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The IRS has issued one warning about a phishing scam targeting college staff and students, especially those with “.edu” extensions in their email. The scam uses fake IRS email templates to trick people into providing their personal information in order to request a “tax refund”.

Look what

The bogus emails have IRS logos on them and include subject lines such as “Tax Refund Payment” or “Recalculate Your Tax Refund Payment”. Recipients are instructed to click a link and submit a form to request their refund. However, the link actually takes you to a phishing website that is stealing personal information like your social security number, gross income, or IRS electronic login PIN. According to the IRS, the scam is targeting students and staff in public and private schools, especially if you have a .edu email address.

“These crooks know that many people are eagerly awaiting their tax refund and may not look closely to see who actually sent the email,” said Luis D. Garcia, an IRS spokesman, in one interview with the Detroit Free Press.

There are three ways the IRS can contact you: a letter in the mail, a phone call, or a personal visit (and even a phone call or personal visit would be preceded by a letter in the mail). So be careful with email or text messages as they are almost certainly a scam. If you received this scam email, do not click on any link or logo and report it to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. If you want to know more about a pending refund, you can check its status Here.

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Prevent theft with this IRS tool

If you’ve been a victim of identity fraud, the IRS recommends getting an identity protection PIN. An IP PIN is a secret six-digit number that is included on your tax return. It prevents identity thieves from filing fraudulent tax returns on your behalf. Check out this Lifehacker post). The anti-identity theft tool is available Here.

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Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that they have completed a phase 3 study of their COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 12 to 15 and that it appears to be 100% effective so far in this age group. If the FDA agrees the vaccine is safe and effective, it may be available for ages 12 and over starting this summer.

At what age can the vaccine be used?

The Pfizer vaccine is currently approved for ages 16 and up, and the other two US vaccines (Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) for ages 18 and up. All three companies said They are testing or planning to test their vaccine in children. (Typically, a company will conduct trials on adults, then teenagers and younger children.)

The most recent study was carried out on 2,260 adolescents, half of whom received the vaccine and half of whom received a placebo. There were 18 cases of COVID-19 in the placebo group and none in the vaccine group, which means that the effectiveness was 100% perfect. In practice, that number might turn out to be lower, but seeing this result is encouraging.

The researchers also tested the children’s antibody levels one month after receiving their second dose and found that they were as good as the antibody levels of vaccinated adults. The side effects were similar to those seen in older age groups.

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What’s next?

So far we only have Pfizer’s press release, but the company plans to publish the results in a peer-reviewed journal and also to submit it to the FDA. For its part, the FDA could change the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the vaccine to make it available to people 12 years and older instead of the current 16 years and older. (None of the vaccines are fully approved, however The EEA allows them to be legally administered during the pandemic.)

The company says it has already started a study in five to eleven year olds and will begin giving doses to two to five year olds next week. Approval for these age groups will probably not be possible until the end of this year or the beginning of next year.

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This morning, New York eventually passed laws Legalize recreational cannabis, making it the 16th state and second largest in the population after California. For roughly 91 million Americans over the age of 21, legally participating for fun is now an option – but even if you aren’t one of them, you don’t have to let Stoner FOMO rule your life. Because there is actually a 100 percent federally legal way to consume THC – and get high – no matter where you live.

I learned this because I learn almost anything from a podcast these days – especially from an ad during one of the many movie podcasts that I listen to When I need to calm my troubled mind The ad advertised a company that sold Delta-8-THC, a modified form of THC – the most famous of the psychoactive chemicals in cannabis the one most responsible for making you feel high– obtained from hemp.

How is that stuff legal?

Like the largely non-psychoactive CBDDelta-8 THC is legal (or more precisely technically not illegal) nationwide, as the 2018 Farm Bill has a loophole enables the broad cultivation of hemp and products derived from hemp. According to the public order nonprofit group, The Brookings Institution, the bill “contains no restrictions on the sale, transport, or possession of hemp products as long as those items are manufactured in a lawful manner.”

The Farm Bill did not want to legalize weeds, so it includes a specific limit on the levels of THC that can be found in these various hemp products (from oils to tinctures): 0.3%, a trace amount that is too small to be flashed or have a strong psychoactive effect (although your mileage may vary depending on whether Your CBD oil is “full spectrum” Your personal tolerance levels or yours Susceptibility to the placebo effect).

