Drugs & Prohibition

Jacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

"We live under a governmental system in which the president, the military, the CIA, and the NSA now wield powers that the greatest dictators in history have wielded. The powers to assassinate people, to indefinitely detain people without due process or trial by jury, to kidnap and rendition people, to torture people, to subject people to LSD experiments, to invade and occupy foreign countries, to support coups in foreign lands, to install, train, maintain, and support brutal dictatorial regimes, to spy on and monitor the activities of people everywhere. In other words, the dark type of things that Americans used to complain that communist or totalitarian regimes were engaged in." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJacob Hornberger: Replacing The Welfare-Warfare State With A Free Society

Smell of marijuana: Who needs a search warrant when police use their nose?

"The ability to conduct warrantless searches based on the smell of marijuana has faced some challenges. In Florida, recent cases in Sarasota and Pinellas County have cast doubt on some officers' claims they were able to smell the marijuana cited in their probable cause affidavits and search warrant applications. And in Massachusetts, where voters decriminalized small amounts of marijuana in 2008, a state court struck down the ability to smell and search in 2011. Defense attorneys argue that youths and minorities are targeted disproportionately and say that because the search relies solely on an officer's word, it's prone to misconduct." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSmell of marijuana: Who needs a search warrant when police use their nose?

Report: Obama Spends $180K Per Day Undermining State Medical Marijuana Laws

"In 2011 and 2012, the DEA spent four percent of its budget on the medical marijuana crackdown. Having conducted at least 270 paramilitary-style raids during the past four years, Obama's DEA spent approximately $8 million to carry them out. However, the amount of taxpayer dollars spent on raids was dwarfed by the amount spent on investigative efforts preceding raids, indictments, and lawsuits, which has totaled more than $200 million. Over the past two years alone, the DOJ has effectively shuttered more than 500 dispensaries by sending letters to landlords, threatening criminal prosecution and seizure of their property." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingReport: Obama Spends $180K Per Day Undermining State Medical Marijuana Laws

Marijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts

"Colorado and Washington entered an uncharted territory when state leaders decided to take what has been an underground system since marijuana was declared illegal 75 years ago and turn it into a regulated and taxed commercial enterprise. No other places in the world have such liberal marijuana laws. Alcohol prohibition was a federal policy implemented by the individual states, similar to today’s situation with marijuana. When New York decided not to enforce alcohol prohibition anymore, it set the tone for what was to come as other states followed suit. Eventually the federal government decided that it was not going to commit the resources needed to enforce the law." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMarijuana: Will It Ever Be Legal? States Lead the Charge as Opinion Shifts

Feds want mental health records, float plan to ban guns from legal pot smokers

"The Department of Justice now wants to be notified of any mental health concerns and commitments 'for other reasons' for Americans so their names can be added to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System list of people banned from owning guns. But it appears the requirements of the privacy rule for medical records will be a barrier to that quick transfer of personal details, so the Department of Health and Human Services has proposed a change. Attorneys Todd Garvey and Brian Yeh wrote that federal firearms regulators will be aggressive about banning anyone who uses marijuana from buying – or possessing – a weapon." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeds want mental health records, float plan to ban guns from legal pot smokers

Man Helping Sick Wife Charged With Marijuana Trafficking

"The resident, a 66-year-old man named Frank Dennis Peters, turned himself in to the authorities. Peters claims he has been growing the marijuana to assist his wife of 40 years who suffers from fibromyalgia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Peters added, 'I have a moral obligation to make my wife as comfortable as possible.' Under current law, medical marijuana is legal, but only if it is purchased from South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control. However, the Department has never actually distributed any marijuana according to department spokesman. The law is 33 years old." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMan Helping Sick Wife Charged With Marijuana Trafficking

Utah Woman Killed Allegedly “Assassination Style” By Now Disbanding Special Narcotics Unit

"Melissa Kennedy and Frederick Willard, parents of the late Danielle Willard, are suing local police in an extraordinary case in which they say that their daughter was shot to death 'assassination style' by a now disbanded special narcotics unit that has been accused of corruption and abuse. They are using West Valley City, its police Officers Shaun Cowley and Kevin Salmon, Lt. John Coyle, Police Chief Thayle 'Buzz' Nielsen, and 10 Doe officers, in Federal Court. The unit was disbanded after the disappearance of money and drugs as well as the tossing out of roughly 100 drug cases. What is odd is that there are no criminal charges given this record of the unit." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUtah Woman Killed Allegedly “Assassination Style” By Now Disbanding Special Narcotics Unit

America’s private prison system is a national disgrace

"Since 1980, the US prison population has grown by 790%. We have the largest prison population of any nation in the history of the world. One in three African-American men will go to jail at some point in his life. Imprisoning that many people, most of them for non-violent offenses, doesn’t come cheap, especially when you’re paying private contractors. The United States now spends $50bn on our corrections system every year. Much of that money goes to private contractors, who are doing quite well living off of American corporate welfare – at the expense of the American taxpayer, whose dollars are funding this mass incarceration project." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmerica’s private prison system is a national disgrace

‘The worst case of scientific censorship since the church banned Copernicus’

"The outlawing of drugs such as cannabis, magic mushrooms and other psychoactive substances amounts to scientific censorship and is hampering research into potentially important medicinal uses, leading scientists argued on Wednesday. Laws and international conventions dating back to the 1960s have set back research in key areas such as consciousness by decades, they argued. 'The laws have never been updated despite scientific advances and growing evidence that many of these drugs are relatively safe. And there appears to be no way for the international community to make such changes,' said David Nutt, a neuropsychopharmacology professor." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘The worst case of scientific censorship since the church banned Copernicus’

Police take over food delivery run, bust recipient for marijuana

"Norman Police Officer David Stevenson was contacted by a female delivery driver in reference to a medical emergency she was having. She was at the intersection of West Lindsey Street and Crown Point Avenue, close to where her she was dropping off her next delivery. Prior to being transported to the hospital, she requested that the food she was about to deliver be delivered by Officer Stevenson, the affidavit said. When Wolf opened the door to his home, Stevenson said he observed a strong odor of marijuana coming from inside, saw a glass jar containing marijuana and a smoking pipe lying on the living room coffee table." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPolice take over food delivery run, bust recipient for marijuana