Drugs & Prohibition

Veteran Faces Jail Time For Using Marijuana As Treatment For PTSD

"Former U.S. Navy Corpsman Jeremy Usher came home in 2003 from Iraq and Afghanistan to sleepless nights and panic attacks, with vivid flashbacks of combat, horrifying nightmares, anxiety and depression, all amid memory loss and a severe stutter. He's doing well in counseling and school, he says, but he faces jail time for using marijuana medicinally while on probation to manage his PTSD and traumatic brain injury. Jeremy finds himself in legal limbo. Medicinal marijuana is the one treatment that's helped him with his PTSD, but he violates his probation when he uses it, which puts him at risk of going back to jail." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingVeteran Faces Jail Time For Using Marijuana As Treatment For PTSD

The U.N.’s complicity in international human rights abuses

"Consider these numbers: Hundreds of thousands of people locked in detention centers and subject to violent punishments. Millions imprisoned. Hundreds hanged, shot or beheaded. Tens of thousands killed by government forces and non-state actors. Thousands beaten and abused to extract information, and abused in government or private 'treatment' centers. Millions denied life-saving medicines. The U.N.’s International Narcotics Control Board has refused to condemn torture or 'any atrocity' carried out in the name of drug control, claiming it was not its mandate to do so." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe U.N.’s complicity in international human rights abuses

Cop’s Free Speech Rights Violated for Supporting Cannabis Law Reform

"While the higher ups are going to try and argue that their permission to lobby was only revoked due to a technical violation (supposedly because he didn’t get a business license for his address), it is clear that they are only punishing the sergeant because of his support for cannabis law reform. It isn’t just a coincidence that the department allowed Sgt. Wiegert to lobby for the St. Louis Tea Party for a few years and only had a problem with his lobbying activity once he started working for Show-Me Cannabis Regulation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCop’s Free Speech Rights Violated for Supporting Cannabis Law Reform

How Our Rulers Deal With Blown Tires When Drunk

"A drunk cop near Las Vegas drove several miles on a blown tire in 'a $50,000 unmarked SWAT vehicle,' rim sparking the while. Another motorist tried to alert Officer Sot; naturally, the cop ignored him. So the motorist called 911, reporting a drunk driver whose car was on fire. You can guess the outcome: 'Las Vegas police, which investigated the fire, determined nothing criminal had taken place and did not take an incident report, spokeswoman Laura Meltzer said.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Our Rulers Deal With Blown Tires When Drunk

Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Washington, D.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Racket

"Civil forfeiture is a national problem. Law enforcement agencies seize millions of dollars worth of property each year with little or no due process for owners. In all but six states property owners are considered guilty until proven innocent. State law typically allows law enforcement to keep most or all of the proceeds from forfeiture—an enormous incentive to police for profit. Most seizures are of cash—generally less than $100 and as little as $7—taken from thousands of people each year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuilty Until Proven Innocent: Washington, D.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Racket

GOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab ‘Torture’ Centers Bankrolling Opposition to Pot Legalization

"Save Our Society from Drugs, a Florida-based nonprofit founded by Mel and Betty Sembler, has given Smart Colorado contributions totaling $151,497 through September, according to The Nation’s review of state finance disclosures. That’s 95 percent of the money raised by the group so far. Before they led Save Our Society from Drugs, and its sister nonprofit, the Drug Free America Foundation, the Semblers were at the helm of STRAIGHT, Inc., which operated drug abuse treatment centers, mostly for teenagers, from 1976 through 1993. Former clients of the rehab center recount episodes of brutal beatings, rape and systematic psychological abuse." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGOP Mogul Behind Drug Rehab ‘Torture’ Centers Bankrolling Opposition to Pot Legalization

Cruelty and Criminality Combine in the Vernal, Utah Police Department

"Vernal, Utah resident Ben Mahaffey had barely said goodbye to his wife of 58 years before the local police barged into the couple’s bedroom without invitation or permission. Just minutes after Mahaffey’s wife Barbara died of cancer, the police strode into the house claiming that they had a right to examine the couple’s medicine cabinet. But on at least thirty occasions in 2011, Vernal Police Detective Ben Marland Murray visited the home of Russell Wayne Smithey and Candy Jean Holmes to conduct 'pill checks'. The couple suspected that the officer was secretly stealing their medications, and eventually caught him doing so by way of a hidden camera." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCruelty and Criminality Combine in the Vernal, Utah Police Department

3 Chicago-suburb cops accused of robbing drug dealers, selling cocaine

"Three Chicago-area cops robbed drug dealers of their stash while executing search warrants, then turned around and sold the heroin, cocaine and marijuana, pocketing the cash, prosecutors said Thursday. Schaumburg police officers John Cichy, 30, Matthew Hudak, 29, and Terrance O’Brien, 47, 'did it all for the thrill' prosecutor Audriana Anderson told a court. Prosecutors say the men were caught on surveillance video and audio recordings robbing local dealers of drugs and cash as they executed search warrants on homes and cars." Continue reading →

Continue Reading3 Chicago-suburb cops accused of robbing drug dealers, selling cocaine

Supreme Court Approves Search Warrants Issued by Dogs

"Today the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that 'a court can presume' an alert by a drug-sniffing dog provides probable cause for a search 'if a bona fide organization has certified a dog after testing his reliability in a controlled setting' or 'if the dog has recently and successfully completed a training program that evaluated his proficiency in locating drugs.' The justices overturned a 2011 decision in which the Florida Supreme Court said police must do more than assert that a dog has been properly trained." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSupreme Court Approves Search Warrants Issued by Dogs

Suspected meth lab turns out to be sweet maple syrup

"A Union County family got the scare of their lives on Wednesday morning as drug agents swarmed onto their property. 'I heard the dogs barking. And I knew that meant somebody was outside the house,' said Laura Benson. 'And I looked out the windows and I seen a truck coming up the driveway fairly fast. And an Anna police car right behind it.' She says she couldn't believe her ears when she heard the drug agents say this. 'They had a report of a meth lab going on on our property. And they wanted to investigate it.' So the Benson's gladly showed the officers what they really were doing, which was making their own maple syrup." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSuspected meth lab turns out to be sweet maple syrup