New York Post, Tuesday, August 6, 2019nypost.comAmerica has gone to pot,
with the number of mari-
juana users spiking dramat-
ically — even in states
where it’s illegal, a new
study shows.
The number of folks who
admitted using weed in the
past month in states where
the drug is not allowed rec-
reationally soared 33 per-
cent from 2002 to 2017, ac-
cording to an analysis of
federal survey data by the
Rockefeller Institute of
Government.
And the increase is even,
well, higher — 47 percent
— in states where lighting
up is legal, the study found.
In New York, where mari-
juana is decriminalized but
not legal for adult recre-
ational use, nearly 10 per-
cent of residents copped to
getting stoned at least once
in the past month, up from 7
percent in 2002.
New York also now allows
cannabis for medicinal use.
Oregon, where pot is le-
gal , was the biggest stoner
state, with 20 percent of
residents identifying as tok-
ers. Natalie O’Neill
Higher on
marijuana
A Peter Pan bus driver has
been charged in Connecti-
cut with deliberately lock-
ing a rider in a luggage
compartment during a New
York City-to-Boston trip.
Wendy Alberty, 49, was
charged with unlawful re-
straint on Sunday after the
woman called 911 from in-
side the compartment and
alleged that a driver had
shut her in as she retrieved
items from a stowed bag.
Connecticut state police
said they tracked the call
and pulled over the bus on
I-84 in Union. Alberty was
on the bus as a rider when it
was stopped. Wire Services
Bus driver
stowed me
One of the most beloved
birds in Maine is having one
of its most productive mating
seasons in years.
Maine is the only state in
the US where Atlantic puf-
fins, a vulnerable species,
breed. National Audubon
Society scientist Stephen
Kress said 750 pairs nested
in 2018, and this year’s num-
ber will likely be higher.AP
Good ‘puff’ piece
Lacey Township Chatter FacebookKARMA KETCHES UP
By KATE SHEEHY and AMANDA WOODSShe wouldn’t cut the mustard as a hard-
ened criminal.
A customer who swiped a bottle of
ketchup from a New Jersey restaurant was
so wracked with guilt — and bad karma —
that she secretly returned to the eatery
and dropped off two containers of Heinz.
“I hope returning two new bottles will
restore some [luck] for me, and I can stop
carrying around this guilt,” the contrite
condiment klepto wrote in a note left in a
bag with the ketchup outside a door at
Perkins Restaurant & Bakery on Route 9 in
Forked River, part of Lacey Township.
The thief — whom workers at the eatery
believe is a young woman judging from
the penmanship — admitted in the note to
having no good reason to steal the bottles.
“A few weeks ago, I had taken one of
your ketchup bottles off the table because
for some odd reason I thought it’d be
‘risky,’ ” said the confession, a photo of
which was posted on Facebook (left).
“Well, a few hours [after] I did it someone
crashed into my car, and since then, my
karma, luck, and life have been s- -t.”
The note is signed “an awful person.”
Restaurant manager Charlene Reebe
told The Post on Monday that she found
the pilfering diner’s penance Wednesday
night while cleaning up outside.
“There was just a normal, little gray Wal-
mart bag on the side of a [trash] can, on
the ground,” Reebe said. “And I open it up,
and there’s a letter, receipt and two bottles
of ketchup in there.
“I was very surprised.”
She said no one in the restaurant had no-
ticed the bottles were even taken.
The receipt showed the thief paid $2.
apiece for the 32-ounce ketchup bottles —
which are 12 ounces more each than the
20-ounce ones the diner puts on its tables.
The eatery’s owner, Maria DiLeo, had
something to offer the thief — a job.
“I would hire her in a second,” DiLeo
said. “Because if you do something like
that, you’re not an awful person. You’re an
honest person.”
[email protected]Heinz thief
atones to
NJ eatery
after string
of bad luck