"The Kentucky Senate joined the House in approving a hemp regulation bill last night. This morning, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) released a statement applauding the bill's passage and promising to continue to push for a federal waiver from the Controlled Substances Act for future Kentucky hemp growers." Continue reading →
"Despite President Obama's youthful flirtation with drugs, the Obama administration has repeatedly refused to acknowledge America's turning tide in the so-called war on drugs. A recent Quinnipiac poll found that a majority of Americans now support legalizing marijuana use. This has become a more mainstream position in recent years as states began to decriminalize the drug, despite federal statute, and as more members of the medical community have affirmed the drug's medicinal benefits, particularly for those battling chronic or terminal ailments." Continue reading →
"Driving with hands on the wheel, arms extended, without passing other vehicles is not a crime in New York, a county judge ruled last week. St. Lawrence County Surrogate's Court Judge Kathleen Martin Rogers found the US Border Patrol had been wrong to stop Corene M. Deer and Rachel C. Morgan, who were driving carefully at around 8pm on January 18, 2012 in the town of Gouverneur. Agent Brandon Carrier spotted Deer and Morgan's white SUV and became suspicious when he saw the driver had more than one hand on the wheel and did not appear to be relaxed." Continue reading →
"New Hampshire is one step closer to becoming the 19th state to legalize medical marijuana. On Wednesday, the state House voted 286-64 to approve legislation that would allow patients with chronic or terminal diseases to use medical marijuana if their doctors recommended it. The bill allows for state-licensed marijuana dispensaries to open, and grants patients or caregivers the right to grow up to three cannabis plants." Continue reading →
"Feinstein is not just a liberal. She is a California liberal. She is a feminist California liberal. That is, she does not have a lick of political sense. Her bill is creating the biggest wave of gun buying we have seen in my lifetime. Across the nation, there is massive demand to buy guns. Every time Feinstein opens her mouth, another American who never thought of buying a gun heads for Walmart to buy a shotgun or some other weapon. Feinstein is the gun industry’s manna from heaven. Like manna in the wilderness, she keeps coming back every day." Continue reading →
"When eight former DEA chiefs signed a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this month, demanding that the feds crack down on Washington and Colorado, there was more than just drug-war ideology at stake. Two of the elder drug warriors, Peter Bensinger (DEA chief, 1976–1981) and Robert DuPont (White House drug chief, 1973–1977), run a corporate drug-testing business. Their company, Bensinger, DuPont & Associates, holds the pee stick for some 10 million employees around the US, including Kraft Foods, American Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, the Federal Aviation Administration and even the Justice Department itself." Continue reading →
"Earlier this week, Reps. Jared Polis and Earl Blumenauer visited a marijuana dispensary. They were just blocks away from their congressional offices, and within months, certain D.C. residents will be able to come here to legally choose from more than a dozen strains of medical marijuana, from Master Kush to Blue Dream. The walls will be packed with vaporizers, water pipes, and pre-rolled joints. There will be THC lollipops, baked goods, and cookbooks. Just blocks away from the Capitol, it may soon become one of the most politically important marijuana distribution centers in the country." Continue reading →
"Ever since the Illícitos Cambiarios Law was approved in 2010, buying, selling, and even mentioning the price of black market dollars in Venezuela has become a crime punishable by up to 7 years in prison. The answer to this legal gag on all things dollar-related was a flourishing black market, which has spawned its own little sub-culture, jargon (Lechuga Americana, Lechuga Europea, Lechugas en hojas frescas, Lechugas Amazónicas), code-words (1000 a 25. Transfer. Norte. Inbox me.), and a host of anonymous Twitter accounts that helpfully quoted daily reference prices, which, as we established, is illegal." Continue reading →
"Kalmes is among the 4.8 million unemployed Americans -- 40 percent of all those jobless -- who have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, even as the economy has been growing since June 2009 and the job market shows recent signs of healing. As her unemployment benefits have run out, she has entered the informal economy to make ends meet. America's shadow economy includes activities that are actually illicit -- prostitution and drug dealing -- and more benign jobs like working construction for a day for cash, or even the $2 per child that Kalmes gets for walking neighborhood students to the bus. Economists estimate $2 trillion could be involved." Continue reading →
"With soaring import demand due to double-digit inflation, collapsing local production of almost everything other than the ever-flowing black gold, and increasing regime uncertainty ever since the Comandante’s passing, there seems to be no end in sight for the bizarre efforts with which the Venezuelan government is trying to sustain foreign exchange controls. If you want to get a good grasp of the whole shenanigan, make sure to read this, this and this, by Francisco Toro and Emiliana Duarte at Caracas Chronicles." Continue reading →