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End Times Sorceries And Debautry

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: End Times Sorceries And Debautry  (Read 31048 times)
Psalm 51:17
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« Reply #120 on: March 25, 2014, 09:09:58 am »

Yeah, this seems to be the "new norm" now.
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« Reply #121 on: April 17, 2014, 07:11:00 am »

How far have we fallen? A postage stamp will honor a sexual predator

The postal services in the U.S. and in Finland are honoring two homosexuals who have contributed to moral decline by announcing each will get their own stamp.

One is "Tom of Finland" (Touko Laaksonnen), the late graphic artist well known in Finland for his homoerotic sketches. In the U.S., it's Harvey Milk – the San Francisco supervisor killed in 1978 along with Mayor George Moscone by Dan White, a former city supervisor.

Matt Barber, vice president of Liberty Counsel Action and founder of BarbWire.com, continues to be astounded at the accolades being heaped on Milk, a proven sexual predator.

"This is a man who was known for a perverse sexual appetite for teenage, runaway, drug-addicted boys," relates Barber, "and the fact that this Obama administration and the postal service would choose to ignore that and go with the propaganda and the hype that this guy was some kind of hero and a pro-LGBT martyr – it just boggles the mind."

Arguably, both men made an impact – but Barber tells OneNewsNow it was definitely negative.

"That [Harvey Milk] would get his own stamp and that this other homosexual activist would get a stamp honoring a lifestyle that has led to the AIDS epidemic, that has led to the spread of syphilis and STDs and a decline in our culture's morality, just speaks to how far we have fallen as a nation," he concludes.

Barber encourages people to fight back, suggesting that when they go to a post office to buy stamps and are offered a Harvey Milk stamp, they politely and firmly decline and explain that they choose not to further an immoral lifestyle.

While the USPS has not yet formally revealed the design, Linn's Stamp News has published an image of the Harvey Milk stamp. It will debut May 22, which is celebrated in California's public schools as Harvey Milk Day. The "Tom of Finland" stamp series is slated for release in September.

- See more at: http://www.onenewsnow.com/culture/2014/04/17/a-postage-stamp-will-honor-a-sexual-predator#.U0_ERlehFyI

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« Reply #122 on: April 17, 2014, 09:13:06 am »

Yeah, never would I have imagined in my lifetime that the Days of Lot would be this, THIS wretched.
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« Reply #123 on: April 26, 2014, 07:53:18 am »

Middle school teacher provides ‘full-contact’ lap dance in front of class for birthday boy

Prosecutors in Houston, Texas charged a middle school teacher because she gave a full-on lap dance to a boy for his birthday in front of an entire class of no-doubt impressed preteens.

The teacher, Felicia Smith, staged the lap dance in her classroom at Stovall Middle School on February 26, reports local CBS affiliate KHOU.

When police interviewed the unnamed student, he said Smith, 42, had seductively placed a school chair in front of the classroom after the tardy bell rang. Music began to play – from some undisclosed source – and several students in the class began yelling raucously that the birthday boy should sit down in the chair.

Once the kid sat down, the fortysomething teacher gave him what was perhaps his first full-contact lap dance. According to a police report, Smith did the thing where she turned around and swiveled her butt on the middle school student. She rubbed her hands all over his body. She also got down on her knees and stuck her head between the boy’s legs.

It’s not clear if the kid enjoyed the lap dance. However, he admitted that he did slap Smith’s ass a couple times.

The incident lasted a little over three-and-a-half minutes — presumably the duration of the song that was playing. It’s not clear which song was chosen for the special occasion.

At the end of the lap dance, Smith hugged the boy and told him, “I love you, baby. Happy birthday,” according to KHOU.

When police questioned Smith, she said she provided the lap dance at the urging of students in the class. She noted that she almost fell down a few times while performing the acrobatics required of the lap dance.

Somebody – it’s not clear who – apparently filmed the spectacle. The Harris County district attorney and the Aldine, Texas police department both have copies of the video.

Smith faces a single criminal charge: improper relationship with student. She is free on a $30,000 bond.

A statement released by the local school district explained that Smith “was removed from the campus during the investigation and has not returned.”

It’s not clear if she is still being paid while her criminal case meanders through the court system.

http://news.yahoo.com/middle-school-teacher-provides-full-contact-lap-dance-203041332.html
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« Reply #124 on: May 01, 2014, 02:21:31 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/55-schools-face-us-federal-sex-assault-probe-153949205--politics.html
55 schools face U.S. federal sex assault probe
5/1/14

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty-five colleges and universities — big and small, public and private — are being investigated over their handling of sexual abuse complaints, the Education Department revealed Thursday.

The department's decision to release the list is unprecedented and comes as the Obama administration seeks to shed greater light on the issue of sexual assault in higher education and how it is being handled.

Going forward, the department said, it will keep an updated list of schools facing such investigations and make it available upon request.

The schools range from big public universities including Ohio State University, the University of California, Berkeley, and Arizona State University to private schools including Knox College in Illinois, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania and Catholic University of America in the District of Columbia. Ivy League schools including Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth are also on the list.

The agency previously would confirm such Title IX investigations when asked, but students and others were often unaware of them.

Catherine E. Lhamon, the assistant secretary of education for civil rights, said in a statement that a school's presence on the list does not mean that it has violated the law but that an investigation of complaints is underway.

Some investigations were prompted by complaints directly to the federal department; others were initiated by the department following compliance reviews triggered by other factors, such as news stories. The department did not release specifics in the cases, and only sparse details in many of them have emerged.

Details in some cases are known, however. For example, one at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor involves allegations of mishandling of a matter involving a student athlete. The investigation began after federal authorities received complaints related to the expulsion of Brendan Gibbons, a former kicker on Michigan's football team.

A student group examined the school's student sexual misconduct policy and last month determined the university failed to explain a yearslong delay between the alleged incident and Gibbons' expulsion in December. Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald says the university has been "fully cooperating."

At Dartmouth, where investigators visited the Hanover, New Hampshire, campus in late January to speak with students, faculty and alumni, a compliance review prompted the investigation. Like many other schools, university officials there said they were working to make improvements.

"We are hopeful at the end of this there will be a resolution that will strengthen our internal processes and result in a safer community," Dartmouth spokesman Justin Anderson said Thursday. "There's always something we can learn and ways to get better."

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said there had been "lots of internal debate" about whether to release the list but that he believes in transparency; he said the more the country is talking about the problem of sexual assault, the better. Duncan said there is "absolutely zero presumption" of guilt in his mind for schools being investigated.

"No one probably loves to have their name on that list," Duncan said during a White House media briefing. "But we'll investigate; we'll go where the facts are. And where they have done everything perfectly, we'll be very loud and clear that they've done everything perfectly."

Duncan said while being on the list might feel difficult for schools, it pales in comparison to the difficulty and trauma borne by sexual assault victims on American college campuses.

"In terms of what's morally right there, the moral compass, whatever we can do to have fewer young women and young men having to go through these types of horrific incidents, we want to do that," Duncan said.

Title IX prohibits gender discrimination at schools that receive federal funds. It is the same law that guarantees girls equal access to sports, but it also regulates institutions' handling of sexual violence and increasingly is being used by victims who say their schools failed to protect them.

The task force announced the creation of a website, notalone.gov, offering resources for victims and information about past enforcement actions on campuses. The task force also made a wide range of recommendations to schools, such as identifying confidential victims' advocates and conducting surveys to better gauge the frequency of sexual assault on campuses.

The department publicized guidance on Title IX's sexual assault provisions in 2011, and complaints by students have since increased. Complaints, however, don't always lead to an investigation.

The department can withhold federal funding from a school that doesn't comply with the law, but it so far has not used that power and instead has negotiated voluntary resolutions for violators.

Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., have said non-compliance under the law is "far too common." They say a lack of federal resources is partly to blame for that, and they've sought more money to ensure timely and proper investigations.

Another law that campus sexual assault cases fall under is the Clery Act, which requires colleges and universities to report crime statistics on or near their campuses. It also requires schools to develop prevention policies and ensure victims their basic rights. Investigations under this law are not included in the list that was released.

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« Reply #125 on: May 23, 2014, 07:14:09 am »

Fairfax Co. police investigating allegations of students sharing **** photos of classmates

Fairfax County police are investigating a makeshift online **** site after a receiving a tip that it was created by students at McLean High School.

Officers served a search warrant at the home of at least one student after receiving the tip last week about boys sharing explicit photos of their female classmates on Dropbox.

No charges have been filed, but the school says it is cooperating with the investigation.

One former student who still has a younger sister attending McLean High told FOX 5, "They should be punished, especially if they did it without the girls' permission and I don't think they had the girls’ permission."

Taki Gikakis, whose son attends the school, said, "I heard a sophomore and senior are involved and the sophomore is the kingpin."

He added, "If the allegations are true, it would be pretty upsetting."

Principal Ellen Reilly sent the following letter home to parents:

Dear Parents and Guardians,

You may be hearing rumors as well as media reports about an ongoing "sexting" investigation being conducted by the Fairfax County Police Department involving some of our students. My office has been cooperating with the police in this investigation and we will continue to do so.

