Denver City Council Says It's Okay To Smoke Pot In Front Yards

After an overreaching proposed ordinance last month which would have made the smell of marijuana illegal in Denver, the city council has given preliminary approval to much looser rules that would allow citizens to smoke pot on their property and even on their front lawns.

The Denver Post reports that marijuana consumption would only be legal on property that is

owned by the marijuana user and also legal where permission has been given by the owner to smoke pot on rented or leased property.

The city council is attempting to define what "open and public" consumption will mean for marijuana users in Mile High City. This new proposed rule stands in stark contrast to the original draft from October; which, if passed, would have made the smell of marijuana, or even just the sight of someone smoking marijuana, illegal if it could be smelled or seen by others . It also could have carried a fine of $999 or a year in jail, 7News reported.

Colorado voters passed Amendment 64 last November making the limited sale, possession and growing of marijuana for recreational purposes legal for adults 21 and over. A64 states that adults can possess up to an ounce of pot, can grow as many as six marijuana plants at home (with only three flowering at any given time), but home-grown marijuana can only be for personal use and cannot be sold. However, adults can gift one another up to an ounce of pot.

Backers of A64 said the original proposed ordinance which would criminalize marijuana use in private was unconstitutional.

The final vote on the "open and public" consumption rules will take place in early December. The first retail marijuana shops are expected to open around the state on Jan. 1. 2014.

British Man Dies After Drinking Liquid Meth Worth $54,000 Hidden As Fruit Drink

A British man has reportedly died after accidentally drinking liquid methamphetamine from a bottle he thought contained a fruit juice, according to British media outlets.

Romano Dias, a 55-year-old from Cambridgeshire, England, fell ill after consuming what he thought was a fruit-based drink given to him by his daughter, Cambridge News reported. After drinking half a glass, the man reportedly said it tasted "awful" and began complaining of a burning in his throat. He then purportedly said: “I am in trouble here. I am

dying, I am dead."

It was later determined the liquid was not juice, but $54,400 (£34,000) worth of pure methamphetamine, according to Cambridge News. The bottle was delivered to Dias' daughter's home some three years ago under the correct address but a wrong name. She kept the package for months and eventually gave it to her father. Detective Inspector Ian Simmons said, due to the high value of the contents, officials believe the bottle was destined for a drug dealer who may have been planning to introduce meth to the area.

This is not the first time the drug has been disguised as an everyday beverage.

Meth is typically found in solid form, but traffickers are apparently developing new ways to transport the drug. When distributors receive the liquid substance, they convert it into crystal meth, the Denver Post noted. Rob Saccone, a supervisor with the Drug Enforcement Administration, told the paper that eight pounds of the liquid yields about four pounds of the crystal form.

In August, 15 people were indicted on suspicion of transporting liquid methamphetamine across the Mexican border in sealed drink bottles and in wiper fluid reservoirs, the Denver Post reported.

The most common ingredients found in meth include acetone, lithium, hydrochloric acid and anhydrous ammonia, according to the Meth Project Foundation. The drug releases dopamine rapidly in the brain, producing an intense euphoria. Dangers can include addiction, heart palpitations, paranoia, insomnia, seizure and stroke.

The Science of Addiction: What Causes Some People to Become Addicted to Drugs While Others Do Not?

No matter how it is that you get your news - the morning paper, the evening news programs, RSS feeds, or Twitter - you have most likely heard many reports of doctors under investigation for writing too many prescriptions for pain killers, meth labs being found and destroyed, and celebrities entering rehab for cocaine addiction.

Many Americans however, are unaware of the substance abuse epidemic sweeping our nation today. Substance abuse seems like a problem that exists in a far-away place, away from their neighborhood; it is certainly not a part of their own household. There is a lot of confusion about drug addiction. Many still believe the abuse of drugs is a choice, and simple willpower is all that is need to overcome the problem.

Due to scientific research, we now know that addiction is a brain disease. Addiction is considered a brain disease because drugs change the structure of the brain as well as how the brain works.

Why do some people become addicted while others experiment and then stop?

Susceptibility to addiction differs from person to person and has risk factors and protective factors, just as any other disease. The more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance that taking drugs will lead to addiction. Protective factors reduce the chance of a person becoming addicted.

Scientists estimate that genetics and environmental factors account for somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of a person's susceptibility. Adolescents are even more susceptible to drug addiction since their brains are not yet fully formed. Ethnicity, gender, and the presence of any mental disorders can influence the risk as well. The genetic causes of drug addiction involve multiple gene sequences. Science has yet to identify all of the genes involved.

Many environmental influences can increase, or decrease, a person's risk for drug addiction. Home and family is usually the most important. Family relationships, parental involvement, socioeconomic status, and conditions at home and in the surrounding neighborhood can greatly influence the course of drug abuse and addiction in teens.

School and peers are a key influence. A child with poor social skills may find it impossible to fit in with others, greatly increasing the risk for addiction. Stress and academic failures also increase susceptibility and risk. During adolescence, friends have the most influence. Adolescents' brains are still developing in the areas that govern decision-making, judgment, and self-control, making them especially susceptible to pressures from friends to try drugs.

