College kids fund weed app with Lyft $$$

Instead of waiting around for a lift to start their business, three college students at the University of Southern California turned to Lyft.

The trio of students started a medical-marijuana app called Nugg on Monday (April 20). The app allows patients in Los Angeles and Orange counties to order medical marijuana or set up deliveries or pickups, according to The Los Angeles Times.

The three friends — Alex Milligan, Collin Mann, and Kam Babazade — were able to start the new app because of the $100,000 they raised through referrals to the ride-sharing company. Lyft pays between $10 and $20 per each rider referral. Together, they signed up more than 30,000 riders and split the proceeds.

According to the Times, app users need to take a picture of their driver’s license or other photo identification at sign up, along with a doctor’s note. Nugg then verifies the note with the doctor. Or, if a person doesn’t have a doctor’s note, they can schedule an appointment for an evaluation through the service.

Nugg is competing with other similar apps in the Southern California area. But according to the Times, the co-founders think their experience in selling people on Lyft referrals will give them, well, a lift — especially when it comes to selling the service to a broad group of people.

“They understand cannabis in different languages, so it’s a balance between providing too little introduction and too much information that it becomes too complex,” Milligan told the paper.

Three ex-cops smoke weed for the first time in decades — on camera

Three self-described ex-police officers lit up on camera to commemorate 4/20, with each of them saying it was the first time they had smoked marijuana in decades.

Cut Video, which produced the short video, says it was filmed in Washington state, where medical marijuana was legalized by voters in 2012.

All three ex-cops leaned more against the prohibition of the drug. None of them said they had ever arrested anyone for using or possessing marijuana, though one said he made a show of taking it away because he believed that was a more powerful deterrent.

Another of the ex-cops brought up the commonly thrown-out argument that it costs more to put someone in prison for drug-related offenses than it does to send them to Harvard — based on a 2013 report. That same former cop said he did not believe marijuana was a “gateway drug,” comparing it to common foods and drinks consumed by people during their formative years.

“If you look at it, everyone who is a heroin addict started off drinking milk,” the cop said. “I mean that’s the argument about marijuana and I’m not sure that’s true.”

The three ex-cops conduct field sobriety tests on each other and play “Cards Against Humanity” as the marijuana smoking starts to take effect. Watch the video below:

Despite marijuana being prohibited in the NFL, the league’s players have ways to get around that. They have to submit to one drug test per year in a specified window of time, and then they’re scot-free for the rest of the year.

But that window of time started on Monday — 4/20 — according to Pro Football Talk. That means players could have been tested as early as Monday, and at least the smart ones probably didn’t celebrate the marijuana-enthusiast holiday.

The window of testing this year is from April 20 to August 9. If NFL players play their cards right — don’t get arrested for marijuana possession, don’t publicly say you smoke marijuana — they’re pretty much free to smoke recreationally.

Brett LoGiurato is the senior national political correspondent at Fusion, where he covers all things 2016. He’ll give you everything you need to know about politics, with a healthy side of puns.