Smoking marijuana even a couple hours before you get behind the wheel of a vehicle can double your chances of getting into a car accident according to a recent study conducted by Associate Professor Mark Asbridge from Dalhousie University in Halifax.

In the latest issue of the British Medical Journal the study found:

“To our knowledge this meta-analysis is the first to examine the association between acute cannabis use and the risk of motor vehicle collisions in real life.”

To conduct the study researchers examined nine observational studies with 49,411 accident victims, they then ruled out accidents where other drugs or alcohol was involved.

While the study found a connection between pot smoking and car accidents researchers admit that the correlation between the amount of tetrahydrocannabionol (THC) in the blood stream and other incidents are still unclear.

Researchers write:

“Although we did not examine dose effects on the risk and severity of collisions, studies of fatally injured drivers found higher amounts of tetrahyrocannabinol in the blood.”

Researchers say more study’s are needed while noting:

“[TCH] concentrations might also be important, with minor collisions more likely than fatal collisions to involve drivers with lower concentrations of cannabis.”

The CBC provides more information about road side testing, noting that current evaluations don’t use enough benchmarks to make a final conclusion regarding the effects of marijuana use and accidents caused by pot induced drivers.

Do you think smoking marijuana and then driving an automobile leads to a doubled chance of being involved in an automobile related accident?

Smoking Pot And Driving Doubles Chances Of Car Accident [Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

A 42-year-old man was arrested and charged after being caught smoking pot on a JetBlue flight from Orlando, Fla., to Newark, N.J.

Adam Blumenkranz reportedly sloped off to the plane’s lavatory to smoke marijuana, but was interrupted by a flight attendant knocking on the bathroom door as the flight began its descent. When Blumenkranz emerged from the restroom, he smelled strongly of marijuana.

By the time he had disembarked from his flight in Newark, cops were waiting for Blumenkranz at the gate. They arrested him straight away, but he protested that he was permitted to smoke marijuana for medicinal purposes. He showed police a glass smoking pipe, a bag of marijuana, and a medicinal marijuana card. How on earth he got through customs with the pipe and weed we may never know.

Blumenkranz was adamant he had done nothing wrong, but police explained to him that plane travel comes under federal jurisdiction. As spokesman for Port Authority Police Al Della Fave told The Newark Star-Ledger:

“You just can’t do that on a commercial airliner. You cannot smoke anything, regardless what the issue is.”

Blumenkranz was charged with possession of less than 50 grams of a controlled dangerous substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was later released.

Man Caught Smoking Pot on Commercial Flight is a post from: The Inquisitr

British firm GW Pharma is hoping to have a marijuana-based mouth spray ready for FDA approval by 2013. Known as Sativex the company is already engaged in advanced clinical trials on the drug. According to the company Sativex is the first pharmaceutical developed directly from raw marijuana.

The drug contains several ingredients found in marijuana including delta 9-THC and cannabidiol and has already been approved in Canada, New Zealand and eight European nations.

Speaking to the Associated Press  pharmacology professor and president of the International Cannabinoid Research Society noted:

“There is a real disconnect between what the public seems to be demanding and what the states have pushed for, and what the market is providing.”

That comment comes at a time when states have fought for medical marijuana rights while the U.S. Federal government has continued to intervene and arrest and shut down marijuana dispensaries under the power of federal law. Calfornia has in particular been hit hard by Federal agents looking to push out California laws.

GW Pharma currently grows its marijuana in Great Britain and is one of a handful of company’s working to make marijuana available to patients in need by creating marijuana derivatives.

The last marijuana based drug accepted by the FDA was in 1985 and those capsules contained synthetic rather then raw materials and were used in the treatment of chemotherapy side-effects and to stimulate the appetite of AIDS sufferers.

Do you believe that pharma drugs based on raw marijuana materials is the answer or should regularly grown marijuana be made available legally instead?

FDA To Examine Marijuana Based Mouth Spray For Cancer Patients is a post from: The Inquisitr

Another big victory for marijuana supporters this week after a study was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which found that smoking a moderate amount of pot can actually help your lung capacity.

