"The brief filed in regards to the Kettle Falls Five notes that 'This court determined that Rohrabacher-Farr prohibits the Department of Justice from spending funds for the prosecution of individuals who engaged in conduct permitted by the state medical marijuana laws and fully complied with the laws.'"
"MDMA, aka ecstasy, is emerging as one of the most promising treatments for intractable post-traumatic stress disorder."
"The state is on a hiring binge to fill what eventually will be hundreds of new government positions by 2019 intended to bring order to the legal pot economy, from keeping watch on what’s seeping into streams near cannabis grows to running background checks on storefront sellers who want government licenses. Thousands of additional jobs are expected to be added by local governments. Last January, just 11 full-time workers were part of what’s now known as the Bureau of Cannabis Control, the state’s chief regulatory agency overseeing the pot market. Now, it’s more than doubled, and by February the agency expects to have more than 100 staffers."
"Many people say it improves their concentration or creativity; others say they use it to help treat symptoms of mental illnesses like depression and anxiety. Yet not a single published scientific study on microdosing exists."
"The defendant, who faces a maximum of three years in prison if convicted, argued that it was 'patently illogical' to hold someone criminally liable for sending nude pictures to a minor—yet it's legal to expose themselves to minors in person. The Indiana ruling is among a string of cases in which sexting laws are clearly nonsensical."
"Though the numbers are missing from the FBI’s public 2016 report, Angell was able to obtain data from the agency by contacting them directly. Angell summarized: 'Marijuana possession busts comprised 37.36% of all reported drug arrests in the U.S. in 2016, and cannabis sales and manufacturing arrests accounted for another 4.18% of the total.'"
"Multiple students were subjected to invasive and outright horrifying body searches during a mass — and warrantless — search for drugs at a South Georgia high school. Attorney Mark Begnaud, who filed the class-action lawsuit, called out the sheriff for conducting '900 illegal, suspicionless searches.' To highlight the sheer unnecessary police state tactics of the tyrannical Worth County Sheriff Jeff Hobby and his deputies — not a single bit of contraband was found."
"The raiding cops brought the wrong-sized battering ram, making it difficult for them to get inside quickly. One of the officers shot Ferreira within seconds, despite the fact that he was unarmed. They had no layout of the house. They weren’t aware of the fact that Ferriera was a guest on the night of the raid, which is at least suggestive of little or no surveillance. The city, of course, appealed the finding against it, and Ferreira appealed the jury’s finding that the officer who shot him wasn’t liable for his injuries. Late last month U.S. district court judge Thomas McAvoy issued his decision. Ferreira is out of luck. McAvoy first upheld the finding of no liability for the officer. He then found that the City of Binghamton isn’t liable, either."
"Thousands of pages of newly unsealed records reveal a widespread scheme — a highly unorthodox merger of an undercover law enforcement operation and a legitimate business. What began as a way to catch black-market cigarette dealers quickly transformed into a nearly untraceable A.T.F. slush fund that agents from around the country could tap."
"DEA operatives face federal corruption and conspiracy charges after allegedly engaging in all sorts of shady behavior, from selling drugs themselves to lying under oath, falsifying records, falsely identifying drug suspects, accepting bribes, and stealing cash and other property from the people they arrested. In at least one instance, their behavior led to someone being wrongly imprisoned for more than two years."