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Montreal, December 17, 2009 – Canadian teenagers are among the largest consumers of cannabis worldwide. The damaging effects of this illicit drug on young brains are worse than originally thought, according to new research by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. The new study, published in Neurobiology of Disease, suggests that daily consumption of cannabis in teens can cause depression and anxiety, and have an irreversible long-term effect on the brain. "We wanted to know what happens in the brains of teenagers when they use cannabis and whether they are...

Congress opens door to medical marijuana in D.C. By: Gabriel Beltrone December 13, 2009 05:36 PM EST The Senate passed legislation Sunday that opens the door to the District of Columbia legalizing medical marijuana after over a decade of Congress blocking the issue through budget restrictions. Nestled in the $447 billion omnibus spending bill approved Sunday by a vote of 57-35 is language that frees up Washington D.C. to use local money to implement a medical marijuana measure approved in a referendum by nearly 70 percent of voters in 1998, resurrecting an effort that has been stalled since Congress imposed...

Michigan's state Senate and House passed a smoking ban that will make indoor smoking illegal, save for gambling areas, cigar bars and cigar shops. The measure, HB 4377, passed by a vote of 24 to 13 in the Senate and was overwhelmingly approved by the House in a vote of 75 to 30. The legislation will become law when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signs it; she has come out in favor of such legislation, according to press reports from Michigan. The law will go into effect May 1. Exemptions to the legislation include cigar bars, tobacco stores and casinos. A smoking...

Tiger Woods' mistress Jaimee Grubbs has been described as a cocktail waitress but a RadarOnline.com investigation has discovered that she's been serving up something a lot more potent! Jaimee has been working in a medical marijuana "pharmacy," RadarOnline.com is reporting exclusively. The woman who had a several-years affair with the athlete regarded as a golfing legend has been working at Organic Remedies in Studio City, CA, RadarOnline.com learned exclusively. VIDEO INTERVIEW: Tiger Offered Mistress Job Medical marijuana is legal in California but is widely abused and it is an open secret that medical marijuana cards can be obtained for the...

A woman in Canberra blew a .385 yesterday, one of the highest ever recorded. BAC numbers of .40 are supposed to mean death. Read the linked article for more information.

It may have been the year of one of her classic films, Some Like It Hot, but a home movie found after 50 years in an attic apparently demonstrates that Marilyn Monroe may have enjoyed pot too. A silent reel-to-reel colour film, dating probably from the late 1950s, shows a relaxed star taking a quick puff from what is alleged to have been a joint of marijuana while sitting on a couch with at least two other people. But, as President Bill Clinton and other politicians might put it later, she did not inhale, not much anyway. The film shows...

A video of Marilyn Monroe allegedly smoking marijuana has been made public some 50 years after it was filmed. The film was recently bought for $275,000 (£166,000) by US collector Keya Morgan, who is making a documentary on the death of Monroe in August 1962. He tracked it down to an attic in New Jersey - the person who filmed it said it was taken at an informal gathering in 1958 or 1959. The film shows a personal side rarely seen in public since the actress achieved stardom. At one point in the film, Marilyn points her nose toward her...

PORTLAND, Oregon — The United States' first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration's move to relax policing of medical use of the drug. The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it — as long as they are out of public view — despite a federal ban. "This club represents personal freedom, finally, for our members," said Madeline Martinez, Oregon's executive director of NORML, a group pushing for marijuana legalization. "Our plans go beyond serving food...

SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana. State lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in the United States. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated...

The Justice Department says it's backing off the prosecution of people who smoke pot or sell it in compliance with state laws that permit "medical marijuana." Attorney General Eric Holder says "it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers." Party hardy! I mean -- let the healing begin! I don't think the federal government should be spending a whole lot of time on small-time druggies, and I'm undecided about legalizing pot, which enjoys 44 percent support among the general public, according to a recent poll. Recreational use is not...

