Odd

An Australian anti-marijuana campaign that features an intoxicated sloth has drawn expert criticism and online mockery.

The Stoner Sloth campaign, financed by the New South Wales state government, aims to stop teens smoking marijuana.

The sloth character is shown as unable to cope with various social scenariosafter smoking the drug.

Australia's National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre (NCPIC) criticised the campaign.

"[This] doesn't reflect NCPIC views on how cannabis harms campaigns should be approached", the organisation said in a statement..

Read More:http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-35147121

With Canada currently examining ways to legally regulate the distribution of recreational cannabis, we thought it was a good idea to take an updated look at the only country in the world that has legalized the sale of cannabis; Uruguay (other countries may turn a blind eye to cannabis sales, but Uruguay is the only one where it has been statutorily legalized).

In Uruguay, it’s entirely legal for those 18 and older to cultivate up to 6 cannabis plants at any given time, with an allowed annual harvest of roughly 500 grams. Adults can also join cannabis clubs, where cannabis can be shared and consumed, and can purchase cannabis from designated cannabis pharmacies. Although the United Nations has warned Uruguay about moving forward with this new law, they’ve done so anyway.

Within the country, cannabis is being sold entirely tax-free to help undercut the black market. This brings the average price per gram down to just 22 Uruguayan pesos, or roughly $1. Although this results in less revenue earned by the country, it prevents situations where the black market simply lowers their prices to compete with the typically higher price of legal cannabis.

Read More:http://thejointblog.com/in-uruguay-the-only-country-with-legal-cannabis-price-is-less-than-1-a-gram/

The smell near the Columbia Heights Metro station Wednesday night was unmistakable. A lit joint in hand, Tony Lee stood outside a residence talking with friends as the evening bustle passed them by, no one paying the group of men any special attention.

“The community I’m in, everyone engages in smoking,” said Lee, 34, a District resident who runs his own small construction firm. Plus, he said, if he’s not smoking, he detects the odor of other people getting high throughout the city on a daily basis anyway.

“I’ve grown accustomed to it,” he said.

This casual attitude to marijuana — and the distinctive waft that accompanies the smoking of it — seems to be the new norm in the District in the year since the city voted to legalize possession of small amounts of pot.

Read More:https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-smells-like-marijuana-and-residents-dont-really-care/2015/11/20/3a8e4f3c-8ec2-11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html

A San Francisco dentist whose practice is in the heart of the Mission District, and who has spoken openly about the importance of good dental hygiene for pot smokers, was arrested in a New York City drug sting, court documents show.

Jerome Weitz, 63, who has been working in San Francisco since 1982, was arrested in a Yonkers, N.Y., apartment this week after allegedly being in possession of more than $10,000 cash and on his way to receive payment for a large shipment of marijuana, according to court documents. He was arrested after exchanging texts with his dealer, prosecutors said.

Weitz was arrested by the Narcotic Borough Manhattan North. A total of 11 "vacuum sealed plastic bags" weighing about ten pounds were recovered from a duffle bag in the living room where the dentist was staying, the detective wrote in documents obtained by NBC Bay Area.

Read More:http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/San-Francisco-Dentist-Arrested-in-New-York-on-Marijuana-Charges-Documents-338722182.html

If you were expecting 50 pounds of marijuana in the mail, a New Jersey police department would like you to drop by.

Police in Hazlet, on the northern coast of New Jersey, responded to a home Tuesday where the owner claimed they had received several packages addressed to somebody who didn't live there, police said on their Facebook page.

Officers opened the boxes in an attempt to find the name of the intended recipient. Instead, they found about 50 pounds of pot.

The department seized the marijuana, which is worth about $100,000, said Hazlet detective Ted Wittke.

Read More:http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/50-pounds-marijuana-shipped-wrong-new-jersey-address-n450176

With the social justice movement gaining more and more momentum, the word “shaming” continuously gets thrown around a lot. There is fat-shaming, skinny-shaming, slut-shaming, virgin-shaming, tattoo-shaming, shame-shaming. Shame-shaming-shaming, and everything else under the sun. While shaming people for their ways of life or their appearance is certainly something that is completely unnecessary and immature, is marijuana-shaming really a thing?

A high school student from Ohio, Hank Sigel, accused the administration of marijuana-shaming when his friend, Hayden Long, commit suicide after being caught with marijuana by the school. According to Sigel, the school was negligent in their dealings with Hayden, and said that the threats by the school were overboard.

However, is this really shaming? I mean, isn’t shaming downplaying what is going on here? To shame someone means to demean or embarrass someone for a choice or appearance, but that isn’t what is going on here. The student was threatened with suspension, criminal charges, a driver’s license suspension, and sports suspension. Furthermore, most public universities won’t accept him, and he is immediately disqualified from most student loans.

This isn’t shaming. This isn’t just embarrassing or demeaning a person (which, yes, is still certainly wrong). This is physically and actively destroying their lives. This is treating a high school student as a gang member. This is treating a kid as an adult. This an active injustice on the part of our legal system, not some kind of social injustice done with unkind words or gestures.

Source:http://www.theweedblog.com/is-marijuana-shaming-a-real-thing/