As we have communicated with you in the past, the dangers of sexting aren't always well known and when you find out about them, it may be too late. The consequences of sexting are severe and could either ruin a reputation or a life. It should not be treated as a harmless prank.

Be sure to keep a close eye on what your teens are involved with, especially the applications on their cell phones and computers. Don't avoid this method of prevention because you think it makes you look like you don't trust your children. At the end of the day, it's better to be safe than sorry. What most young people do not realize is that the production, possession, and distribution of explicit photos of minors, even if they are self-produced, may be illegal. Sexting shouldn't be brushed off as some innocuous form of communication between young people.

Thank you for your support and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Ellen Reilly

McLean High School, Principal

Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/25584097/fairfax-co-police-investigating-allegations-of-students-sharing-****-photos-of-classmates#ixzz32XYeWXpC

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« Reply #126 on: June 03, 2014, 02:13:52 pm »

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/crime-courts/fantasy-slender-man-meme-inspires-horrific-wisconsin-stabbing-n121311#
Fantasy 'Slender Man' Meme Inspires Horrific Wisconsin Stabbing

The morning began with a game of hide-and-seek among three 12-year-old girls in the park. But a far more sinister plan — inspired by an online horror meme — was in the works, Wisconsin prosecutors say.

As the middle-school friends played in a wooded area Saturday morning in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha, one of them retrieved a five-inch blade tucked inside her waistband, according to a criminal complaint. She and another girl allegedly held the third one down and stabbed her 19 times all over her body.

The knife barely missed an artery near her heart, coming “one millimeter away from certain death,” the complaint said.

The suspects reportedly fled, leaving her to die. But the victim managed to crawl out of the woods until a bicyclist found her covered in blood on a sidewalk. She remained in stable condition Monday, authorities said.

The suspects appeared in Waukesha County court Monday and were charged as adults with first-degree attempted homicide. Bail was set at $500,000 each. (NBC News is not identifying the girls because of their age.)

The bizarre nature of the attack has stunned the community of 70,000. Even more unsettling, police say, is how the girls concocted their plan: They allegedly wanted to please an Internet meme known as the Slender Man.

The character is featured on the website Creepypasta Wiki, which compiles tales of fictional horror. But the girls allegedly believed Slender Man was real.

One of them allegedly told police that they wanted to become “proxies” of the faceless character, and would have to prove their dedication with killing, reported NBC affiliate WGBA in Green Bay. They planned to take their victim’s body to a part of Nicolet National Forest in Wisconsin's north woods, where Slender Man supposedly lives.

The girls had been concocting the attack since February, and were finally able to carry it out last weekend, according to the complaint. One of the suspects was allowed to have two friends over for a birthday sleepover Friday. The following morning, they went to the woods and allegedly set their plan into motion.

“I thought, dear God, this was really happening,” one of the suspects later told police, the complaint said.

The victim was stabbed repeatedly in the torso, legs and arms. Police say she screamed, “I hate you. I trusted you,” to her attackers, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

One of the girls later expressed some remorse, investigators said.

“The bad part of me wanted her to die, the good part of me wanted her to live,” the girl said, according to the complaint.

The girls each face up to 60 years in prison if convicted as adults, although their attorney could request the charges be brought to juvenile court instead. Waukesha County District Attorney Brad Schimel told the Journal Sentinel that he would resist such a move.

“It’s troubling when a person lashes out in anger,” Schimel said. “It’s more troubling when they lash out in cold blood. Isn’t that the worst kind of killer, the cold-blooded killer?”

First published June 3rd 2014, 8:15 am
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« Reply #127 on: June 12, 2014, 07:47:34 am »

Smoking Marijuana Lowers IQ For Life, Scientists Warn

Smoking cannabis as a teenager lowers IQ into adulthood and could have a lifelong impact, researchers have warned. U.S. researchers found the damaging effects of the drug remained even if users stopped smoking marijuana as adults. They said teenagers face increased risks from smoking cannabis, because the brain is rapidly developing at this time. The scientists, from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) in the U.S., added that smoking cannabis affects critical thinking and memory during use, with the effects persisting for days. Reviewing a range of studies on marijuana smoking, they reiterated that cannabis impairs driving and increases the risk of being involved in a car accident. The risks are further enhanced when combining marijuana with alcohol, they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2650631/Smoking-marijuana-teenager-lowers-IQ-LIFE-scientists-warn.html

 Roll Eyes duh..
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« Reply #128 on: June 12, 2014, 07:28:39 pm »

So this is a KNOWN FACT about marijuana, that it does indeed lower a child's IQ into adulthood if they do use it?

Just wondering b/c the "truth" movement supports marijuana legalization.
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« Reply #129 on: June 26, 2014, 12:54:23 am »

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/legal-pot/detox-network-sees-pot-duis-spike-colorado-after-legalization-n141231
Detox Network Sees Pot DUIs Spike in Colorado After Legalization

It may be legal to buy and smoke marijuana in Colorado, but it’s still against the law to drive while high — and that’s a message an increasing number of people aren’t receiving.

Colorado’s largest detox network said Wednesday that the number of its patients busted for DUI while high on pot has nearly doubled, from 8 percent last year to 15 percent this year.

“This percentage increase is significant because recreational marijuana legalization is in its infancy and there has clearly already been an impact on public safety,” Art Schut, president and CEO of Arapahoe House, said in a statement. “Our hope is that this new data will create awareness so that if Coloradans choose to use marijuana, they do not get behind the wheel.”

Arapahoe House, which runs three detox centers in the state, compared data from Jan. 1 to May 31 in 2014 and the same period last year, when recreational marijuana sales were still illegal in the state.

In the six months this year, 197 of the around 1,311 people brought to the network’s detox centers after being caught for driving under the influence were high on marijuana.

In the same period last year, that number was 112 out of 1,324 brought in for DUI.


Colorado’s law allowing recreational sales of the drug in stores took effect Jan. 1, after voters approved an amendment to the state constitution in 2012. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state since 2001.

Arapahoe House Communications Director Kate Osmundson told NBC News the network expects to see an increase in the number of drivers busted for DUI while high on pot now that the drug can be sold in stores.

When people are brought by police to a detox center after being caught driving under the influence, staffers monitor them until they are sober enough to get home safely, usually by arranging a ride from family members, Osmundson said.

The network, which says it is Colorado’s largest provider of detox services, said its data shows the average person caught driving while high on marijuana is white, male, and 30 years old. Only one in five was female.

Denver Police did not respond to a request for comment.

It is illegal for drivers to operate a motor vehicle with 5 nanograms of active THC in their bloodstream, an amount the Colorado Department of Transportation says is comparable to the 0.08 blood-alcohol level used in cases involving booze.

In March, the state Department of Transportation launched a $1 million ad campaign to curb drugged driving.

— Phil Helsel
First published June 25th 2014, 5:51 pm
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« Reply #130 on: July 08, 2014, 09:54:20 am »

1Peter 5:8  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
1Pe 5:9  Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/washington-poised-start-legal-marijuana-061237577.html

Washington poised to start legal marijuana sales
Marijuana hits the shelves as Washington readies to start legal sales

7/8/14

SEATTLE (AP) -- As Washington state readied to become only the second state to allow people to buy marijuana legally without a doctor's note, lines were already forming in front of the lucky few stores that got last-minute approval to sell.

At Cannabis City, where the owner wasn't planning to open his doors until noon Tuesday, a 65-year-old retiree named Deb Greene, showed up just before 3 p.m. Monday. She had a chair, sleeping bag, food, water and a 930-page book.

"I voted for it, and I'm just so excited to see it come to be in my lifetime," she said. "I'm not a heavy user, I'm just proud of our state for giving this a try."

The start of legal pot sales in Washington Tuesday marks a major step that's been 20 months in the making. Washington and Colorado stunned much of the world by voting in November 2012 to legalize marijuana for adults over 21, and to create state-licensed systems for growing, selling and taxing the pot. Sales began in Colorado on Jan. 1.

Businesses including Cannabis City, which will be the first and, for now, only recreational marijuana shop in Seattle, got word early Monday morning from the state that they were licensed marijuana dealers.

Owner James Lathrop had already worked into the night Sunday placing no-parking signs in front of his building, hoisting a grand-opening banner and hanging artwork.

"I've had a long day. It really hasn't sunk in yet," he said.

In a 2:30 a.m. Pacific time interview with The Associated Press, John Evich, an investor in Bellingham's Top Shelf Cannabis, which will also open Tuesday morning, said they were "pretty stoked."

"We haven't had any sleep in a long time, but we're excited for the next step," Evich said.

Randy Simmons, the state Liquor Control Board's project manager for legal marijuana, said the first two dozen stores were notified so early to give them an extra few hours to get cannabis on their shelves before they are allowed to open their doors at 8 a.m. Tuesday. The store openings are expected to be accompanied by high prices, shortages and celebration.

An AP survey of the licensees showed that only about six planned to open Tuesday, including two stores in Bellingham, one in Seattle, one in Spokane, one in Prosser and one in Kelso. Some were set to open later this week or next, while others said it could be a month or more before they could acquire marijuana to sell.

Officials eventually expect to have more than 300 recreational pot shops across the state.

