Voter's blog

As of next week, Oregon's medical-marijuana patients will have two smoke-easies in Portland in which to medicate and socialize, the first such places in the country to open since the federal government indicated that it will no longer arrest or prosecute patients and suppliers......

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2009/11/portland_will_soon_have_2_smok.html

In their latest issue, Marie Claire puts the spotlight on 'stiletto stoners,'--educated and successful women who smoke marijuana to relax at the end of a workday. A study by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates that 8 million American women have smoked pot in the past year.

Debbie Schwartz, a 28-year-old reality show production manager, justified her evening routine to the magazine:

Maine voters became the first to license nonprofit organizations to sell medical marijuana on Tuesday, with the state's Question 5 cruising to a landslide victory. With roughly half of the precincts reporting, six in ten Maine voters had tallied in favor of allowing state-licensed nonprofits to distribute pot to approved patients.

Two other states -- Rhode Island and New Mexico -- have approved such nonprofits, but Maine is the first to do so through the ballot box. In California and Colorado, the dispensaries are not specifically regulated as pot shops, but rather as businesses in compliance with state laws.

Rhode Island, New Mexico and Maine, by more tightly regulating distribution, present a model counter to California's. As more states approve licensed dispensaries, the debate will shift from whether medical marijuana should be legal to how it should be produced and distributed - a resounding victory for advocates and patients.

By George F. Will
Thursday, October 29, 2009

During his immersion in his new job, Gil Kerlikowske attended a focus group of 7-year-old girls and was mystified by their talk about "farm parties." Then he realized they meant "pharm parties" -- sampling pharmaceuticals from their parents' medicine cabinets. What he learned -- besides that young humans have less native sense than young dachshunds -- is that his job has wrinkles unanticipated when he became director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

"People," he says, "want a different conversation" about drug policies. With his first report to the president early next year, he could increase the quotient of realism.

Sigh, another pseudo celeb found dead. And the assumed culprit……wait for it……prescription narcotics. Who would have thunk? Remember kids…drugs are okay as long as they are FDA approved and prescribed by a Dealer...err….Doctor.

Does anyone else think that this has anything to do with the FACT that whan a teen gets caught in possesion or under the influence of Marijuana they get the choice of either going to rehab or going to jail? This way the DEA and anti-legalization zealots can point to this statistic to validate their argument. Dirty.