Medical Marijuana Is Giving Activists a Chance to Show How a Legitimized Pot Business Can Work. Is the End of Prohibition Upon Us? When Irvin Rosenfeld, 56, picks me up at the Fort Lauderdale airport, his SUV reeks of marijuana. The vice president for sales at a local brokerage firm, Rosenfeld has been smoking 10 to 12 marijuana cigarettes a day for 38 years, he says. That's probably unusual in itself, but what makes Rosenfeld exceptional is that for the past 27 years, he has been copping his weed directly from the United States government. [continues 7734 words]
With medical marijuana initiatives gaining support across the country and abundant harvest in Northern California, the pot business is booming. Northern California's most famous crop, grapes, had a tough year due to weather in 2008. Not so NoCal's most profitable crop: marijuana. DEA and law enforcement officials seized 5.25 million plants from the region during harvest season (Most farms grow marijuana for California medical dispensaries and, according to the DEA, also for sale to dealers). The record haul - worth $16 billion on the street- is just one indication that pot is booming. ANother: pro-medical marijuana ballot initiative received more votes in Michigan on Nov. 4th than Barack Obama. And another: Massachusetts became the 13th state to decriminalize possession. As the economy circles the drain, it seems more people are taking to toking to mellow the macroeconomics harshness. [continues 148 words]
A Private Eye Has Found A Lucrative Niche Helping Entrepreneurs Protect Secrets, Bust Embezzlers, And Keep Scandals Out Of The Press NEW YORK-The entrepreneur, the owner and CEO of a small financial services company in New York City, was distraught. His son, who was in his 30s, had been hooked on cocaine and heroin for years. He would not return phone calls from his family. The father had spent a small fortune to hire addiction experts to help his son, but every effort had failed. He feared that his son would either overdose or get arrested and damage the reputation of the family business, which the CEO's grandfather had started. Finally, another CEO suggested that the entrepreneur call Robert Strang, head of (http://www.investigativemanagement.com/staff.asp)Investigative Management Group, a private-investigation firm in New York City adept at keeping family scandals out of the press. [continues 1040 words]
The Brain's Cannabinoid Receptor Is The Target Of A Rush (Ha!) To Develop New Drugs. If you're among those of us who did inhale, you'll recall one of the weed's enjoyable side effects: intense attacks of the munchies that sent you scurrying for baked beans and Moon Pies faster than Pooh after honey. So you may appreciate this tasty irony: Drug companies are racing to develop pills that plug into the same brain-signaling system that once had boomers flying high--this time to help them lose weight. [continues 924 words]
Former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese has a way to slow the exodus of jobs overseas: put prisoners to work. Behind the barbed-wire fence surrounding the Federal Correctional Institution at Elkton, Ohio, inmates sit at a long table stripping down old computers, salvaging valuable bits of gold and platinum. In another room prisoners clad in protective suits hammer away at monitor screens and cathode tubes, the smashed glass destined for sale to reprocessors. Computer recycling is difficult, labor-intensive work--exactly the type now being exported to China and other bastions of cheap labor. But Elkton gets business from government agencies and schools precisely because it can compete with Third World wages. In fact, other state and federal prisons have also gone into business, making products for companies such as Home Depot and Lowe's. [continues 514 words]
Says One HR Person: 'I Wouldn't Hold A Long-ago Transgression Against A Candidate, But I Would A Recent One.' Dear Annie: I'll graduate in January from a good college and am just beginning to talk with corporate recruiters. My grades were excellent all through school, I've been active in sports and other extracurricular activities, and I believe I've got a lot to offer an employer. There's just one problem: In my senior year of high school I was arrested along with several other students and convicted of marijuana possession. I had just turned 18, so instead of juvenile probation I got slapped with a lifelong criminal record. I have not touched any drugs since then and have never been in any other trouble (with the law or otherwise). Will this one mistake destroy my chances of getting a good job? And how should I handle it in job interviews--bring it up myself or wait to be asked? Worried in Washington [continues 841 words]
You Clearly Haven't Run The Numbers. Here Are Some Better Ways To Buy Safety. America is an exceptional country. Compared with citizens of other nations, Americans tend to be more religious and more entrepreneurial. We send more people to university, have more millionaires, and enjoy more living space. We are the world leaders in obesity and Nobel Prizes. And we send people to prison at a rate that is almost unheard of. Right now, almost two million Americans are either in prison (after conviction) or jail (waiting for trial). Of every 100,000 Americans, 481 are in prison. By comparison, the incarceration rate for Britain is 125 per 100,000, for Canada 129, and for Japan 40. Only Russia, at 685, is quicker to lock 'em up. [continues 2717 words]