(CNN) -- Voters in Maine will decide next week whether to overturn the legislation signed by Gov. John Baldacci nearly six months ago that allows same-sex couples to wed. Baldacci, who originally opposed the legislation, said upholding the bill comes down to a fundamental understanding of equal protection and constitutional responsibility. "Initially, I had the opinion for several years that civil unions were the limitations of what I was willing to support," Baldacci said. "But, the research that I did uncovered that a civil union didn't equal a civil marriage." On May 6 when Baldacci signed the legislation, he did...

A 1-year-old boy whose mom noticed he was lethargic and unresponsive on his birthday earlier this month was high on marijuana, doctors determined. Now the man who was taking care of him at the time is behind bars. Vacaville police arrested Jonathan Velasquez Sr., 29, on Tuesday on suspicion of child endangerment for the Oct. 11 incident. The Police Department's Family Investigative Response Services Team and Solano Child Welfare Services investigated and discovered the infant either inhaled or ingested enough marijuana to require immediate medical attention, Sgt. Charlie Spruill said. Velasquez is the baby's father, Sacramento-area TV station Fox 40...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

One topic that has only recently begun to attract attention is the Nazi anti-tobacco movement. Germany had the world's strongest anti smoking movement in the 1930s and early 1940s,supported by Nazi medical and military leaders worried that tobacco might prove a hazard to the race. Many Nazi leaders were vocal opponents of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists pointed out that whereas Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt were all fond of tobacco, the three major fascist leaders of Europe-Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco-were all non-smokers. Hitler was the most adamant,characterising tobacco as "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man for having been...

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Farmers from North Dakota and Vermont and four others trying to plant hemp seeds at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration have been arrested. Arlington County police spokeswoman Detective Crystal Nosal says six people were charged with trespassing on Tuesday. They were among 21 people protesting the ban on farming of hemp, which is related to the illegal drug marijuana. The Hemp Industries Association says the protesters turned to civil disobedience for the first time. The group is lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They want to grow hemp for non-drug products. North Dakota farmer Wayne...

The prevalence of mental health disorders in this country has nearly doubled in the past 20 years. Who is treating all of these patients? Clinical psychologists and therapists are charged with the task, but many are falling short by using methods that are out of date and lack scientific rigor. This is in part because many of the training programs—especially some Doctorate of Psychology (PsyD) programs and for-profit training centers—are not grounded in science. A new report in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, by a panel of distinguished clinical scientists—Timothy Baker...

San Bernardino became the latest Inland city to ban medical marijuana dispensaries late Monday. - The report notes that California's decriminalization conflicts with federal law. Studies by other cities show dispensaries contribute to increases in noise, traffic, burglaries and robberies, the report states.

BERLIN – A doctor leading a group therapy session gave participants drugs and other substances that killed two and left 10 hospitalized, Berlin police said Sunday. One person was left comatose and in critical condition. The doctor who led the session has acknowledged giving the participants various substances and drugs during the meeting, Martin Steltner, a spokesman for the Berlin prosecutor's office, told The Associated Press on Sunday. It was not clear whether illegal drugs were given and whether the substances were injected or taken orally. A police statement said autopsies have been carried out on the two dead people...

Some people cancel holidays abroad, others stage yard sales or start shopping at low-cost supermarkets. To that list must now be added a new way to get through economic hard times: grow cannabis. Law enforcers on the west coast of the US and in the middle states straddled by the foothills of the Appalachian mountains are reporting a common trend. It is boom time for marijuana cultivation, and much of the incentive they say is to beat the recession. So far this year, police in parts of the country where cannabis is traditionally grown have chopped down plants with a...

DURANT — A bad breakup or a lovers’ quarrel are the leading theories Bryant County officials have for finding nearly $500,000 worth of someone’s property strewn about a Durant area street last week. Just as surprising as the overall value was the property itself: 236 potted, high-grade marijuana plants. "Strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Chuck Carroll, field supervisor for the District 19 Drug Task Force. "That (a domestic dispute) is the first thing that came to our minds. Someone wanted this marijuana to be found.” "We got a county commissioner to dig us a hole and furnish some diesel,...

My home state of California usually interacts with the federal government by genuflecting. But, on a few issues - very few, that is - they’ve got plenty of backbone. Most notably, marijuana. Last week, the California State Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 14 (SJR14), calling on the federal government to end their “interference in state medical marijuana laws.” If passed by the Assembly, it will be sent on to Congress and the White House as an official position of the California legislature. THE INTERSTATE COMMERCE CLAUSE Under the Constitution of the United States, the federal government is authorized to exercise...

