It's Friday evening and, like many business owners in Canada, Lynn Wood is hard at work in the store she owns with husband Jim. However, unlike many businesses in Canada, or any in New Brunswick for that matter, Saint John's Cannabis Cafe allows people to smoke marijuana, and has recently announced that they will begin selling it as well. With two new glass display cases to fill with pipes, digital scales, bongs, lighters, seeds, magazines, and even hallucinogenic peyote tea, the main project of the evening involves Lynn and perky part-time worker Shellie rearranging back issues of the magazines they carry. These include the well-known High Times, which will feature the cafe in its November issue, and Heads, published out of Montreal. [continues 1158 words]
Meeting jointly, two state legislative committees voted 15-1 Wednesday in favor of a bill to establish a pilot marijuana distribution center for medical patients. Such a center could be located in Sagadahoc or Cumberland counties, according to a medical marijuana advocate. The vote by the Health and Human Services and Criminal Justice committees sends the bill first to the Senate, then the House for debate. Ten committee members were absent from the decision, but have 24 hours to call in their vote. [continues 660 words]
From her modest and immaculate light-filled home overlooking a cove of the New Meadows River, Leighton, 77, rails against the grasp for profits and natural resources in a global economy she views as dominated by trans-national corporations. From March 11-23, Leighton and Jim Harney, a Bangor photographer who remains in the country, were members of a 100-person Witness for Peace church delegation that spent two weeks in Colombia. There, the mission separated into four groups visiting various parts of the nation to meet the people and investigate human rights violations, which they believe can be traced to U.S. funding and multinational investors who value Colombia's oil, coffee and geographic position straddling the Caribbean and Pacific. [continues 2228 words]
BATH — Where you find OxyContin abuse, you probably will encounter heroin as well, an addiction specialist told a group of residents Thursday. "Where there's Oxy around there's heroin; there's no distinction," Martin O'Brien told the group gathered in the Starlight Cafe on Lambard Street. "Its significance in Maine cannot be underestimated." No teen-ager attended the informal discussion about substance abuse among young people, although they were invited to the event by an announcement in the Morse High School "Navigator." But about 20 adults did, either concerned parents some with children having drug problems or educators and counseling professionals. [continues 1389 words]
