Scruffy teenagers use it for a quick high. Rastafarians use it for enlightenment. And, MS patients use it to ease pain.

Mary Jane. The Green Goddess. Weed. Botanically dubbed Cannabis, the bud of this simple green plant is the most widely known and multi-purpose drug in the world and has been the center of international debates for decades.

Much to the chagrin of anti-drug activists, as of this May, over 30,000 identification cards have been issued in 48 of 58 counties, legally authorizing citizens to possess specific amounts of legal marijuana.In the U.S., residents in states like California use their ID cards to purchase legal amounts of medical marijuana at shops like The Green Easy and Love and Spirit Collective.

Imagine the forlorn face of a seven-year-old as his younger brother beside him eats a handful of rice. You ask him why he's not eating. He turns to you and says, "It's not my day to eat." This is a true story. It is the plight of half a million children who live in Cite Soleil, one of the worst slums in Haiti -- the third hungriest country in the world. Most residents live in dirt-floor shacks cobbled together with fragments of wood and corrugated metal, cardboard, plastic, or scraps salvaged from the dump.

"I'm a Type A personality." Who knew that this borderline apologetic statement about one's tiger-like ambition may have had more to do with blood type than anything else? In an effort to prove the age-old Japanese blood type theory of personality, South Korean filmmaker Choi Seok-won produced, My Boyfriend is Type B. We meet Ha-Mi, a mild-mannered type A college student who is searching for true love, and Yeong-Bin, a callous type B young man, who is secretly experiencing financial trouble. We know instantly this will be one of the more impossible romances. In fact, Chae Young, Ha-Mi's cousin and professional dating consultant, warns Ha-Mi vehemently against dating any type B man.

When Heather Veitch enters Las Vegas' swanky clubs decked out with full bars, pleasure poles and private dance rooms, she is on a mission.

She - a former Vegas exotic dancer - visits clubs once per month to throw parties in the dressing rooms of strippers in hopes of sharing the message of Christ with them.

She never judges, chastises or humiliates. She never prompts them to quit their jobs. She only listens to their stories and prays with them.

"We intentionally don't bring up God right away. They know we're from the church so we allow the girls to bring it up in conversation," said Veitch, who founded a ministry called JC's Girls five years ago that works alongside Central Christian Church in Las Vegas to minister to women in the sex industry.

Florida teens donning mohawks, gauge earrings and irreverent graphic tees bumrushed their local concert venues at the top of the morning hoping to be the first to rock out to their favorite punk, metalcore and ska bands - many of whom profess Christ and deep convictions about social justice - at Vans Warped Tour two weekends ago.

From Orlando's Central Fairgrounds to West Palm Beach's Cruzan Amphitheatre then St. Petersburg's Vinoy Park, the annual rock and extreme sports festival sponsored by skate shoe company - Vans - featured a mobile skatepark, band merchandise tents, pockets of marijuana smokers, non-profit tents and 10 stages with bands ranging the gamut of rock music.

Tour favorites like pop punk bands All Time Low and The Bouncing Souls as well as hardcore bands Escape The Fate were met with the slow-groove, reggae rock sounds of Boston band Westbound Train in this ultra-diverse year on this the 15th run.

"There smites nothing so sharp, nor smelleth so sour as shame."When 14th century English author William Langland penned those words, he must have known well the intense reek of reproach.And, while he may have never felt the public humiliation of being robbed his last few dollars and mother's food stamps in broad daylight, nor the embarrassment of being beaten by his father and stripped naked for stealing from the family savings, shame is an acute emotion with which he and most human beings - regardless of culture and creed - can relate.However, as putrid as shame is, completely divorcing oneself from it lies in full disclosure.That is, telling your story.It was a decision that author Lac Su, who narrowly escaped Communist militia men with his family in Vietnam and emigrated to a seedy West Los Angeles neighborhood at the age of 5, made when he wrote his true-life memoir I Love Yous Are For White People.