As soon as the stores were notified Monday, they began working to place their orders with some of the state's first licensed growers. As soon as the orders were received, via state-approved software for tracking the bar-coded pot, the growers could place the product in a required 24-hour "quarantine" before shipping it early Tuesday morning.

The final days before sales have been frenetic for growers and retailers alike. Lathrop and his team hired an events company to provide crowd control, arranged for a food truck and free water for those who might spend hours waiting outside, and rented portable toilets to keep his customers from burdening nearby businesses with requests to use the restrooms.

At Nine Point Growth Industries, a marijuana grower in Bremerton, owner Gregory Stewart said he and his director celebrated after they worked through some glitches in the pot-tracking software early Monday and officially learned they'd be able to transport their weed 24 hours later, at 2:22 a.m. Tuesday.

"It's the middle of the night and we're standing here doing high-fives and our version of a happy dance," he said. "It's huge for us."

Pot prices were expected to reach $25 a gram or higher on the first day of sales — twice what people pay in the state's unregulated medical marijuana dispensaries. That was largely due to the short supply of legally produced pot in the state. Although more than 2,600 people applied to become licensed growers, fewer than 100 have been approved — and only about a dozen were ready to harvest by early this month.

Nevertheless, Evich said his shop in Bellingham wanted to thank the state's residents for voting for the law by offering $10 grams of one cannabis strain to the first 50 or 100 customers. The other strains would be priced between $12 and $25, he said.

The store will be open at 8 a.m. Tuesday, he said, but work remained: trimming the bathroom door, cleaning the floors, wiping dust off the walls and, of course, stocking the shelves.

At Cannabis City, despite the line already beginning to form, Lathrop wasn't planning to open before noon.

"Know your audience: We're talking stoners here," he said. "I'd be mean to say they need to get up at 5 a.m. to get in line."
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« Reply #131 on: July 11, 2014, 07:05:11 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/seattles-first-legal-pot-shop-runs-marijuana-225721439.html
Seattle's first legal pot shop runs out of marijuana
7/11/14

 SEATTLE (Reuters) - Seattle's first and only recreational marijuana store had to close on Friday after running out of stock in just three days since Washington became the second U.S. state to allow pot sales to adults.

Cannabis City opened in Seattle on Tuesday with at least 10 pounds (4.5 kgs) of marijuana for sale, and by close of business Thursday it was all gone. A message on the store's phone line said it would re-open on July 21.

There were widespread concerns that shortages of pot would afflict retailers this week after the state issued its first 25 licenses to outlets, under a heavily regulated and taxed system approved by voters in November 2012.

Some business owners planned to limit the amount of marijuana early customers could buy to try to make stocks last.

Amber McGowan, manager at Cannabis City, told Reuters on Thursday the store would likely not have enough inventory to stay open for all of its regularly scheduled business hours until a delivery that was due next week.

She said the shop was only able to stay open as long as it had by limiting customers to 0.2 ounces (six grams) per purchase, rather than the legal limit of 1.0 ounce (28 grams).

The roll-out of recreational sales in Colorado and then Washington comes as a broader trend of liberalization and pro-pot activism takes hold in the United States.

Progress in Washington has been slow, however, with state regulators still processing more than 300 license applications, and approved growers producing only limited harvests so far.

Industry insiders say the shortages are likely to be only temporary, caused in part by the short notice many retailers had to prepare for opening, and a surge of pent-up demand.

This week, Colorado estimated that state's total marijuana demand for this year at 130 tons.

"A year from now, product is likely going to be far more available," said Sean Green, chief executive officer of Kouchlock Productions, a marijuana producer in Washington.

Another local supplier, Wow Weed, said they were trying to help the stores, but that there was only so much they could do.

"We have been hearing from retailers off the hook. My voice mail is full every single day," said Wow's Susy Wilson. "It's the same people calling over and over, hoping I'll pull something out of thin air."

Frustrated consumers in Seattle, a city of some 630,000 people, made light of the shortages, with one Twitter user urging outlets to adopt a green "Pot Light" system for their windows to show they had stock - similar to the Hot Light employed by a well-known donut brand.
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« Reply #132 on: July 16, 2014, 01:47:52 pm »

http://wallstcheatsheet.com/politics/getting-high-public-opinion-on-marijuana-legalization-in-4-charts.html/?ref=YF
Getting High: Public Opinion on Marijuana Legalization in 4 Charts
7/15/14

Anyone who has been paying an ounce of attention to the news over the past couple of years is well aware that the nation’s attitudes towards drugs — and marijuana in particular — are going through a radical shift. Data has shown that the War on Drugs has turned out to be a monumental failure, wasting billions, if not trillions of dollars and leading to the incarceration of untold amounts of people. As the Internet has allowed more people to access information easily, it’s also become common knowledge that marijuana is not the incredibly dangerous narcotic it was made out to be for many generations, and instead could be a real driver of economic prosperity — if we allow it to be.

During the 2012 election cycle, both Colorado and Washington became the first states to pass legislation legalizing marijuana for recreational use within their borders. The news was met with great fervor, and everyone across the country has sat back and watched with much anticipation to see what the fallout would be. The DEA announced they would let the states’ experiment proceed forward without interference, and so far, things have gone off without a hitch. Tax revenue is pouring in, access to cannabis has become safer and convenient, and other states are getting to work drafting their own legislation to follow in Colorado and Washington’s footsteps.

The positive effects of the legalization process have really been undeniable in both Colorado and Washington. Fewer people are getting in trouble with the law, police officers have one less thing to worry about, and it’s opening up an entire new industry for entrepreneurs and investors to wade into. Still, there are some holdouts who still believe cannabis should be outlawed and criminalized. For the most part, the divide in attitudes has been along generational and political lines, but those rifts are starting to close up, which is one of the major reasons the legalization efforts have been able to pick up steam.

Looking at data collected by the Pew Research Center, we can take a closer look at exactly how these shifts are happening, and when they started to occur. Read on to see four charts explaining the generational and political shifts in marijuana legalization attitudes that are driving the U.S. towards new drug policies, and as a result, economic prosperity in the brand new cannabis industry.



The Tables Have Turned

The biggest shift in attitudes towards cannabis legalization has been across the entire demographic spectrum. The chart above shows how people of all races, genders, and age groups feel about legalizing marijuana, and as anyone can plainly point out, there has been a huge change. Starting at around 1990, legalization popularity bottomed out with just 16 percent of those polled supporting it. That number doubled in just ten years to 31 percent in the year 2000.

Since 2000, support grew wildly, and eventually reached the 52 percent threshold during 2012. Currently, numbers are the highest they’ve ever been. At the beginning of 2014, CNN polls show 55 percent support. As more and more data becomes available from Colorado and Washington’s opening industries, it’s hard to think that these numbers would see any regression.



Deep Red Holdouts

A closer look into the political demographics show that the left is a very strong supporter of the legalization effort, while conservatives still have a ways to go. Eighty-one percent of the solid liberal base has given legalization advocates their support, compared to just 28 percent of conservatives of the same degree. In fact, the above chart shows that only the far right on the political spectrum still maintain fledgling support, while all those on the left and in the center have jumped on board.

This may actually seem counter-intuitive, as conservatives generally vie for less regulation and open markets. The fact that their attitude does not bleed into the cannabis debate tells of some other factors at play. Of course, everyone was skeptical of legalization at first, but now that most people are behind it, the right will most likely see their attitudes evolve. Even Colorado Republicans have changed their minds, and if the rest of the party doesn’t change, it could end up hurting them come election time.



Political Party Support

Much in-line with the previous chart, here we get a glimpse of the two main political parties themselves, not just political beliefs of those polled. It’s painfully obvious that there is a huge gap between Democrats and Republicans, to the tune of 22 percent. Once again, those numbers may seem counterintuitive, as the Republican party’s platform usually is all-for free markets and less government interference, while the Democrats typically champion more government regulation.

One interesting thing to watch as 2014 and 2016 elections come up is whether or not these numbers see a radical shift. If the majority of people are supporting the legalization effort, a 37 percent rating from the Republican side could really put a damper on conservative’s hopes of gaining more power in Congress, and by passing legislation. Republicans didn’t support legalization measures in either Colorado or Washington, and if their views don’t morph to fit the mainstream a little more, it could cost them.



In our final chart, we see just where exactly the biggest rift currently sits when it comes to attitudes regarding marijuana legalization. The rise of the millennial population has been the most significant driving force behind the legalization effort, with 65 percent of those born after 1981 supporting the notion. That number has exploded over the past ten years or so, nearly doubling from a mere 34 percent in the mid-2000s. All other generations have seen increases as well, but none so much as the millennials.

Another giant leap in progress has been made in the baby boomer demographic, in which now half support legalization. As the boomer population makes up a large percentage of the overall population, their increasing support lends a heavy hand in the overall evolving attitudes of the country. Generation X has also reached a point to where more than half of the generation is on board as well, and as the silent generation ages and passes on, many who are against legalization will go with them.

