On Nov. 8, 2016 voters in California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada approved ballot measures to legalize recreational cannabis. It is now legal in a total of eight states. And this creates potential problems for road safety. How do we determine who's impaired and who's not? The effects of alcohol vary based on a person's size and weight, metabolism rate, related food intake and the type and amount of beverage consumed. Even so, alcohol consumption produces fairly straightforward results: The more you drink, the worse you drive. Factors like body size and drinking experience can shift the correlation slightly, but the relationship is still pretty linear, enough to be able to confidently develop a blood alcohol content scale for legally determining drunk driving. Not so with marijuana. [continues 833 words]
WeWork, a co-working space on Little West 12th Street, is a warren of glassed-in office cubicles populated by aggressively branded startups with names like Strike Force and Savage. Rodawg is quite like the other young design and marketing businesses there, except that the product it centers around is illegal in the state of New York. Founder Josh Gordon wants Rodawg to be for weed what "Billabong is for the surfing industry." Tall and scruffy, Mr. Gordon was dressed to meet The Observer in the casual-but-expensive mode popular among entrepreneurs: designer jeans, a plaid collared shirt opened to reveal a hefty gold chain and a T-shirt screen-printed with a steer skull. One arm draped over the back of a chaise, he spoke in the laconic, "bud"-peppered tone of someone who had had a positive high school experience. [continues 1374 words]
ALBANY--Will this actually be the year for Rockefeller Drug Law reform? "I think we have a better shot than ever if Paterson takes a leadership role," said Anthony Papa, who served 12 years under the laws before he was granted clemency by George Pataki in 1997. David Paterson mentioned the need to reform the laws in his speech yesterday, saying he "cannot think of a criminal justice strategy that has been more unsuccessful" in its purpose. He was a supporter of reforming the laws as a state senator. [continues 214 words]
"Normally I sell pretty good Jamaican weed," Tommy, a drug dealer who works in Washington Square Park, said the other day. "For some of my good customers, I'll get the hydroponic stuff, the superior product. But one day a couple of months ago, these guys started asking me for, I don't know-I guess you could say a mellower weed." Tommy, who is middle-aged, with long, gray hair and a droopy waddle of skin under his neck, snuck a sip from his cup of tea. One of his recent customers, he said, "was like, 'I don't smoke too much . the last stuff I bought got me paranoid about whether my kid is making car-insurance payments. I couldn't sleep all night, and I was constipated for two days.'" [continues 800 words]
