Cannabis And Caffeine

I came across an interesting news story this weekend - some stunning results from a recent study. Researchers at the University of California at San Diego have discovered that sleep-deprived teenagers are more likely to smoke marijuana. Ah, duh. My question would be which came first, the weed or the lack of sleep?

But that wasn't the point of the study. Nope the point or main finding was if a teen was sleep-deprived and smoked weed then so did members of his social network. You've heard of the Kevin Bacon six degrees of separation theory? With weed, the network's even smaller. In the UCSD study the level of influence was four degrees of separation. Of course if these guys got together to buy their snack foods they could save a bundle on buying cheese doodles in bulk.

But at the centre of the study was influence and influence over negative behaviour. The most popular teen in the social group could influence his friends in their behaviour, be it wacky tobacco, junk food or sleeping less than 7 hours a night. The trick now would be to substitute the negative activity with positive things. Right?

In a related news story, I may have found the answer to waking up the participants in the previous study. Here in the Great White North, Health Canada plans to allow soft drink makers to increase the amount of caffeine in carbonated drinks. While the new levels would be clearly indicated on soft drink container labels, nutritionists worry people won't pay attention to them and thus might over-indulge. They say the higher caffeine level soft drinks could match the amount of coffee some adults drink a day.

Now the rest of us just have to decide which we'd prefer. Do we want a bunch of zombie-fied, weed-induced, half-asleep teens. Or would we prefer a group of hopped-up, twitchy, bug-eyed adult wannabes?

Isn't there a middle ground? Where's a survey on the effects of eating vegetables and fruit when you need one?

This post originally appeared on Sound Off To America.

The Polka Dot Door

A long time ago, when I was 22, my first child was born. That kid grew up on a little Canadian kid's show called Polka Dot Door, produced by the TV Ontario network. And Dad, more often than not, sat through those shows with his little one. Nine or so years later when a brother, and a year after that when a sister came along number one son was moving on to Knight Rider and The Dukes of Hazzard. But there was a nice overlap where his siblings picked up where he had left off with Polka Dot Door. And Dad was right there to welcome them. So you're looking at a Polka Dot Door veteran. The show began in 1971 and ran to 1993. I didn't watch the full run but I did get in my fair share. The formula was pretty simple. A young male and female host, which seemed to change every week, sang songs, told stories, made crafts and generally did their best stimulate little brains. The show opened as follows... Imagination Day! Oh boy! ...

30 Days of Photos III #4 Sour

Check out Ziva's Inferno for the rest of today's photos.

I Am Charlie, I'm A Bore

Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Tom Cruise, Colin Farrel...you know the list, it goes on and on. The list of Hollywood hick-ups who not content to meltdown behind closed doors have to drag each and every detail out into the light of day and share it with all of us. Well, add Charlie Sheen to that luckless and lascivious list of losers. In the past few days he's been on every major media soapbox complaining abut how he's been treated and how he's misunderstood. Last night he spent an hour on ABC's 20/20 "in his own words". Charlie, you should have stuck to the script. "I have a highly evolved brain". You know I never did like that song by Helen Reddy in the 70s "I Am Woman". But I have to say the melody really leant itself well to a parody of Hollywood's latest flame-out, Charlie Sheen. Although I never thought I'd hear myself say this, my sincerest apologies to Helen Reddy. And now if you're ready (a little play on wor...

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