Last week, the Drug War Chronicle reports, the Drug Enforcement Administration made its first arrests related to medical marijuana since Attorney General Eric Holder promised not to prosecute people who are complying with state law.

Having strong libertarian tendencies, I pay special attention to issues which present a reasonably good choice between libertarianism and statism – - libertarianism being, in essence, a philosophy that favors individual liberty, less government, and low taxes, and statism being the belief in better living through bigger government. While it seems to me that at least a strong plurality and probably a majority of Americans still hold to libertarian principles, our lives are controlled by the incessant, internecine “liberal-versus-conservative,” “Democrat-versus-Republican” political battles in which libertarian values are either ignored or honored only for show. How can it be, I lament,...

Law enforcement sources tell us DJ AM -- also known as Adam Goldstein -- was found dead this afternoon in New York City. Sources tell us he was found in his apartment at around 5:20 PM. We're told drug paraphernalia was found at the scene. We're told DJ AM had not been seen or heard from for a few days -- one of his friends went to check on him, but got no response after knocking on his apartment door.

They met in a Miami restaurant — he a handsome tennis player, she a pretty waitress — and spent the evening smooching at a nightclub. Little did they know that the kisses they exchanged would spark a controversy that has gripped France all summer amid lawsuits and wrangles before international doping tribunals. Richard Gasquet, a former Wimbledon semi-finalist, claimed that he tested positive for drugs a few hours after his encounter with the waitress because her kisses had contaminated him with cocaine. His story, greeted with derision in France at first, was given weight this week when the results of...

A robbery suspect wearing only a Speedo-style swimsuit was arrested in East Hartford after a police dog tracked him down and bit him on the leg. Police say Tran tried to steal several vehicles, and also took items from them. The 18-year-old Tran allegedly told police he'd been drinking heavily and smoking marijuana.

LAKE FOREST – Though city officials say dispensaries are in violation of city codes, and some collectives may not be following state standards regulating medical marijuana, local law enforcement finds itself limited in what it can do, officials said. "It's not that we have a hands-off approach, it's just that the state in some ways has tied our hands," said Lt. Don Barnes, chief of police services for the city of Lake Forest. "There's not a lot we can do." When it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries, local law enforcement agencies have found themselves walking a tight rope of contradicting...

Empty turtle shells, decaying skunk carcasses and a set of deer antlers lay strewn about an empty campsite in California's Sierra National Forest. The butchered animals, as well as several five-pound propane canisters, camp stoves and heaps of trash, were all that remained of the 69 marijuana plantations recently uncovered in Fresno County as part of operation "Save our Sierras." The massive operation that began in February has already seized about 318,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.1 billion, officials announced last week. In addition to 82 arrests, the multi-jurisdictional federal, state and local operation netted 42 pounds of processed...

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno. The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana. "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra...

OAKLAND, Calif. – Oakland residents overwhelmingly voted Tuesday to approve a first-of-its kind tax on medical marijuana sold at the city's four cannabis dispensaries.

Apple's App Store is never short of controversy, from shaking babies, to explicit racy content. The latest disputable app to be approved by Apple and hit the store is 'Cannabis,' an application that assists users in finding the nearest available marijuana supply. The application is available for $2.99, and is developed by the "Cannabis lifestyle" folks over at Ajnag, yet they insist that the app should be used for medicinal purposes only. It will not share the location of illegal dealers, and Ajnag claims not to promote the illegal use of the drug.

Even though the world has said goodbye to Michael Jackson, the lingering suspicion is now linking his longtime friend Elizabeth Taylor to his alleged prescription-drug overdose. Sources told The Daily Beast that Taylor influenced Jackson to take multiple prescription drugs introducing him to doctor Arnold Klein -- the same doctor whom she's since revealed prescribed her multiple medications including Dilaudid and Ativan, the first a powerful opiate that street users dub "the Bentley of heroin" and the latter a tranquilizer. According to a source familiar with Taylor's medical history, she sought help from at least two doctors to counter her...

text of the Twenty-first Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Section 1. : The eighteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed. Section 2. : The transportation or importation into any State, Territory, or possession of the United States for delivery or use therein of intoxicating liquors, in violation of the laws thereof, is hereby prohibited. Section 3. : This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by conventions in the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the...

