Case of Man Caught with 27,500 Fentanyl Pills in Chilliwack Thrown Out Due to Charter Breach

‘Ambiguous’ signal by drug sniffer dog Doodz leads to B.C. Supreme Court decision

Canada's insanely inadequate justice system

sentences British Columbians to death

PAUL HENDERSON, Chilliwack Progress

 A man caught with 27,500 fentanyl pills in a van at a traffic stop in Chilliwack is free and clear after a B.C. Supreme Court justice dismissed charges due to Charter violations.

Sandor Rigo was driving a mini-van on Highway 1 on April 4, 2017 when he was pulled over by Cpl. Clayton Catelier, a police service dog handler with Fraser Valley Traffic Services, according to a decision posted on Jan. 21.

Catelier noticed a strong odour of cologne or air freshener in the minivan and several cellphones between the driver and passengers seats, both indicators of possible drug dealing.

Cpl. Catelier also noted that Rigo was “shaking violently.” Based on those three factors, and that Rigo had a “nonsensical” story about why he was travelling between Vancouver and Calgary, the officer detained Rigo for a drug investigation.

There have been 1,380 overdose deaths in B.C. this year: Coroner

The officer then deployed his police service dog, Doodz, to the exterior of the van. What happened next was the subject of some ambiguity, as Doodz seemed to be “in odour” (i.e. detecting drugs) and was bouncing her nose, wagging her tail and sniffing hard.

The dog then did a partial sit or attempted to sit but was blocked by a curb. Sitting is the indication the dog has found narcotics. Catelier then advised Rigo that Doodz had detected narcotics, and he was under arrest.

Rigo was transported to the Chilliwack detachment, and the vehicle was towed to a local tire shop. An initial search of the vehicle turned up nothing, but on closer attention, Catelier opened the housing over the right rear well and found five bags filled with fentanyl pills.

Defence called a former Anaheim County police dog handler deemed an expert who was critical of the video of Doodz’s behaviour and Catelier’s dog handling. Much of the decision in the voir dire addressing the alleged Charter violations was focused around the dog’s search.

In his written decision, Justice Michael Brundrett found that Catelier lawfully detained Rigo, he had reasonable grounds to conduct a dog-sniff search, but he questioned the purported alert by Doodz.

“I have found that the final sit confirmation was ambiguous and not sufficiently objectively reliable such that it adequately adds to the overall

totality of circumstances so as to justify a search of the vehicle,” Justice Brundrett wrote.

OMG! Judge, it's a dog! It doesn't know all the intricacies of hypervigelant judges. His handler is the best person to interpret what the dog is attempting to convey, not a supreme court judge, nor a handler from 2000 miles away.

Your overzealousness in protecting a moron dealing in fatal drugs will undoubtedly lead to the deaths of Canadians, and probably many Canadians. It's quite possible, Rigo is already responsible for the deaths of Canadians. 

Canada's justice system is insanely stupid - constantly vigilant for the rights of criminals and murderers, and not caring the least for victims and potential victims.

Quelle folie!

Brundrett concluded the subsequent search was a violation of section 8 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He also found the officers involved did not properly offer Rigo the right to contact a lawyer, therefore there was also a violation of section 10(b) of the Charter.

BACK TO THE USSR: HOW TO READ WESTERN NEWS

Patrick Armstrong explains, much more eloquently than I ever could, why I have such distrust for Mainstream Media.

BY PATRICK ARMSTRONG 
IN PROPAGANDA, LIES AND NONSENSE; THE WORLD IS CHANGING; WAR ON RUSSIA

The heroes of Dickens’ Pickwick Papers visit the fictional borough of Eatanswill to observe an election between the candidates of the Blue Party and the Buff Party. The town is passionately divided, on all possible issues, between the two parties. Each party has its own newspaper: the Eatanswill Gazette is Blue and entirely devoted to praising the noble Blues and excoriating the perfidious and wicked Buffs; the Eatanswill Independent is equally passionate on the opposite side of every question. No Buff would dream of reading the “that vile and slanderous calumniator, the Gazette”, nor Blue the ”that false and scurrilous print, the Independent”.

