U.S. official claims "very little doubt" Syria used chemical weapons - CBS News

WASHINGTON A senior administration official said Sunday there is "very little doubt" that a chemical weapon was used by the Syrian regime against civilians in an Aug. 21 incident that killed at least 100 people, but added that the president had not yet decided how to respond. However, the Syrian government has claimed rebels were the ones who used chemical weapons in the incident.

The Syria Foreign Ministry said in a statement broadcast on state television Sunday the Assad regime has reached a deal to allow U.N. inspectors access to sites in the suburbs of Damascus where alleged chemical attacks occurred. A U.N. spokesman said the probe will start Monday.

Read more...U.S. official claims "very little doubt" Syria used chemical weapons - CBS News

Legal fight brews on impairment in medical-pot DUIs

Medical-marijuana cardholders in Arizona who drive after using the drug may face a difficult legal choice: their driver’s license or their marijuana card. If they use both, they could be charged with DUI.

Valley prosecutors say that any trace of marijuana in a driver’s blood is enough to charge a motorist with driving under the influence of drugs and that a card authorizing use of medical pot is no defense.

But advocates of medical marijuana, which voters approved in November 2010, argue that the presence of marijuana in a person’s bloodstream is not grounds for charging drivers who are allowed to use the drug.



Read more...Legal fight brews on impairment in medical-pot DUIs

Obama Focuses on Risk of New Bubble Undermining Broad Recovery - Bloomberg

President Barack Obama, who took office amid the collapse of the last financial bubble, wants to make sure his economic recovery doesn’t generate the next one.

Obama this month spoke four times in five days of the need to avoid what he called “artificial bubbles,” even in an economy that’s growing at just a 1.7 percent rate and where employment and factory usage remain below pre-recession highs.

“We have to turn the page on the bubble-and-bust mentality that created this mess,” he said in his Aug. 10 weekly radio address.

Read more...Obama Focuses on Risk of New Bubble Undermining Broad Recovery - Bloomberg

UPS to drop health insurance for 15,000 spouses of employees | NJ.com

United Parcel Service, one of the biggest U.S. employers, plans to drop health insurance coverage for about 15,000 working spouses of white-collar employees to curtail rising costs.

Many spouses in the U.S. workforce will have access to employer-provided insurance under President Barack Obama's health care-system overhaul, and UPS will remove them from its coverage, according to a copy of a memo to employees first published online by Kaiser Health News. Spouses who don't work or lack employer-provided benefits will still be eligible at Atlanta-based UPS, according to the memo. 

Read more...  UPS to drop health insurance for 15,000 spouses of employees | NJ.com

Survey: Pot use inches higher in Scottsdale district

The results of a survey on teen drug use showed a decline in alcohol, cigarette and prescription-drug use but an uptick in marijuana use in the Scottsdale Unified School District.

The district also reported more violations of its drug policy in the first part of the 2012-13 school year compared with the year before, and school officials surmise that is due to increased use of marijuana.

The Arizona Youth Survey 2012, released in the spring, found that among eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders in the Scottsdale district, about 19 percent reported using marijuana in the previous 30 days, up from about 18 percent reported in the 2010 survey and 14 percent in 2008.

For lifetime usage, about 34 percent had tried it, compared with about 32 percent in 2010 and 28 percent in 2008.

Marijuana was the only substance that showed an upward trend, and Scottsdale’s rates were slightly higher than the statewide rates.

Read more...Survey: Pot use inches higher in Scottsdale district

Fountain Hills gets its 1st marijuana clinic

Scottsdale resident Todd Middleman plays bass guitar four nights a week in a local rock band called the Instant Classics.

The 45-year-old suffers chronic pain as a result of a spinal-cord injury he suffered when a car door fell on him at work.

“I’m holding a relatively heavy guitar and the pain gets pretty bad after a four-hour show,” Middleman said. “I tried multiple medications when my back got hurt and literally nothing worked. The first thing that worked was medical marijuana and I’ve used it ever since.”

Middleman was one of the first patients at the northeast Valley’s first medical-marijuana dispensary — Nature’s AZ Medicines Inc. in Fountain Hills.

Read more...Fountain Hills gets its 1st marijuana clinic

Medical marijuana comes to Mesa

Nearly three years after Arizona voters narrowly approved the concept, medical marijuana has come to Mesa.

Giving Tree Wellness Center opened in late June at 938 E. Juanita Ave., just the sort of industrial-park setting that the City Council envisioned two years ago when it approved zoning restrictions for such businesses.

It is Giving Tree’s second facility in the Valley; the other is in north Phoenix.

Both are under the medical direction of Dr. Gina Berman, an emergency-room physician who believes traditional Western medicine can go only so far in helping some patients.

“I see a lot of patients ... who have had organs removed or they have chronic pain, they’re on patches and ... they’re on all these different things and they’re not getting any better and they’re going down the rabbit hole of narcotics,” Berman said. “So I thought it would be interesting to try to open people’s eyes to other alternative therapies.”


Read more...Medical marijuana comes to Mesa

Ruling stands on return of seized medical marijuana

PHOENIX — Medical marijuana patients whose drugs are taken by police are entitled to get it back, the Arizona Supreme Court has ruled.

In a brief order, the justices rejected arguments by prosecutors that the drug is strictly regulated by the federal government, leaving police legally powerless to turn marijuana over to anyone else. They gave no reason for their ruling.

The order most immediately affects Valerie Okun, whose drugs were taken from her nearly two years ago on Interstate 8 near Yuma. While she was never prosecuted — she has a valid medical marijuana card from California — sheriff’s deputies refused to return the drugs.

Read more...Ruling stands on return of seized medical marijuana