SHEFFIELD LAKE - The Lorain County Drug Task Force found what police believe to be an under-construction methamphetamine lab in an East Lake Road home that was purchase for $1.125 million last year. [name redacted], one of the owners of [address redacted], was arrested Wednesday at the house. Detective Olen Martin said the Drug Task Force has been investigating suspicious activity at the house since August, but new information came to light this week that led officers to go there. [continues 458 words]
FREETOWN - About 30 pounds of marijuana were found Friday inside a tractor trailer that was delivering asparagus to the Stop & Shop Distribution Center in Freetown. The produce delivery originated in Lodi, Calif. The truck driver told Detective Shane Kelly that she did not know about the marijuana, Police Chief Carlton Abbott said. "She picked up the truck and drove it from Point A to Point B, and made several stops along the way," Abbott said. A supervisor on the Freetown facility's loading dock spotted the marijuana inside the trailer and notified a security officer, who in turn contacted the Freetown Police Department around 11:45 a.m. Friday, Abbott said. [continues 124 words]
A bill recently signed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker aimed at addressing a frightening rise in heroin-related deaths prevents those who report another person's overdose from being prosecuted for drug possession. However, the person suffering from the overdose may still face jail time when they come to. Madison Police Officer Howard Payne, a department spokesman, says he believes most overdose cases result in criminal charges. "Officers investigate that matter as thoroughly as they can and arrive at a decision as to whether a charge is appropriate," he says. "At minimum it's a possession-level (offense)." [continues 350 words]
4/20 Is a Full-on Entertainment Holiday As Music Shows Abound This Weekend, Four Months After Recreational Pot Was Legalized. As Denver musician Wes Watkins booked springtime shows for his gospel-tinged band the Other Black, one date on the calendar took absolute priority. "I decided that we had to play 4/20," Watkins said of the stoner holiday known as 4/20, or April 20."We played last 4/20 at 11 o'clock at night, and it was a laid back and silly show because everybody was so tired and stoned. [continues 1055 words]
Longmont-Based Maker of the Infused Product Sues Dixie Elixirs for Trademark Infringement. A Longmont-based maker of marijuana-infused mints said Friday it is filing a trademark infringement lawsuit against Denver edibles company Dixie Elixirs. Bridge Marketing alleges in the suit that Dixie Elixirs recklessly packaged "MED-a-Mints" in a manner that makes them look like candy. The lawsuit claims that Dixie Elixirs failed to use Bridge's trademarked design for packages of the mint-like lozenges that contain THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. [continues 420 words]
SIR - Cannabis is slightly less addictive and harmful than coffee. This has been shown by many studies using much larger sample sizes than the 20 users in the study you report ("Even casual use of cannabis alters brain, warn scientists", April 16). For most adults, cannabis is good in moderation. It is a natural supplement to our endocannabinoid system and helps to protect against autoimmune conditions such as diabetes and cancer. It promotes neurogenesis, so is useful for the treatment of brain injury, stroke, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. The United States government holds a patent for the use of cannabinoids in treating such conditions. [continues 143 words]
Millions of ordinary Americans are now able to walk into a marijuana dispensary and purchase bags of pot on the spot for a variety of medical ailments. But if you're a researcher like Sue Sisley, a psychiatrist who studies post-traumatic stress disorder, getting access to the drug isn't nearly so easy. That's because the federal government has a virtual monopoly on growing and cultivating marijuana for scientific research, and getting access to the drug requires three separate levels of approval. [continues 772 words]
Statements by Denver police in the run-up to the two-day 4/20 festival in Civic Center have been deliberately and understandably vague-no doubt because they know they face a difficult balancing act. With tens of thousands of people likely to descend on downtown, police must be out in force to protect the public and crack down on any lawbreaking that endangers others. And yet they would be foolish to try to suppress every instance in which pot enthusiasts defy state and municipal laws regarding public consumption. [continues 229 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Social media have been buzzing for weeks with jokes about how, this year, Easter Sunday shares the calendar with the pot lover's highest holiday: April 20, or 420 in stoner lingo. Pot smokers have long celebrated on the date by lighting up for reasons not quite clear. Yet amid the online cracks about worshiping a "higher" power, tutorials on how to make a joint shaped like a cross and photos of Easter baskets piled with pot-filled eggs, a handful of churches nationwide are using the coincidence to make much bigger points. [continues 202 words]
