Episode 173: Legal Weed Competing With Black Market Product; ‘Collision Course’ Leads To Fatal Shooting
CCC inspector Nick Millen scans tags that correspond to a database identifying every plant in the flowering room. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
This week on NEXT, a teenager and an officer’s “Collision Course” leads to a fatal shooting. Plus, we look at racial profiling and policing in New England. And it’s been about a year since the first legal sale of recreational marijuana in Massachusetts, but cannabis sales on the black market haven’t stopped.
A Year After Legalization, Mass. Weed Stores Competing With Black Market
Inside CDX Analytics, a licensed cannabis testing lab in Salem, Massachusetts, a cannabis sample is prepared for testing. (Nancy Cohen/NEPR)
Recreational marijuana is legal in three New England states, Massachusetts, Maine, and Vermont. Medical marijuana is the limit in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire. It’s been a year since the first recreational marijuana stores opened in Massachusetts. One of the state’s goals was to move cannabis off the black market. But illegal sales haven’t stopped and licensed stores are having a tough time getting enough marijuana to meet demand.
Menopause Affects Half The Population – And Health Providers Are Starting To Pay Attention
“I didn’t really know what that was and how long you could be in it, and if that’s what I was in.” (Patty Wight/Maine Public Radio)
Menopause marks the end of reproductive years for half the population, and it can bring on significant symptoms as soon as a decade before menopause officially hits. But even though it’s such a common process, some say the care for menopause is lacking. Hear how some providers in Maine are making menopause care a focus of their practice.
Documentary “Collision Course” Examines Fatal Shooting In Connecticut Suburb
Community organizer Kerry Ellington (center) leads a chant during a march to the Wethersfield mayor’s house on May 3, 2019. The march followed the release of videos showing a police officer shooting an 18-year-old after a traffic stop. (Ryan Caron King/Connecticut Public)
On average, police are more likely to pull over a person of color than a white person. That’s what the data shows. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and Vermont have all taken steps to reduce this disparity, but these traffic stops still happen every day. And that higher number of stops leads to more encounters between civilians and police. Last April, Anthony “Chulo” Vega Cruz was shot and killed by police in Wethersfield, Conn. after cops tried to pull him over. He was 18 years old. A new documentary from Connecticut Public called “Collision Course” tells the story of Vega Cruz and the officer who shot him.
A Software Program That Reads Yiddish
French software developer Assaf Urieli. (Courtesy of the Yiddish Book Center)
New software for searching words in digitized Yiddish books is about to be unveiled. The search tool will be available via the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts. Its digital library includes more than 10,000 books in Yiddish — but the current ability to search them is limited. Learn how a benevolent software engineer in France took an interest in his family history, leading him to Amherst.
Also on this week’s show:
NEXT is produced at Connecticut Public Radio
Producer and host: Morgan Springer
Digital Producer: Carlos Mejia
Senior Director: Catie Talarski
Music: Todd Merrell and “New England” by Goodnight Blue Moon.
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