It’s obvious that things are changing, and generational and political lines are still the biggest factors in deciding attitudes towards marijuana legalization for many. Expect that to change in coming years, as cannabis becomes an even bigger issue than it ever has before, especially when monstrous profit and tax revenue is involved.
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« Reply #133 on: August 01, 2014, 10:56:53 am »

http://theweek.com/article/index/265651/speedreads-bill-oreilly-took-a-poll-on-legalizing-weed-youll-never-guess-what-happened-next
7/31/14

Bill O'Reilly took a poll on legalizing weed. You'll never guess what happened next.

When Bill O'Reilly issued a poll on his site about marijuana legalization, he probably didn't expect users to come out swinging for the pro-weed crowd. And yet, that's exactly what happened.

On July 28, Bill O'Reilly asked his site's visitors their opinions on "the move to legalize marijuana for recreational use." The poll had two answer choices: "It should be legal, like alcohol" and "Dangerous idea with many unintended consequences."

That's an echo of Bill O'Reilly's own statement on Monday night that "the legalization of marijuana is still full of unintended consequences." But after more than 68,000 people responded, 89 percent of those polled said that marijuana should be legalized, "like alcohol."

Now, it's possible O'Reilly's online poll got hijacked. Online polls are notoriously unreliable, because respondents are just whomever decides to click. Still, previous polls by Gallup and Pew have shown that a majority of Americans support legal weed, and seeing the data reinforced on a right-wing website really drives home the fact. Check out the screenshots of the poll, taken Thursday afternoon, below. --Meghan DeMaria
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« Reply #134 on: August 10, 2014, 10:00:20 pm »

http://news.msn.com/in-depth/cultural-changes-in-attitude-toward-tv
Cultural changes in attitude toward TV
8/9/14

NEW YORK (AP) — Manjula Stokes has twice sworn off television, once throwing a set off her deck in a fit over an ex-husband's sports obsession. Now she's a devotee of programs like "Downton Abbey," ''Mad Men," ''Survivor" and "Masters of Sex."

The teacher from Santa Cruz, California, illustrates a subtle change in society's attitude toward television. The medium is growing in stature, propelled by both art and technology. More worthy programs are available at a time when viewers are becoming more comfortable setting up their own schedules to watch.

"I feel it's more like reading a good book," Stokes said. "The acting is better, the direction is better. I think it's more serious as an art form."

A CBS survey of 700 people with Internet and television connections last year found that 28 percent said they're watching more television than they did a year ago. Seventeen percent say they're watching less, with the remainder indicating their habits are unchanged.

That may not seem like much, but there's a long history of people saying they are watching, or plan to watch, less TV — even as Nielsen measurements proved the opposite is true.

In other words, liking television is becoming more socially acceptable.

"You can go to a sophisticated party in New York City now and people will be talking about television programming, not the latest art film or the latest play," said David Poltrack, CBS' veteran chief researcher. "You can go to a bar in a lower socio-economic neighborhood and they'll be talking about television. They may be talking about different programs, but they'll be talking about television."

Now, for every award-winning drama there's a series about botched plastic surgeries, naked dating or Kardashians. More than one, truthfully. But the push among cable networks during the past decade to make their own original series has significantly increased the amount of quality programs.

For years, polls uncovered a certain shameful attitude toward watching television.

When asked in 2000 how much time they spent watching TV the previous day, 84 percent of respondents told the Pew Research Center it was less than four hours. That didn't jibe with the Nielsen company's finding that the average American that year watched four hours, 15 minutes of television a day.

A Gallup poll in 1990 found 49 percent of people said they spent too much time watching television. Only 19 percent said they watched too little. Nine years ago when CBS began its annual survey, more people said they were cutting back on TV time.

This year, Nielsen estimates the average American watches four hours, 50 minutes of TV a day.

"I think the quality is better," said Yael Chanoff, a 25-year-old writer from San Francisco. She's a fan of smart comedies like NBC's "Parks & Recreation." Many older shows Chanoff has seen, even hits like "Friends," strike her as cliche-ridden.

Some better shows now have an attention to detail that reminds Stokes, who is 59, of work done by the MGM movie studio during the last century.

Cory Phare, a 33-year-old academic conference director from Denver, said he grew up watching a lot of television but drifted away. The ability to binge on well-written dramas like "Breaking Bad," ''The Americans" and "Dexter" through Netflix drew him back in. He just finished going back to watch the entire run of "The West Wing."

"Even when I'm on a lunch break, I pull it up on my smartphone," he said.

That's another key to television's resurgence. Viewers no longer depend on prime-time schedules set up in Hollywood boardrooms; they don't even have to depend on television. Stokes, Chanoff and Phare all consider themselves fans of modern-day TV, and none of them have cable or satellite subscriptions.

"My friends all watch it on computer," Chanoff said. She finds a friend with cable to watch "Parks & Recreation," the only show she cares to watch live.

The days of needing to choose between two good programs airing at the same time are now gone. The downside for networks is that it's harder for less-established shows to catch on because some nights more people are watching DVR playbacks than any individual show on a network.

That's a problem for another day. The first priority is getting people interested in what television has to offer.

"Really, television is now more than ever at the center of culture," Poltrack said.
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« Reply #135 on: August 14, 2014, 09:42:37 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/hampshire-declares-state-emergency-over-synthetic-drug-214853241.html
New Hampshire declares state of emergency over synthetic drug
8/14/14

 MANCHESTER N.H. (Reuters) - New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan declared a state of emergency on Thursday in response to 44 reported overdoses linked to people smoking or ingesting "Smacked," a synthetic marijuana-like product sold in convenience stores as potpourri.

The state of emergency authorizes public health officials to investigate stores and quarantine the product, and Hassan directed the officials to work with local police departments to do so.

"These products pose a serious threat to public health, especially to young people, and it is our responsibility to do whatever we can to combat the recent rash of overdoses," Hassan said in a statement.

The overdoses, none of which have been fatal, have primarily been reported in the Manchester area. Manchester police on Wednesday said they had found Smacked in three convenience stores and that those stores' business licenses were revoked.

Health officials are particularly concerned about the bubblegum flavor of Smacked, which several people who were brought to area hospitals reported taking.

The packets contain a potpourri-like substance that is sprayed with chemically engineered substances similar to tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, officials said.


Similar concerns have arisen over "bath salts," which sent thousands of people in the United States to hospitals in 2012.

A federal ban on compounds found in synthetic marijuana products and bath salts was enacted in 2012, and later that year New Hampshire joined more 40 other states in adopting similar bans. But such laws have proven difficult to enforce, as drug makers can make slight modifications to the products' chemical compositions.

New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster urged store owners to voluntarily pull such products from their shelves, noting that they "could be held responsible for harm caused to a user of the product."
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« Reply #136 on: August 21, 2014, 02:21:03 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/heavy-pot-teen-years-may-predict-later-life-183940372.html
Heavy pot use in teen years may predict later-life disability
8/20/14

 NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A long-term study of Swedish men finds that those who smoked marijuana at age 18, especially the heaviest users, were more likely to end up on the nation’s disability rolls by age 59.

It’s unclear whether the pot use in adolescence may have led to more severe substance abuse or was an early sign of psychiatric or social factors that contributed to later disability, the researchers caution.

“There is reason to believe that the associations found in our study develop over a long period of time and are intertwined with problems in the labor market, in the social security system, and with the individual,” said study leader Anna‐Karin Danielsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

Marijuana is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs in the world, with 77 million Europeans reporting having tried it in a recent study.

Pot use in the U.S. has been on the rise since 2007, possibly due in part to a perception of diminishing risks. Colorado and Washington became the first states to legalize the possession and use of recreational marijuana by adults in 2012.

Nonetheless, studies continue to link cannabis with a variety of psychiatric and health problems as well as adverse social consequences, Danielsson said. The research is limited, though, by short follow-up times and small study samples, she told Reuters Health in an email.

“With our unique Swedish cohort of men comprising 98 percent of the male population at baseline and a 39-year long follow-up time, we had the opportunity to expand on existing knowledge,” Danielsson said.

She and her colleagues analyzed data from a large study that included almost 50,000 men born between 1949 and 1951 and conscripted into compulsory military service in 1969 and 1970.

When the men entered the military, they were asked about their drug, tobacco and alcohol use, as well as questions about their family and social backgrounds, school performance, behavior, psychological issues and general health.

Danielsson’s team was specifically interested in the frequency of marijuana use at age 18, when the men were conscripted. The young men were grouped according to how often they had ever used pot at that point: never, 1‐10 times, 11‐50 times or more than 50 times.

Next, the study team looked at data from the Swedish national social insurance agency, the education registry and labor market statistics to see how many were granted disability pensions through 2008.

About 9 percent of the teens reported having used marijuana when they entered the military, and 1.5 percent said they had used it more than 50 times.

The researchers found that men who used marijuana more than 50 times before the age of 18 were 30 percent more likely to go on disability sometime between the ages of 40 and 59.

A similar pattern was seen for young men who used pot less frequently, with the chance of being on disability in middle age rising with increasing pot use at age 18.

However, when the study team adjusted for other factors, including socioeconomic background, other substance use by age 18, psychiatric diagnoses and other health problems, the link remained statistically significant – meaning it could not have been due to chance – only for the heaviest users who had smoked pot more than 50 times as young men.

