Free Republic

The U.S. Open tennis championship is one of New York’s premier cultural events, attracting upscale crowds despite the controlled chaos of spectators at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, Queens. But this year, Norwegian pro Casper Ruud has complained about the pervasive and decidedly down-market smell of marijuana: “For me, this is the worst thing about New York. The smell is everywhere, even here on the courts . . . we have to accept it, but it’s not my favorite smell. It’s quite annoying to be playing, tired, and just meters away, someone is smoking marijuana.”...

News that Minneapolis monster Robin Westman worked at a pot shop until just two weeks ago should give pause to those in the White House reportedly pushing President Donald Trump to take a landmark step toward federal approval of marijuana use. Westman, 23, was apparently fired from Rise, an area cannabis dispensary, on Aug. 16 over chronic tardiness and absenteeism. If you know anything at all about the culture of this biz, that tells you the odds are awfully good that he was using, too. And medical research in recent years keeps producing fresh evidence strongly suggesting that heavy marijuana...

Those who are part of these networks target young teens, trans people, and those who already feel victimized by society. Minneapolis Catholic child killer Robert "Robin" Westman was reportedly linked to online dark extremist groups fixated on nihilism. The dark network of groups are reported to "prey on and exploit young people." Westman killed two children and injured 17 others at the Annunciation Catholic School. Some of the groups are called 764, COM, No Lives Matter, the Order of Nine Angels, and others, and operate in secret on the web where kids can access them and parents are primarily unaware....

Long-term cannabis use can lead to severe vomiting, and U.S. emergency departments are seeing increasing numbers of adolescents with this illness, according to recent research out of Boston.Increases were seen across the U.S., regardless of states’ recreational cannabis legalization status, the study said. Severe nausea and vomiting caused by long-term cannabis use is called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, according to the Cleveland Clinic. The only cure is to stop using cannabis, although hot baths and showers may relieve symptoms. Research findings recently published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open stated that: -U.S. emergency department visits for cannabis hyperemesis syndrome...

The U.S. Coast Guard achieved a milestone with the offload of a record 76,140 pounds of illicit narcotics, valued at $473 million, at Port Everglades on Monday. This marks the largest quantity of drugs offloaded in Coast Guard history. Coast Guard Cutter Hamilton’s crew offloaded approximately 61,740 pounds of cocaine and 14,400 pounds of marijuana, preventing an estimated 23 million potential lethal doses from reaching the United States.

A dispensary in northeast Albuquerque is out more than $50,000 after thieves smashed a vehicle through their front entrance and raided the shelves. The CEO of Dark Matter Dispensary said two people rammed a car into their building, not once, but six times around 3 a.m. Thursday. It completely destroyed their front entrance, which had a steel rolling door covering the glass facade. He said the two were teens, and they used two vehicles. One to gain entrance and the other to get away. Now, he’s offering a reward for anyone who has information on who the perpetrators are.

Police say a victim was taken to a hospital after being stabbed multiple times during a targeted attack at an Edmond medical marijuana dispensary. The attack happened shortly before 10 a.m. at Kush House on South Broadway between 33rd and 15th streets. According to police, a man attacked a woman, stabbing her multiple times. "It was a very vicious attack," Emily Ward with the Edmond Police Department said. "She received multiple, numerous stab wounds." Ward said the woman, who works at the store, is in "very critical condition."

https://www.uniteforsmartpolicy.org/cusp-commentary/documentary-reveals-chinese-mafia-infiltration-of-americas-rural-communities A new documentary by Maine Wire Editor-in-Chief Steve Robinson, released this month, reveals the “secret drug empire backed by China” that is disrupting American communities. The documentary, High Crimes: The Chinese Mafia’s Takeover of Rural America, was released on the Tucker Carlson network this July and follows Robinson’s years of reporting on the Chinese Mafia’s infiltration of rural Maine. With their purchase of hundreds of rural Maine houses, schools and churches, Chinese organized criminals are growing marijuana illegally and often producing it with illegal, toxic pesticides smuggled into the U.S. from China. The disturbing report may not be so...

POTTAWATOMIE COUNTY, Okla. — Officials with the Pottawatomie County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday reported they were investigating the killing of a Canadian national at a marijuana grow operation. Officials said Vongphachanh Philavahn, a Canadian citizen, was found dead at the grow operation, near the 23000 block of East Hill Drive, over the weekend. Officials said investigators believe Philavahan died in what they called a “targeted robbery,” but there was no indication of “an ongoing threat to the public,” according to a news release.

Last week, during one of ICE’s biggest worksite raids yet at a marijuana farm in California, a rioter pulled out a gun and shot at agents. Thankfully, no one was hit. However, the suspect has not yet been apprehended. Today, the FBI released a photo of the suspect. They are asking the public for any information pertaining to his identity and offering a $50K reward for info leading to his arrest. See for yourself: The FBI is releasing a new photo in order to identify a suspected protester who brandished a pistol and fired toward agents conducting lawful activity in...