Researchers at University of California-San Francisco and University of Alabama at Birmingham examined 5,000 people ages 18 to 30 over a 20 year period and then collected information about each persons tobacco and marijuana smoking habits. Researchers then took measurements of a users lung capacity, specifically forced expiratory volume (FEV) which measures how much volume of air the lungs can hold along with forced vital capacity (FVC), or the speed at which a person can blow air out) at several key points during the studies entire period.

Researchers as expected found that tobacco smoking reduced lung capacity while marijuana smoking in moderate marijuana smokers improved lung capacity for both FVC and FEV levels.  However the authors note that very heavy marijuana smoking still appears to decrease lung capacity.

The study’s authors state that too few of their participants were heavy smokers or heavy marijuana users to actually draw a direct connection, however moderate use of marijuana is the database showed that people who smoke a few joints per week  reaped positive benefits.

The research project also found that most marijuana smokers tend to taper off their use of marijuana as they grow older while cigarette smokers tend to smoke a steady regime of cigarettes throughout their life.

In investigating why marijuana smokers increase their lung capacity the researchers believe that the way marijuana is smoked players a part. Pot smokers tend to draw smoke deep into their lungs while expanding their chest walls to accommodate for their “deep smoking” which in turn might actually strengthen lungs.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

Smoking Marijuana Is Good For Your Lungs [Recent Study] is a post from: The Inquisitr

In news that should surprise absolutely nobody rapper Snoop Dogg was arrested over the weekend when drug-sniffing dogs in Texas discovered marijuana on his tour bus.

Snoop Dogg and his entourage were stopped at a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanco, the same small town in West Texas where Willie Nelson was nabbed for marijuana in 2010.

In fact you may recall that it was Snoop Dogg who spoke out the loudest against the town for arresting Willie, at the time Snoop said, ”They better leave Willie the f**k alone.”

According to TMZ:

We’re told the border patrol ran a standard inspection of the bus with the dog … when the animal alerted the agents to a possible hit in a waste basket in the back of the vehicle.

The agents claim they found a red prescription bottle with several joints inside. We’re told the bottle contained under a half-ounce of weed.

Snoop admitted that the drugs were his and told officials that he has a cannabis prescription in California, unfortunately Texas law has a zero tolerance policy towards marijuana.

Snoop was cited for a misdemeanor drug possession charge and then released. If convicted Snoop Dogg could spend up to 180 days behind bars.

In the meantime if you happen to be driving through Texas we suggest you drive around Sierra Blanco if marijuana is on your person or in your vehicle.

Do you think marijuana laws need to be changed or is Texas setting the right example for the rest of the country to follow?

Gasp! Snoop Dogg Arrested For Marijuana Possession is a post from: The Inquisitr

Police this weekend discovered marijuana plants growing outside a court in the NSW mid north coast of Australia.

Deemed a “prank” by someone who wanted to poke fun at Australia’s justice system the plants were quickly removed and no harm was done.

The plants were discovered after several witnesses reported the marijuana growing in the front garden of the Bellingen Court House in New South Whales on Wednesday afternoon.

When all was said and done 60 seedlings were removed from the property, all of which were believed to be marijuana producing seeds.

Speaking to the APP a police spokesman said:

“Police believe someone has just dropped the seedlings as a joke.”

No arrests have been made at this time and it would likely be hard to prosecute someone who plants the seeds with no intention of harvesting them.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]

Marijuana Plants Planted Outside Police Station is a post from: The Inquisitr

Medicinal marijuana is still a hot button topic for federal, state and local governments and now a recent Gallup poll says 50% of American’s support the use of pot for medical purposes.

According to the report the number of people who support the measure are divided by political ideologies with 69% of liberals, 34% of conservatives and 57% of moderates supporting the measure.

The study also found that a majority of people in the South still believe marijuana should be illegal.