As usual with Dickens it is both exaggerated and accurate. Newspapers used to be screamingly partisan before “journalism” was invented. Soon followed journalism schools, journalism ethics and journalism objectivity: “real journalism” as they like to call it (RT isn’t of course). “Journalism” became a profession gilded with academical folderol; no longer the refuge of dropouts, boozers, failures, budding novelists and magnates like Lord Copper who know what they want and pay for it. But, despite the pretence of objectivity and standards, there were still Lord Coppers and a lot of Eatanswill. Nonetheless, there were more or less serious efforts to get the facts and balance the story. And Lord Coppers came and went: great newspaper empires rose and fell and there was actually quite a variety of ownership and news outlets. There was sufficient variance that a reader, who was neither Blue nor Buff, could triangulate and form a sense of what was going on.

In the Soviet Union news was controlled; there was no “free press”; there was one owner and the flavours were only slightly varied: the army paper, the party paper, the government paper, papers for people interested in literature or sports. But they all said the same thing about the big subjects. The two principal newspapers were Pravda (“truth”) and Izvestiya (“news”). This swiftly led to the joke that there was no truth in Pravda and no news in Izvestiya. It was all pretty heavy handed stuff: lots of fat capitalists in top hats and money bags; Uncle Sam’s clothing dripping with bombs; no problems over here, nothing but problems over there. And it wasn’t very successful propaganda: most of their audience came to believe that the Soviet media was lying both about the USSR and about the West.

90% of US media owned by 6 corporations

But time moves on and while thirty years ago 50 corporations controlled 90% of the US news media, today it’s a not very diverse six. 

As a result, on many subjects there is a monoview: has any Western news outlet reported, say, these ten true statements?

People in Crimea are pretty happy to be in Russia.

The US and its minions have given an enormous amount of weapons to jihadists.

Elections in Russia reflect popular opinion polling.

There really are a frightening number of well-armed nazis in Ukraine.

Assad is pretty popular in Syria.

The US and its minions smashed Raqqa to bits.

The official Skripal story makes very little sense.

Ukraine is much worse off, by any measurement, now than before Maidan.

Russia actually had several thousand troops in Crimea before Maidan.

There’s a documentary that exposes Browder that he keeps people from seeing.

I typed these out as they occurred to me. I could come up with another ten pretty easily. There’s some tiny coverage, far in the back pages, so that objectivity can be pretended, but most Western media consumers would answer they aren’t; didn’t; don’t; aren’t; isn’t; where?; does; not; what?; never heard of it.

Many subjects are covered in Western media outlets with a single voice. Every now and again there’s a scandal that reveals that “journalists” are richly rewarded for writing stories that fit. But after revelations, admissions of bias, pretending it never happened, the media ship calmly sails on (shedding passengers as it goes, though). Coverage of certain subjects are almost 100% false: Putin, Russia, Syria and Ukraine stand out. But much of the coverage of China and Iran also. Many things about Israel are not permitted. The Russia collusion story is (privately) admitted to be fake by an outlet that covers it non stop. Anything Trump is so heavily flavoured that it’s inedible. And it’s not getting any better: PC is shutting doors everywhere and the Russian-centred “fake news” meme is shutting more. Science is settled but genders are not and we must be vigilant against the “Russian disinformation war“. Every day brings us a step closer to a mono media of the One Correct Opinion. All for the Best Possible Motives, of course.

It’s all rather Soviet in fact.

So, in a world where the Integrity Initiative is spending our tax dollars (pounds actually) to make sure that we never have a doubleplusungood thought or are tempted into crimethink, (and maybe they created the entire Skripal story – more revelations by the minute), what are we to make of our Free Media™? Well, that all depends on what you’re interested in. If it’s sports (not Russian athletes – druggies every one unlike brave Western asthmatics) or “beach-ready bodies” (not Russian drug takers of course, only wholesome Americans) – the reporting is pretty reasonable. Weather reports, for example (Siberian blasts excepted) or movie reviews (but all those Russian villains). But the rest is some weird merger of the Eatonswill Gazette and Independent: Blues/Buffs good! others, especially Russians, bad!

So, as they say in Russia, что делать? What to do? Well, I suggest we learn from the Soviet experience. After all, most Soviet citizens were much more sceptical about their home media outlets than any of my neighbours, friends or relatives are about theirs.

My suggestions are three:

Read between the lines. A difficult art this and it needs to be learned and practised. Dissidents may be sending us hints from the bowels of Minitrue. For example, it’s impossible to imagine anyone seriously saying “How Putin’s Russia turned humour into a weapon“; it must have been written to subversively mock the official Russia panic. I have speculated elsewhere that the writers may have inserted clues that the “intelligence reports” on Russian interference were nonsense.

