A Mayo Clinic study found nearly 70% of Americans take prescription drugs, with antibiotics, antidepressants and painkillers being the most widely used. 13% took opioids (painkillers that include Oxycontin and Vicodin), more than half of patients take two prescription drugs, while 20% take five or more prescription medications.

Last night, Patrick Kennedy joined CNN’s Piers Morgan to discuss marijuana legalization on his recurring “Gone to Pot” segment. Before getting into Patrick’s “truths”, hats off to...

Huff Post has a great infographic showing “the War on Drugs is clearly a war on weed.” Marijuana was a staggering 99.5% of the Border Patrol’s drug seizures, by weight, along the US-Mexico border in 2011 at 1,934,447 lbs. vs. 7,461 lbs. of cocaine or 328 lbs. of heroin.

Actress, activist and mother Susan Sarandon writes a think piece for Huff Post on why she supported Amendment 64 in Colorado, the “regulate marijuana like alcohol act.” She poses that marijuana legalization is the first step towards correcting the unnecessary racist and classist tragedy that is cannabis prohibition.

A study led by researchers from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found for the first time that thirdhand smoke from cigarettes, the noxious residue that clings to virtually all surfaces long after the secondhand smoke has cleared out, is mutagenic and causes significant genetic damage in human cells (especially kids), particularly tobacco-specific compounds called nitrosamines.

Old Hippie of Beyond Chronic (+ reddit.com advice guru, Weedist writer/editor) will be hanging at the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup on June 22 and 23, 2013. OH will be on a panel called “The Impact of Social Media In the Cannabis Community”, where he hopes to be “the oldest, coolest, and most connected participant!”

The leftwing Party of the Democratic Revolution is preparing legislation to introduce in September to legalize smoking weed in Mexico City. It would permit marijuana home grows, smoking in designated clubs and carrying up to 25 grams. The bill’s goal is for medicinal reasons, but also opens the door for recreational legalization.

The simple, yet mighty, paper towel is a staple in my weedist tool kit. Aside from all the regular handy uses to have a paper towel around,...

Curtis Kyle, a Michigan resident with cerebral palsy who has used a wheelchair his whole life, is “rolling to the White House” to talk to politicians about marijuana legalization. He’s hoping to log 40 miles per day (513 miles) and arrive in DC by July 4th. No word back yet from the White House on any meeting…

NYU is conducting a study, supporting earlier UCLA and Hopkins studies, that even a single does of psilocybin, a psychoactive compound found in magic mushrooms, had decreased cancer-related anxiety and increased patients’ sense of well-being, even 14 months after they’d taken it. The NYU Psilocybin Cancer Anxiety Study should be published in about a year, and may lead to a Phase III drug trial, & ultimate removal of psilocybin from Schedule I.

 

Marc Emery, Canada’s “Prince of Pot,” has been released from a week of solitary confinement in a Mississippi prison for taking pictures of his prison music band with a “prohibited” smart phone, even though authorities gave permission to take the photos.

While most south suburbs in Massachusetts are wary of medical marijuana dispensaries, at least three towns in this area might welcome them. Norwell and Randolph have each created new zoning to allow for such facilities, while restricting them to certain areas of town. Freetown could follow, if voters agree at a town meeting today.

Last Saturday, Miley Cyrus tweeted a photo sporting marijuana leaf bling on the back of her bedazzled phone.

The number of physicians allowed to prescribe medical marijuana in Israel will be raised from 9 to 20 by the end of this year, Likud MK Haim Katz, who chairs the Knesset Labor, Social Welfare and Health Committee said on Monday.

Patrick Dempsey, the ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ actor and owner of Seattle-based Tully’s Coffee said, “Coffee is good for your mind—it’s basically a legalized drug. The next step is selling marijuana, of course. There’s a business model there. You could present it in a beautiful, elegant way: a Michelin-starred coffee shop where you can get marijuana.”

Rejoice Seattle bus riders… bus drivers will now treat legal amounts of lost marijuana (up to 1 ounce) as they would forgotten cell phones and iPods: as personal items that should be returned to a lost-and-found center for recovery by owners. In order to claim lost marijuana, owners will have to specify when it was lost, on which route and what the marijuana and its container looks like.

High Times reports the April 2013 US Price Index (Kind, Mids & Schwag) of $335 per ounce was essentially flat to March’s $336, and still $5 above the YTD average of $330. The top five strains (with average price) were: Kush ($346), Diesel ($380), Purps ($325), Haze ($356), and Strawberry Cough ($397).

Two more New Jersey medical marijuana dispensaries may open soon, bringing the state’s total to three. In addition to the Montclair dispensary that opened last December, a 2nd in Egg Harbor is aiming for a September opening and the third in Woodbridge is building out its physical space now.

 

 

A USC senior recently beat marijuana DUI charges with a 9-3 verdict. Her defense attorney demonstrated she could operate a motor vehicle with the same caution characteristic of a sober person, challenged the subjective nature of the field sobriety tests (based primarily on a police officer’s observations), and presented evidence that 8 ng/ml of THC in her bloodstream does not establish impairment.

The Pediatric Academic Societies’ (PAS) most recent study of 315 college students “supports the theory that cigarettes are a gateway drug to marijuana” because they found tobacco users were more likely to have used marijuana than those who did not use tobacco. Users of both substances averaged significantly more tobacco episodes per month than current users of tobacco only (42 vs. 24).