana live on the web during a podcast with comedian Joe Rogan. Mr Rogan offered his guest the drug, which is legal in California, as the pair discussed tech innovation and the public's perception of Mr Musk. "I mean, it's legal, right?" asked the Tesla founder, before taking a drag on the joint. Last month, Mr Musk said he was not "on weed" when he tweeted about plans to make Tesla a private firm. The business leader made the comments in an interview with the New York Times. He also told the newspaper he...

The death of The Cranberries lead singer Dolores O’Riordan has been ruled a drowning due to alcohol intoxication by British authorities, an inquest at Westminster Coroner’s Court reportedly revealed on Thursday. O’Riordan was found dead on Jan. 15 in her hotel room at the London Hilton on Park Lane. According to the BBC, coroner Dr. Shirley Radcliffe said that O’Riordan was submerged in the bath at the time she was discovered in what was “a tragic accident.” There were no signs of injury or self-harm found during the post-mortem examination, the outlet reported. Authorities discovered a bottle of champagne and...

Nine states and the District of Columbia have now legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Is this a good thing? (Medicinal use is legal in 29 states.) With loosening standards, it is no surprise that marijuana use is up across the board. Last year, 14% of Americans – one in seven – used pot. Laws actually do make a difference here, as 20% of Americans used pot where it is legal while only 12% used pot where it is against the law. The old saying is that “the law is a teacher,” and this serves as an example.

Call it a buzzkiller from BuzzFeed. On Wednesday, online news site BuzzFeed reported that the Trump Administration is engaged in a "secret war on weed." BuzzFeed stated that the Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee told multiple federal agencies to submit "data demonstrating the most significant negative trends" about marijuana use. The goal appears to be to try to prevent further support for relaxing federal anti-marijuana laws. If the committee is successful in its efforts, companies with U.S. marijuana operations such as Scotts Miracle-Gro (NYSE:SMG), CannaRoyalty (NASDAQOTH:CNNRF), and Kush Bottles (NASDAQOTH:KSHB) could see their hopes of operating in a fully legal environment...

A tunnel that stretches from a former Kentucky Fried Chicken in Arizona all the way to a home in Mexico was discovered last week by investigators, who believe the secret passageway was used for drug smuggling, KSWT reports. Homeland Security Investigations said the tunnel was discovered on August 13, after the owner of the former KFC, Ivan Lopez, was pulled over by the San Luis Police Department. A canine unit alerted officers to two toolboxes in Lopez' truck. Inside the boxes, authorities say they found 118 kilograms of methamphetamine, six grams of cocaine, three kilograms of fentanyl, 13 kilograms of...

Even an occasional glass of wine or beer increases the risk of health problems and dying, according to a major study on drinking in 195 nations that attributes 2.8 million premature deaths worldwide each year to booze. "There is no safe level of alcohol," said Max Griswold, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington and lead author for a consortium of more than 500 experts. Despite recent research showing that light-to-moderate drinking reduces heart disease, the new study found that alcohol use is more likely than not to do harm. "The protective effect of...

Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 years, new research suggests. This is compared to four years in schizophrenia patients, according to the largest study of its kind. Brain ageing is defined as reduced blood flow through the organ. Excessive alcohol also ages the organ by 0.6 years, the research adds. Lead author Dr Daniel Amen, founder of Amen Clinics, said: 'The cannabis abuse finding was especially important, as our culture is starting to see marijuana as an innocuous substance. This study should give us pause about it.' Reduced brain blood flow has previously been linked to...

There is one chair in the room, and they sit him in it. He pulls out his wallet. He's looking for a number. A phone number, an address. That is why he is here. Fernando the lawyer. Fernando the drug trafficker. He's got a load of marijuana, and they want it.Fernando thinks he's in the company of friends. He thinks this man standing in front of him, this Lalo, is going to deliver the marijuana for him to New York. That's what the numbers are for. They are contacts. They are the people Lalo will call, the people who are...

In a scene that could be straight out of hit television series “Breaking Bad,” Mexican marines found a huge underground methamphetamine lab on Friday, according to Reuters. The lab was found in the mountains outside the capital of Sinaloa state. If the Sinaloa drug cartel rings a bell, that’s because it was infamously run by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman for years. Guzman is currently facing trial in the United States. What makes the discovery both remarkable and terrifying is the fact that Mexican officials found 50 tons of meth in the lab. The drugs were reportedly incinerated on site, due...

The hunt is on for budtenders, cannabis cultivators, weed botanists and dozens of other new jobs that have sprouted with Florida’s nascent medical marijuana industry. With dispensaries scouting locations across the state and 147,000 people signed up to use the now-legalized drug, the developing industry is quickly trying to recruit thousands of workers to develop, grow and sell medical cannabis. Medical marijuana businesses say stoners need not apply. A passion for smoking weed is a liability, and a criminal record involving drugs will almost certainly disqualify most candidates. “We get hundreds of applications for every job opening we have,” said...

To solve a problem, one must first diagnose its cause. This rings true in all walks of life. Yet this fundamental principle seems to be ignored when the problems of inner-city crime and poverty are considered. For decades, urban areas have been rife with pain and suffering due to violence. Chicago, Illinois is a prime example of this modern American tragedy. The city’s murder rate is among the highest in the nation. Shootings, drug-dealing, car-jacking, gang activity, and other categories of crime are at epidemic levels. Almost the entire conversation about criminal activity and violence in the city, as well...

SEATTLE — Washington state’s penchant for getting high is trashing the place. Plastic “doob tubes” and small Mylar bags used to package pot are moldering in gutters, bleaching out in landfills and bobbing in waterways. Concentrated nutrients and fertilizers left over from cannabis growing operations are being dumped in public sewers and making their way past wastewater treatment plants into Puget Sound. And millions of pounds of weed harvest waste that could be composted are instead getting trucked to landfills. This, in a part of the country that prides itself on being environmentally friendly. “We’re seeing a lot of marijuana...

Javonnie McCoy was growing marijuana when the cops came to his Middle Georgia home. He was caught red-handed with it. Almost a pound of it, in fact. He admitted it to police, and later he looked jurors in the eye and said, yep, it was mine. I used it as medicine. The jurors let him go. He was minding his own business and wasn’t hurting anybody, they reasoned. He just doesn’t belong in prison. The jury’s decision earlier this month in Dublin, Ga., may have been due to a muddled prosecution of a muddy case. Or it may have been...

WASHINGTON — A George Mason University student will effectively serve three years in prison for selling LSD to a fraternity brother who died from falling out a fifth-floor window. Alejandro Porrata admitted selling LSD to 19-year-old Tristan Medina in September. Three days after the sale, Medina ran and crashed through a dorm building window on the Fairfax, Virginia, campus. Porrata faced a charge of distribution of a controlled drug. “You are a drug dealer,” a judge told Porrata, according to WTOP’s news partners at NBC Washington. “You did a very stupid thing, and as a result, your family is suffering,...

A judge will hear arguments this week on a decision by the Rincon Valley Elementary School District to bar a 5-year-old girl from taking cannabis-based medication onto campus with her, a case that highlights issues with state and federal rules prohibiting medical marijuana in schools. Brooke Adams lives in Rincon Valley and has Dravet Syndrome, a rare disease that causes frequent and long-lasting seizures. Other complications include problems with controlling body temperature and developmental delays, the Dravet Syndrome Foundation website says. Brooke’s mom, Jana Adams, said her daughter relies on cannabidiol, otherwise known as CBD, to fend off her seizures...

An influential New Jersey lawmaker said this week he’s concerned that legalizing marijuana would result in stores selling intoxicating lipsticks, candies, and cupcakes — as well as “sex toy oils with marijuana.” State Sen. Ron Rice, a Democrat, made the remark in a videotaped interview with NJTV. He told the Washington Examiner in an email he is concerned about “marijuana infused oils, not toys.” Rice is chairman of the New Jersey Legislative Black Caucus, a group described by NJTV as the “chief obstacle in Trenton to marijuana legalization.”

C-Fam) Amnesty International will advocate for abortion on-demand as an international human right. A press release on Amnesty’s website describes its new position as calling on States “not just to decriminalize abortion, but to guarantee access to safe and legal abortion in a broad way that fully respects the rights of all women, girls and people who can get pregnant,” an apparent reference to women who identify as men or as transgender. The decision was reached by Amnesty International’s General Assembly in Warsaw earlier this month. During the same session the General Assembly also agreed to advocate for legalization of...

Jersey City is implementing a marijuana decriminalization policy that its mayor and new chief municipal prosecutor believe will increase racial justice while protecting public safety. The policy, which is excepted to begin officially tomorrow, will downgrade some marijuana charges to non-criminal offenses; encourage prosecutors to seek dismissal of low-level marijuana charges; and recommend diverting defendants with a criminal past and signs of addiction to the city's community court. The city's action comes as New Jersey is moving slowly toward approving recreational marijuana. Philadelphia decriminalized marijuana in 2014 and New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced in May that he...

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has given his future interior minister "carte blanche" to explore the possibility of legalizing drugs in a bid to curb violent crime, she said Tuesday. Olga Sanchez Cordero, a former Supreme Court judge tapped to lead the interior ministry, drew applause when she made the comment at a university seminar on addressing brutal violence fueled by Mexico's drug cartels...