Why are kids smoking more weed than ever before? Think about it this way: In 1978, 40 percent of 12th-graders admitted to smoking pot. Now most of them are 50 years old with kids of their own. “Would those parents who smoked marijuana in high school be very upset if they found out their kids were doing it?” asks Janice D’Arcy at The Washington Post. Probably not. It’s math, really. More theories

A team of South African scientists want to exhume Shakespeare’s remains to confirm rumors that he was an avid marijuana smoker.

The green movement: Not so green.

A new study by a U.S. government energy analyst (working on his own time) found that marijuana cultivation is a huge power suck, and a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. How not-green is weed? The study’s author, Evan Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, estimates that before anyone even smokes it, pot growing uses 1 percent of U.S. electricity and creates 17 metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. That means each joint equals two pounds of carbon emissions.

Photo CC BY: Torben Bjorn Hansen

Marijuana without the high: A painkiller breakthrough

Scientists believe they can isolate the pain-easing benefits of medical marijuana — so sufferers can consume it without becoming foggy and paranoid.

Willie Nelson may evade pot charges with a song

When U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped Willie Nelson’s tour bus in rural west Texas last November, they found several ounces of marijuana onboard. But although Hudspeth County Attorney Kit Bramblett could have made an example out of Nelson — recommending the maximum 180 days in jail and $2,000 fine allowed under Texas law — he suggested a plea deal of $100 instead… plus a courtroom performance by Nelson of his 1975 hit “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” “You can bet your ass I’m not going to be mean to Willie Nelson,” Bramblett said.