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PA Liquor Control Board has given Walmart preliminary approval to sell liquor in the state, even though grocery stores cannot legally sell alcohol. To keep the state's monopoly on liquor sales breathing, it's now legal as long as the store installs a vending machine that dispenses wine with a breathalyzer.

It seems prohibition is rearing its ugly head, on the heels of Four Loco bans and alcoholic whipped cream looking like the next target:

The state's (North Carolina) liquor stores will stop selling 95 percent pure grain alcohol out of concern the product can be abused by students with dangerous results.

Mecklenburg board chief executive Paul Stroup calls the product "dangerous, with no redeeming social value." Unlike all the other liquor they sell???

SEATTLE — Washington voters legalized recreational pot use on Tuesday, setting up a showdown with a federal government that backs the drug's prohibition.

Initiative 502 would create a system of state-licensed marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, where adults over 21 can buy up to an ounce. It also establishes a standard blood test limit for driving under the influence.

The Washington State Liquor Control Board says it needs to hire 40 additional staff and bring an outside expert in marijuana to implement the voter-approved marijuana legalization measure. In a briefing to a Senate committee in Olympia on Friday, LCB director Pat Kohler said the biggest challenge of setting up a regulated marijuana market was “understanding the product and the industry itself.”

California's Legislature is considering a bill that would make it the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use as well. It is unlikely to pass this year, but Gray and other advocates hope to have a proposition on the November ballot that would legalize marijuana use for anyone 21 or older.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-03-08-marijuana_N.htm

A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.

Republican Mike Coffman, A64 opponent, to back federal exemption bill, which would require the federal government to respect state's and citizens' rights with regard to "marijuana"--essentially ending the war on pot in states which choose to do so.

The arrests of a Prince George's County liquor store magnate and his wife by federal authorities last week as part of a broad corruption probe involving County Executive Jack B. Johnson has pulled back the curtain on the complex and often incestuous world of liquor and politics in the county.

An ordinance to ban the sale of synthetic marijuana in West Lafayette won't go before the city council until September, but two businesses apparently have pulled the product from their stores' shelves.

Police Chief Jason Dombkowski said he hand-delivered voluntary "cease and desist" letters last week to Amused Clothing, 316 W. State St., and Citgo gas station, 101 W. State St.