Free Republic

Tired of Cheech & Chong pot jokes and ominous anti-drug campaigns, the marijuana industry and activists are starting an ad blitz in Colorado aimed at promoting moderation and the safe consumption of pot. To get their message across, they are skewering some of the old Drug War-era ads that focused on the fears of marijuana, including the famous “This is your brain on drugs” fried-egg ad from the 1980s. […] “So far, every campaign designed to educate the public about marijuana has relied on fear-mongering and insulting marijuana users,” said Mason Tvert, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, the nation’s...

NELIGH, Neb. — Willie Nelson and Neil Young will headline a concert next month in a Nebraska cornfield organized by opponents of a proposed pipeline that would carry oil from Canada south to the Gulf Coast. Bold Nebraska said Monday the concert will be held Sept. 27 on a farm near Neligh in northeast Nebraska. Tickets go on sale Wednesday.

Man sets house afire trying to kill spider with lighter, spray paint SEATTLE -- Fire officials say a West Seattle man was using a lighter and a can of spray paint to kill a spider in his laundry room when the house went up in flames. Fire crews were called to a home in the 10200 block of 34th Avenue SW just before 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Firefighters originally battled the blaze from a distance after learning there may be ammunition inside. Crews were eventually able to extinguish the fire, but not before it did significant damage to the structure....

First state-licensed marijuana retailers to open January 1 in Colorado The world's first state-licensed marijuana retailers, catering to Colorado's newly legal recreational market for pot, are stocking their shelves ahead of a New Year's grand opening that supporters and detractors alike see as a turning point in America's drug culture. Possession, cultivation and private personal consumption of marijuana by adults for the sake of just getting high has already been legal in Colorado for more than year under a state constitutional amendment approved by voters. But starting January 1, cannabis will be legally sold and taxed at specially regulated retailers...

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – A new study finds that longtime marijuana use lowers motivation and reward-seeking behavior as the brain produces less dopamine. In a small sample test, researchers in the United Kingdom scanned the brains of 19 long-term marijuana smokers along with 19 nonusers of the same age and sex, measuring the distribution of chemicals throughout the brain via positron emission tomography. Marijuana smokers were found to produce less of the “feel good” chemical dopamine than their counterparts over time.

We have the first slacker stoner president. He is beloved by journalists who were and are themselves slackers and stoners - opinions without achievements, wielders of easy, worthless degrees paid for by their parents, minds filled with debris and the occasional scraps from great thinkers but witho...ut the mental effort to understand, attain, earn, or contextualize the scraps. Slackers and stoners are not the poor nor do they sympathize with the poor, they only utilize them -they are the spoiled children of the upper middle class and rich -they are almost singularly the children of people who worked hard. They...

Dave Portnoy of Barstool Sports, a popular, whimsical, sports-based media brand here in Boston (and NYC, and Phila), recently visited Occupy Boston and mocked the living hell out of them. Watch

BANKSVILLE, Pa. -- Police said a man who was arrested in Banksville earlier this month told officers that he was the "Messiah" and that he wished to kill women. According to police, Mahmoud Aqueel was standing in the middle of Crane Avenue on July 6, throwing rocks at women's cars as they passed by. The victims said their cars were dented and scratched. After Aqueel was taken into custody, police said he requested that officers called him "T-Rex" and that "everyone would be sorry for what they had done."

Yemen's opposition has drawn tens of thousands of people to the streets to rally against three decades of autocratic rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, but by noon the protesters quietly vanish. Many head straight from the streets to the souk, or market, to buy bags stuffed with qat, the mild stimulant leaf that over half of Yemen's 23 million people chew daily, wiling away their afternoons in bliss, their cheeks bulging with wads of qat. "After I chew I can't go out. When I chew qat, the whole world is mine. I feel like a king," said Mohammed al-Qadimi,...

NEW YORK—I’m a New Yorker. And in New York, there is one thing that everyone is talking about, “the ground zero mosque.” A peace-loving Islamic group known as the Cordoba Initiative is planning to build a 13-story, $100 million facility, which includes a mosque and a community center, just a few blocks from where terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center on 9/11. The city has green-lighted it and Mayor Michael Bloomberg has given his full support. At first it was just local news. In Democrat-rich New York, the mosque seemed like a fact with only a few people...

I am very sorry for any US policies that have tortured Muslims or harmed them in any way. I am also sorry for the use of weapons that cost innocent lives. But you should see things in the context of Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that killed thousands of innocent people. Maybe that is why Americans have a hard time understanding Islam...or why they would think that building a mosque near Ground Zero would be unacceptable. How would you feel if we came to your countries and built a Catholic or Protestant church near a site of such colossal tragedy. May...

California’s marijuana industry is worth an estimated $14 billion. But large marijuana growing operations — most of which are illegal — are polluting local ecosystems on an industrial scale in rural counties and places as unlikely as state parks. The cultural secrecy around the illegal product means diesel spills go unreported, spikes in electricity overlooked and gallons of toxic pesticides wash into rivers and creeks. And without tax revenue from marijuana, state agencies struggle to find funds for cleanup.

The romance with weed is never-ending for California marijuana devotees. Now, they claim their beloved drug can save the state by solving its unrelenting budget nightmare. State legislation is afoot to legalize and tax marijuana to backfill the state budget. But, like the grandiose daydreams of a stoner, the reality of this plan would be far different from its vision. I won't go all “Reefer Madness” on you or claim that hemp T-shirts are a slippery slope to damnation. The problem with marijuana legalization is simpler and worse. California cannot afford more stoned people, especially stoned young people. We need...

YOUNG rats high on cannabis suffer far greater memory loss, and more lasting changes in brain function than doped-up adult rodents. Research by Sydney scientists has also found the drug is a turn-off for grown-up rats. However, the wisdom of age comes too late. "Cannabis produces much greater long-term changes in adolescent than adult rat brains," said Iain McGregor, professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Sydney. His research team used sophisticated cages - more like three-room houses - for the experiments. Each room was given different wallpaper and smells so the rats could tell them apart. Adolescent and adult...

NEW YORK A feature piece in this coming Sunday's New York Times Magazine on Republican candidate for president, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, portrays his followers as including a wild mix of "wackos" on both ends of the political spectrum. Paul, a libertarian, has been gaining media and public attention of late. The cover line reads: "A Genuine Radical for President." The headline inside: "The Antiwar, Anti-Abortion, Anti-Drug-Enforcement-Administration, Anti-medicare Candidacy of Dr. Ron Paul." The article closes with the author, Christopher Caldwell, attending a Ron Paul Meetup in Pasadena. The co-host, Connie Ruffley of United Republicans of California, admits she...

U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday. The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington. California's production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to...

Mary Jane Trumps Joe Camel By Mary BeckmanScienceNOW Daily News23 May 2006 It seems logical that inhaling enough smoke will give you lung cancer. But a new study of Los Angeles residents suggests that smoking marijuana--even more than 22,000 joints in a lifetime--doesn't increase cancer risk. The results surprise many researchers, who point out marijuana has other ill health effects. Decades of research have shown that cigarette smoking dramatically increases the risk of certain cancers. But controversy surrounds the risk of smoking weed. A 1999 study of blood donors suggested a link between marijuana and head and neck cancer,...

Psilyclbin Mushrooms, Bags Of Marijuana Also In CarGREEN, Ore. -- Three California youths had their road trip interrupted when a bong fell from their car at the feet of a policeman during a traffic stop. An Oregon State trooper pulled the car over Thursday near the Douglas County town of Green. Police said the large drug pipe fell out as 18-year-old Benjamin Breiner of Berkeley, Calif., opened the car door. The trooper said he found a bag of psilycybin mushrooms and several bags of marijuana. One occupant, 19-year-old Michael Fox of Oakland, Calif., told the officer he had a California...

America's war on drugs is actually a Raid on Taxpayers. The war costs an estimated $70 billion a year to prosecute, and the drugs keep pouring in. But while the War on Drugs may have failed its official mission, it is a great success as a job-creation program. Thousands of drug agents, police, detectives, prosecutors, judges, anti-drug activists, prison guards and their support staffs can thank the program for their daily bread and health benefits. The American people are clearly not ready to decriminalize cocaine, heroine or other hard drugs, but they're well on their way to easing up on...

Some days New York really does feel like a small town. The annual pot parade—or J-Day—is one of them. It's kind of like the Halloween parade, only a lot less crowded and held in the warmth of the first week in May...