Among those people polled 62% of Americans aged 18-29 want to see the drug legalized while 31% of people over 65-years-old also agree that pot should be legalized.

Last year the same question about legalized marijuana was asked by Gallup and a new high was reached when 46% of people supported legalized marijuana. In comparison only 12% of people surveyed in 1969 said the supported the legalization of marijuana.

It wasn’t until Bill Clinton made his “I didn’t inahle” comments that legalized marijuana began to gain support and then in 2009 a survey found that 17 million Americans ages 11 and up use marijuana at least once per month.

Does it surprise you to learn that half of all Americans now support the legalization of marijuana not just for medicinal use but also for regular everyday consumption?

Want Legalized Marijuana? 50% Of Americans Do [Gallup Poll] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Owners of 16 California dispensaries received threatening letters from the Federal Government this week, letters that told them to shut down or be shut down.

According to the letters sent by Federal officials:

“Federal law takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana.”

The Associated Press revealed that a total of twelve letters were sent to shops in San Diego while three were sent to San Francisco and one was received in Marin County.

According to shop owners they have been given 45 days to shut down or have their product confiscated. Shop owners could also face time in prison under Federal law.

Federal officials at this time have not explained why 16 specific shops were singled out, they are expected to announce further details during a Friday afternoon press conference.

California has had marijuana laws in place for the last 15-years and it wasn’t until recently that federal officials began fighting dispensaries using Federal jurisdiction to bully the dispensaries.

The Obama administration recently started taking a hard line stance against the shops with Kevin Sabet, a former adviser to the president’s drug czar revealing:

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. The administration is simply making good on multiple threats.”

Do you think the Federal government should allow California and other states to determine if medical marijuana should be legalized or should the Feds continue to send threatening letters to marijuana dispensaries in an attempt to kill off the entire industry?

Feds Send Threatening Letters To Marijuana Dispensaries In California is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lawyer’s hear all kinds of stories but when the client of defense attorneys Daniel Cahill and J Julio Vela came looking for representation they finally heard one that they just had to look into.

It turns out that their client Nicholas Hill was relaxing in his apartment with a friend when the police came knocking because someone had complained about smelling drugs. While searching the apartment the police came upon a plate of pot brownies and instead of confiscating them for evidence they ate them.

Now one would think that after doing this the officers involved would be kind of hush hush about the whole thing, well, think again. It seems that they couldn’t help themselves and started typing messages to each other via their in-car computers.

The city saves all those and we have them:

At 2:44 in the morning one officer — we aren’t naming them — writes the other, “So HIGH…Good munchies”

The other writes back, “Everything should be open when we get done.”

First officer: “Two hours, max.”

“Probably, but this will take the whole shift.”

“If they actually are true, then we’re talking about is destruction of evidence. That’s a felony. We’re talking about official misconduct. We’re potentially talking about police offices driving around the city of Houston high on drugs, conducting official police business while high on drugs. It’s a pretty big deal,” Cahill said.

The head of the internal affairs division knew about this before we called and told us it’s considered a big deal inside the department. The officers involved are still on the job but will be drug tested and investigated.

via ABC

Silly policemen, pot brownies are for kids [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Forget the human genome project, scientists at a Massachusetts company have sequenced the entire genome for marijuana, the first company to accomplish that goal.

According to the Nature news blog, the results from Medicinal Genomics have yet to be peer-reviewed and the findings won’t be published until some time in 2012. Nature says of the study:

“Thus far the company is only posting the raw sequence reads – meaning that the over 131 billion bases of shotgun sequence have not yet undergone the important and arduous process of being assembled into contiguous chunks. For now, the sequence is fragmented into hundreds of thousands of snippets. But Medicinal Genomics founder Kevin McKernan says he estimates the size of the C. sativa genome to be about 400 million bases – roughly three times the genome of that other weed, the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana.”

According to Bloomberg the company has true intentions:

“It may be possible through genome directed breeding to attenuate the psychoactive effects of cannabis, while enhancing the medicinal aspects.”

