Columns

I recently overheard a conversation that went something like this: “Where does the right to free speech come from?” “The right to free speech,” came the reply, “was given to us by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
Is that accurate? Would our founders have agreed with that formulation? Take a closer look at the language of the First amendment itself: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech.”

If marijuana makes you giggle, it’s easy to have a good laugh at the plethora of dispensaries on seemingly every street corner in certain Denver neighborhoods. Talking with two patients who have benefited greatly from marijuana edibles made me straighten up and take notice.

If you think the political atmosphere has become more complicated lately, you’re right. A recent poll by the Pew Research Center found that fewer Americans are willing to call themselves Republicans or Democrats than ever before, leaving our once-binary system in a state of multilateral flux.

Several months ago, I asked in this column, “At what point will we finally have enough surveillance cameras? It’s hard to go anywhere without being watched by at least one, and often several, closed-circuit eyes in the sky.”
Well, as it turns out, there’s no longer any need to worry about external technology spying on us. Thanks to the intrepid work of two British techies named Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden, we now know that we’re spying on ourselves.