But here’s the hard part: The Farm Bill states that hemp products can’t contain more than 0.3%. “Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol concentration. ”And since it’s a separate substance – and just one of more than“ 120 other naturally occurring cannabinoids known to exist in the hemp plant ”. according to a principle article by the law firm Harris Bricken– that makes Delta-8 THC completely “legal”.

You know technically. For nowAt least – in a 2020 ruling, the Drug Enforcement Agency stated that “synthetically derived tetrahydrocannabinols” still contain substances that are controlled by Plan I. It’s just that no one has fully addressed whether Delta-8 THC qualifies as one of them, which means selling products that contain the stuff currently falls under the jurisdiction of the Food and Drug Administrationjust like CBD. But that could change at any time – and indeed. Commercial cannabis sellers are actively committed to thisconcerned about competing for customer dollars with a cheaper product.

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How Delta-8 THC is made

The Farm Bill dictates that hemp-derived products must be just that to be legal. Technically, you could extract Delta-8-THC from cannabis plants, which also contain plenty of “normal” THC, but that would be illegal.

The process starts with the whole hemp flower that needs to be chemically distilled isolate the delta-8-THC cannabinoid. The resulting distillate can then be further concentrated and processed into a variety of products that meet consumer expectations if they have ever legally purchased cannabis, from foods to oils.

It works?

Great, Delta-8-THC is legal and unlike cannabis products, even in states with legal weed, it can be mailed by companies like the one I promoted on this podcast. I’ve learned this much easily enough in my internet sleuthing, but if passion for CBD oil is any indication, many companies are more than happy to promote products with bold claims about their effects when they don’t really have to come up with evidence to back them up. This particular one Delta 8 THC supplier promised all of the benefits of consuming regular refrigerated containers – labeled as a “more functional replacement for Delta-9-THC” – without the possible (slightly dubious) negative effects, namely: “Addiction, insomnia, paranoia, fear, laziness, etc.” (It’s worth noting that none of these claims are supported by verified research –like CBDSince the Delta-8 THC market is not yet regulated nationwide, you need to take the manufacturer’s word when it comes to what’s in the products, how they’re made, and what impact they could have.)

My first reaction was that when I experienced it, I would only believe this, but I wanted a second opinion, so I reached out to Reddit as a point of contact to learn everything I wanted to know about getting high. (There are subreddits for almost every state with legal weed, discussing locally available strains and retailers, and offering tips for beginners.) And Reddit had a lot of say about Delta-8 THC, most of it is exactly what you want to hear if you go to the trouble of researching the stuff. In short, yes it will get you high.

How “high” looks will vary from person to person – but that’s always the case with any psychoactive substance, from Bud to Budweiser. However, the consensus on Delta-8-THC, both from the company that sells it and from the Redditor’s comments, seems that it definitely has powerful effects, albeit different from Delta-9-THC. In particular, it is more of a “body high”, which is characterized as such “Lighter” and “more calming”;; it’ll give you a nice “buzz” while still being clear enough to go about your daily business. If your daily business involves drug testing, exercise caution –Delta-8-THC can very well still trigger a positive result in an active ingredient screening.

That all sounded good to me, and I decided it was worth risking an order – an easier decision as Delta-8 THC products are a lot cheaper than the legal cannabis sold in other states. I picked a 16 pack of gums for around $ 30, but you can order vapes and tinctures, as well as concentrates (if you’d rather make your own groceries). They arrived in a short amount of time, and I admit it felt a bit strange opening a downright illegal looking product that I had received in the mail, although in the past I have felt the same about orders for CBD oil with weed images have. But what really interested me was whether the rubbers would actually work as advertised.

I ate two because I am not inexperienced with using legal cannabis and the consensus on Reddit seemed to be that Delta-8-THC is about half as potent / potent. Within 45 minutes I knew that I had got my money’s worth. As promised, I felt some familiar effects bordering on weeds – lightness in the body, increased focus, increased appetite, increased SpongeBob SquarePants exhilaration – albeit with less intensity and without the confusion or brain fog that comes from a severe blow can cover so to speak.

Will Delta-8 THC replace the other material as the substance of your choice? If you have access to both in your state and your primary goal is to be stoned, mate, probably not. However, if you’re looking for an intoxicant with more subtle effects, you might prefer it – and like I said, it’s cheaper, too. What if you live in a state where cannabis is either still illegal or not yet commercially available? It could be exactly what you were looking for.

Post-publication this article has been edited to include an additional notice and link on the potential of Delta-8-THC to cause a positive drug test.