Questions about cannabis law reform are again being posed, with a survey revealing that most users would not use more if the drug became legal. The Global Drug Survey, conducted in partnership with Fairfax Media, shows that we are a nation of cannabis smokers, with more than a third of the almost 6000 respondents having used it in the past year. Respondents were also asked about their attitude towards legalising drugs, and how their behaviour would change if the law was amended. [continues 175 words]
SIR - Peter Reynolds (Letters, April 18) wrote that "cannabis is slightly less addictive and harmful than coffee". What utter nonsense. Cannabis creates and exaggerates anxieties and psychoses, especially in the formative brains of young people. To deal with this inner turmoil the person turns to more cannabis. The result is a slippery slide to addiction and perhaps to more physically damaging drugs such as ketamine. This is what happened to my daughter, for whom we had to provide drug rehabilitation in South Africa, because the services offered in this country essentially do not prevent the addict from having access to drug dealers. I think her life and ours would have been happier had she spent her teenage years drinking too much espresso. My other daughter lives in Singapore, where drugs are not part of the social scene. They have the death penalty for drug-dealing in Singapore. We in Britain need the same zero-tolerance for this corrosive part of modern society. Dr David Cottam Dormansland, Surrey [end]
I found Friday's Denver Post quite telling of the scattered cannabis state we now live in. The news section included stories of two deaths that were caused by or in part by eating cannabis. One story brushed by the fact that the drug was purchased legally, then given to a person not legal to buy, who ended up dead after eating a "cookie." The other story was of a seemingly normal family man killing his wife, with three young boys in the house, after eating "candy." [continues 87 words]
The Grass Ceiling. There's an idea in the collective consciousness that everyone working to free the weed and change pot laws must be totally cooooool. That simply by being public about marijuana puts a person into a realm of awesomeness that is to be admired. Marijuana, they might say, opens your heart and helps you have compassion for others. Like, everyone in the pot scene is totally kind, man. But if you ask a woman who has spent any amount of time in the pot scene, they might tell you something different. [continues 1192 words]
In 1939, Frank Capra made one of the most entertaining, important and enduring political movies of all time titled "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur. An essential part of the plot involved an immensely powerful and corrupt businessman by the name of "Jim Taylor" from Mr. Smith's fictional home state. "The Taylor Machine" in the movie continually manipulated a politician it had bought and paid for years earlier. Sadly, 75 years after the film premiered, many hard-working and honest Americans look at our nation's capital and even the state of Florida and understandably wonder if much really has changed. [continues 646 words]
SEMINOLE - Sheriff Bob Gualtieri helped Pinellas County struggle through the dark days of prescription drug "pill mills," when shady clinics doled out lethal opiates just for the asking. State and local authorities finally cracked down, but Gualtieri fears that legalizing medical marijuana would reopen those floodgates with a new drug of choice. "We're going to be right back to the problems we just dealt with, with pill mills," he told an audience Thursday night at St. Petersburg College. In Oregon, he said, just nine doctors certified 28,000 people as needing medical marijuana. At that rate, even a $200 exam would generate $5.6 million. [continues 404 words]
Some Churches See "420" As A Means To Spread The Gospel LOS ANGELES - Social media has been buzzing for weeks with jokes about how Easter shares the calendar this year with the pot lover's highest holiday: April 20, or 420 in stoner lingo. Pot smokers have long celebrated on the date by lighting up for reasons not quite clear. Yet amid the online cracks about worshipping a "higher" power, tutorials on how to make a joint shaped like a cross and photos of Easter baskets piled with pot-filled eggs, a handful of churches nationwide are using the coincidence to make much bigger points. [continues 361 words]
DENVER (AP) - A college student eats more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumps to his death from a hotel balcony. A husband with no history of violence is accused of shooting his wife in the head, possibly after eating pot-infused candy. The two recent deaths have stoked concerns about Colorado's recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint. [continues 722 words]
In an agricultural area like Tulare County, the start of a growing season usually is a good thing. But late April kicks off a busy time for the Tulare County Sheriff's Tactical Enforcement Personnel team, as this is the start of the season for marijuana growers here in the Valley. Last year, members of the STEP team confiscated 239,929 marijuana plants on the Valley floor as well as on federal lands, about a 20-percent increase over the previous year. [continues 1487 words]