The Left’s obsession with illegal immigration is getting worse, and weirder, as it strains to resist any and all attempts to enforce immigration law. The immigration raids in and around Los Angeles have resulted in more violent actions from “protesters” and more ridiculous defenses from Democratic politicians. On the latter front, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) called President Donald Trump “scum” for a raid that resulted in “Kids running from tear gas, crying on the phone because their mother was just taken from the fields.” Weirdly, Newsom did not think to find out why nearly a dozen children were out in...

The President of Glass House Farms, the cannabis farm that federal immigration authorities raided in California on Thursday despite protests, has donated thousands to Democrats in California. Co-founder, president, and board director Graham Farrar, who self-identifies on social media as residing in Santa Barbara, California, has made numerous political donations to the Santa Barbara County Democratic Central Committee’s federal political action committee and Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Calif., according to Federal Election Commission records. According to California public campaign finance records, he also donated $10,000 to California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2018, and his most recent public political donation was...

Federal immigration agents, assisted by members of the National Guard, carried out raids at two Southern California cannabis farms, arresting dozens, including undocumented minors, in an operation that drew several hundred protestors and violent clashes with officers. The immigration sweeps, one at Glass House Farms in Camarillo and another about 35 miles up the coast at another Glass House facility in Carpinteria, unfolded simultaneously at around 8:30 a.m. United States Attorney Bill Essayli confirmed the operation in a post to X. “Federal agents are executing a search warrant at this marijuana farm,” he wrote. “Agents have already arrested multiple individuals...

BREAKING: CBP Commissioner reports that 10 illegal immigrant juvenile children, 8 of whom were unaccompanied, were found by federal agents during the operation at the cannabis farm in Camarillo today. Now being investigated for potential child labor violations. https://t.co/io5lPXHPXG— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 11, 2025...Here’s some breaking news: 10 juveniles were found at this marijuana facility - all illegal aliens, 8 of them unaccompanied. It’s now under investigation for child labor violations. This is Newsom’s California. https://t.co/Z1XoRMtBSN— CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott (@CBPCommissioner) July 11, 2025

Seven Chinese nationals living in Massachusetts have been charged in connection with a multimillion-dollar drug-trafficking organization that allegedly grew and distributed marijuana across the U.S. Northeast. "Today, we arrested members of an alleged Chinese-run drug trafficking organization who are accused of running a massive marijuana cultivation and distribution scheme that has raked in millions and contributed widely to the illegal drug trade here in the Northeast," Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston Division, said in a statement. The scheme allegedly involved interconnected grow houses that cultivated and distributed marijuana. Chinese nationals were also allegedly smuggled...

MARION COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A handcuffed woman on her way to jail in a patrol car allegedly managed to retrieve a hidden gun from her waist and opened fire on the deputy who arrested her. The Marion County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) said that on Monday at 10 a.m. Rheanna Harden was arrested on multiple charges after a traffic stop. According to MCSO, Haren was handcuffed and searched before she was put in the backseat of a deputy's patrol car to take her to jail. Officials said that while on their way to jail, traveling on S highway near the...

US residents are spending more money to purchase legal cannabis than they are on chocolate, craft beer and topical pain relief. A report from MJBizDaily showed Americans spent roughly $30 billion on legal marijuana in 2022 while only spending around $20 billion on chocolate. The cannabis purchases eclipsed sales of “feel-good” products, including beer, opioid medications and topical pain relief, the report stated. Though the legal purchase of marijuana is becoming increasingly popular, sales still fell behind the tobacco industry, which made around $53 billion last year despite a steady decline.

Less than an hour from the capital of the European Union, gangs fight gun battles in the streets or bomb each other’s outposts. Crime reporters, police and prosecutors are bought off or killed. Torture cells are set up in shipping containers and bodies can be cleanly disposed of, but when the gangs really want to send a message they set up a public execution or fire off a rocket. That’s the way things are done, not in Bogota or Beirut, but in Antwerp. Europe’s initial Islamic migration followed port cities. Among those leading port cities were Rotterdam and Antwerp which...

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the powerful head of the Texas Senate, sharply rebuked Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday for vetoing his top legislative priority — a ban on all THC products — and dug in his heels against the governor’s call for lawmakers to instead place firmer regulations on the hemp industry. In vetoing Senate Bill 3 just before midnight Sunday, Abbott argued that the measure would have faced “valid constitutional challenges” that would have kept it tied up in court for years. He called the Legislature back to Austin for a special session next month to pass stricter rules...

I despise marijuana. For that reason, I’m very glad when seemingly reputable studies back up my visceral sense that marijuana is a terrible drug that destroys people’s lives and, along the way, destroys American society. First, I went to ChatGPT for it to sum up the obvious, which is that a drug that alters people’s temporal and spatial perception makes them lousy drivers: