Free Republic

Celebrating a major shift in cultural attitudes about cannabis — or just looking to enjoy the right to get high without legal entanglements — Californians lined up at dispensaries up and down the state Monday morning to be among the first to purchase recreational cannabis, more than a year after voters passed Prop. 64. In the pre-dawn darkness at KindPeoples collective in Santa Cruz, a line of 80 people snaked around the building before doors opened. The first sale – a eighth of a gram of indica flower called ‘Nine Pound Hammer’ – was made, to resounding applause, to UC-Santa...

California - A new study has found that smoking marijuana is increasing among pregnant women in California, which leads to health concerns about the unborn child. The study was published on Dec. 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, according to Fox News, and used the medical records of 279,000 women residing in California who were on Kaiser Permanente, a health care service. Women who agreed to participate were asked to answer a questionnaire when they were about eight weeks pregnant, and take a drug test to see if they tested positive for marijuana use. In the study,...

A gunman shot and killed a deputy, and wounded four other deputies and two civilians at an apartment complex during a domestic violence call early Sunday morning, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said. About 5:15 a.m., deputies responded the Copper Canyon Apartments complex at 3404 E. County Line Road in Highlands Ranch, between Colorado and University boulevards. A gunman opened fire, hitting five deputies and two civilians. One deputy was confirmed dead and the six others were taken to hospitals, the sheriff’s office said. The gunman was shot, is believed to be dead and is “no longer a threat,” the...

So itÂ’s been a Very emotional and long two days. I didnÂ’t want to ruin anybody elseÂ’s Christmas so I waited until after the Holiday. I got a text at 5:50 pm on Christmas Eve from Eastlake Police asking me to call dispatch. IÂ’m thinking there is a family that needs a Christmas under the tree that they just found. I call dispatch and ask for the Det who texted me. Dispatch tells me heÂ’s on a call and will call me back. I let the dispatcher know that IÂ’m not local, but can meet the Det on my way...

Chalfonte LeNee Queen of San Diego grappled with violent vomiting episodes for 17 years until she found out her illness was related to her marijuana use. For 17 years, Chalfonte LeNee Queen suffered periodic episodes of violent retching and abdominal pain that would knock her off her feet for days, sometimes leaving her writhing on the floor in pain. "I've screamed out for death," says Queen, 48, who lives in San Diego. "I've cried out for my mom, who's been dead for 20 years, mentally not realizing she can't come to me." Queen lost a modeling job after being...

Starting Jan. 1, anyone 21 and older will be able to legally buy marijuana in California with just an ID. However, only shops with both local permits and state licenses to sell recreational cannabis will be able to open their doors to customers who don’t have doctor’s recommendations for medical marijuana. The Bureau of Cannabis Control on Dec. 14 started issuing temporary licenses for recreational marijuana sales. Here’s a map of every shop that’s so far sanctioned to sell cannabis to adults on New Year’s Day. The map will be updated frequently, with new state licenses issued each day.

Sheriff's deputies in York County, Neb., stopped a pickup truck on Tuesday when they noticed it driving over the center line and the driver failing to signal. During the traffic stop, deputies noticed a strong smell of raw marijuana, the sheriff's department says. Patrick Jiron, 80, and Barbara Jiron, 83, said they were from northern California and were en route to Boston and Vermont. Deputies asked the driver, Patrick Jiron, about the odor, and he admitted to having contraband in the truck and consented to a search of the vehicle. With the help of the county's canine unit, deputies searched...

Congress is ending the year with battles over tax reform and how to fund the government into next year. Another battle being fought is over the future of medical marijuana in America.The Justice Department is working overtime to remove a restriction in current law that prevents the federal government from prosecuting medical marijuana businesses in states where it has been made legal. The problem is that if the Department of Justice is successful, it would undermine a number of promises that President Donald J. Trump made on the campaign trail.A coalition of federalist-minded conservatives and libertarians have voiced strong support...

DENVER (AP) — Denver authorities shut down 26 legal marijuana businesses Thursday and arrested 12 people suspected of illegal distribution of pot after a yearlong criminal investigation. Potential charges relate to marijuana sales exceeding limits set in state law, police said. Colorado allows people 21 and older to possess an ounce or less of marijuana under a measure approved by voters in 2012. The city department that regulates marijuana businesses issued the order to close the businesses based on the police investigation, spokesman Dan Rowland said. It marked the first time the city has issued an open-ended suspension to any...

The condition has become so common, ER staff have coined a new term that helps identify it: "scromiting," for "screaming" and "vomiting."A mysterious illness induced by excessive marijuana use can cause bouts of uncontrolled vomiting and debilitating nausea, doctors say. Doctors have only recently begun to recognize the prevalence of Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome (CHS), a condition characterized by chronic cannabis use, cyclic episodes of nausea and vomiting, and the compulsion to take hot baths or showers. The syndrome typically affects just a small portion of the population – heavy, long-term marijuana users. CHS has become so common in the emergency...

Vaping may be all the rage for partakers of medical marijuana, but while the technology does offer a relatively safe and clean way to get one's hits, it isn't all sweetness and light. Besides the moral and legal issues behind medical and/or legal cannabis, there's also the issue of maintenance if you want to keep your equipment humming along nicely. That's why Higher Standards has introduced a line of cleaning products that they say offers a, well, higher, standard of performance to what you can get from the average bottle of generic rubbing alcohol and pack of Q-tips and/or Kleenex/toilet...

Attorney General Jeff Sessions hinted Wednesday that the Justice Department may take a tougher stance on recreational marijuana in the near future, a change in policy that would have a significant impact on the five states plus the District of Columbia that already allow the drug to be used for more than medicinal purposes. California is scheduled to join that group on Jan. 1. Sessions and other DOJ officials previously indicated they would continue the policy laid out by the department under former President Barack Obama, which in essence allows state officials leeway in how they deal with the drug...

The Honolulu Police Department has told legal marijuana users who own guns that they must turn in their weapons within 30 days. In a letter to about 30 medical marijuana card holders on Oahu, the police said “you have 30 days upon receipt of this letter to voluntarily surrender your firearms.” The letter was signed by Susan Ballard, the new chief of police, and dated Nov. 13. “Your medical marijuana use disqualifies you from ownership of firearms and ammunition,” the letter said.

With sales of recreational cannabis becoming legal in a few weeks, many Californians have been asking questions about where they’ll be able to buy it, where they’ll be able to smoke it and why on God’s green, weed-filled Earth they still have to use cash to get it. Meanwhile, all I want to know is whether the black and brown people who sold cannabis during the dark years of the war on drugs, and went to prison for it in disproportionate numbers, will benefit from the newly legal, multibillion-dollar industry.

The four young men had just started their marijuana harvest in rural Northern California when a dozen sheriff's deputies swooped in with guns drawn, arrested them and spent the day chopping down 150 bushy plants with machetes. "I could do this every day if I had the personnel," Calaveras County Sheriff Rick DiBasilio said during the operation near the Sierra Nevada foothills town of Copperopolis, about two hours east of San Francisco.

Murphy's win boosts prospects for legal marijuana in New Jersey

One of the most popular ground cannabis vapourizers - though definitely not the most affordable - has received a serious upgrade, one that's well worth a view. And if the Arizer's too rich for you, Vie has unleashed a much different and less expensive model it thinks should be, well, high on your shopping list. It's always nice to have choices! With medical marijuana all the rage and legal marijuana on the Canadian horizon, it seems that it's more a matter of "when" the stuff will become mainstream, rather than "if." But there are still the issues of smoke, second...

Nightmare neighbours smoking cannabis inside their own homes is a common problem for communities across Britain. The notoriously pungent stench may be a sign of a recreational user smoking the odd joint next door or the drug being grown in large quantities close by. And while you may not be bothered by what other people get up to in their own homes, there’s no denying the smell can be off-putting. So what action can you take if you suspect the drug is being used near your home? The Derby Telegraph and DevonLive took a closer look at the law surrounding...

With Canada’s legalization of a multi-billion dollar marijuana industry set for next year, former police officers who once argued for mandatory jail time for minor marijuana offences are among those in line to capitalize on the change. The most high profile is Julian Fantino, a former Toronto police chief and Conservative cabinet minister who fought against the legalization of pot and who said he now sees the value of a legal medical pot industry.

A Buffalo Township couple is suing the township police and the Nationwide Insurance Co. after, their lawsuit says, hibiscus plants growing in their backyard were mistaken for marijuana plants. In a lawsuit, Edward Cramer, 69, and his wife, Audrey Cramer, 66, claim that Buffalo Township police handcuffed them both and made them sit in the back of a police car for hours last month as police ransacked their house looking for marijuana. But rather than running a pot-growing operation, the Cramers say they grow flowering hibiscus in their backyard. The Cramers were not charged. They filed a civil lawsuit Thursday...