That group already had a number of problems in their teens, the researchers note in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Of the 654 heaviest pot users at age 18, 80 percent also reported using other drugs, 47 percent reported risky alcohol use and 55 percent had a psychiatric diagnosis.

Danielsson said that smoking marijuana at a young age may increase the risk of negative social consequences later on in life, and that prior studies have shown frequent marijuana use increases the risk of using other illicit drugs.

“It may be the case that adolescent cannabis use may lead to a series of negative life events such as, for example, subsequent illicit drug use, illness (e.g., dependence) and associated disability pensions,” she said.

The study cannot prove that pot use in the teen years caused the men to end up on disability later in life, the researchers acknowledge. They don’t know how much marijuana the men used after they entered the military or many other details of their lives after age 18.

Despite the study's limitations, the findings highlight the need for further studies on marijuana and other illicit drug use in relation to possible health and social consequences, the study authors conclude.
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« Reply #137 on: September 08, 2014, 01:55:42 pm »

http://news.msn.com/us/legal-or-not-the-pot-business-is-still-wacky
Legal or not, the pot business is still wacky
9/7/14

NEW YORK (AP) — Legal or not, the business of selling weed in the U.S. is as wacky as ever.

The tangle of rules and regulations that govern whether and how it can be grown, bought and sold create complexity and ambiguity that cause major headaches for marijuana businesses — and enticing opportunities for those who want to exploit it.

"It's a gray market industry, that's just how it is," says Kayvan Khalatbari, who owns a marijuana dispensary and a chain of pizza restaurants in Denver.

The big issue: the nation hasn't decided whether marijuana is a dangerous illegal drug or not much worse than tobacco or alcohol. According to federal law, it is an illegal narcotic like heroin, with "no currently accepted medical use." But recent legalization pushes have made it legal — for medical use — in 23 states and Washington D.C. In Colorado and Washington State, it can be bought just for fun.

Entrepreneurs and investors have to navigate laws that are different from state to state and sometimes from county to county. That has given rise to a bumper crop of consultants promising to show the way to success, while shady public companies spin visions of fat profits. Consumers now have an array of new pot-related products to choose from, many of far higher quality than what's offered on the corner. But they must also discern truth from hope in the many claims about all the supposedly wonderful things pot can do.

ENTREPRENEURS

Khalatbari started his first pizza restaurant with a small business loan from a bank. To raise money to build a marijuana-growing facility, a bank loan wasn't an option.

Almost all banks avoid working with pot businesses because pot is illegal federally, and banks want to avoid running afoul of anti-trafficking laws. Also, residency restrictions in Colorado prevent raising money from out-of-state investors in exchange for a share of the company, which is exactly what most investors want.

So, to build a 40,000 square-foot growing facility, Khalatbari teamed with an out-of-state investor who is lending money for construction while trying to establish residency in Colorado. When that comes through, the investor should get an ownership stake in the facility.

Khalatbari says there's plenty of investor money sloshing around, looking to fund marijuana businesses, but the terms are expensive because of the risk and the restrictions.

"It's almost impossible not to get funding," he says, "but it's not going to be on the terms you want."

Once up and running, entrepreneurs face more twists. Khalatbari kept his bank account in the name of the management company that controlled his pizza restaurants, called Sexy Pizza, along with his marijuana dispensary, Denver Relief. (He is also a stand-up comedy promoter.)

He was careful not to pay pot-related vendors out of the account, instead using cash, which is common in the pot business. And he didn't make cash deposits over $10,000 in order to avoid triggering suspicious activity inquiries. Still, three successive banks dropped him after learning the management company had ties to pot.

"We can't be honest and open about where we can put our legal money," he says. "They are pushing us underground."

He has recently found an unidentified bank that will work with him and a few other pot businesses.

Khalatbari can't write off certain expenses the way most businesses can. The Internal Revenue Service prohibits deductions for expenses incurred while selling what the federal government considers to be an illegal drug. That makes his profit lower than it otherwise would be. It also encourages him and other sellers to designate, for tax purposes, only a small portion of their stores as having anything to do with selling pot.

These conditions can help a business flourish once it's open, however. Would-be competitors face the same hurdles to getting started — local zoning rules, state regulations, financing complexity or a slow bureaucracy — so it can often be some time before the established business faces a real challenge.

California rules are relatively lax, and there are believed to be at least 500 dispensaries just in Los Angeles. But Connecticut has approved only six dispensaries. The first opened last month — without pot — two years after getting approval. Illinois growing facilities must put up a $2 million surety bond to get approval. Washington has awarded 43 licenses to sell marijuana for recreational use — and just one in Seattle, called Cannabis City.

Khalatbari has plenty of competition, but the profit margin at his marijuana dispensary is 60 percent higher than at the pizza restaurants. Even after the legal headaches, it's easier to make a profit selling the bud of a plant for $200 an ounce than it is selling a meat lover's pizza (pepperoni, spicy sausage, Canadian bacon and mozzarella) for $19.99.

"It's much higher-risk," he says of the marijuana business. "But the reward is much greater."

CONSULTANTS

"Everyone wants to be in the weed business," says Adam Bierman, managing partner at a marijuana consulting company based in Culver City, California, called the Med Men.

That suits Bierman just fine. Dozens if not hundreds of consultants like Bierman have popped up, feeding off the complexity of the marijuana business and the desire of so many to make it big in pot. Some act as matchmakers, promising to connect investors with entrepreneurs looking for money. Others sell help navigating the licensing process, tips on how best to grow marijuana, or advice about how to manage a startup that must operate outside of the banking system.

But many of these "consultants" have little or no experience in the business. Bierman acknowledges he didn't when he started six years ago. "We got our teeth kicked in," he says.

Now his firm knows the ropes, he says, but the industry is crawling with people who don't.

"There are a lot of opportunistic people coming into this industry from every angle," he says. "And unfortunately we are part of that. We are one of the companies I'm blasting, and I hate that."

In February, PetroTech Oil and Gas — a drilling services company — announced it was establishing a management company in Colorado and Washington to help pot growers. Trading volume in the tiny company's stock rose 13-fold and the penny stock rose to 7 cents per share over three weeks. The Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading in the stock in March over questions about the accuracy of the information about the company's operations.

INVESTORS

Investing in the pot business seems like it should be as easy as printing money. The product's millions of users are so dedicated that they've been willing to risk arrest to get it. To reach them, all businesses have to do is grow a weed and sell the flowers.

Pot investing is treacherous, though, even for professionals.

"There are a lot of large egos and puffery in this industry," says Brendan Kennedy, a former Silicon Valley banker who helped found Privateer Holdings, a marijuana-focused private equity firm. "It takes a lot of time and energy to sort through the hyperbole and find the right, legitimate opportunities."

Every new pot company thinks it has the best growing technique or marijuana strain, Kennedy says, but few have worked out a long-term business plan that coldly assesses the market and the risks. Growing plants for profit isn't quite so simple.

"Ultimately it's a crop, it's a commodity, not very different from a lot of agricultural products that are out there," Kennedy says. "Would you invest in a winery? Or a strawberry grower?"

Investing in pot stocks is even scarier, because nearly all of them are so-called penny stocks, like PetroTech, that trade outside of major exchanges. There are now a couple dozen of these companies, often with names that play on marijuana's scientific name, cannabis sativa, such as Advanced Cannabis Solutions or Cannabusiness Group. But many have tenuous ties to the marijuana industry, regulators say.

Canadian regulators issued a warning about marijuana-related stocks in June, following similar alerts from the U.S. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority last year and one from the SEC in May. Five times this year the SEC has suspended trading in shares of companies claiming to be in the marijuana business.

Kennedy says the penny stock companies "are full of charlatans and hucksters," who are "purely playing on the desire of Main Street investors to get into the industry."

One of the companies, called GrowLife, makes urban gardening equipment and trades under the ticker symbol PHOT. An October report designed to look like it was issued by a Wall Street firm suggested the company's stock was poised to rise nearly 300 percent. But that "research" was actually paid for by GrowLife — a detail found only in the report's fine print.

GrowLife's shares soared 900 percent, to 60 cents from 6 cents, between October and early April, when trading was halted by the SEC. In June the company revealed that the $37 million loss it reported for the first quarter was actually double that, $74 million. GrowLife shares have since fallen back to 7 cents.

GrowLife CEO Marco Hegyi says the report "was never intended to boost the stock" and that legalization efforts boosted shares of GrowLife and other marijuana companies. Hegyi, who became CEO in March, says the company is working to improve its financial reporting. "We're more on top of our business," he says.

CONSUMERS

A decade ago, pot consumers risked jail time by buying pot of uncertain origin and quality in back-alley deals. Now, in many states, they can shop openly for a wide variety of strains with different levels of potency. Pot can be bought in lotions, foods and drinks with precise doses.

But buyers still need to beware. Companies are using pot's new legitimacy to try to equate getting high with taking care of your body or curing any number of ailments, making extraordinary health claims about pot to push their products.

"Because it's a drug that makes people feel good, marketers want to put medical claims on it," says Bill London, a professor of public health at California State University in Los Angeles and a health claim watchdog. London has no problem with legalization, but says many medical claims for marijuana "are false or exaggerated" and "should not be tolerated."