> Previously, Daugé and her colleagues had shown that rats deprived of their mothers at birth become hypersensitive to the rewarding effect of morphine and heroin (substances belonging to the opiate family), and rapidly become dependent. In addition, there is a correlation between such behavioral disturbances linked to dependence, and hypoactivity of the enkephalinergic system, the endogenous opioid system. >

Stoned wallabies causing crop circles Tasmanian wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. Things are really hopping in Tasmania where wallabies are getting stoned on the state's opium poppy crops and creating crop circles. The wallabies are breaking into the poppy fields and making the circles while they're high. Rick Rockliff from Tasmanian Alkaloids says wildlife and livestock which eat the poppies are known to act weird, and he's told the Hobart Mercury there's been many stories about sheep eating the poppies and then walking around in circles. Tasmania is the world's largest...

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans to kill a controversial Bush administration spy satellite program at the Department of Homeland Security, according to officials familiar with the decision. The program came under fire from its inception two years ago. Democratic lawmakers said it would lead to domestic spying. Document Police Chiefs' Letter to Napolitano. The program would have provided federal, state and local officials with extensive access to spy-satellite imagery — but no eavesdropping capabilities— to assist with emergency response and other domestic-security needs, such as identifying where ports or border areas are vulnerable to terrorism.

Joints and baggies sold at California's medical marijuana dispensaries will soon carry a new warning label. Next to tags like "Purple Haze" and "White Widow" will be the advisory: Contents may cause cancer when smoked. On Friday, California added marijuana smoke to its official list of known carcinogens, joining the ranks of arsenic, asbestos and DDT. Pot brownies, lollipops and other non-inhalables are not affected by the new ruling.

Drag queen "Ray" was enraged when a late-night customer on Toronto's downtown track offered him $5 for oral sex recently. "I didn't spend two hours getting my makeup on and all dressed up for that," says the 36-year-old former hairdresser from Venezuela, who usually charges $60 for the service. These days, Ray is getting little more than callouses from standing all night near Jarvis and Wellesley, as the economic slump delivers an unexpected hit to the sex trade.

The oldest of the subatomic particles called neutrinos might each encompass a space larger than thousands of galaxies, new simulations suggest... According to quantum mechanics, the "size" of a particle such as a neutrino is defined by a fuzzy range of possible locations. We can only detect these particles when they interact with something such as an atom, which collapses that range into a single point in space and time. For neutrinos created recently, the ranges they can exist in are very, very small. But over the roughly 13.7-billion-year lifetime of the cosmos, "relic" neutrinos have been stretched out by...

When someone becomes dependent on drugs or alcohol, the brain's pleasure center gets hijacked, disrupting the normal functioning of its reward circuitry. Researchers investigating this addiction "switch" have now implicated a naturally occurring protein, a dose of which allowed them to get rats hooked with no drugs at all.

Minnesota cancer patient Daniel Hauser, medical marijuana, and the politicization of medicine. This Memorial Day weekend, FBI officials are combing Southern California and parts of Northern Mexico in search of Daniel Hauser, a 13-year-old from Sleepy Eye, Minnesota who has Hodgkin's lymphoma. Authorities believe Hauser and his mother fled to the area after a Minnesota judge ordered his parents to consent to treating him with chemotherapy on May 14. Hauser's parents claim they're part of an obscure Native American religion called Nemenhah, which eschews chemo and radiation in favor of natural remedies (though there's some indication Hauser and his parents...

Gov. proposes selling L.A. Coliseum, other properties to raise cash Other state assets that could be put on the block include San Quentin State Prison and the Orange County Fairgrounds. The move could raise between $600 million and $1 billion, according to a proposal. By Michael Rothfeld May 13, 2009 Reporting from Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to sell the Los Angeles Coliseum, San Quentin State Prison, the Orange County Fairgrounds and other state property to raise cash amid the state's growing fiscal crisis, according to a copy of a proposal reviewed by The Times. Sale of the properties,...

