Clear and chilly again this Wednesday morning on California’s north coast as a cycle of nice weather keeps the sunshine coming — next rain scheduled for this weekend, if not sooner, so enjoy the ride.

Although much has been reported about the medical benefits of marijuana, a new study just released indicates what I’ve known a long time — pot makes you want to hug.
Researchers at the University of California uncovered the link between the “love,” or “hug” hormone (scientific name oxytocin) and how marijuana puts a perk on petting.
Yesterday from The Latest News:

Oxytocin triggers the release of the chemical called the “bliss molecule” (anandamide) which helps to activate brain receptors that increase happiness and motivation.

Chilled-out happy…

(Illustration: ‘Cannabis and Politics,’ by Denis Marsili, found here).

Furthermore:

Anandamide is a natural occurring chemical in the human body, part of the endocannabinoid system that links up to the same brain cell receptors as does marijuana’s THC, with similar results.
Previous studies have shown that endocannabinoids are tangled in the regulation of neuronal signalling from the nucleus accumbens, a region of the brain where the reactions of oxytocin on social reward is detected.
The study shows that social contact increases the production of anandamide in the region of nucleus accumbens, which triggers the body’s cannabinoid system to fortify the joy of socialisation.
When these cannabinoid receptors were blocked with drugs, the reinforcement subsided.

All this, of course, is already known by smokers/tokers from long ago — marijuana use by itself has always increased the ‘cool’ and ‘intimate’ human processes, allowing a laid-back, nice-feeling approach to life.
Add shit like alcohol or some other drug, and you’re back to being an asshole.

And on the subject of assholes — yesterday was election day all over the US, in Ohio, a pot legalization initiative on the ballot was defeated by voters by a nearly 2 to 1 ratio. This rang hard on an October poll by Kent State University found that 58 percent of registered voters in Ohio would support allowing adults to legally possess small amounts of marijuana for personal use — the big problem, however, wasn’t pot itself but the assholes putting together the initiative.
Buried in the proposal was a stipulation that would have given “exclusive rights” for commercial marijuana growth, cultivation, and extraction to 10 predetermined parcels of land.
Via Business Insider:

The problems voters may have had with Issue 3 were best summed up by Case Western University School of Law professor Jonathan Adler in The Washington Post:
— Issue 3 would create a marijuana “monopoly” (actually, an oligopoly) consisting of 10 producers who would have their exclusive rights to engage in the commercial production of marijuana enshrined in the state constitution.
The campaign in support of Issue 3 — so-called Responsible Ohio — is predictably supported by those who would hold these exclusive rights.
This is crony capitalism at its worst.

And makes marijuana the bad guy — assholes!