The website Cannabis.org, which is owned by GrowLife and carries the tagline "Cannabis is Medicine," lists 17 major diseases that cannabis can treat, including Alzheimer's, cancer, and diabetes.

Some of the chemicals in marijuana have been tested thoroughly and found to effectively treat some conditions, such as reducing nausea and stimulating appetite in patients undergoing chemotherapy. These or other chemicals in pot may someday be found to be effective in treating other diseases — or they could be found to be dangerous in ways not yet understood. Scientists simply don't know yet.

A Colorado company called Dixie Elixirs sells pot in pill form called "scrips" — short for "prescription." These pills allow users to manage both their ups and downs, despite the same amount of pot in each pill, with additives like ashwagandha root. "Awakening Scrips" are said to provide a "stimulating sensation," while "Relaxing Scrips" are said to "reduce mental and physical stress and promote relaxation."

Joe Hodas, chief marketing officer at Dixie Elixirs, says the company is careful to not make specific medical claims about its products. "It's the regulatory framework that forces businesses to sell (marijuana) as medicine because that's the only way it's legal (in most states)," he says.

In a marketing pitch for one pot-based product, called Foria, a woman identified as "Anna, 29" says: "Foria is potent medicine and the most healing way I have ever used cannabis." It's not clear that Anna had a medical problem, though. The product is a pot-based lubricant for women, designed to increase sexual pleasure by delivering a high through their private parts.
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« Reply #138 on: September 09, 2014, 09:35:55 pm »

http://washingtonexaminer.com/hhs-law-does-not-prohibit-pot-purchases-with-welfare/article/2553084?custom_click=rss
HHS: Law does not prohibit pot purchases with welfare
9/9/14

Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell told the top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee that the federal government does not have the power to stop states from allowing people to use welfare benefits to buy marijuana.

In a letter addressed to Budget Committee ranking member Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who asked Health and Human Services about the policy earlier this year, Burwell said the law simply excludes any mention of marijuana dispensaries in the list of places where people are prohibited from using welfare, formally known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF.

The law was updated in 2012, prior to Colorado’s decision in May 2013 to legalize the production and sale of marijuana. The law gives HHS the power to withhold funds to states that allow people to use welfare money at liquor stores, casinos, and “establishments in which performers disrobe or perform in an unclothed state for entertainment.”

Burwell added in the letter that “nothing in the the TANF statute or regulations precludes states from taking measures to prevent recipients from using their benefit cards at marijuana shops.”

States, Burwell added, can add language to prohibit certain expenditures and in Colorado, she added, lawmakers are examining whether to ban pot from the list of things that people can buy with welfare.

Sessions said he would introduce legislation to close the loophole. House Republicans have already authored legislation to prohibit welfare benefits from being used to buy pot.

“The federal government current spends roughly $750 billion each year on means-tested welfare programs across 80 different accounts,” Sessions said. “This money is administered by a vast, sprawling bureaucracy with little oversight and no moral vision. Surely we can all agree that the guiding principle ought to be that benefits are reserved for those in real need.”
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« Reply #139 on: September 20, 2014, 08:28:50 pm »

http://www.journalnow.com/news/local/survey-shows-less-smoking-among-n-c-teens-more-e/article_31c5076e-e9e6-5eb4-8dde-6ea6539aa3d4.html
Survey shows less smoking among N.C. teens, more e-cig use
9/19/14

State health officials said Friday that smoking levels among public high-school and middle-school students reached an historic low rate during 2013.

But they also expressed concern that a small, but increasing, number of students are willing to experiment with alternative tobacco products.

The findings come from the N.C. Youth Tobacco Survey that is conducted every two years. The survey included 4,092 high school students and 3,927 middle school students.

Alternative tobacco products included electronic cigarettes, flavored little cigars, clove cigars, flavored cigarettes, snus, hookahs (also known as water pipes) and roll-your-own cigarettes.

The survey determined that 13.5 percent of high school students in 2013 were current smokers, defined as smoking at least once during a 30-day period. That’s down from 15.5 percent in 2011.

The decline in North Carolina mirrors the most recent National Youth Tobacco Survey, which found 14 percent of high school students in 2012 listed as currently smoking.

Among N.C. middle-schoolers, the smoking rate fell to 2.5 percent from 4.2 percent in 2011. The national rate was 3.5 percent in 2012.

By comparison, after decades of decline, the adult smoking rate has stalled at about 20 percent of Americans in recent years.

Dr. Ruth Petersen, chief of the chronic disease and injury section in the state Division of Public Health, said the smoking decline was tempered in part because more youths may be consuming — or are willing to consume — multiple tobacco products. The survey found that 19.1 percent of youth tobacco consumers are using two or more product types.

Current use of e-cigs among high school students rose from 1.7 percent in 2011 to 7.7 percent in 2013.

As a result, the survey determined that 29.7 percent of high school students are current users of a tobacco product.

“This trend toward other tobacco use and dual use of tobacco products is a real cause for concern,” Petersen said. “Nicotine in these tobacco products is highly addictive, and there is evidence that using nicotine during adolescence may harm brain development.”

Measuring the use of alternative tobacco products by youths has become a major hot-button societal issue within the industry and among anti-tobacco advocates. Some groups want e-cigs banned, while others tout e-cigs as potentially less harmful than combustible cigarettes. Although more e-cig health studies are emerging, there has not been a definitive report yet.

“We should be concerned about anyone underage being sold any tobacco or nicotine product,” said Scott Ballin, past chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health. “But more importantly, it may be time to also look at ways of further preventing possession and usage comparable to the way alcohol is dealt with.”

Dr. John Spangler, a professor of family and community medicine at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, echoed Petersen’s mixed perspective on the survey results.

“Cigarette smoking dropped less than electronic-cigarette use rose,” Spangler said. “So, I worry that some youth might become nicotine addicted to electronic cigarettes — kids who otherwise would not have tried tobacco as a source of nicotine.”

Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration oversight over the tobacco industry in 2009.

In April, the FDA proposed extending current restrictions on cigarette marketing to newly regulated products, including cigars and e-cigs, and prohibiting the use of flavorings that appeal to kids. Among the main recommendations is a ban on sales to underage youths.

However, the FDA did not call for an outright ban of e-cigs, for which some advocates had pushed. The FDA did not curtail Internet sales or current marketing efforts that include television and social media.

There is a growing trend of state legislatures and municipalities to ban the sale of e-cigs to youths. The N.C. General Assembly approved in 2013 adding “vapor products,” which would include e-cigs, to a law prohibiting sales of tobacco to youth under 18 and requiring age verification for Internet sales. At least 24 states have passed similar laws.

Analysts said the surge in popularity in e-cigs over the past six years likely eliminated banning as an option. E-cig manufacturers and marketers warned about an unregulated black market surfacing upon a ban.

“While adolescents need to be educated that all nicotine products should be avoided, it's even more important that teen smokers understand the relative risks of different products,” said Gregory Conley, a research fellow at the right-leaning Heartland Institute.

“Misinforming our youth about the hazards of smoke-free products is a dangerous proposition and can lead to continued smoking or dual use as an adult.”
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« Reply #140 on: September 22, 2014, 09:44:02 pm »

http://news.msn.com/science-technology/study-of-smoking-cancer-patients-fuels-e-cigarette-debate
Study of smoking cancer patients fuels e-cigarette debate
9/21/14

LONDON (Reuters) - The fierce debate over whether e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking took another twist on Monday as a research paper on their use by cancer patients was criticized as flawed.

The study of cancer patients who smoke found that those using e-cigarettes as well as tobacco cigarettes were more nicotine dependent and equally or less likely to have quit than those who didn't use e-cigarettes.

The scientists behind the research, which was published online in Cancer, the journal of the American Cancer Society, said their results raised doubts about whether e-cigarettes had any benefit in helping cancer patients to give up smoking.

But that conclusion was questioned by other tobacco and addiction researchers, who said the selection of patients for the study had given it an inherent bias.

The uptake of e-cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced vapor for the "smoker" to inhale, has rocketed in the past two years, but there is fierce debate about their potential risks and benefits.

Because they are new, there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence on their safety. Some experts fear they could lead to nicotine addiction and be a gateway to tobacco smoking, while others say they have enormous potential to help millions of smokers around the world to quit.

What few studies there are give a mixed picture, with some concluding that e-cigarettes can help people give up a deadly tobacco habit, while others suggest they may carry health risks of their own.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report last month called for stiff regulation of e-cigarettes as well as bans on indoor use, advertising and sales to minors.

But that report itself was also criticized by experts who said it contained errors, misinterpretations and misrepresentations.

For the Cancer journal study, researchers led by Jamie Ostroff of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City studied 1,074 cancer patients who smoked and who were enrolled between 2012 and 2013 in a tobacco treatment program at a cancer center.

They found a three-fold increase in e-cigarette use from 2012 to 2013 - rising from 10.6 percent to 38.5 percent.

At enrolment onto the program, the researchers' analysis found, the e-cigarette users were more nicotine dependent than non-users, had more prior quit attempts, and were more likely to be diagnosed with lung or head and neck cancers.