Although taking drugs at any age can lead to addiction, research shows that the earlier drug use begins, the more likely it is to progress to more serious abuse followed by addiction. In addition, to early drug use the method of administration can greatly influence a person's vulnerability to addiction.

Because addiction is a disease it is treatable and most importantly it is preventable.

To learn more about substance abuse, addiction, and how to prevent your teen from using drugs, visit Secret Drug Test now.

Free Marijuana To Be Given Out For Flood Relief In Colorado

There's going to be some smoke on the water in Boulder, CO.

After devastating floods shut down the state and claimed the lives of ten people, residents in this college mountain town are trying to get back to business as usual, which includes smoking some ganja.

Organizers are set to hand out free joints today on Boulder's bustling Pearl Street Mall, the Daily Camera reported.

While much of the city is focused on rebuilding, the giveaway is an effort to help “stressed out recreational users” who may have lost their stashes to flooding. It's also supposed to serve as a protest a marijuana sales tax ballot that will ask voters in November to approve a 15-percent excise tax.

“Boulder has been victimized by floods,” said Rob Corry, who helped organize the event and hopes to defeat the tax ballot. “We want to bring some flood relief to folks.”

The idea first started two weeks ago, when Corry and other organizers against the ballot handed out free joints in Denver. Despite long lines and a police presence, there were no arrests, The Denver Post reported.

"I wish I could have gotten a bigger one because there were blunts in there," said recreational user Janet Osborn, 27, at the Denver event. "I got probably the smallest one. But it's OK. It's free."

Monday's event is expected to see smaller numbers than the Denver event saw, where more than 600 joints were passed out.

“I’m sure there won’t be too much public consumption [at the Boulder event],” Corry said.

Flood relief donations also will be accepted at the event.

Study Shows That Marijuana Is Not A Safe Drug

By Daniel M Manson

While most people know that street drugs like cocaine, heroin and meth can kill you, many also think that marijuana is a "safe drug" and it really isn't a big deal if you use it. For years, the greatest threat from marijuana was perceived to be its tendency to be a "gateway drug." According to Dictionary.com, gateway drugs change your mood and bring about a high, but they don't cause physical dependence. Recent studies have shown that, while marijuana may not cause a physical dependence, it can harmfully affect your body.

Studies on Marijuana Safety

For example, studies by the British Lung Foundation show that smoking cannabis brings four times more tar into your

lungs than smoking regular tobacco cigarettes does. Smoking a single joint every day for a year is approximately equal to smoking twenty cigarettes every day for the same length of time. To simplify this, you are twenty times more likely to get lung cancer from smoking marijuana than you are to get it from smoking cigarettes.

Furthermore, marijuana can be harmful to our youth. The brain does not stop developing when you hit puberty or graduate high school. It continues to grow and develop well into your twenties, according to BBC News in a study on cannabis health risks. The lack of physical dependence does not reflect on the mental dependence upon the drug. Researchers studied over 120 people and how cannabis affects their brains. The results: the drug can develop a tendency for addictive behavior later in life.

How Marijuana Works in the Brain

Here's how it works: marijuana, like any drug, interacts with the brain. The specific receptors in the brain that marijuana interacts with are designed to help you learn, manage things, control your body, etc. Your brain mimics your body in that it grows a lot during your adolescence. It is developing the patterns and functionality that you will have for life. When drugs interact with your brain, they alter the natural design of brain development. Marijuana is no exception. When you abuse a substance, it makes an observable difference in how your brain develops, in this case increasing addictive tendencies.

Can Marijuana Still Be a Gateway

Of course, all of this proof of the physical problems cannabis causes does not negate the fact that it is still a gateway drug. The downside of using marijuana is not so rapidly or visibly apparent as heroin or cocaine, which will leave you looking older, bags under your eyes, spots on your skin, teeth often falling apart or rotting in your mouth. So people still consider it to be "safe" for them to use. Once they realize that this drug, which the government and so many other people are so clearly against, isn't really that harmful, they may be tempted to try other drugs. After all, a drug is a drug, and an addiction is an addiction. The craving wants to be satisfied, it doesn't care what it takes.

Before taking any substance into your body, you should do the research to find out how it will truly affect you. Do the research. Know what your body will have to go through as a result of what you take into your system.

If you have already started to use any drug, don't listen to people that try to tell you that it's safe. The facts are that almost all of these drugs can harm you-if not now, they will eventually.

For more information on this topic and others go to our main site at Redwood Cliffs drug rehab.

Rodney Watkins, Ohio Man, Allegedly Smokes Crack In Police Custody

An Ohio man taken into police custody after a traffic stop made a bad situation worse when he allegedly smoked crack at the police station.

Police in Golf Manor, Ohio, brought Rodney Watkins to the station to check if he had any outstanding warrants after he allegedly presented them with false identification during the stop.

Police said Watkins smoked crack out of a pipe after he was left alone in an interview room, according to

WCPO. An officer monitoring the room on surveillance cameras caught him, and Watkins was promptly arrested on charges including drug abuse and possession of paraphernalia.

Watkins is being held at the Hamilton County Justice Center on a $39,750 bond.

In July, a Florida man with a large, tribal face tattoo was arrested after police caught him allegedly smoking crack in his car. Police found assorted drugs and paraphernalia in the man's car.