Did I mention I used to be president of DARE at my h.s.?

Teen Smokers More Likely to Try Marijuana--Study

Teen-agers who smoke cigarettes are 14 times more likely to try marijuana than those who never used tobacco, according to researchers who urged on Tuesday that preventing teen smoking be made a priority in the U.S. war on drugs.

The finding by Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse and the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking group, affirmed earlier studies that also found a strong correlation between tobacco and drug use among the young.

Results of the survey of 2,000 people between the ages of 12-17 showed that 60 percent of regular marijuana users smoked cigarettes first. At least 84 percent of teen smokers have tried marijuana whereas only 6 percent of marijuana users did not start as cigarette smokers.

In another finding, the groups calculated that reducing teen smoking by half could cut marijuana use among teens by 16 to 28 percent or up to 1.4 million people.

[...] The Bush administration acknowledges the relationship between smoking and future drug use but curbing teen smoking is not a primary focus of the war on drugs.

"We are doing pretty well in our drug efforts right now and would be cautious about anything that might dilute that effort," said Tom Riley, spokesman for the White House drug control policy office.

Researchers say one reason why people who smoke cigarettes migrate easily to marijuana is that tobacco use conditions the lungs to accept foreign substances.

Possession vs. privacy--in Alaska, the latter wins

Alaska Court Ruling Sparks Hope for Pot Advocates

Alaska may be moving closer to legalizing marijuana, advocates of the drug said on Wednesday, after an appeals court cited constitutional privacy protections in throwing out a drug possession conviction.

Alaska, a vast but thinly populated state with an eclectic mix of conservative and liberal politics, had been the only U.S. state to allow recreational marijuana use until 1990, when a ballot initiative outlawed smoking the plant, a mild hallucinogen.

Last Friday a state appeals court ruled the arrest and conviction of a Fairbanks-area man violated a 1975 Alaska Supreme Court ruling, the Ravin decision, which declared that the state had no right to prosecute people for possession and use of small amounts of marijuana in their own homes.

That privacy right supersedes the 1990 voter initiative that re-criminalized marijuana, the appeals court decided.

"When a statute conflicts with a provision of our state constitution, the statute must give way," the ruling said.

even in context, it didn't make much sense

"It literally spread like contact dermatitis," said Dwayne Nichols, a 30-year veteran of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who now administers federal money that targets high-activity drug areas throughout the state. "It's like trying to fight a water balloon -- you fight it and it goes somewhere else."

In Missouri, an Uphill Battle Against Meth

This is the last link of the night, I swear. It's worth it.

Sleep position gives personality clue

Scientists believe the position in which a person goes to sleep provides an important clue about the kind of person they are.

Professor Chris Idzikowski, director of the Sleep Assessment and Advisory Service, has analysed six common sleeping positions - and found that each is linked to a particular personality type.

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Click on the link, scroll down and check out the pictoral aids.

(I'm a freefaller, by the way. At least to fall asleep.)