Free Republic

Getting high is becoming as American as apple pie. Half of U.S. residents have tried marijuana, and 17% currently smoke weed — both new highs since the tune-in drop-out 1960s, a new Gallup survey released Thursday revealed. The poll attributed the increases to growing acceptance of cannabis, with 23 states including New York, legalizing recreational use of weed and 38 states allowing the sale for medicinal purposes. “As marijuana has become more available to Americans and legal in an increasing number of states, their reports of use and experimentation have increased too. Now, half of the country has tried it,...

One unexpected benefit of medical marijuana legislation appears to be a decrease in painkiller overdoses, perhaps because some chronic pain patients are turning to cannabis instead of powerful opioid drugs. In states with laws legalizing medical marijuana, new research shows there are nearly 25 percent fewer deaths from painkiller overdoses. Opioid painkiller overdoses are a growing problem nationwide. More than 16,500 Americans died of opioid drug overdoses in 2010, and the numbers continue to rise. Although a casual relationship hasn’t been proven, there appears to be a significant association between marijuana legislation and a fall in overdose deaths. Researchers from...

Government officials regularly leverage their public-sector experience into more lucrative jobs in high finance. One former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor is giving that track a new twist. Patrick Moen, a longtime DEA agent, has left a post leading a federal team in Portland, Ore., that combats heroin and methamphetamine trafficking to join a private-equity firm that invests solely in businesses tied to the budding legal marijuana industry.

Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany. A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects. They apparently were getting high too.

HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- As Bob Marley music wailed in the next room, the makeshift clinic hummed along like an assembly line: Patients went in to see a doctor, paid $150 and walked out with a recommendation that they be allowed to buy and smoke medical marijuana. So it went, all day, at a hotel just blocks from the state Capitol that was the latest stop of the so-called cannabis caravan, a band of doctors and medical marijuana advocates roaming Montana that has helped thousands of patients apply for medical marijuana cards from the state.

Cannabis poses a greater threat to health than tobacco, lung experts have warned. The warning comes on the day that Home Secretary David Blunkett is due to make a Commons statement about the future of government drug policy. Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections . Dame Helena Shovelton: The Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended that cannabis is downgraded from a class B drug to class C. This would mean that possession would lead to a caution, rather than arrest. The British Lung Foundation is...