By the end of the study period, the researchers said, e-cigarette users were just as likely as non-users of e-cigarettes to be smoking.

But Robert West, director of tobacco research at University College London, said the study was not able to assess whether or not for cancer patients who smoke using an e-cigarette to try and quit is beneficial "because the sample could consist of e-cigarette users who had already failed in a quit attempt, so all those who would have succeeded already would be ruled out".

Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary, University of London, agreed that the study's data did not justify the conclusions.

"The authors followed up smokers who tried e-cigarettes but did not stop smoking, and excluded smokers who tried e-cigarettes and stopped smoking," he said.

"Like smokers who fail with any method, these were highly dependent smokers who found quitting difficult. The authors concluded that e-cigarette (use) was not helpful, but that would be true for any treatment however effective if only treatment failures were evaluated."
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« Reply #141 on: September 27, 2014, 12:22:44 am »

http://denver.cbslocal.com/2014/09/25/pot-draws-homeless-to-colorado-in-search-of-work/
9/25/14
Pot Draws Homeless To Colorado In Search Of Work

DENVER (CBS4) - Legal marijuana is luring pot tourists and business entrepreneurs to Colorado, and it’s also attracting another demographic: the homeless, some of whom trek to the state in hopes of landing a job in the industry.

“There’s an enormous migration, even a homeless movement, so to speak,” David Spencer, a homeless man from Tennessee, said. “I figured this would be a good place to start over.”

While shelters across the metro area are willing to open their doors, they’re quickly running out of room.

“We were averaging 190 (homeless) last year. We’re now averaging 345 a night,
” Murray Flagg of the Salvation Army said.

Tom Luehrs, the executive director of St. Francis Center, says the top reason many homeless are moving to Colorado is work, especially in the new legal industry.

“People see that the marijuana business has been flourishing here,” he says, “so they match up good business … and jobs must be available, which they are.”

Space is tight at St. Francis Center, too.

“We’ve seen as many as 45 new people in one day,” Luehrs said. “I think it was one of the unintended consequences of the marijuana legalization,” Luehrs said.


Colorado law requires an employee in the marijuana business lives in the state for one year before they can be hired.
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« Reply #142 on: October 02, 2014, 08:29:45 pm »

http://rt.com/usa/192684-philadelphia-marijuana-decriminalize-pot/
Philadelphia becomes largest US city to decriminalize marijuana
10/2/14

Philadelphia has decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in the city, reducing penalties for possession and public use to minor fines and community service. The move makes Philadelphia the largest city in the United States to decriminalize pot.

Mayor Michael Nutter signed the legislation on Wednesday, making the possession of 30 grams or less a civil offense. Though the law, which will go into effect on Oct. 20, does not legalize marijuana in the city.

Those found in possession of 30 grams or less of marijuana will be cited and fined $25. Smoking pot in public can result in a citation and a $100 fine, or nine hours of community service, according to The Inquirer. Possessing more than 30 grams is still a criminal offense in the city, and anyone caught with marijuana who cannot show identification will still be arrested.

Nutter also announced an outreach campaign to educate citizens on the new law. The mayor also pledged support for efforts to re-examine criminal records of those convicted for possession of small amounts of pot.

City Councilman James Kenney, sponsor of the bill, hailed the legislation as a way to address, among other issues, disproportionate marijuana arrests in the African-American community, which has resulted in criminal records that reduce job opportunities, among other effects.

"The most important thing here is to keep kids on a straight line and not allow someone's life to get screwed up because of a mistake when they were young,” Kenney said, according to The Inquirer.

Neither Nutter nor Kenney advocated use of marijuana.

"I'm not advocating anything in excess, except prayer,” said Kenney, who offered the legislation in May and helped finalize the bill’s passagein September.

Mayor Nutter also touted the city’s drug-abuse health programs.

"We want to make sure people know it is still against the law to possess and use marijuana in Philadelphia, and that it can have serious consequences if you are convicted," he said. "However, many Philadelphians are in fact looking for help. We want to get them that help they need."

While critical of the legislation in the past, Nutter told CBS News recently that he changed his mind given the amount of punishment so many citizens have garnered for possession of such small amounts of pot.

Many US states and citieshave approved various forms of marijuana decriminalization over the past several decades. Most recently, the District of Columbia’s decriminalization efforts were held up this summer by Congress based on powers vested in the Home Rule Act, which gives the US House of Representatives the ability to block legislation approved by the city’s elected leaders. If ultimately passed, the legislation would give Washington, DC the least punitivemarijuana laws outside of states that have legalized its use.

In the US, only Colorado and Washington state have passed laws legalizing the cultivation, sale, and use of recreational marijuana even though federal officials still consider pot to be a Schedule 1 narcotic. Colorado shops officially began selling it on January 1 after voters approved a ballot initiative in November 2012. Washington state began selling legal recreational marijuana in July.

The states of Alaska and Oregon, as well as the District of Columbia, will vote on legalization proposals this fall.
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« Reply #143 on: November 05, 2014, 05:50:16 am »

Voters give nod to legal marijuana in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C.

Residents of Oregon, Alaska, and the U.S. capital voted to legalize marijuana on Tuesday, in key victories that could fuel the legalization movement as cannabis usage is increasingly recognized by the American mainstream.

The Oregon and Alaska measures would legalize recreational pot use and usher in a network of retail pot shops similar to those operating in Washington state and Colorado, which in 2012 voted to become the first U.S. states to allow marijuana use for fun.

A less far-reaching proposal in the District of Columbia to allow marijuana possession but not retail sales won nearly 65 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting, unofficial results showed.

The referendums come amid shifts in American opinions on marijuana in recent years that have energized efforts to legalize cannabis, a drug that remains illegal under federal law even as Colorado and Washington state have been given the go-ahead to experiment with legalization.

"In 2016 we're going to push the ball forward in several states until we end prohibition," Leland Berger, a Portland attorney who helped write the new law, told Reuters outside a packed Portland nightclub where advocates declared victory amid pot-centric revelry.

Advocates have portrayed the District of Columbia measure as a civil rights issue, saying studies have shown that African Americans are disproportionately more likely to be arrested on marijuana charges than are people of other races.

The D.C. measure had been strongly favored to pass but could still be halted during a review by the U.S. Congress, which has constitutional oversight over the capital. The measure would allow adults 21 and older to possess up to two ounces (57 grams) of cannabis and grow up to six plants.

POT OPPONENTS TO FIGHT ON

The Oregon law, which drew 54 percent support in preliminary returns, takes effect in July 2015 and stores could open the following year.

The Alaska measure was leading by about 52-48 percent with nearly 97 percent of precincts reporting preliminary results late on Tuesday, and groups for and against the initiative said it had passed.

If given official approval, a regulatory body would have nine months to write regulations after the election is certified and the measure becomes law, with stores likely coming at some point in 2016.

Opponents of legal weed in Oregon say they would take their fight to the Oregon legislature, pushing for stricter laws designed to limit access to pot by children, among other efforts.

Kevin Sabet, co-founder of anti-legalization group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, said his group would redouble its efforts to build a broader coalition to beat back better-funded pro-cannabis groups ahead of what is expected to be an expanded fight in 2016.

"Tonight is going to inspire us to do better and to try harder and go after the donors we have to go after in order to level the playing field," Sabet said. "The more people that hear about legalization, the more people are uncomfortable with it. For us it's about getting our message out."

Meanwhile, a proposed constitutional amendment to make Florida the 24th state and the first in the South to allow medical marijuana was defeated after falling short of the 60 percent support needed to pass, according to groups both for and against the measure.

In Maine, a proposal to legalize the possession of small amounts of recreational marijuana failed in Lewiston and passed in South Portland, advocacy groups said. In Guam, unofficial results indicated it became the first U.S. territory to approve medical marijuana, an election official there said.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-usa-elections-marijuana-idINKBN0IO13620141105
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« Reply #144 on: November 05, 2014, 08:37:06 am »

1Thes 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.
1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.


FYI - doesn't the whole "truth" movement support pot legalization?
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« Reply #145 on: November 05, 2014, 10:05:46 am »

 Shocked

Fisting, Anal Sex, **** Pictures: Broadcast TV's Ratings Grab Gets Raunchy

The Big 5 networks push shocking new boundaries amid cable envy and a climate with few, if any, fines from the FCC

This story first appeared in the Nov. 14 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

This season, broadcast TV isn't for the prudish. Nearly two months into the fall, it's clear that explicit jokes and boundary-pushing storylines are changing the definition of what sexual content is acceptable in prime­time. Out are love triangles and awkward dates. In are jokes about anal sex, "fisting" and teen **** that Parents Television Council president Tim Winter says are "absolutely inappropriate for primetime broadcast television."

See more The Couples of Shondaland: 'Grey's Anatomy,' 'Private Practice,' 'Scandal'

Fox's New Girl season premiere featured Zooey Deschanel repeatedly muttering "sex fist!" as an expression for the roommates' quest to hook up at a wedding. Multiple fisting jokes followed — as did episodes where the gang got stoned and Deschanel dated a guy with amicropenis. "We got away with murder," exec producer Brett Baer told THR after the premiere. "We've given broadcast standards a run for their money." Over on Fox's The Mindy Project, nearly an entire episode focused on Mindy Kaling and Chris Messina debating whether he "slipped" and attempted to, ahem, go in the back door. That led to discussions of sexual positions, including the "necktie," "ascot" and "bagpipe."

