7:51 p.m.: It's exactly 125 days tomorrow. I am pretg drink. 7:52 p.m.: Drunk. 7:52 p.m. I can tell. :-) I have a years-long WhatsApp message group with a handful of fellow mothers of small children from across the United States and Canada. Since the pandemic began, what I refer to as "mom chats after dark" start at around 7:30 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. That's when the children are asleep, and a wave of inebriation begins on the shores of the Atlantic and crashes across the continent. The above message was from July, when we hit 125 days of lockdown. [continues 1901 words]
Protesting the overruling by federal judges of state medical marijuana laws, critics recently descended on the doorstep of the Warwick outpost of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Similar protests organized by Americans for Safe Access, a non-profit group concerned with ensuring access to medical marijuana, took place in 54 other US cities earlier this month. DEA raids of state medical hemp repositories in northern California triggered the protests. Thomas Angell, president of the University of Rhode Island's Hemp Organization for Prohibition Elimination (HOPE), wasn't thrilled by the turnout for the Warwick protest, but he still believes it was worthwhile. "At least local DEA agents know we're here," he says. Angell and his cohorts attempted to deliver "cease and desist" orders to stop federal involvement in states' medical marijuana proceedings, but were rebuffed by the DEA at every turn. According to Angell, "We were basically surrounded by seven agents who wouldn't accept our order." [continues 238 words]