If researchers can take the “marijuana” out of the equation but still offer the same effects as cannabis in a controlled substance it could be the breakthrough some medical marijuana supports have been hoping for.

While the genome could be used for “good” there’s also the possibility that others could use it to create stronger strains of the drug for recreational use.

The company is prepared to share their genome annotations with the public and will release an iPhone app next fall, after their findings have been officially published.

Marijuana Genome Project Sequences Plants Entire Genetic Code is a post from: The Inquisitr

The amount of money spent every year in the US to target, arrest, prosecute, and jail small-time pot users is incredible.

Philadelphia was one city that decided to take a second look at what it was costing the city against the benefits and decided that rather than treat people caught with 30 grams or less as criminals face misdemeanor charges they would instead face a “summary offence”.

Though the misdemeanor charge wasn’t particularly harsh—maximum penalty: 30 days in jail and $500 fine—it required the city to prosecute, costing the district attorney’s office money and time. It also left those busted with a criminal record.

The summary offense meanwhile, allows people to “pay $200 for a three-hour class about drug abuse, and their record is expunged,” with “[n]o trial, no judge, no court-appointed defense attorneys, no prosecutor, no lab tests.” Cops say that the new policy “doesn’t appear to be having any noticeable impact on the city’s quality of life,” too.

via Gawker

By not prosecuting small-time potheads Philadelphia saved $2 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rumors have circled for years regarding corporate plans to monetize it after they legalize it (the eternal it being weed), but surely actual corporate interest in farming marijuana shows promise that the controversial plant is becoming more widely accepted, at least for medicinal use?

One of the first big names to step up to the plate might surprise you. The CEO of Scotts, the company behind products like Miracle-Gro, talked to the Wall Street Journal about plans to zero in on the medical marijuana market:

“I want to target the pot market,” [Scotts Chief Executive Jim] Hagedorn said in an interview. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

Hagedorn is described in the article as straightforward and unafraid of risk- the type of guy who would have less of a problem rebranding “weed killer” as “killer weed” than other suits might:

The idea to merge with Scotts dawned on him after he looked at the company’s market value in 1995, he said, so he called his father’s tax lawyer to vet the idea. “I said, ‘Bob, I got this f— crazy idea. Do you think it’d be f— possible to take over Scotts?’” he recalls, sitting in the Port Washington office that his father once occupied.

If the idea moves forward, it would be interesting to see which big names are next to jump aboard the doob gravy train. Medical marijuana remains illegal under federal drug laws, but agencies have harshed less mellow on a state level since Obama took office.

Scotts Miracle-Gro Looks at Medical Marijuana Market is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Other 98% linked to this adorable clip (titled The Flower) that illustrates, adorably, the animator’s conception of the ramifications of marijuana prohibition.

Evil weed that makes people chubby, or the answer to many of our financial woes?

[Video] The cutest pro-marijuana animation ever is a post from: The Inquisitr

Socialite Paris Hilton may not have learned much after her World Cup dope bust- the heiress was reportedly caught with weed in her purse on her latest trip.

Hilton was popped for smoking a joint at a World Cup match on July 2nd, and according to AFP (via the New York Daily News), she evaded legal trouble again when she was found to be holding upon landing on the French island of Corsica:

Airport authorities on the French island of Corsica stopped her after she flew in from Paris on a private jet. They found less than a gram of cannabis in her purse, but did not charge her. She was later released, AFP reported.

Hilton took to her Twitter account to deny the accusations, first tweeting:

So sick of people making up rumors about me. The latest one about me is completely false too. Don’t believe what you read. Silly nonsense.

She later used TwitLonger to clarify:

Just to put an end to these rumors. The stories saying I have been arrested are completely false! I am having the best vacation of my life! What an amazing summer! I feel so blessed and grateful for everything. I Love Life!! Now let’s move on and everyone focus and enjoy their own summer time! Love you guys! Xo Paris

Hilton says she’s been spending her time jet-skiing and “laying out on the yacht.”

