Richie Poulton, a study co-author and professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said the message of the research is to stay away from marijuana until adulthood if possible.
Pot is the most popular illegal drug in the world, with somewhere between 119 million and 224 million users between the ages of 15 and 64 as of 2010, the United Nations reported. Within the United States, 23 percent of high-school students said that they'd recently smoked marijuana, making it more popular than cigarettes, the federal government reported in June.
9 hurt at Empire State Bldg. were shot by cops
NEW YORK - The police shooting near the Empire State Building last week is a testament to how quickly officers can fire off 16 rounds to take down an armed suspect.
But the nine wounded bystanders attest to another truth: Officers often miss.
Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly reiterated Monday that officials believe that two patrolmen followed proper police protocol once Jeffrey Johnson pulled a pistol on them moments after he ambushed a former co-worker.
Dramatic security video of the Friday morning confrontation shows Johnson pointing the weapon at the officers, other pedestrians scattering and the two officers firing - one from very close range, the other while retreating.
The police volley instantly killed Johnson, who never returned fire. Stray bullets, ricochets and fragments caused nonlife-threatening gunshot and graze wounds to nine civilians. Two remained hospitalized Monday in stable condition.
The bloodshed was another reminder of the public-safety challenges that first emerged in the mid-1990s, when the police department abandoned bulky .38-caliber revolvers and armed officers with rapid-fire, 15-shot semiautomatics.
Experts said the number of bullets fired by the two officers wasn't surprising, nor was the fact that some of them missed their intended target. "Those 16 rounds could have been fired in literally two seconds," said David Klinger, a University of Missouri criminology professor.
Eugene O'Donnell, a former New York City police officer who is now a lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said analysis shows that NYPD officers "routinely, unfortunately, fire shots that miss. It's uncommon for the cops to shoot, but when they do shoot, their hit rate is not very high."
Grizzly death in Denali
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA - The grizzly bear stares at the camera with a look that appears ominous in the last photograph snapped by Richard White just before the animal mauled him to death in Alaska's Denali National Park.
The photo is among 26 snapshots of the male bear taken in an eight-minute time frame by the 49-year-old San Diego backpacker Friday afternoon. National Park Service investigators are scrutinizing the images, hoping to gain a better understanding of the attack as well as confirm estimates based on the photos that the bear was between 40 and 50 yards from White.
"Definitely way too close," chief park ranger Pete Webster said Monday.
White's death is the first known fatal bear mauling in the park's nearly century-long history.
Most of the photographs show the bear head-down and grazing alongside the Toklat River gravel bar, seemingly unaware of a human's presence, according to Pete Webster. The last five photos span about 15 seconds, beginning with the bear lifting its head, no longer foraging. The grizzly then looks toward the camera, then moves a couple yards closer.
The mauling probably occurred almost immediately after the last image.
"A bear could cover that distance before a person could react," Webster said.
A state trooper fatally shot the bear Saturday and a necropsy determined the bear's stomach contained remains and clothing that confirmed it was the animal that killed White.
Park officials say that White had received mandatory bear-awareness training that teaches people to stay at least a quarter-mile away from bears, and to slowly back away if they find themselves any closer. The training takes place before permits are issued.
"This was an avoidable incident," Webster said. "The hiker had opportunity to back away and at least attempt to move around this bear, and it doesn't appear that he did so."
Samsung phone ban: There's a list for that
SAN FRANCISCO - Apple Inc. on Monday gave a federal judge a list of eight Samsung Electronics Co. products it wants pulled from shelves and banned from the U.S. market.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh asked for the list after a jury in San Jose last week slammed Samsung with a $1.05 billion verdict, finding that the South Korean technology giant had "willfully" copied Apple's iPhone and iPad in creating and marketing the products. Samsung plans an appeal.
The products Apple wants banished from the United States are all smartphones: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.
Koh on June 26 banned the Galaxy Tab 10.1 from the U.S. market after finding it likely violated a "design patent." Samsung is now asking for that ban to be lifted after the jury found that the computer tablet didn't infringe that particular patent, but it did find that it infringed three of Apple's software patents that cover the popular "bounce-back" and pinch-to-zoom features.
The judge has scheduled a Sept. 20 hearing. In addition to the sales bans, Apple plans to ask the judge to triple the damages to $3.15 billion because of the jury's finding that Samsung "willfully" copied Apple.
GIs allegedly plotted to overthrow U.S. gov't
LUDOWICI, GA. - Four Army soldiers based in southeast Georgia killed a former comrade and his girlfriend to protect an anarchist militia group they formed that stockpiled assault weapons and plotted a range of anti-government attacks, prosecutors told a judge Monday.
Prosecutors in rural Long County, near the sprawling Army post Fort Stewart, said the militia group of active and former U.S. military members spent at least $87,000 buying guns and bomb components. They allege that the group was serious enough to kill two people - former soldier Michael Roark and his 17-year-old girlfriend, Tiffany York - by shooting them in the woods last December in order to keep its plans secret.
Prosecutors said the group called itself F.E.A.R., short for Forever Enduring Always Ready. Pauley said that authorities don't know how many members it had.
The prosecutor said the militia group plotted to take over Fort Stewart by seizing its ammunition control point and talked of bombing the Forsyth Park fountain in nearby Savannah. In Washington state, the group plotted to bomb a dam and poison the state's apple crop. Ultimately, prosecutors said, the militia's goal was to overthrow the government and assassinate the president.
- Daily News wire services
