What we’re reading: Week 11

By Lex Talamo
@News21

Different strategies for groups pushing legal marijuana (Joshua Miller, The Boston Globe, Aug. 4) Massachusetts groups are looking to legalize recreational marijuana. One calls for an approach that involves regulation and taxation. The other focuses on individual liberty.

Good news: Smoking marijuana as a teen may not impact your health as an adult after all (Deena Shanker, Quartz, Aug. 6)  A recent study published in Psychology of Addictive Behaviors found that smoking pot during teen years may not cause problems later in life.

Marijuana could be contributing to the California drought (Pete Spotts, Business Insider, Aug. 8)
Spotts, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, reported on marijuana’s heavy toll on California’s sensitive ecosystems.

Exclusive: Justice Department admits misleading Congress on marijuana vote (Tom Angell, Marijuana.com, Aug. 5) An internal memo obtained by Marijuana.com showed that Justice Department officials misled members of Congress about a medical marijuana amendment’s effects.

Better late than never: The DEA admits that marijuana is safer than heroin (Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, Aug. 6)  The acting chief of the Drug Enforcement Administration says that marijuana is less dangerous than heroin.