Meet The 14-Year-Old Teen That Helped New York Become The 23rd State To Legalize Medical Marijuana

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

1. Just this past weekend, New York became to 23rd state in the US to legalize medical marijuana. Now, meet the 14-year-old teen who helped make it happen.

Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/v/7UR1UTAVplM. Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

2. Oliver Miller is a 14-year-old teen from Atlantic Beach, New York. When Oliver was still in utero, he suffered a brain stem injury.

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REUTERS/Mike Segar / Via news.yahoo.com

3. Because of the injury, Oliver suffers from hundreds of seizures a day, as well as a host other complicated medical issues.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

4. Recently, medical marijuana has gained international attention for curbing seizures in children. However, because of New York law, Oliver has not been given access to this treatment.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

5. With 22 states having legalized the use of medical marijuana, the spotlight turned to New Yorkers to rally behind the Compassionate Care Act, which would make New York the 23rd state to legalize marijuana.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

The Compassionate Care Act would allow healthcare providers to talk to their patients about medical marijuana and certify those with debilitating and life-threatening illnesses, so that they may have access to medical marijuana to relieve their symptoms.

6. Frustrated with the progress and action the state was taking on legalizing medical marijuana, Missy Miller, Oliver’s mother, devoted her life to fighting for the legalization of the drug.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

7. Within a span of a few months, Missy rallied together with other parents that have children who are also in need of help.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

8. Together, they urged local politicians to meet their children, so they could understand the importance of passing the bill.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

9. Missy then turned her attention to New York Senator Dean Skelos, who represents her district.

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Buck Ennis / Via crainsnewyork.com

10. She even rolled out a local television commercial to get his attention.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

11. Missy continued her fight up to Albany, New York, leading up to the big decision on June 19, 2014.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

12. The following day during the vote, Senator Dean Skelos had this to say:

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

13. Then he said this:

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

14. At that point, Missy realized that because of Oliver, Senator Dean Skelos had changed his vote.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

15. And with that, the bill had been passed.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

16. On Saturday, July 5th, Governor Cuomo signed the measure into effect.

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Elite Daily / Via youtube.com

A lot of people look at Oliver, or children like Oliver, and think what do they contribute. If they’re here with all these problems, what do they really contribute? But Oliver really has contributed.

Via Missy Miller

18. Missy is still continuing to fight for Oliver to receive expedite access to medical marijuana… But at least now, there’s hope.

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Missy Miller / Via liherald.com

Read more: http://buzzfeed.com/briantron/meet-the-14-year-old-teen-that-helped-new-york-become-the-23

Meet The 14-Year-Old Teen That Helped New York Become The 23rd State To Legalize Medical Marijuana

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Dolphins Use Sponges To Access Novel Food Sources

Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins around Shark Bay, Australia, perform a unique behavior called “sponging”, which is where certain animals place sponges over their snouts during foraging activities. Not all of the dolphins in this area display the behavior, and it was discovered that sponging was in fact culturally transmitted. Although it seemed plausible that sponging could be classified as tool use, it remained a mystery what the precise purpose of this behavior was; scientists postulated that it could serve to protect their beaks against abrasion from sharp objects whilst foraging for food.

A new study aimed to shed light on why these animals might be using these sponges; in particular, whether sponging allowed the animals to access certain novel resources that non-spongers could not. They found evidence that the animals used sponges as tools to access food, meaning that they could exploit an otherwise unused niche. The results have been published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

The scientists took biopsy samples from the blubber of 11 spongers and 27 non-spongers in order to analyze and compare the tissues. They were interested in fatty acid (FA) content because this reflects what prey they are consuming. The team found that the FA profiles were completely different between spongers and non-spongers. Furthermore, the difference was significant between spongers and non-spongers that were foraging in the same habitat, whereas non-spongers foraging in different habitats had indistinguishable profiles.

Taken together these results demonstrate that this apparent tool use behavior enables the dolphins to exploit foraging niches that non-spongers cannot. “This has been demonstrated in only a few species so far, and has been implicated as a significant driver for human evolution,” said Michael Krützen, lead author of the study.

It is possible that the sponges allow the dolphins to target bottom-dwelling fish that do not possess swim bladders, since the complex sea floor makes detection via echolocation difficult. As it stands it remains unclear what this novel prey is, but future studies may look into this. 

Read more: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/dolphins-use-sponges-access-novel-food-sources

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