The spirit of the red, yellow, and green

Before I start my daily rant, I have a more pressing matter to discuss. Today, I read a Facebook post (click here and look for a post from a Jessica Hemi) about the manager of the McDonald's in Dannevirke allegedly taking all the money out of a Ronald McDonald House donation box and emptying it into the till, putting the box back empty. That is stealing and the victims here are the sick children and their families who need the services that Ronald McDonald House Charities provides. So if you're in the area, then do NOT come anywhere near that unethical scrooge, even if it means having to drive all the way to Palmerston North just for a Big Mac. Enough about that now, because in an office run from his Massachusetts home, William Downing is part of a burgeoning national pro-pot movement emboldened by the approval of recreational marijuana laws in Colorado and Washington. "I'm a believer, as The Monkees said," Downing said, a reference to a pop-rock band from an era when the thought of marijuana legalization was all but unimaginable. "The essence of what's happening is that people are getting educated," Downing said. "People are learning. The rest of the nation is finding out that they have been lied to about cannabis by their government for many decades." So it's only fitting that Downing and others are pushing for full legalization of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts by making the case to state voters during a proposed 2016 ballot initiative. But until then, if you want to try legal recreational weed, you'll have to go to Uruguay, Colorado, or Washington. Bring it back home with you at your own risk.