Free Republic

DENVER (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul courted donors from the new marijuana industry Tuesday, making the Kentucky senator the first major-party presidential candidate to publicly seek support from the legal weed business. Paul's fundraiser at the Cannabis Business Summit - tickets started at $2,700, the maximum donation allowed for the primary contest - came as the marijuana industry approached its first presidential campaign as a legal enterprise....

DENVER — Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry may not agree with Colorado’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana, but he said Saturday he will defend the state’s right to make a hash of things. Speaking at the Western Conservative Summit, Mr. Perry made a vigorous defense for the states’ role as “laboratories of democracy,” in the words of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, even if it means sticking up for Colorado’s retail pot market. “Let this country compete again. I am so optimistic about the future of America if we would free up these states from this one-size-fits-all,”...

A large pro-legalization group ranks Paul above all Democratic candidates.Sen. Rand Paul bested his rivals for the White House in a candidate report card issued Friday by the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the largest organizations pushing to regulate the drug like alcohol. The group gave the Kentucky Republican an A- in recognition of his efforts to overhaul federal drug laws and his support of states’ right to legalize marijuana. Second place – a B+ – went to former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who has not officially announced a bid, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican seeking...

An estimated 100,000 marijuana plants are expected to be eradicated this week at an enormous, multi-farm bust in remote Northern California — the heart of the famed Emerald Triangle. Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputies — with no federal involvement — began serving search warrants Monday in a remote area at the intersection of the three counties. Dozens of deputies are staging a four or five-day operation in what is being called the largest raid in a decade. The raid targeted some very prominent members of the community, including public members of lobbying groups and marijuana PACs like the...

When it comes to smoking marijuana and driving, many variables affect impairment—the potency of the drug, the tolerance of the toker, when the drug was taken, how the drug was taken—making guidelines difficult to implement. But with some states decriminalizing the possession of weed, the feds are investigating a pot version of the .08 breath alcohol concentration set as the legal driving limit in most of the country.

Which, of course you all knew, since you only pretended to think otherwise so you could get high without the pigs harshing your mellow. Honestly, if you ever believed the nonsense that marijuana was “medicine,” you probably don’t have the brain capacity to process the information I’m about to give you. Then again, there’s dumb and there’s willfully delusional. You can have the ability to know better, but choose to embrace nonsense anyway because you want so desperately to get high. I’d say that still makes you an idiot. Just that you’re an idiot by choice. At any rate, you...

Medical marijuana has not been proven to work for many illnesses that state laws have approved it for, according to the first comprehensive analysis of research on its potential benefits. The strongest evidence is for chronic pain and for muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis, according to the review, which evaluated 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients. Evidence was weak for many other conditions, including anxiety, sleep disorders, and Tourette's syndrome and the authors recommend more research.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Medical marijuana has not been proven to work for many illnesses that state laws have approved it for, according to the first comprehensive analysis of research on its potential benefits. The strongest evidence is for chronic pain and for muscle stiffness in multiple sclerosis, according to the review, which evaluated 79 studies involving more than 6,000 patients. Evidence was weak for many other conditions, including anxiety, sleep disorders, and Tourette's syndrome and the authors recommend more research.

SALINAS, Calif. —Altai Brands has set up shop in northern Salinas to make and distribute medical marijuana products despite the fact that medical marijuana dispensaries are illegal in the city. The company found a legal loophole because they're not actually growing or selling the pot there. "This is a manufacturing business that is going above and beyond to assure safety and security," Salinas City Councilman Steve McShane said. Altai Brands is housed in a warehouse off Quail Run Circle. Large batches up pot-infused chocolate are made there and sent to dispensaries around the state. The warehouse is in McShane's district,...

The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that businesses can fire employees who use marijuana during their off-time, including those with a legal prescription for medical pot. In a case that has been closely watched by employers in some states that have legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational use, the Colorado court found that Dish Network lawfully fired a quadriplegic employee and medical marijuana user who failed a drug test. Customer service representative Brandon Coats, 35, used marijuana in his off-time to deal with painful muscle spasms. The court ruled that the federal prohibition on pot makes the drug unlawful despite...

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — A clear majority of New Jerseyans supports legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana for adults 21 and over, according to a Rutgers-Eagleton poll released today. Just under one-third of residents strongly support making marijuana use legal, assuming it would be taxed and regulated, while another 26 percent somewhat support the idea. Twelve percent are somewhat opposed while 27 percent are strongly opposed. An April 2014 Rutgers-Eagleton Poll found that while about two-thirds in New Jersey favored eliminating marijuana possession penalties, just 49 percent supported “completely legalizing” the drug. “The trend in New Jersey mirrors the nation as...

Pot may be legal in Colorado, but you can still be fired for using it. The state Supreme Court ruled 6-0 Monday that a medical marijuana patient who was fired after failing a drug test cannot get his job back. The case was being watched closely by employers and pot smokers in states that have legalized medical or recreational marijuana. Colorado became at least the fourth state in which courts have ruled against medical marijuana patients fired for pot use. Supreme courts in California, Montana and Washington state have made similar rulings, and federal courts in Colorado and Michigan also...

DENVER (AP) Almost 14 percent of Colorado adults use pot. That's according to the state Health Department's first-ever survey of how many adults use the newly legal drug. Results from the 2014 survey were announced Monday. The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment says that 13.6 percent of adults currently use pot. Of those, more than a third said they use pot every day.

The number of people sickened by synthetic marijuana has reached 235 since May 29, according to Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services. Since Sunday evening, medics responded to a couple of calls where two people were treated for adverse reactions to the synthetic drug known as K2 or “spice,” EMS officials said. The synthetic drug is intended to mimic the effects of marijuana. People who have taken K2 have shown symptoms that include violent behavior, paranoia, seizures, low heart rates and low blood pressure.

On Thursday, KTLA-5 reported on hidden camera footage that showed some objectionable behavior from police officers during a raid on an unlicensed marijuana dispensary. The cops were recorded playing darts on the job, eating pot-laced baked goods, and even joking about assaulting a woman with an amputated leg. The footage shows that eight officers had masks on and their guns drawn when they entered Sky High Holistic, shouting “everybody on the ground” to customers and workers. After clearing the building of everyone present, the police began to remove the store’s mounted surveillance cameras, though they did not get the ones...

Compressed-air gun mounted on truck could throw 13-kilo packets over fence into California

Tea Party-backed Senate candidate Ted Cruz points with pride to the army of small conservative donors supporting him. But his largest longtime contributor is a gay billionaire who supports same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization, campaign finance filings show. Peter Thiel, a German-born hedge fund manager and founder of the online payment system PayPal, gave Cruz $251,000 in 2009 for his aborted run for attorney general. The money represented 19 percent of the total raised for that campaign, which Cruz ended after Attorney General Greg Abbott decided to run for re-election. ...

Video of a police raid of Sky High Holistic in Santa Ana last month showed officers appearing to eat “edibles” laced with marijuana, according to attorney Matthew Pappas,

The federal government would be unable to block state laws permitting the use of medical marijuana under legislation that has been approved by a Republican-controlled Senate committee. The 20-10 vote puts the Senate Appropriations panel on record in favor of permitting people to obtain and dispensaries to provide medicinal marijuana in states where it's permitted and regulated. [...]

Medical marijuana patients will now be able to consume marijuana — and not just smoke it — as well as use other extracts and derivatives, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled today.