Driving under influence but not "high"? (NPR)

Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; SCPR.org/Staff, NPR, Feb. 23, 2014

Smells totally crunchy, bro! - I beg your pardon, valued patron? - Medicine for my girlfriend.

  

As cannabis becomes legal, driving concerns grows

Pot is safe until smoked (in a bikini)

Here a customer smells a strain of marijuana while being helped by employee Billy Archilla inside the retail marijuana shop at 3D Cannabis Center, in Denver.

• LISTEN NOW (11:40) DL

The Lodo Wellness Center in Denver, Colorado has been selling medical marijuana for several years. But since Jan. 1, 2014, when marijuana in Colorado officially moved from underground to behind-the-counter, they have also been selling legal, recreational pot.
 

Hey, monkey, don't drink and drive! (BO)

A majority of Americans now say they support full legalization, and the trend is spreading: Legal weed is coming soon to Washington state.
 
Meanwhile, the public health community is warning of a potential safety problem: more people driving while stoned, whatever "stoned" means. Health officials and law enforcement do not yet have the data or tools to define or address the concern.

A substance is something to abstain from and avoid if it is being used with the intention of getting high and dissociating. Mindfulness and acceptance would be better strategies.

  
Public perception
Inside the Lodo Wellness Center, shoppers do not seem particularly worried about getting behind the wheel with pot in their systems -- since it lingers in fat for days or weeks, long after one is "high."
 
"You could smoke about an ounce and still have your motor skills," says 39-year-old Dante Cox. "When it comes to one shot of alcohol, all that goes out of the window."
 
Like Cox, several others say it's okay to smoke before driving, and it's definitely safer than drinking [alcohol] and driving.
 

UCLA, USC students unite against racism

For advocates of traffic safety, their words are of concern. "I think this is the next big issue in highway safety," says Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the Governor's Highway Safety Association.

[And it is yet another issue that can be used to push for a more oppressive "police state" in America under every possible pretext.] He tells NPR's Arun Rath that there's a prevalent feeling in American culture that marijuana is no big deal.
 

POLL: Divide California into 6 states?

"Well, it is a big deal if you use it and then get behind the wheel," he says. "We need to have the same cultural intolerance for marijuana use behind the wheel as we do with alcohol."
 
Alcohol-related crashes still kill around 10,000 people a year, and research clearly shows how drinking alcohol affects driving. The impact of marijuana is much less clear. More

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Power of SEDUCTION in daily life (video)

Chen Lizra (TEDx Talks, Vancouver, 2013), CC Liu (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

With nearly a decade of experience in the animation industry -- working on projects for MTV, TVA, Alliance Atlantis, Mainframe Entertainment, and Radical Entertainment -- Chen Lizra's intellect, imagination, and creative thinking evolved her into a branding expert. 

[Think of the mark placed on cattle, slaves, or the shamed.]
 

Boys love to show off. Charming?

In 2009 and 2012 Chen was nominated as one of the "YWCA Women of Distinction in Vancouver" and was recently honored by the Australian government with a Distinguished Talent Permanent Visa for her international achievements in the arts.
 

As the international author of My Seductive Cuba, a UniqueTravel Guide, Chen has won two awards in the US, including the prestigious IPPY Book Award. With a passion for dance and creative movement, Lizra offers students "seduction workshops" and focused lectures and seminars about the art of seduction in our everyday lives.

  

• Secret History: How Cuba helped end S. Africa's apartheid 
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• Mayor takes aim at NYC’s iequality in inaugural address
• Civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart free out of compassion
• Colorado retailers begin legal recreational marijuana sales 
• Judge strikes down welfare drug tests in Florida
• Federal judge upholds electronics searches at U.S. border

TEDx: In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).