Notice what they’re not telling you. For example: remember when Aleppo was a huge story two years ago? But there’s nothing about it now. One should wonder why there isn’t; a quick search will find videos like this (oops! Russian! not real journalism!) here’s one from Euronews. Clearly none of this fits the “last hospitals destroyed” and brutal Assad memes of two years ago; that’s why the subject has disappeared from Western media outlets. It is always a good rule to wonder why the Biggest Story Ever suddenly disappears: that’s a strong clue it was a lie or nonsense.

Most of the time, you’d be correct to believe the opposite. Especially, when all the outlets are telling you the same thing. It’s always good to ask yourself cui bono: who’s getting what benefit out of making you believe something? It’s quite depressing how successful the big uniform lie is: even though the much-demonised Milosevic was eventually found innocent, even though Qaddafi was not “bombing his own people”, similar lies are believed about Assad and other Western enemies-of-the-moment. Believe the opposite unless there’s very good reason not to.

In the Cold War there was a notion going around that the Soviet and Western systems were converging and that they would meet in the middle, so to speak. Well, perhaps they did meet but kept on moving past each other. And so, the once reasonably free and varied Western media comes to resemble the controlled and uniform Soviet media and we in the West must start using Soviet methods to understand.

Always remember that the Soviet rulers claimed their media was free too; free from “fake news” that is.

US Weapons Factories Dominate Global Arms Trade

© Reuters / Mark Wilson

The latest report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) revealed that sales of arms and military services by global majors totaled $398.2 billion in 2017, marking a 44 percent growth over the past 15 years.

"The overall number excludes Chinese data due to the lack of available information to allow for a reasonable or consistent estimate," the report reads.

Here's the top ten of the world's biggest defense corporations by sales, according to the institute.

1. Lockheed Martin

© Global Look Press

The US company reportedly sold arms worth $44.9 billion in 2017, marking an 8.3 percent growth against the year prior. The Bethesda-based arms giant remained the world's number one weapons producer by sales. Lockheed Martin produces various defense systems, from combat ships to hypersonic missiles to fighter jets. The company delivers the F-35 fighter jet, the world's most expensive weapons system, to Pentagon.

2. Boeing

© Global Look Press

US space and aircraft giant Boeing brought in $26.9 billion in sales. 2017 marked a substantial gap of $18 billion between Lockheed Martin and Boeing.

"The fall in Boeing's arms sales can be partially attributed to delays in the delivery of KC-46 tanker aircraft and the end of deliveries of C-17 transport aircraft," according to the SIPRI report.

Arm's sales accounted for only 29 percent of the aircraft manufacturing giant's total in 2017. Last year, Boeing managed to seal a wide range of contracts with the US Government. The corporation signed over 20 deals with a total value of $13.7 billion in September alone.

3. Raytheon

© Reuters / Michaela Rehle

This US arms manufacturer is reportedly the world's biggest producer of guided missiles and missile defense systems. In 2017, Raytheon saw a sales increase of two percent compared to 2016. The company reportedly earned $23.9 billion.

Its portfolio includes the Patriot missile system, a combat-tested platform, which is reportedly the backbone of European ballistic missile defense. Raytheon's Patriot system is used in nine countries outside Europe.

4. BAE Systems

FILE PHOTO Philippine soldiers aboard an M113 armored personnel carrier during an operation against Islamic militants at a remote village in Butig town, the southern Philippine island of Mindanao © AFP / Richele Umel

The British arms producer sold $22.9 billion worth of weapons, demonstrating a 3.3 percent growth against the previous year. The UK remained the largest arms producer in the region in 2017, with total arms sales of $35.7 billion.

5. Northrop Grumman

FILE PHOTO Two Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aerial vehicles © Reuters

This US arms-manufacturing corporation brought $22.4 billion in sales in 2017, marking a modest year-on-year growth of 2.4 percent. The aerospace and defense tech firm bought American rocket maker Orbital ATK, with the aim of expanding its business in the space market.

6. General Dynamics

© Reuters / Ints Kalnins

The Virginia-based defense company sold arms worth $19.5 billion, marking a slight decrease from $19.6 billion the previous year. Its M1 Abrams tank has been used in nearly every major US military operation over the past 40 years.

7. Airbus Group

© Global Look Press / Qian Baihua

The second largest defense contractor in Europe, France's Airbus, brought in $11.3 billion in arms sales in 2017. Arms sales are not the key revenue earner for the European aerospace giant accounting for only 15 percent of its $75 billion revenue. Its business is mostly focused on commercial aircraft and space sectors.

The Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet, the result of collaboration between the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Spain, is Airbus's most recognizable military product.

8.Thales 

© Wikipedia

In 2017, French defense corporation Thales demonstrated sales of $9 billion, which is around half of its total 2017 revenue. The company managed to raise weapon sales by nearly seven percent from the previous year. Thales manufactures a wide range of defense products, from armored vehicles to missile defense to navigation equipment.

9. Leonardo

© Reuters

Italian weapon producer brought in $8.9 billion in 2017 arms sales, which makes 68 percent of its total revenue. Leonardo produces helicopters, missiles and drones, as well as equipment for non-military space programs.

10. Almaz-Antey

© Reuters / Maxim Shemetov

The Russian weapons supplier entered the top ten of the SIPRI's annual ranking. In 2017, the country's biggest arms company increased sales by 17 percent to $8.6 billion. The company's flagship product, the S-400, a mobile long-range surface-to-air missile system, has managed to lure dozens of foreign military buyers over the last five years.

Obviously there are many more than 10 global majors in the military industrial complex. The total sales for the above named companies accounts for slightly less than half the $398 bn mentioned at the top of this article. 

Just dealing with the devil we know - US companies account for $137.6 bn of the $198.3 bn total of the top ten. That is nearly 70%. America and NATO, read, Deep State, has a powerful vested interest in ensuring there are wars and threats of wars occurring all over the planet. IMHO - In my humble opinion - they are doing a spectacular job at that.

Too bad peace doesn't pay as well.

Seymour Hersh: George H.W. Bush Team Leaked To Media To Reveal CIA's Iran-Contra Affair

Hersh is one of very few reporters in whom I have some trust. Moon of Alabama is also a site in whom I have some trust - I wish their language skills / editing were more professional, but you can't have everything.

Moon of Alabama

A new piece by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books gives some insight into secret U.S. operations during the Reagan administration. The Vice President’s Men includes a quite sensational claim of who revealed the Iran-Contra affair.

According to the conventional wisdom, as reflected in Wikipedia, an Iranian operator revealed to a Lebanese paper that the U.S. was selling weapons to Iran in the hope to get hostages in Lebanon released:

After a leak by Mehdi Hashemi, a senior official in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,

the Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa exposed the arrangement on 3 November 1986.

This was the first public report of the weapons-for-hostages deal.

People is (in?) the National Security Council used profits from these weapon sales to illegally arm and finance CIA run anti-government gangs in Nicaragua. Both, the weapon sales to Iran and the weapon delivery to guerilla in Nicaragua, were illegal under U.S. law. The leak to Lebanese paper blew up both operations.

That Mehdi Hashemi, the Iranian operative, leaked the affair is only supported by second hand hearsay from a dubious source. Seymour Hersh reports of a very different culprit.

According to his sources former CIA director George H.W. Bush, who was then Reagan's vice president, ran his own secret operations through a special office in the Pentagon. It was led by Vice-Admiral Arthur Moreau. The office and its operations were kept outside of congressional oversight. Neither the CIA nor the Joint Chief's of Staff were aware of its doing. During some 30 different operations the Bush team used small groups of U.S. marines to effect Soviet operations in foreign countries and to get rid of unwanted foreign politicians. Bush essentially ran the prequel of the 'war on/of terror' which today is run by the CIA and the Joint Special Forces Command.

Bush disliked William Casey, who Reagan had named as new CIA director. Casey was a business man who got the job after he managed Ronald Reagan's election campaign. Bush thought that he was too incompetent to run the clandestine service.

Bush had been Director of the CIA under Gerald Ford.

One of the operations run under Bush, as VP, also involved Nicaragua, but had nothing to do with the later Iran-Contra scandal. At the same time the CIA director William Casey was drumming up support for the Contras in Nicaragua. The two operations collided when Lieutenant Colonel Oliver (Ollie) North at the National Security Council used the proceeds from the weapon sales to Iran to illegally finance the CIA's Contras in Nicaragua. While North was also a confident of the Bush/Moreau's operations, he allegedly freelanced and eventually deserted to the CIA side.

According to a former officer involved in Bush's operations office, Bush and Moreau feared that the CIA's widely expanding Iran-Contra operation run by Oliver North would become a threat to their own operations. They decided to blow it up:

‘Ollie brings in Dick Secord and Iranian dissidents and money people in Texas to the scheme, and it’s gotten totally out of control,’ the officer said. ‘We’re going nuts. If we don’t manage this carefully, our whole structure will unravel. And so we’ – former members of Moreau’s team who were still working for Bush – ‘leaked the story to the magazine in Lebanon.’ He was referring to an article, published on 3 November 1986 by Ash-Shiraa magazine in Beirut, that described the arms for hostages agreement. He would not say how word was passed to the magazine, ...

