StarBulletin.com

Brief asides


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POSTED: Tuesday, December 15, 2009

1 GAME AT A TIME

Next up for Wahine: Penn State

Sweeeeep!

The University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball team did the home state proud, beating Michigan in three straight sets over the weekend to advance to Thursday's semifinals of the NCAA Championship tournament, to be played in Tampa, Fla.

So far, so good.

Nothing will be said to bachi the team, considering that the next opponent is two-time defending champ Penn State, the tourney's No. 1 seed to the Wahine's No. 12. (But what's in a number, right?) Nothing will be said, other than ... You go, girls. And, Go Bows!

MARATHON MIGHT

Race not all about pace

Congratulations to all participants of Sunday's Honolulu Marathon. Under ideal weather conditions, some 20,609 runners started the 26.2-mile race, with 20,321 finishing. The fastest man was Kenyan Patrick Ivuti, at 2 hours, 12 minutes, 14 seconds; the first woman was Russian Svetlana Zakharova, at 2 hours, 28 minutes, 34 seconds.

Fast or slow, though, way to go.

LIGHTING UP

Teenagers' pot use rises amid national debate on medical marijuana

The national debate over the medical use of marijuana is making pot seem safer to teenagers, who are smoking more of it, according to a survey of students for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Usage remains below the peak of the late 1990s but is rising as fewer teens consider marijuana dangerous, say researchers from the University of Michigan.

The 2009 survey of 47,097 students found that 20.6 percent of 12th-graders reported using marijuana in the past month, compared with 19.4 percent in 2008 and 18.3 percent in 2006. Among 10th-graders, pot use in the past month rose to 15.9 percent this year from 13.8 percent in 2008.

Still, far more teens consume alcohol than marijuana: 43.5 percent of 12th-graders reporting drinking in the past month, the survey found.