On the drama side, ABC's Scandal — airing in its new 9 p.m. slot — opened the season with Kerry Washington and Scott Foley in an explicit entanglement on the beach. Weeks later,showrunner Shonda Rhimes brought "Eiffel Towering" to primetime when the president's teenage daughter was caught on tape performing a lewd sex act that many had to Google. On Oct. 30, Disney-owned ABC rankled the PTC by airing a Scandal sex scene minutes after a Charlie Brown Halloween special.

"I have no intention of changing what's happening on Scandal at 9," Rhimes told THR in July. "That will be interesting. I look forward to being censored." But she hasn't been. And not to be outdone, Rhimes' 10 p.m. drama How to Get Away With Murder featured a character saying, "He did things to my ass that made my eyes water" and ended an episode with Viola Davis asking, "Why is your **** on a dead girl's phone?"

See more The Faces of Fall TV

What's behind the trend? Competition with cable, of course, and a desire by low-rated shows such as Mindy and New Girl to cause a stir (for the most part it hasn't worked). Some say network censors have pushed back less often now that FCC fines are few and far between, though one top exec downplays the hoopla. "As lines blur between broadcast, basic cable and premium cable, there may be a concentration of pushing sexual boundaries in certain shows," he says. "But it is hardly a mandate or a trend."

Still, Winter says, "We have to start asking if some of these gray area instances really do cross the line." He points to a sketched **** on NBC's Bad Judge. "Hopefully, the FCC will levy a fine or two and let broadcasters know that the law is still in place and they have to respect it."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/fisting-anal-sex-****-pictures-746403
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« Reply #146 on: November 05, 2014, 10:46:20 am »

Yeah, noticed that too - whenever I would flip the channels, it seems like that's all you hear and see - even worse, you don't hear any outcry or concerns from these so-called "religious right" or "pro-family" groups anymore.

30, 20, and even 10 years ago - these same "moral first" groups would have almost immediately made a big fuss over this.

FWIW - sodomy defined in the 1828 Webster's Dictionary is crimes against nature. Pt being sodomy also goes beyond man lying/abusing themselves with mankind, effeminaty, etc. Remember Lot's righteous soul was vexed daily being among the wicked in Sodom.

2Peter 2:7  And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
2Pe 2:8  (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)


I'll admit - my soul gets vexed whenever I hear this "contemporary christian" music, people blaspheming the Lord's name, raunchy sex jokes in the media, etc. I'm sure everyone here feels the same way.
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« Reply #147 on: November 27, 2014, 01:32:07 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/e-cigarettes-10-times-carcinogens-japan-researchers-081638013.html
E-cigarettes contain up to 10 times carcinogens: Japan research
11/27/14

E-cigarettes contain up to 10 times the level of cancer-causing agents in regular tobacco, Japanese scientists said Thursday, the latest blow to an invention once heralded as less harmful than smoking.

The electronic devices -- increasingly popular around the world, particularly among young people -- function by heating flavoured liquid, which often contains nicotine, into a vapour that is inhaled, much like traditional cigarettes but without the smoke.

Researchers commissioned by Japan's Health Ministry found carcinogens such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde in vapour produced by several types of e-cigarette liquid, a health ministry official told AFP.

Formaldehyde -- a substance found in building materials and embalming fluids -- was present at much higher levels than carcinogens found in the smoke from regular cigarettes, the official said.

"In one brand of e-cigarette the team found more than 10 times the level of carcinogens contained in one regular cigarette," said researcher Naoki Kunugita, adding that the amount of formaldehyde detected varied through the course of analysis.

"Especially when the... wire (which vaporises the liquid) gets overheated, higher amounts of those harmful substances seemed to be produced."

Kunugita and his team at the National Institute of Public Health, who submitted their report to the ministry on Thursday, analysed several cartridges of e-cigarette fluid using a machine that "inhaled" 10 sets of 15 puffs.

One brand, the name of which was not revealed, showed a more than 10-fold level of formaldehyde on nine out of every 10 sets.

Another brand showed similar levels on several sets, but was not consistently that high.

Kunugita said the research showed e-cigarettes are not the harmless products many people assume them to be.

"We need to be aware that some makers are selling such products for dual use (with tobacco) or as a gateway for young people" to start a smoking habit, he warned.

**So where are all the concerns by Capitol Hill now? Remember in the 1990's when Congress intervened when cigarettes were being marketed toward young people?

In common with many jurisdictions, Japan does not regulate non-nicotine e-cigarettes.

- 'Serious threat' -

Nicotine e-cigarettes, or so-called Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS), are subjected to the country's pharmaceutical laws, but they can be bought easily on the Internet, although they are not readily available in shops as they are in some Western countries.

"You call them e-cigarettes, but they are products totally different from regular tobacco," the ministry official said.

"The government is now studying the possible risks associated with them, with view to looking at how they should be regulated."

In August, the World Health Organisation called on governments to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors, warning they pose a "serious threat" to unborn babies and young people.

Despite scant research on their effects, the WHO said there was enough evidence "to caution children and adolescents, pregnant women, and women of reproductive age" about e-cigarette use, due to the "potential for foetal and adolescent nicotine exposure (having) long-term consequences for brain development".

The UN health body also said they should be banned from indoor public spaces.

US health authorities said earlier this year that the number of young people there who have tried e-cigarettes tripled from 2011 to 2013.

More than a quarter of a million young people who had never smoked a cigarette used e-cigarettes last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

Supporters of e-cigarettes say the devices are a safer alternative to traditional tobacco, whose bouquet of toxic chemicals and gases can cause cancer, heart disease and strokes -- among the leading causes of death in many countries.

But opponents say the devices have only been around for a few years, and the long-term health impact from inhaling their industrial vapour is unclear.

Big tobacco companies are snapping up producers of e-cigarettes, wary of missing out on a snowballing global market worth about $3 billion.

Earlier this month, Oxford Dictionaries picked "vape"-- the act of smoking an e-cigarette -- as their new word of the year.
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« Reply #148 on: November 28, 2014, 04:45:43 pm »

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/11/28/legal_marijuana_you_can_t_get_black_friday_discounts_on_that_too.html
11/28/14
Marijuana Dispensaries Are Celebrating Black Friday, Too

For shoppers of age in Colorado and Washington state, the most novel deal this Black Friday isn’t a gadget like the iPhone 6. If what they’re looking for is relaxation, they’re in luck: For their first Black Friday ever, recreational marijuana dispensaries in those states are offering some great deals on weed.

“This is one of the first times in the nation that we’re going to be able to do such crazy discounts and specials on marijuana products, and have people 21 years or older be able to come in and join the festivities,” says John Satterfield, a distribution worker at Denver’s Kindman Premium Cannabis.

Kindman had its lights on for a few hours this Thanksgiving—“just in case you want[ed] to get away from the family,” says Satterfield—and will offer huge discounts all weekend to compete with other retail dispensaries. Deals will include $50 ounces for the first 16 Colorado residents per day Friday through Sunday, along with other price cuts on products like joints and edibles. Some discounts will hit 80 to 90 percent, Satterfield says.

For dispensaries, the move into Black Friday discounts represents another step into the mainstream. Sean Taggart, manager of the Green Room, said the Boulder, Colorado dispensary is also offering discounts, including pricing all of their eighths at $40—usually $50.

“People will be out and about already, so we might as well accommodate the people that are out taking on Black Friday already,” Taggart says.

Colorado and Washington state residents voted to legalize recreational marijuana in 2012, and retailers in both states opened for business earlier this year. According to one study, the marijuana industry could be worth $8 billion a year by 2018.

The move into Black Friday promotions raises the same issues for dispensaries as it does for any other outlet—like whether employees should have to work during a time traditionally spent with family.

Green Anne, a dispensary in Seattle, will not be open, says manager Eduardo Beaumont. “We’re a really small shop, and we don’t have that many people working here, and my boss respects the fact that people want to be with their families,” Beaumont says. He added that Green Anne will probably be one of few places that stays closed.

The products may be new, but the quandaries—and the traditions—definitely aren't. “We’re trying to do things to give back to our customers,” Satterfield says. “And just trying to spread the holiday cheer and get everybody a little bit high.”
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« Reply #149 on: December 20, 2014, 07:06:00 am »

Police: Florida High School Student Led Prostitution Ring

A 17-year-old recruited fellow high school students for a prostitution ring and coordinated deals on social media, charging $50 to $100 in cash and alcohol, police in Florida said.

The teen is charged with felony human trafficking after a Friday arrest in Venice, near Sarasota on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The Associated Press generally doesn’t name juveniles accused of crimes.

John Michael Mosher, 21, also was arrested Friday. Police say he paid $40 and a bottle of liquor to have sex with a 15-year-old girl. She did not want to participate in the sex act, according to police.

Continue Reading This Story >>
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/11/25/police-florida-highs-school-student-led-prostitution-ring-involving-area/
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