According to Hersh's source the effect of the leak to the Lebanese paper was foreseen and intended:

The officer explained that it was understood by all that the scandal would unravel in public very quickly, and Congress would get involved. ‘Our goals were to protect the Moreau operation, to limit the vice president’s possible exposure, and to convince the Reagan administration to limit Bill Casey’s management of covert operations. It only took a match to light the fire. It was: “Oh my god. We were paying ransom for the hostages – to Iran.”’

If Hersh's anonymous source is correct, which I have no reason to doubt, the Iranian Mehdi Hashemi did not leak the issue. It was bureaucratic infighting between a former CIA director, who continued to run secret operations, and a sitting one, who was deemed incompetent by the former, that led to the disclosure of the Iran-Contra affair.

Seymour Hersh is known to have lots of contacts with former officials and officers. According to his on (own?) telling he is actively seeking them out as soon as they retire. Old men like to tell war stories, but dislike to damage their still living friends. George H.W. Bush died last November. Hersh likely knew the story long ago but is only now allowed to tell it.

The new Hersh/LRB piece is quite long and the details seems to have little relevance for current affairs. But his sources tell an interesting story about the backstage fights that went on between the various branches of the national security bureaucracy during the Reagan presidency. There is no doubt that similar fights, including intentional leaks to damage competing officials, continue today.

Corruption is Everywhere - Even South Korean Universities

South Korean professor receives commuted sentence in CNBlue singer case

By Elizabeth Shim

South Korean singer and member of band CNBlue Jung Yong-hwa (R) has apologized for a 2016 school admission controversy. File Photo by Yonhap

(UPI) -- A South Korean professor who illicitly helped the lead singer of boy band CNBlue gain admission to a doctoral program at a first-tier university has received a commuted sentence at a second trial.

The professor, who teaches at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, and identified only by his surname Lee, had initially received a 10-month sentence of imprisonment in his first trial, Yonhap reported Thursday.

After filing an appeal and being released on bail in December, Lee was sentenced to two years of probation by Seoul central district court.

CNBlue front man Jung Yong-hwa, who is currently completing his military service, had been admitted to a graduate studies program at the university without completing prerequisites and being absent at his interview.

Lee, who headed the department responsible for admissions, had given him a score for the interview where he failed to make his required appearance.

Not the only one

The South Korean court said Thursday Lee acted out of his own "personal interest" and that his actions did not benefit his university. An appellate court judge said Lee's decision had a detrimental impact on the prospects of other applicants to the program.

Lee is also accused of helping another celebrity, the singer Jo Kyu-man, in the admissions process, as well as the chairman of a publicly traded company, according to local news service Newsis.

I seriously hope Lee has been terminated from his position!

The admissions controversy cost Jung several media appearances in 2018. The singer issued an apology on his Instagram account for "causing trouble."

CNBlue is a Korean pop-rock band that began performing in 2009. It is one of the few groups that does not play pop or electronic pop music in the Korean music industry.

Russian Prosecutors Claim Corrupt Official Secretly Owns Record $150 Million Worth of Property

Corruption is Everywhere - and you know it is in Russian politics

The Russian general prosecutor’s office claimed that a Moscow region official, who is being investigated for embezzlement, is secretly a record-breaking multimillionaire. His attorneys claim the report is nothing but a smear.

The prosecutors intend to ask a court to seize and confiscate the property of Aleksandr Shestun, which it estimates is worth 10 billion rubles ($150 million), they said on Wednesday. The wealth allegedly owned by him through a complex network of dupes and intermediaries, includes 565 land plots, 111 houses and apartments, and 22 cars, according to the spokesman for the office, Aleksandr Kurennoy.

The Russian anti-corruption law allows seizing the property of officials, who cannot prove legal ownership. If confirmed and authorized by a court, Shestun would break the record in terms of how much gets confiscated. The current record – or rather anti-record, considering its nature – is held by Dmitry Zakharchenko, a disgraced interior ministry official, whose family last year was stripped of 9 billion ruble ($135 million) worth of property, the origin of which they could not explain.

