Pre-pot, J. ate things that weren’t food… His pica become so uncontrollable we couldn’t let him sleep with a pajama top (it would be gone by morning) or a pillow (ditto the case and the stuffing)… The worst part was watching him scream in pain on the toilet, when what went in had to come out… Almost immediately after we started the cannabis, the pica stopped. Just stopped. J. now sleeps with his organic wool-and-cotton, hypoallergenic, temptingly chewable comforter.

Next, we started seeing changes in J.’s school reports… An aggression is defined as any attempt or instance of hitting, kicking, biting, or pinching another person. For the past year, he’d consistently had 30 to 50 aggressions in a school day, with a one-time high of 300. The charts for June through July, by contrast, showed he was actually having days—sometimes one after another—with zero aggressions.

This post is likely to elicit strong opinions; I would encourage everyone to at least browse the original source articles rather than basing judgments only on the excerpts above.

The article is written in two parts.  Link for original article.  Link for followup.

Via Metafilter.  Photo credit Marie Lee.

Here’s the story of a postman who got so lazy after smoking so much pot that he decided to burn mail instead of delivering it:

Neil Goddard, 32, was given a 12-month sentence after he set up a huge cannabis factory in his bedroom and managed to cultivate 8,000 pounds of the drug.

But he smoked so much of it over a year-old period that he was too high to bother delivering thousands of items of post.

So let’s revise that (unofficial) postal service motto: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, but pot surely can!"

Link

Ms. Sawyer’s story does have some elements of the Johnny Cash song.

She gives a surprising amount of credit to her mother for making her resilient and resourceful. “She instilled in me that fighting attitude – never take no, you can do anything,” Sawyer said.

By high school, her name was cool to many. “They were like, ‘Oh yeah. Man, I wish I had your name. I love that. I’m going to name my kid after you.’ I hear that so much and I go, Lord, please don’t do that to that child.”

Link -via Fark

(image credit: Jeffrey Phelps)

While using Google Earth, Swiss police discovered that not all green masses on their screen are trees and jungles. In fact, they discovered a huge  marijuana plantation hidden inside a corn field!

I don't know what I'm more suprised with: the weed farm or the police using rudimentary software available to any internet user to crack the case.

Officers discovered the hemp field in the northeastern canton (state) of Thurgau last year while investigating an alleged drug ring, said the head of Zurich police's specialist narcotics unit Norbert Klossner.

The plantation, measuring almost two acres (7,500 square meters), was hidden inside a field of corn. But officers using Google Earth to locate the address of two farmers suspected of involvement in the drug operation quickly spotted the illegal crop.

"It was an interesting chance discovery," said Klossner.

Link

From the Upcoming Queue, submitted by sisyphus33.

Scientists originally thought the plant material in the grave was coriander, but microscopic botanical analysis of the bowl contents, along with genetic testing, revealed that it was cannabis.

The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown.

Nearly two pounds of pot were found in the grave. No, it’s not fresh enough to get anyone high. Link -Thanks, Jorge Garcia!

(image credit: David Potter/Oxford University Press)