We knew that 19-year-old Boston Marathon suspect smoked pot — he seemed to admit as much on his much-parsed Twitter account. But according to a new report, Tsarnaev was also a go-to source for marijuana at UMass Dartmouth. Because, you know, he was a kid in college.
Looking at the recent spread of liberalized marijuana laws across the United States, it's hard not to think we're entering some kind of Weed Spring. The latest state to act is Maryland, where on Monday the state senate approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana by 42 to 4, sending it to Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is expected to sign it into law.
More than five months after two states voted to legalize marijuana — and as a host of other states consider the same — a majority of Americans now say pot should be legal to consume.
In some happy news for a healthy percentage of New Yorkers, the state appears to be close to decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana in New York City. This isn't an effort to curtail crime — it's an (overdue) effort to rein in the NYPD and stop-and-frisk. The data shows why.
While there remains a loophole as to whether their driving was actually impaired, newfound smokers may be more at risk on the road and with the law.
Marijuana could be the next gay marriage -- a contentious social issue that suddenly picks up broad, bipartisan support for change.
Discovered: Fake weed gave lots of people kidney damage last year; the FDA approves artificial sight for the blind; engineering tires from flowers; flushed anti-anxiety meds are making fish jittery.
The lady who attacked a Hindu man on the subway for no apparent reason other than the fact that he was brown says she probably wouldn't have attacked the man if she was high that day.
Discovered: Lighting up might not lead to dumbing down; playing music can put you on a natural high; black carbon is twice as bad as we thought; evidence that obesity is inherited.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
Despite the Justice Department getting ready to enforce and the Senate ready for a hearing, it's a little funny that legalization really could spread the way dorm room stoners always imagined: states will figure out they can make lots of money taxing weed.
Just when you thought drug running couldn't get more extreme, U.S. border patrol officers find 33 cans of marijuana in the desert near the border that they believe were fired from a cannon in Mexico.
In Washington and Colorado, savvy business owners are trying to bring "marijuana bars" to life, but there remain hurdles. Here are just a few questions standing between pot smokers and a new proliferation of stateside coffee shops:
A summary of the best reads found behind the paywall of The New York Times.
You can smoke weed anywhere in Washington right now. You can even be high on CNN. Like so.
The Washington Post's editorial board came out in support of Washington and Colorado's decision to legalize weed on Monday night.
With pot legalization taking hold in Colorado and Washington after Election Day, marijuana proponents are pushing to make weed legal in New York, Rhode Island, Montana, and a slew of other states. But they'll face stiff resistance from the feds — and ambivalence from growers.
The Dutch have done away with their silly weed-pass rule, which would have banned tourists from smoking legal dope in their "coffee shops" without a locals-only "cannabis card."
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul says "I'm not going to deny that I'm interested" in running for president in 2016, and his platform would appeal to not red states or blue states, but green states.
While you were watching to see whether Romney or Obama won Ohio, both Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana for recreational use on Tuesday.
The L.A.P.D. is concerned about a Halloween menace that hasn't actually terrorized anyone yet: potheads giving out weed infused candy. They are warning the media about the potential dangers and warning signs of the dopest candy in your bag of loot.
Quick, aside from being busted for carrying weed, what's the one thing Fiona Apple, Willie Nelson, Snoop Dog, and Armie Hammer all have in common? Well, for starters, they can all tell you what a cell at Sierra Blanca's Hudspeth County Jail looks like.
Discovered: FedEx and UPS won't ship research animals anymore; marijuana may slow aggressive cancer; smoking doesn't come cheap in New York; why rats binge on M&Ms.
Discovered: Planets that could sustain life; the shiniest fruit; non-alcoholic wine defeats the purpose but bestows health benefits; weed linked to testicular cancer.
Discovered: Chimps pick their fights; marijuana damages young minds; learn while sleeping; arctic sea ice takes a dive.
The Justice Department's botched gun-smuggling program Fast & Furious is no longer the exclusive obsession of Republicans and gun owners. Turns out, advocates of marijuana legalization want in on the conspiracy too.
Judo fighter Nick Delpopolo, who was disqualified from the Olympics on Monday, said the cannabis in his system came from something he ate that he didn't know contained marijuana—an all-too-plausible excuse that makes his situation all the more disappointing.
Discovered: glial cells play a role in memory formation; you can control a computer with your eyes; we've unearthed a long-lost relative; asteroids brought water to Earth.
Bummed that the New York State Senate isn't as down with reefer as Gov. Mario Cuomo, Jon Stewart looked across the Hudson on The Daily Show las night to see if he could find his marijuana fix in the Garden State.
Here's a novel way of fighting the drug war: Allow the government to sell weed directly to citizens and use the profits to rehabilite addicts.
Remember how New York Governor Andrew Cuomo called for the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana in public view? That was kind of fun, wasn't it?
Stephen Colbert discussed The Atlantic Wire's post, "Is Legalizing Weed Obama's Secret Weapon?," on Thursday's show, wondering whether marijuana initiatives on several state ballots could swing a close election for the president.
Discovered: Why your baby is a pot-head, soda isn't making kids fat, here's something that does contribute to obesity, and a cure for Ebola?
In 2004 George W. Bush's re-election campaign worked to put anti-gay marriage ballot initiatives up for vote in several swing states in order to turn out more hard-core conservatives to the polls. This year the question is whether marijuana legalization measures will turn out young voters for Obama.
Meghan McCain is going through a transformation most people experience at an age ten years younger.
Seeing as how he's repeatedly defended the stop-and-frisk program and low-level pot arrests, we didn't expect New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to come out in favor of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan to partially decriminalize pot.
Let's not be naive: This whole 4/20 business is all about the green stuff—money. But on a day full of craven marketing to stoners, the ploy we can really get roll with is the unveiling of an eight-foot-tall statue of Willie Nelson in Austin at 4:20 p.m.
Discovered: Unprecedented ocean acidification, weed does and doesn't impair memory, a strike against wine snobs and california isn't that fat anymore.
Though it's no Greece, fellow EU member Spain also finds itself in dire economic straits, inspiring one Spanish village to propose growing marijuana for some extra cash.
Discovered: the dangers of headphones for pedestrians, troubling obesity rate numbers, our sun's future, and the impact of medical marijuana on traffic accidents.
You've heard it a hundred times before, but a big new study released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association offers more good news for light pot smokers who happen to be concerned about their health.
Discovered: Hybrid climate change fighting sharks, weed's effects on brain function, smartphones are addictive, an astounding link between diabetes, income and ADHD, and the kindness of humble strangers.
An out-of-work trucker, a former record producer, and an unemployed college teacher -- these are among the folks anonymously chronicled in a Mother Jones article about how the recession has caused some humble family men to start shilling the evil reefer.
A new survey of teenage drug use finds that their consumption of cigarettes and alcohol is the lowest it has been in 30 years, but that regular use of marijuana continues its sharp rise.
Some photo editor is having a really bad day at work, we're guessing, after accidentally illustrating a Guardian column on Canada with a joke Canadian flag bearing a pot leaf instead of the standard maple.
It has been a little over a month since the White House launched an outreach program promising official responses to policy ideas submitted by everyday Americans. The result? A whole lot of arguing over space aliens, marijuana legalization, and Casey Anthony, followed by vague, bureaucratic answers.
The crime of having a little bit of weed was was all the rage in New York City last year, according to the AP.
This forest green to stark yellow shaded map of the United States plots out the different price points of marijuana across the nation.
A new survey shows meth-use has plunged by about half in the last few years
Two different ways for authorities to circumvent lax drug laws are reportedly on the rise
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