How can you not think that secondhand smoke from marijuana wouldn't pose a risk to the heart and lungs? It's well established fact that exposure to even low levels carbon monoxide causes heart attacks and that breathing in black carbon from soot coats the lungs and makes it harder to breathe. I doesn't matter where smoke comes from -- a wood fire, a diesel truck, a gasoline automobile, or other source, the fact is that combustion causes toxic emissions.
"The Mallinckrodt pharmaceutical factory is the largest employer in Hobart, New York. It was also the source of millions of generic oxycodone pills that federal investigators say fueled the narcotics epidemic. A rural community grapples with the supply-side of the United States' problem with pills."
"Professor Alexander argues this discovery is a profound challenge both to the right-wing view that addiction is a moral failing caused by too much hedonistic partying, and the liberal view that addiction is a disease taking place in a chemically hijacked brain. In fact, he argues, addiction is an adaptation. It’s not you. It’s your cage."
"After the first phase of Rat Park, Professor Alexander then took this test further. He reran the early experiments, where the rats were left alone, and became compulsive users of the drug. He let them use for fifty-seven days — if anything can hook you, it’s that. Then he took them out of isolation, and placed them in Rat Park. He wanted to know, if you fall into that state of addiction, is your brain hijacked, so you can’t recover? Do the drugs take you over? What happened is — again — striking. The rats seemed to have a few twitches of withdrawal, but they soon stopped their heavy use, and went back to having a normal life. The good cage saved them. (The full references to all the studies I am discussing are in the book.)"
"When I first learned about this, I was puzzled. How can this be? This new theory is such a radical assault on what we have been told that it felt like it could not be true. But the more scientists I interviewed, and the more I looked at their studies, the more I discovered things that don’t seem to make sense — unless you take account of this new approach."
"Attorney General Jeff Sessions is rescinding the Obama-era policy that had paved the way for legalized marijuana to flourish in states across the country, two people with knowledge of the decision told The Associated Press. Sessions will instead let federal prosecutors where pot is legal decide how aggressively to enforce federal marijuana law, the people said. The people familiar with the plan spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it before an announcement expected Thursday."
"The move by President Donald Trump’s attorney general likely will add to confusion about whether it’s OK to grow, buy or use marijuana in states where pot is legal, since long-standing federal law prohibits it. It comes days after pot shops opened in California, launching what is expected to become the world’s largest market for legal recreational marijuana and as polls show a solid majority of Americans believe the drug should be legal."
"While Sessions has been carrying out a Justice Department agenda that follows Trump’s top priorities on such issues as immigration and opioids, the changes to pot policy reflect his own concerns. Trump’s personal views on marijuana remain largely unknown. Sessions, who has assailed marijuana as comparable to heroin and has blamed it for spikes in violence, had been expected to ramp up enforcement. Pot advocates argue that legalizing the drug eliminates the need for a black market and would likely reduce violence, since criminals would no longer control the marijuana trade."
"New Yorkers are high on legalizing weed as a cure for the state’s budget woes, a new poll Monday revealed."
"Sixty two percent of New York voters said they supported making marijuana use legal for people 21 and older, with only 28% opposed, according to the poll commissioned by the Marijuana Policy Project Foundation and the Drug Policy Alliance."
"The poll, conducted by Emerson College, also found that legalizing and taxing marijuana was, by far, the most popular way to erase New York’s looming budget deficit, with 60% of voters supporting it."
"Between 15% and 27% of voters supported other deficit-reducing options, such as increasing sales or income taxes, increasing tolls, or cutting support for public education."
"Automakers have programs to help workers with addictions and mental-health disorders, but the programs aren't necessarily equipped to handle the long recovery times that opioids require. And workers who fear for their job security are often reluctant to seek help, especially if they've lapsed more than once. Among the efforts to break the cycle of drug abuse is Soberfest, with the ballfields and picnic tables flanked by booths for community organizations such as Odyssey House, Serenity House and the Brighton Center for Recovery, where local native Eminem once checked himself in."