DENVER -- Admitting that it may be "political suicide" former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo said its time to consider legalizing drugs. He spoke Wednesday to the Lincoln Club of Colorado, a Republican group that's been active in the state for 90 years. It's the first time Tancredo has spoken on the drug issue. He ran for president in 2008 on an anti-illegal immigration platform that has brought him passionate support and criticism. Tancredo noted that he has never used drugs, but said the war has failed. "I am convinced that what we are doing is not working," he said.

RANCHO PENASQUITOS — A blaze that destroyed a garage at a house in Rancho Peñasquitos on Thursday evening was sparked by a young man who was trying to light a bong with a torch, authorities said. The 23-year-old man and a firefighter suffered burns and were taken to UCSD Medical Center. The fire began when the torch caught a sofa on fire at the home on Adobe Bluffs Drive about 6:35 p.m., according to police. The resident ran inside to get water but returned to find the garage fully engulfed in flames and the fire beginning to burn his Jeep....

Sarah Heideman's dreams went up in smoke, literally, last weekend when she and her date were barred from entering their senior prom at Colorado's Brighton High School. Her boyfriend of two years reeked of pot, and police refused to let him in to the dance. But Jason Schweinsberg, who is often wracked with pain because of injuries from a car accident, has a legal prescription for medical marijuana. Now, Heideman, 18, has retained a lawyer and wants someone to pay for the $500 she had spent on her dress, dinner, hair and prom tickets. "I was crying horribly and sometimes...

Poll: Independents reject Obama, agree with Libertarian PartyPolling shows independents aren't buying Obama’s promises of prosperity through Big Government WASHINGTON -- Despite a deep financial crisis and the election of a left-wing president, political independents still see “big government” as a greater than “big business” by an unchanged two-to-one margin, America’s third-largest party notes today. “Independent voters believed Candidate Obama when he said he would be mainstream. Their trusting votes gave him a narrow victory,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “But now that the real Barack Obama has revealed himself, they’re not following his bootlegger turn toward...

Numerous scientific studies have provided compelling evidence that marijuana is effective in treating chronic pain and other symptoms. Now, the New York State Senate and Assembly are considering legislation that would allow patients suffering from specific diseases such as cancer or HIV-related illness to obtain a certification from their doctor that would allow them to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana and up to 12 plants. This legislation must pass. It is patently unfair to deny anyone access to any effective treatment, as well as potentially take away their livelihood, for simply trying to relieve the suffering caused by...

DEA dissenter Sandy Gonzalez reveals the drug war's complicity in torture and murder south of the border. Sandalio “Sandy� Gonzalez spent 27 of his 32 years in law enforcement with the Drug Enforcement Administration, working in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C., and eventually taking charge of the agency’s operations for all of South America. In 2001, while Gonzalez was working as a high-ranking agent in Miami, there was a raid by a team of DEA and Miami–Dade County narcotics agents on a suspected major drug distributor. Several kilograms of cocaine were mysteriously missing by the time the evidence...

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is asking Congress to close the big gap in prison sentences for dealing crack versus powdered cocaine, a law that critics say is unfair to blacks. Such sentencing reform efforts tend to focus on lowering the mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine possession, but in prepared testimony to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Drugs, Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer did not spell out exactly how the administration hopes to make the law more fair. "The administration believes Congress' goal should be to completely eliminate the disparity in prison sentences between crack cocaine and...

CEDAR CITY, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Three men are in jail telling a strange story about drugs and Wal-Mart. It started with a routine traffic stop. Iron County Sheriffs also found boxes of prescription medication in the car. The driver says he was delivering them to the chain store in Cedar City. Iron County Deputy Wade Lee says Diego Jimenez, Maricio Jimenez, and Kyle Gutierrez were on their way to the Cedar City Wal-Mart. They were stopped on Northbound I-15 at mile marker 45, where Deputy Lee clocked them driving 96 miles per hour. Lee says he grew suspicious...