With drug addiction among Punjab youths becoming a hot election topic, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley is not mincing words on the issue in the course of his campaign for the Amritsar seat though his political partners, especially some senior Akali leaders, are accused of encouraging the illicit trade. As Jaitley put it in his blog on Friday, "Yesterday, I was addressing a public meeting at Rajasansi. The loudest cheer was reserved for a comment made against the drug addiction in the state. Enthusiastic applause came from that section of the audiences where a large number of women were seated. This explains it all." [continues 367 words]
I'm writing about Jackie Valley's story in The Sunday: "Modern addiction: Our heroin epidemic." The question that needs to be asked is: Why don't children and adolescents believe those who warn them about the dangers of drugs like heroin? The answer: Because when the drug war cheerleaders lie about or grossly exaggerate the dangers of marijuana, they lose all credibility. When children find out that they have been lied to about marijuana, they make the logical assumption that they are also being lied to about the dangers of other drugs like heroin. This has been a recipe for disaster. Kirk Muse Mesa, Ariz. [end]
Prohibition in the United States came to an end on Dec. 5, 1933, when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution was repealed. In the time before and since, there's been no single officially designated day that's meant to encourage drinking publicly (unless you count St. Patrick's Day, the Coachella music festival or most every day in New Orleans). Were there one, you might imagine an outcry from sober people from coast to coast as their drunk counterparts stumble around the streets en masse, no doubt creating a public nuisance and quite probably a safety hazard. Of course, not nearly everyone drinks responsibly or legally at all times-publicly or privately-but at least there are no pro-drinking organizations encouraging large groups to do it outdoors for the most part just to flagrantly toast the laws putting them in violation of openly imbibing. [continues 535 words]
HERE is an image from a War on Drugs time capsule: drug-sniffing dogs sticking their noses in Roosevelt High School students' lockers searching for marijuana. Washington voters in 2012 rejected a prohibitionist approach by legalizing marijuana. Policy shouldn't slip back. But the drug-dog idea, as proposed by parents in a recent Seattle Times story, reflects genuine anxiety about raising teenagers in the new world of legal marijuana. In search of the future, parents are reaching to the past. [continues 267 words]
Two of the biggest arguments for marijuana legalization are keeping it out kids' hands, and keeping the business out of criminals' hands. The two are closely related. A liquor store can lose its license if it sells liquor to minors, but a pot dealer has no such disincentive. I see that the state is going to do marijuana industry background checks ["Feds OK pot background checks by Washington state," Local News, April 10]. Assume you're a grower who was busted once. If you try to go legitimate, the background check would show up, and you'll lose your business. Your best bet is to stay underground. [continues 56 words]
Those seeking to sell medical marijuana will need to pony up $5,000 for a nonrefundable application fee; pay $30,000 for the registration fee; and have $400,000 in liquid assets. They also will need to be able to secure a $50,000 bond. The cost to patients registering to use medical marijuana will be less than what state officials had first suggested, according to rules posted Friday by state agencies that will oversee implementation of the Illinois Medical Cannabis Pilot Program. [continues 222 words]
WHEN it comes to tobacco and marijuana, public policies appear headed in contradictory directions. For years, candy cigarettes have been criticized as providing children a gateway to tobacco smoking. In similar fashion, the federal government banned candy and fruit-flavored cigarettes in 2009 as part of an effort to reduce youth smoking. Yet in Colorado, the legalization of marijuana has produced a rash of candy products infused with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in pot. THC products include everything from gummy bears to caramels. In some cases, a single piece of candy is the recommended dose, yet packages contain numerous pieces. Once opened, those products can easily be mistaken for traditional candies that are eaten in far larger quantities. It doesn't take a genius to see what comes next. Marshall Allen, writing for ProPublica, recently noted that some children in Colorado are being exposed to THC products. Dr. Andrew Monte, a medical toxicologist at the University of Colorado Medical School and Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Center, told Allen a poison control call occurs every few days involving a child accidentally eating marijuana products. Similar anecdotal reports are coming from emergency room doctors. In some cases, those children undergo CT scans and spinal taps before the patient's problem is identified. [continues 361 words]
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant has signed a bill to legalize a marijuana extract to be used as medicine under tightly controlled circumstances. House Bill 1231 becomes law July 1. Republican Bryant says he signed it Thursday, only after Bureau of Narcotics officials assured him the oil can't be used to produce a high. The medicine is used to reduce seizures in children with epilepsy. It would be available by prescription and dispensed through a University of Mississippi Medical Center pharmacy. The medical center would obtain its supply from the University of Mississippi's National Center for Natural Products Research in Oxford. That center grows marijuana for medical research sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Bryant says he opposes any other attempt to legalize marijuana or products from it. [end]
