Free Republic

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a case in Kansas in which a couple was wrongly raided by a police tactical team. Robert and Addie Harte and their two children were held in their home by armed officers for over two hours as the officers searched the house for marijuana. They found no drugs. After spending $25,000 to get a judge to order the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department to turn over documents related to the search and investigation leading up to it, the Hartes discovered that Robert Harte, along with hundreds of other people, became a suspect when Missouri...

A couple weeks ago, I posted about a case in Kansas in which a couple was wrongly raided by a police tactical team. Robert and Addie Harte and their two children were held in their home by armed officers for over two hours as the officers searched the house for marijuana. They found no drugs. After spending $25,000 to get a judge to order the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department to turn over documents related to the search and investigation leading up to it, the Hartes discovered that Robert Harte, along with hundreds of other people, became a suspect when Missouri...

Through the use of images… I’ll show you what it brings. But before I do that (just to be fair), I will say that the drug has its medicinal benefits, there’s no doubt about that, but medicinal patients are hardly the bulk of the enthusiasts or the consumers. They might represent 10% or less of that base. The other 90% represents the following: Filthy dirty homeless drug addicts hanging out on your street corners. Pan handling, and when asked to leave… they respond, hey man I thought this place was cool man? I thought I could just sit here and...

Some state-certified marijuana labs testing for microbes such as E.coli and mold appear more friendly to pot merchants than others, according to an analysis by a Woodinville data scientist. Four labs rejected none of the pot they tested over a three-month period last year, according to the analysis by Jim MacRae. Four other labs failed more than 12 percent of samples tested over the same time, with two labs rejecting 44 percent of samples for microbes. “It’s almost impossible for that to happen,” said David Lampach, co-founder of Steep Hill Labs in Tukwila, of the disparity. After sifting through public...

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) A deputy who works for a Northern California anti-narcotics task force is facing felony drug charges after he was arrested delivering $2 million worth of marijuana to someone in Pennsylvania. According to a criminal complaint, officers arrested Yuba County Sheriff Deputy Christopher M. Heath, along with 2 other men, driving across the country with 122 packages of marijuana. Each package weighed about a pound. The trio was stopped on December 29 after police received a tip. All three were booked into York County Prison. Heath, 37, was also carrying his badge, his duty firearm and $11,000...

<p>LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) - As the price of marijuana continues to drop, Washington pot businesses are struggling to keep up with the changes.</p> <p>The Daily News reports (http://bit.ly/1O6nqKx ) that since legal marijuana entered the market in July 2014, prices have dropped from $25 to $30 per gram to about $10 a gram now.</p>

“If you analyze it, I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism…The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom, and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.” – Ronald Reagan We’re entering an unusual time in politics. It used to be conservatism versus liberalism; that was the standard by which everything was judged. There was little to no nuance within the two groups. I’m not saying that was incorrect. For the time, it was perfectly appropriate. Now, however, we’ve become a less...

On Monday, when he announced that a grand jury had declined to indict two Cleveland police officers in the 2014 shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty said enhanced video of the incident showed the boy was drawing what looked like a gun from his waistband. Although the object was actually an Airsoft pellet pistol, McGinty said, Timothy Loehmann, the officer who killed Tamir within two seconds of arriving at the scene, had no way of knowing that. Even if we accept this account, it does not explain why Frank Garmback, Loehmann's partner, drove right...

Billionaire philanthropist and Koch Industries CEO Charles Koch blasted the hypocrisy of pot criminalization’s disproportionate enforcement in an October interview on CBS This Morning. In the interview, which can be seen in the above-embedded video, Koch said, “Some poor kid in the inner city smokes a joint, goes to prison, ruins his life, where we have a president who is more privileged, who smoked a joint, becomes president. We have a candidate who admits smoking a joint — he’s running for president. Now, where is the justice in that?”

In April 2012, a Kansas SWAT team raided the home of Robert and Addie Harte, their 7-year-old daughter and their 13-year-old son. The couple, both former CIA analysts, awoke to pounding at the door. When Robert Harte answered, SWAT agents flooded the home. He was told to lie on the floor. When Addie Harte came out to see what was going on, she saw her husband on his stomach as SWAT cop stood over him with a gun.

Recreational marijuana use would be legal in Kentucky in 2016 if proposed legislation becomes law. State Sen. Perry Clark, D-Louisville, is sponsoring a bill called the Cannabis Freedom Act. The bill proposes to legalize recreational marijuana use for those 21 years or older, decriminalize offenses such as unauthorized growing and distribution and consuming cannabis in public and place an excise tax on the drug. "Originally what inspired me was a group of retired Teamsters," Clark said. The Teamsters knew that using marijuana was a cheaper alternative to costly prescription painkillers they needed, he said. "They didn't want to be criminalized...

