A teenager was arrested earlier this week after police say he gave marijuana to two girls who then “overdosed” on the herb.
No, we aren’t making this horseshit up. Pot paranoia is alive and well in New Jersey. The cops in Franklin Borough actually released that bit information to the press. But here’s the kicker: they admit that they didn’t test for anything and admit “other narcotics” could be involved.
A Homestead woman was walking her dog earlier today in Biscayne National Park when she came across two square groupers.
“About an hour ago, one of our park visitors walking her dog found two heavy bales of…something green, leafy and water-soaked!” wrote the Biscayne National Park’s Facebook page. “On this ‘International Talk Like a Pirate Day,’ it is interesting to note that some of the ‘traditional’ uses of the park like smuggling are still happening.” Miami New Times has the full story.
| Flickr.com/WilsonB. |
If you ever wondered why SoCal surfers, skaters and even some body builders (Arnold Schwarzenegger in his early, Venice days) are often reliable weed smokers, this might provide at least a part of the answer.
A new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence shows that you don’t need wax or purple strains to increase the potency of your marijuana session: Exercise can give your buzz a serious boost. THC levels increased by 15 percent after tokers did cardiovascular exercise, according to researchers at the University of Sydney. LA Weekly has the full story.
| New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. |
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and state officials have purposefully dragged their feet and botched the handling of the state’s medical marijuana program in an attempt to sabotage it.
That’s the argument being heard today in state appeals court in a lawsuit filed by medical marijuana patient Richard Caporusso, according to NJ.com.
| NPS |
| Sheep Lakes at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colo. |
Marijuana possession (of limited amounts) might be legal in Washington and Colorado, but considering the federal government owns massive chunks of land in both states you aren’t always legally carrying ganja depending on where you are – namely national land.
According to a study conducted by the Associated Press, more than 27,700 people have been cited for marijuana possession on federal lands in the last four years. While the number is sizable in terms of drug arrests, officials say it is a paltry figure compared to the hundreds of millions of visitors to national parks, forests and monuments.
Despite what many see as a lighters stance on cannabis in recent years, marijuana arrests continued at an alarming rate in 2012, with more than 749,800 people arrested – with most (87 percent) for simple possession.
According to a the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, marijuana arrests account for 48.3 percent of all drug arrests. Those figures are down slightly from 2011 numbers when marijuana arrests accounted for 49 percent of all arrests, but not by much.
Linn State Technical College cannot force all of its students to submit to mandatory drug testing, according to U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey, who sided with the American Civil Liberties Union in a decision on Friday.
“The lack of a substantial and real public safety risk alone compels the conclusion that the drug-testing policy is unconstitutional as applied to these students,” reads the decision (on view below), which comes two years after the ACLU of Eastern Missouri first filed a lawsuit challenging the college’s new mandatory drug tests for all incoming students. In March, a federal judge blocked the controversial policy through an injunction and has now ruled that the tests are largely unlawful. Sam Levin with the Riverfront Times.
| Wikimedia commons/Dennis Jarvis. |
Are you an international pot dealer missing 1,800 pounds of marijuana? You are? Okay, well police think they found it on a beach in Greece Thursday.
We wouldn’t suggest trying to get it back from them.
| Laketta Ransom. |
It’s 3 a.m. You’re driving around a Dallas suburb hot-boxing your car when the cops pull you over for a minor traffic violation. Smoke billows from the window as the officer approaches. The smell of marijuana is unmistakable. What do you do?
NORML, the national pot-advocacy group, has a handy primer on its website, also printable as a wallet-sized “Freedom Card”, that gives some tips. Hide the weed, as well as any paraphernalia; refuse any warrantless search of your person; be polite, and don’t physically resist. Laketta Ransom, 38, carries no such card in her purse. Dallas Observer has the full, ridiculous tale.