Paris Hilton reportedly busted for pot again while traveling is a post from: The Inquisitr

A four-year-old from Britain got an unexpected freebie when his dad bought him a copy of Fight Night Round 4 from Blockbuster – a bag of blended ganja and tobacco, carefully tucked away inside the game’s case.

30-year-old parent Andy Brown was so outraged by this (even though he’d knowingly bought his kid a game with an age rating of 16+) he decided to contribute a rant to the Sun:

“He’d only been playing the game ten minutes when he came down with the bag in his hand and asked, ‘Daddy, what’s this?’ I checked and realized. I was horrified and took it off him straight away. They should be checking all the boxes before they sell them. What if he’d thought it was sweets, and started munching away? It doesn’t bear thinking about.”

Yeah. Sweets. Because that stuff must sure look tempting to kids.

The branch of Blockbuster that sold the game has since credited the family’s account with a free rental.

See also: Your breath smells minty marijuana fresh

[The Sun, via Canoe]

4-year-old finds marijuana in Blockbuster videogame is a post from: The Inquisitr

Olivia Namath, 19, has been arrested in Florida on drug charges.

Namath, daughter of football star Joe Namath, was pulled over for speeding near Jupiter, FL, in her silver Mercedes. The officer reported the smell of marijuana in the vehicle, and a deputy was called to the scene while Namath and her two male companions were asked to exit the car. A subsequent search turned up roughly a half a pound of pot in the car’s trunk and floor board. The search also uncovered an open bottle of rum and 11 cans of beer, also a legal problem for Olivia. (Who is under 21.)

Namath “denied knowledge” of the large quantities of marijuana in her car when she was arrested with the two men. Namath’s bond was set at $3,000, and she is being charged with “two counts of marijuana possession, including one with intent to sell, and with possession of alcohol by a minor.”

Olivia Namath, daughter of Joe, arrested in FL on drug charges is a post from: The Inquisitr

A couple of grinchy Missouri state troopers undoubtedly ruined Christmas for many Midwest stoners when they seized about 20 lbs. of marijuana, some of it wrapped as presents.

The pot was seized during a routine traffic stop for speeding, on Interstate 44 near Joplin, MO. The two women in the vehicle gave police permission to search the car, and authorities uncovered the pot wrapped in gifts and as as luggage.

Both of the women, from California, were charged on one marijuana related count and released on $1,000 bond.

[Image]

Women found with large quantities of pot wrapped as gifts is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s hard times all around and people handle this kind of economic pressure in different ways. Some are forced to sell million dollar homes and yachts’ while handing over the key to the private jet. Other however people are being productive and seeing how good their green thumb is by growing marijuana.

Typically much of the growing happens on the west coast with big operations with thousands upon thousands of pot plants. However according to law enforcement there is a whole new breed of small ‘family’ grow ops happening not only on the west coast but also in the Appalachia region on the east coast.

Ed Shemelya, who leads the marijuana eradication programme in the Appalachia region, says a new type of grower is emerging wholly different to the family cartels that have cultivated the drug for generations. "We are seeing a lot more individuals who wouldn’t normally be growing marijuana. They are not your professionals."

Shemelya puts it down to the dire economy in this part of America. The region is almost entirely dependant for jobs on coal mining, which has suffered severely from the recession.

"People are growing marijuana to supplement their income or support themselves in poor economic times. This is about economic necessity," he said.

Source: Guardian – Americans grow cannabis to beat the recession

At $2,000 per plant (sounds a little low to me) this kind of ‘family’ operation can help just about any family through some hard times – if they’re not caught that is.

Beat the recession, join fellow Americans growing pot is a post from: The Inquisitr

A man who was arrested for allegedly distributing marijuana says he and his wife are members of a cannabis ministry and have a religious right to use pot. But police aren’t buying it.

Not the first time religion has been used as an excuse with pot, but check out the official looking documents in the clip that support this guys case.

Get Caught With Pot? Claim Religious Persecution is a post from: The Inquisitr