As a young Army officer in 1967, Roger Roffman was the first to conduct research on pot use by soldiers in Vietnam. For Roffman, a University of Washington professor emeritus, that began a career as a marijuana researcher and dependence counselor. Four decades later, he wanted to chronicle his experience with the cannabis plant. What emerged was not the scholarly analysis Roffman had anticipated, but a memoir of his life as a social worker, scholar, compulsive pot-smoker, activist and reluctant sponsor of Initiative 502, which legalized adult possession of pot in Washington state. [continues 545 words]
DENVER (AP) - Workers for one of Colorado's biggest marijuana businesses learned Wednesday they can be fired for smoking pot on the job or using cocaine any time. The policy, the first of its kind for O.penVAPE, includes random testing for drugs like cocaine and methamphetamines, but not for marijuana, company spokesman Todd Mitchem said. The two-year-old company employs more than 125 people in Colorado and sells its products in Colorado, Washington and California. The products include cartridges filled with cannabis oil and a battery-powered vaporizer that resembles a pen designed for cannabis-oil use. [continues 122 words]
My vape pen and I maintain a mostly private relationship. Sure, I'll sometimes show my pen to a friend or share her with a close confidant. But mostly it's just she and I working through my pain. And her ability to helpme live comfortably with glaucoma makes her one of the more important figures in my day to day. When I show her to a friend, the reaction 99 percent of the time is: "Holy shit, where did you get this and how can I get me one?" They're seriously that blown away by my vape pen. And they should be. She's that amazing. [continues 632 words]
Re: Wired to work with marijuana? | April 14 I worry that the miraculous effect that pot's cannabinoid molecule has on epilepsy will eclipse the benefits of pot's other components. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta described the benefits as an 'entourage effect,' a term coined by Israeli researchers in 1998 to describe the synergistic effect of the multitude of components found in the whole plant. As the future unfolds, we'll see these components isolated, tested, FDA-approved and marketed. Meanwhile, patients with ailments that benefit from the whole plant should be allowed to have it. While likely not the panacea claimed by zealous supporters, pot is certainly not the bugaboo claimed by zealous detractors. [continues 124 words]
This is big, Colorado. Two people in the space of a few weeks apparently consumed edible marijuana products now sold in retail stores and seem to have lost their grip on reality. One, a student from Wyoming, fell to his death from a hotel room. The other's frightening behavior allegedly concluded Monday with the shooting of his wife. He is now facing murder charges. It may be too early to link the behavior of Richard Kirk, who is in custody in Denver, conclusively to edible pot, since we don't know for certain what he consumed and whether he might have been on other drugs. But the search warrant affidavit reportedly says he purchased marijuana candy a few hours before the shooting. [continues 73 words]
Referendum Supporters Mobilize With Election Six Months Away One of the hottest political campaigns of 2014 will kick into high gear this weekend as proponents of legalizing medical marijuana mobilize for a day of political organizing. From locations in Fort Lauderdale, West Delray and 11 other communities, they'll be conducting phone banks, hoping to start converting casual supporters into committed voters. "We're trying to get our volunteers mobilized and get the word out to as many people as we possibly can," said John Makris, a Boca Raton CPA who is a volunteer organizer for United for Care: People United for Medical Marijuana. [continues 548 words]
Some advocates of medical marijuana say they'll attend a hearing Thursday in Lansing to oppose bills that would let police use roadside saliva testing if a driver is suspected of being under the influence of marijuana. But the legislator who sponsored the proposal said opponents missed the point of his bills, whose primary aim is to get repeat intoxicated drivers off the road through better communication among police. Saliva testing is "not critical to this legislation" although Michigan's police officers deserve to have it available, said State Rep. Dan Lauwers, a Republican from Brockway Township near Port Huron. [continues 466 words]
Dear Stoner: It's our first 4/20 in Denver. Give us some tips. Mountain Mark Dear Mark: While the organizers of the two-day 4/20 rally are asking people not to light up at the event in order to comply with the city's request, the reality is that people have been lighting up in Civic Center Park since well before Amendment 64 passed, and the tradition probably isn't going to stop this year. But be warned: Cops can and do write tickets down there, as public marijuana consumption is still illegal in Colorado. So don't be an idiot and borrow a lighter from a cop to spark your joint or ask one to wind-block for you while you hit your freshly packed Durban Poison. [continues 352 words]
