#legalization

#legalization

From time to time in this column, I like to look at something I wrote in the past and see if it holds up to retrospective scrutiny. Early last year, after the baseball superstar Shohei Ohtani and his interpreter Ippei Mizuhara were ensnared in a major gambling scandal that ended with Mizuhara in jail, I wrote a column titled "Online Gambling Is Changing Sports for the Worse," in which I expressed concern for the "integrity of the game," and worried that betting by athletes and others around them—Ohtani himself denied any involvement and was never charged with anything—might begin occurring with such frequency that it would cause the public, including children, to lose faith in what they were watching.

Across kitchens, dining rooms, and holiday tables in homes around the country, especially in legalized states like New York, conversations about weed are finally happening out loud, without shame. This cultural transformation isn't just about acceptance. It's about normalization. It's about replacing misinformation with lived experience and science-backed understanding. It's about parents talking to children, grandparents sharing edibles instead of cocktails, and friends trading stories about terpene profiles rather than tannins.

A study co-authored by Kaiser Permanente and Oakland's Public Health Institute indicates teenagers in areas with more cannabis stores suffer significantly higher rates of mental health issues, raising concerns about recreational sales.

Knowing where and how to legally enjoy cannabis in NYC is crucial for a relaxing summer experience.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak argues for legalizing pornography in Ukraine, suggesting that current laws are outdated and create contradictions, especially as the nation faces ongoing war.