Free Republic

The cinnamon roll craze continues in Fresno. Long lines formed yet again on Saturday after Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls set up shop at the fairgrounds in the morning. It was a chance for people to take home hot rolls to enjoy. The company's Facebook page kept people updated while they were in line, even noting a 4-hour wait at one point. They had to cut off sales at five but plan to hold more events like this in the future. If you are looking for a place to buy the rolls year-round, you can head to the Chowchilla Chevron off...

SEATTLE — Washington state’s penchant for getting high is trashing the place. Plastic “doob tubes” and small Mylar bags used to package pot are moldering in gutters, bleaching out in landfills and bobbing in waterways. Concentrated nutrients and fertilizers left over from cannabis growing operations are being dumped in public sewers and making their way past wastewater treatment plants into Puget Sound. And millions of pounds of weed harvest waste that could be composted are instead getting trucked to landfills. This, in a part of the country that prides itself on being environmentally friendly. “We’re seeing a lot of marijuana...

... When the young men got back to Keystone, Fowler said they began ingesting the edible pot. He said his cousin favored some peach tart candies, each piece of candy containing 10 mg of the active ingredient in marijuana, the recommended dose for an adult consuming an edible. But when Goodman consumed several and experienced no immediate effects he kept gobbling them up. “Luke popped two simultaneously” after the first two didn’t seem to do anything, said Fowler. Then he said Goodman took a fifth candy, five times the recommended dose. His mother says her son likely didn’t see the...

<p>Gov. Chris Christie is reiterating his opposition to legalizing marijuana for recreational use and says tax revenue from sales of the drug amount to "blood money.</p>

(Reuters) - The city attorney of bankrupt San Bernardino, California, has a novel idea for raising new revenue - open medical marijuana dispensaries to sell pot. As San Bernardino struggles to deliver a bankruptcy exit plan two years after it filed for Chapter 9 protection, city attorney Gary Saenz says marijuana sales should be part of the southern California city's income.

The business of legal marijuana is booming in Colorado -- and investors are catching a contact high. Yes, there are pot stocks. Nearly all of them are thinly traded penny stocks available only on over-the-counter exchanges, but shares of companies that service the growing cannabis market have been blazing in recent weeks. Medbox (MDBX) is the latest example. The company provides products and services for businesses that dispense medication, such as pharmacies. It announced plans Tuesday to tailor its products for use in recreational and medical marijuana facilities. Shares soared 65%. (Medbox, for the record, is not a penny stock....

Should the state of Colorado issue licenses to (for example) long-established farmers instead of retailers for the growing of medical marijuana? Will licensed retailers have the same quality, safety standards (per qrowing of recreational marijuana) that will be monitored by the state of Colorado... As in, will fertilizers used, types used, etc, be kept track of by CO state safety monitors so as to ensure that (for example) no "night soil" is used?

Is ANY smoke good for the lungs, be it from cigarettes, pot, or smoke from a backyard grill sucked in methodically? Is any alcohol-initiated drunkenness good for the body? Both questions seem to have received no definitive answers. I wonder if - in the future - Colorado will issue second-hand pot smoking warnings for those who live with pot smokers (be they adults or children) but don't smoke it themselves?

DENVER (CBS4)- The taxes on recreational marijuana might go a lot higher than first thought. Smokers buying at shops in Denver may pay up to 35 percent in taxes. Colorado voters will be asked to approve two state taxes totaling 25 percent on all retail marijuana sales in the November election. They may be asked to approve an additional city tax for Denver. Denver Mayor Michael Hancock wants to add an additional five to 10 percent city tax on top of that. Hancock said the money is needed to pay the costs of regulating the drug. Critics complain severe taxes...

Conventional wisdom says tea party conservatives would vote against marijuana legalization in California. Yet Prop. 19 could test how serious tea partyers are about states' rights. Ronald Reagan didn't start the war on drugs, but he made it a mainstay of his presidency. So it would make sense for tea party members who are inspired by Mr. Reagan to oppose Proposition 19 in California, which would legalize marijuana possession. But conventional wisdom and current small-government electoral fervor may meet in a strange (and potentially smoky) place on Election Day. Instead of opposing Prop. 19, parts of the tea party –...

The scientific literature is clear that marijuana is addictive and that its use significantly impairs bodily and mental functions. Marijuana use is associated with memory loss, cancer, immune system deficiencies, heart disease, and birth defects, among other conditions. Even where decriminalized, marijuana trafficking remains a source of violence, crime, and social disintegration. Nonetheless, this November, California voters will consider a ballot initiative, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 (RCTCA),[2] that would legalize most marijuana distribution and use under state law. (These activities would remain federal crimes.) This vote is the culmination of an organized campaign by pro-marijuana...