Shestun’s defense team denies the claims of the prosecutors, saying the defendant is quite surprised to learn that he is a multimillionaire. “I would call it a smear campaign, absolutely illegal and biased,” one of his attorneys told RT Russian. The team says their client owns a single house, a single car, and a bank account worth about $15,000.

The official used to be the head of one of Moscow region’s municipalities. Last year he was arrested and accused of abusing the office to embezzle municipal property. Shortly before his arrest Shestun published several videos, asking Russian President Vladimir Putin for protection and claiming that the governor of Moscow region and some other senior Russian officials were threatening him. He says the case against him was fabricated to prevent his re-election.

That's what they all say, however, it is Russian politics; anything is possible.

Just 1 or 2 Experiences with Marijuana May Alter Teen Brain

Adolescent brains are going to be more vulnerable to anything

drug or environmentally related, expert says

Thomson Reuters

New findings are considered a step toward understanding the impact of cannabis on young brains.

(Ben Nelms/Reuters)

Teens who use pot just one or two times may end up with changes to their brains, a new study finds.

There were clear differences on brain scans between teens who said they had tried cannabis a couple of times and those who completely eschewed the drug, researchers reported in the Journal of Neuroscience.

There have been hints that even small amounts of pot at a young age might impact the brain, said the study's lead author, Catherine Orr, a lecturer at the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia. 

"Research using animals to study the effects of cannabis on the brain have shown effects at very low levels, so we had reason to believe that brain changes might occur at even the earliest stages of cannabis use," Orr said in an email.

Still, she said, "I was surprised by the extent of the effects."

With an estimated 35 percent of U.S. teens using cannabis, the new findings are concerning, the researchers noted.

Orr and her colleagues saw widespread increases in the volume of grey matter in brain regions that are rich with cannabinoid receptors. Grey matter, which is made up of nerve cell bodies, is involved in sensory perception and muscle control.

To take a closer look at the impact of mild marijuana use in developing brains, Orr's team analyzed brain scans gathered as part of the larger IMAGEN study, which was designed to look into adolescent brain development.

The researchers analyzed images from 46 14-year-olds who said they had used marijuana once or twice, as well as images from 46 non-cannabis using teens matched "on age, sex, handedness, pubertal status, IQ, socioeconomic status, and use of alcohol and tobacco," Orr said.

Brain volume

The researchers spotted clear differences between the two groups, which they suspect are due to the low-level pot use. 

They acknowledge that the study didn't actually prove that marijuana led to the differences seen in the scans. It's possible that those who chose to use weed were different to begin with and that the marijuana hadn't played a role in brain development.

In other words, they might have been brain-damaged to start.

To try to address this question, the researchers analyzed scans from a third group of teens who had not tried marijuana before they had their brain scans at age 14. By age 16, 69 of these kids said they had used marijuana at least 10 times. But their brain scans at age 14 looked no different than brain scans of other kids who had not taken up cannabis by age 16, which meant there wasn't any inborn brain difference that would have predicted who would later become a pot user.

There may be serious implications to the brain changes noted by the researchers. "In our sample of cannabis users, the greater volumes in the affected parts of the brain were associated with reductions in psychomotor speed and perceptual reasoning and with increased levels of anxiety two years later," Orr said.

The reason for the higher volume of grey matter in cannabinoid-rich regions of the brain may be related to a normal process called "pruning" which may go awry when kids use marijuana, Orr said. As young brains develop, unnecessary or defective neurons are pruned away, she explained. When the system doesn't work correctly, those cells remain in place.

This may actually support the theory I have been pushing for several years. It's an observation I have made numerous times over several decades. That is, people who smoke pot often fail to progress in terms of maturity. This may be restricted to those who start using as teens; I don't know. But I have seen many pot users who started smoking joints when they were teens, and in their 30s and 40s, still acted like teenagers with regard to their dress, their taste in music, their language, their likes in many different areas. They just don't progress as normal.

The new findings are a step toward understanding the impact of cannabis on young brains, said Dr. Michael Lynch, a toxicologist and emergency medicine physician and director of the Pittsburgh Poison Center at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "It's important that there was a change," Lynch said. "Adolescent brains are going to be more vulnerable to anything drug or environmentally related."

If pruning isn't working right, "the brain may not work as efficiently as it should," Lynch said. "But I don't think we can make a final determination on that from this study."

Definitely need more study. But let's all legalize it anyway. It's just kids we're talking about. Not like it's important.

Canada, and other countries and state's rush to legalize pot has turned a generation into an experiment. When the results of that experiment come in - God help us.