As the movement to legalize marijuana advances, I believe our state would be best served by a policy approach that does due diligence, and learns from the experiences of other states before considering legalization. This approach would give us insight into how legalization affects those states, and would be prudent in mitigating the uncertainty and risks associated with the legalization of a powerful drug. This is the conservative approach. With the understanding that sweeping utopian reforms carry inevitable unintended consequences, conservatives always have taken a cautious approach to such policy shifts. We appreciate the central value of individual liberty, but we also understand that our founders believed we must balance liberty with an interest in maintaining civil order. [continues 484 words]
San Francisco Officials Don't Want a Repeat of Last Year's Massive Party. Plus, It's Easter. SAN FRANCISCO - Golden Gate Park's Hippie Hill is famous for the wafting aroma of marijuana just about any day of the week. But Sunday is 4/20, and to those in the know that's code for "light up the ganja." It also happens to be Easter Sunday, and officials fear a repeat of last year's massive daylong party that culminated in a crowd sourced haze at 4:20 p.m. and then sent brain-fogged crowds flocking out of the park into the Haight district and as far as Hayes Valley. [continues 264 words]
Even where weed is legal-like Colorado and Washington and the 21 states that have embraced medical cannabis-marijuana businesses face unfair speech restriction Even though polls show that most Americans support the legalization of marijuana, corporate America continues to censor pot-related speech. Legal reformers are banned from issue-advocacy advertising; major websites such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo prohibit the listing of legal marijuana businesses; and normal folks face even tougher reprisals for speaking out at work, at school or in the community. [continues 588 words]
If there is a stereotype of someone advocating marijuana legalization, it's not Lanny Swerdlow. The Whitewater resident, who has been an activist for 15 years in both Riverside and Palm Springs talks fast, quotes numbers and studies about cannabis, writes for several publications, and shows absolutely no signs of being laid-back during an interview in his Hemp and Cannabis Foundation office in Riverside. Opened in 2008, it was set up to help provide medical marijuana physician recommendations. When in comes to the green, there is no grey for Swerdlow, 68 . Obtuse, he is not. Police, he said, "are afraid medical marijuana's gonna lead to marijuana legalization - which it will. Colorado and Washington are perfect examples." [continues 1095 words]
Minister Defends His Record On Actions Taken To Address Addiction Epidemic Less than 24 hours after 100 Islanders held a tearful rally for more addictions services, Health Minister Doug Currie faced questions about why he left $ 1 million unspent in his addictions and mental health budget last year. Opposition MLA James Aylward asked Currie Wednesday how he would explain this unspent money to family members of addicted Islanders who shared their difficult and painful stories on the steps of Province House Wednesday evening. [continues 558 words]
Premier Commits To Building Addictions Facility If Recommended By Mental Health And Addictions Officer "People are dying - there's no treatment here for people that are suffering with mental illness and addiction," a mother told a crowd of supporters during a protest at Province House Tuesday. Dianne Young organized the protest in an attempt to push lawmakers in P. E. I. into doing more to provide services for Islanders struggling with addictions. Young's son, Lennon Waterman, is believed to have taken his own life in November as a result of an addiction to prescription drugs. [continues 577 words]
WASHINGTON - Attorney General Eric Holder has been crusading for more lenient treatment for nonviolent drug offenders, making it a top priority before he is expected to leave office this year. But recently, he has been forced to confront an epidemic of deaths from heroin and prescription drug abuse, one that his opponents have cited as a reason for not easing drug sentences. In prepared remarks for a speech Wednesday to the Police Executive Research Forum, Holder cited the "stunning rise in heroin and prescription opiate overdose deaths" and insisted the Justice Department is committed to "rigorous enforcement" of drug laws and "robust treatment" of addicts. [continues 225 words]
Medical marijuana users are launching court challenges en masse, arguing Canada's pot laws are unconstitutional. At least five Nova Scotians have filed constitutional challenges in Federal Court in recent weeks. Other than some personal details being changed, the wording of the filings is identical. The applicants are using what's known as a kit. For 15 minutes of paperwork and the $2 online filing fee, anyone can file a claim to be exempted from medical marijuana laws with the Federal Court. [continues 459 words]