DENVER (KMGH) - A local nonprofit hit the streets of downtown Denver on Christmas Eve and gave away a thousand free, pre-rolled marijuana joints to the homeless and anyone else who wanted one. "Merry Christmas and a puff puff, New Year's," said one woman who accepted a joint. Nick Dicenzo, the founder of Cannabis Can and the one responsible for handing out the free weed, said they're trying to raise awareness about homelessness and encourage people to donate to their cause. The cause? To raise money to buy several RV's and provide restrooms and showers for those in need. Dicenzo...

It’s one of the coldest temperatures ever recorded in Colorado, and a tie for the coldest temperature at this particular weather station! On the morning of December 17 the thermometer at Antero Reservoir dropped to an astounding -51°F. The last time that happened was on Feb. 8, 1989. The list of coldest temperatures on record at Antero include… -50 Feb. 7, 1989 -49 Dec. 8, 1978 -48 Jan. 13, 1963 -47 Jan. 6, 1971 -46 Feb. 13, 2004 The coldest temperature ever recorded in Colorado was -61°F in the small town of Maybell, located in Moffat County, on Feb. 1,...

There's a long and not-very-proud tradition of anti-drug advertising that gets ridiculed for missing the mark with young audiences. Australia's New South Wales government just added a classic new entry to that hall of shame with #StonerSloth, a campaign designed to shame teens who get high—but who are finding the ads hilariously delightful instead. In three short videos, marijuana has turned teens into giant sloths—and the metaphor is made literal, as the kids are actually depicted as giant hairy beasts with long, curved claws. Socially, they're utterly useless. All they can do is moan, since they're so high. And they...

As another month goes by in Colorado's marijuana legalization experiment, Denver's 2015 crime wave cranks up yet another notch. November's crime data is out for the city, and it doesn't tell a pretty story. There were another eight murders in Denver during November, bringing the year-to-date total to 50, which is more than 72 percent higher than last year's numbers. Across the board, other violent crime in Denver is also skyrocketing this year. The number of rapes has increased 16 percent, robberies are up 13 percent, and aggravated assaults are up 14 percent based on the UCR standards and up...

NAPLES, FL - They're normally the guys locking people up for marijuana possession, but a group of current and former law enforcement officers will meet in Naples to push for people's right to get high. Not all law enforcement officers are on board, however. Legalizing marijuana, it's a hot-button issue in Florida. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is pushing for the change to save taxpayer dollars and valuable resources. "Sixty-thousand people get arrested every year for marijuana possession. That's a waste of law-enforcement resources," said Ray Strack of LEAP. The group meets Thursday in Naples. The Florida Sheriff's Association is not...

Smoking cannabis can induce psychosis-like effects, similar to the symptoms people diagnosed with schizophrenia endure, scientists have said. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3345090/Just-HALF-joint-cannabis-causes-psychosis-like-effects-healthy-people-s-similar-schizophrenia-say-experts.html#ixzz3tNIdlPgG Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Active ingredient in cannabis delta-9-THC is linked to psychosis effects Scientists do not fully understand mechanisms that cause these effects Yale team found delta-9-THC increases random neural activity, or noise Believe increased neural noise plays role in psychosis triggered by drug Experts say effects are similar to the symptoms of schizophrenia Smoking cannabis can induce psychosis-like effects, similar to the symptoms people diagnosed with schizophrenia endure, scientists have said. While past research as come this this conclusion in the past, the mechanisms underlying these effects are less clear. Now, a team of scientists at Yale School of Medicine have found...

Smoking cannabis can induce psychosis-like effects, similar to the symptoms people diagnosed with schizophrenia endure, scientists have said. While past research as come this this conclusion in the past, the mechanisms underlying these effects are less clear. Now, a team of scientists at Yale School of Medicine have found the active ingredient in marijuana, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-THC) increases random neural activity, known as neural noise, in the brains of healthy drug-users. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3345090/Just-HALF-joint-cannabis-causes-psychosis-like-effects-healthy-people-s-similar-schizophrenia-say-experts.html#ixzz3tJrLAuG0 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

The liberals were quick to blame conservative Christians, Republicans, and others on the right for the carnage in the Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic. It turns out the killer was a paranoid pothead who probably moved to Colorado because it offered him plenty of legal weed. The murders were just the latest example of President Obama's pro-pot policies causing "active shooter" cases in which innocent people get maimed and killed. While "progressives" hope to capitalize on the killings by stopping investigations into Planned Parenthood, the case of Robert Lewis Dear has backfired on them in more ways than one. Dear, who...