Want better roads in Oliver? South Okanagan Chamber of Commerce president Myers Bennett says legalizing marijuana is the way to make it happen. At the business showcase/networking event in Oliver last Wednesday, chamber director Petra Veintimilla announced that the organization has drafted a "business case" calling for the federal government to end the prohibition of cannabis in British Columbia, and ultimately Canada. Bennett and chamber vice-president Brian Highley will present the proposed policy at the BC Chamber of Commerce's annual general meeting and conference in Richmond on May 22-24. If the proposal gets passed in May, Bennett will be tasked with presenting it at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce AGM in the fall. [continues 506 words]
Concerns Seem To Out Weigh Benefits An amendment to zoning Bylaw 582 would have seen Medical Marijuana Production Facilities as permitted uses in rural, agricultural and industrial zones in the District of Sooke. The amendment had already passed unanimously through first and second reading in February, 2014, but at the April 14 council meeting some members of council backed away from endorsing the bylaw. Amendments also included definitions of "horticulture" and "Medical Marijuana Production Facilities (MMPF)." A public hearing was held on April 14 to guage the public sentiment on the zoning amendment. [continues 377 words]
Medicinal Marijuana: 'Give Us An Out And We'll Jump All Over It, But There Isn't' It was with a "sense of defeat in their voices" that Port Colborne councillors passed a bylaw Monday night concerning commercial medical marijuana facilities in the city. As councillors each stood to share their thoughts on the growing industry in the lakeside city, there was no triumph in their words, only recognition of the reality of the situation, Mayor Vance Badawey said. "You hear both sides, try to be fair, try to strike a balance" between concerned residents and new business, he said, but that's made difficult when an issue is "dumped" in the lap of municipalities that are given little to no control by the federal government. [continues 865 words]
'Dangerous Quasi Rehab' Scientology-Linked Narconon Exploited Members: Human Rights Commission Four years after he left Narconon Trois-Rivieres, and two years after the so-called drug-rehabilitation centre was shut down by the public health agency, David Love has been vindicated by the Quebec Human Rights Commission, which concluded the centre exploited and abused him - - financially, physically and mentally - along with two other complainants. Love, who was first a patient then an employee at Narconon until he realized it was closely linked to the Church of Scientology, said the commission's recent decision was a "global win" against Narconon, which continues to run drug rehabilitation centres in several countries - putting patients' lives at risk. [continues 753 words]
Re: Marijuana problematic, by Rebecca Campoli, April 8. Leamington doesn't have any responsibility with regard to how or by whom medical marijuana is used. The licensed producer and medical doctors have that responsibility. The producer has to meet or exceed certain standards in safety and as you pointed out, all employees go through background checks before being hired and security when entering or leaving the building most likely. Don't be naive. At least with marijuana, there are very few negative medical side-effects. [continues 151 words]
Medical marijuana patients would be able to keep their guns, under rule changes proposed by the state. The Illinois Department of Public Health had proposed requiring gun owners to give up their firearms if they became medical marijuana patients. But after howls of protest from gun owners and marijuana users alike, regulators are dropping that prohibition, according to someone with knowledge of the rules who spoke on condition of anonymity. The change still wouldn't resolve an apparent discrepancy between state and federal law. [continues 105 words]
The nation's growing movement to legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use is no doubt sending the message to many that the substance is harmless. But that would be an incorrect assumption, according to a growing body of research that suggests use of marijuana can damage brains, particularly those of youth and young adults. A study released this week found that using marijuana a few times a week can alter brain structures in a way that could pose risks to the casual user. "Just casual use appears to create changes in the brain in areas you don't want to change," Hans Breiter, a psychiatrist and mathematician at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, told The Associated Press. Breiter led the study, which was conducted in collaboration with researchers at Harvard University. [continues 381 words]
But Industry Insiders Say High Costs Would Ensure Serious Inquiries Only Vegetables, flowers and herbs grow in rows of green at Robert Boyce's greenhouses in Lake Zurich - but what he'd really like to grow is marijuana. Boyce, a horticulturist and landscape design architect, has run Natural Environments Greenhouses and Nursery and a florist shop for many years. He's done work for the Chicago Botanic Garden and several Chicago-area public parks. Yet none of that is enough to qualify for a license to grow pot under the new state law allowing medical marijuana, for which having a green thumb may not be as important as having lot of green to put up. [continues 1053 words]
