Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Andrew Rodriguez was 15 years old when he smoked his first cigarette. He knows how addictive smoking can be and hopes a new California law raising the smoking age will discourage young people from taking up the habit. "I think it's better," said the 21-year-old chef-in-training from Los Angeles. "I just hope they don't raise the drinking age." Beginning Thursday, smokers have to be at least 21 to buy tobacco products in California. The nation's most populous state joins Hawaii and more than 100 municipalities in raising the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Anyone...

More than 92,000 Coloradans will lose their Obamacare health care coverage in 2017 as four leading insurance companies scale back or eliminate their plans while others propose rate hikes of as much as 40 percent. Insurance holders with individual plans through Anthem, UnitedHealthCare, Humana and Rocky Mountain Health Plans will need to find new coverage for the 2017 coverage year, according to a Monday statement from the Colorado Division of Insurance. ... the news came as a devastating blow to the state’s already-shaky insurance market. Colorado is one of 14 states that opted to launch its own Obamacare exchange instead...

Donald J. Trump says vets are treated worse than illegal immigrants. But help is on the way. The U.S. House of Representatives recently voted to make it easier for veterans to get access to officially-approved marijuana. Rep. John Fleming (R-LA), a physician, argues that the proposal is "absolutely insane." It is estimated that nearly 30 percent of veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression. But Rep. Fleming notes evidence that marijuana "enhances psychosis and schizophrenia" in some people with these psychological problems. Dr. Christine Miller asks, "Does no one remember Eddie Routh,...

As the unemployment rate drops across the country, employers are running into another problem – finding potential job candidates who will take and pass drug tests. Even though the country is amid an opioid epidemic, employers say marijuana has been the biggest hurdle. New York Times reporter Jackie Calmes talks to Hari Sreenivasan about her reporting on the issue. HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS ANCHOR: So Jackie Calmes, how big is this problem of people walking away from a job interview when they hear that there’s a drug test? JACKIE CALMES: Well, it’s bigger than I thought! Clearly, because this whole subject...

Jeremy BerkeJune 1, 2016 91.8% of the people arrested for marijuana possession and sale in the city of New York between January and March 2016 were people of color, according to statistics from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services obtained by the Police Reform Organizing Project (PROP). PROP also found that 86.5% of New York Police Department (NYPD) misdemeanor arrests involved people of color, up 2% from 2015. Arrests for "small amounts" of marijuana were up a whopping 33.7% from last year. Robert Gangi, PROP's director, said in a press release that the statistics show that NYPD...

Dollar signs are flashing in the eyes of state lawmakers under pressure to legalize marijuana. In Arizona, the state has been told it could make $113 million if it legalizes recreational marijuana; in New Jersey, the financial promise behind a push for legalization is $300 million. If all 50 states jump on this bandwagon, total revenues could be approximately $5.3 billion at a 15 percent tax rate, a Tax Foundation study found. That number could surge to $8 billion at a 25 percent tax rate. More money may sound like a win for states. But some officials may be paying...

Two years after Colorado began its first retail sales of cannabis, towns and cities across the state are enjoying the benefits in a number of ways. With sales this year expected to reach $1 billion, local governments are seeing windfalls of tax revenue, which is funding education, recreation, infrastructure improvements, and even aid to the homeless. The small town of Mountain View may be able to dispel its reputation for collecting revenue through speeding tickets, now that two pot shops reside there. “We have such a small tax base,” said Mayor Jeff Kiddie, who opposed pot stores. “Medical and retail...

A medical marijuana legalization bill has been sent to Ohio Gov. John Kasich in an effort by state lawmakers to offset support for a proposed fall ballot measure. The measure cleared the Ohio Senate by just three votes, and the House followed by OKing Senate changes 67-28. The proposal, which Kasich has not committed to signing, would bar patients from smoking marijuana or growing it at home, but it would allow its use in vapor form for certain chronic health conditions. It garnered both support and opposition among Republicans and Democrats. Supporters recalled emotional testimony from chronic pain sufferers and...

COOS BAY, Ore. - A homeowner caught three 14-year-olds burglarizing his Coos Bay house on Sunday afternoon, and forced one of the boys to call 9-1-1 to report the attempted theft. The three boys were all taken to the Douglas County Juvenile Detention Facility on several charges including burglary II, criminal trespassing, and marijuana possession. The homeowner was armed when he found the boys burglarizing his home on Terramar Road, the Coos County Sheriff's Office said. According to emergency dispatchers, he told one of the teens to call police and report the burglary in progress.

The debate over a California initiative to legalize recreational marijuana sparked heated rejoinders from both sides this week. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R) suggested that legalization "will better deploy law enforcement resources. Energy that is now put into harassing inoffensive users of marijuana can be redirected toward suppressing more serious crimes like rape and murder." Leading opponent of legalization, Ventura Police Chief Ken Corney, president of the California Police Chiefs Association, challenged the Congressman "to name one so-called rape or murder victim who might otherwise have been spared if police officers weren't occupied enforcing our drug laws." "Potheads like to portray...

The death of an Islamic teen in December, which fueled wide speculation about an anti-Muslim attack, was the result of a fall that followed the teen’s first use of marijuana, according to a report released Tuesday by Seattle police. Hamza Warsame’s death Dec. 5 drew national attention and sparked widespread speculation that he might have been the victim of an anti-Muslim hate crime, until it was ruled an accident a month later. A report released Tuesday by Seattle police reveals details of the investigation that bolster the conclusion made by the King County Medical Examiner’s Office.

So marijuana is harmless and doesn’t kill people? Consider the case of black Muslim teenager Hamza Warsame, who took a toke and plunged to his death. His friends from the hood blamed it on a non-existent white man who allegedly pushed the kid to his death. The headline in last December’s New York Times story was certainly ominous: “Assertions of Hate Crime in Seattle After a Somali-American Teenager Falls to His Death.” The paper said, “The death of the boy, Hamza Warsame, has prompted outrage among members of the Muslim community here, amid assertions—it is not clear from whom—that he...

According to the Washington State Marijuana Impact Report, the incidents of marijuana-impaired driving are increasing dramatically. Fatal driving accidents have risen 122 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to the Washington State Traffic Safety Commission. Marijuana is big business in Washington state. There are more marijuana businesses than Starbucks in Washington state (despite the fact that Starbucks was founded in Seattle). The traffic safety organization AAA has its own reports on marijuana use among drivers in fatal crashes, and the picture is equally bleak.

A man who acknowledged killing three people at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic is mentally incompetent to continue with his criminal case, a judge ruled Wednesday. ADVERTISEMENT The decision by Judge Gilbert Martinez puts the case against Robert Dear, 57, on hold until his mental competency can be restored through treatment. He will be sent to the state psychiatric hospital, and his mental health will be reviewed in August. As he was led out of the courtroom, Dear yelled at the judge: "That's called prejudiced, filthy animal!" The case will resume when Dear is found to be mentally capable of...

Rhode Island’s Roman Catholic bishop said he wants to smell holy incense, not cannabis, in Providence’s cathedral and warned state lawmakers against transporting young people to “the land of oblivion” by legalizing marijuana. Bishop Thomas Tobin shared his opinions in an essay titled “Nope to Dope.” The essay was published on a diocesan website Tuesday, just hours before a hearing on a bill to legalize pot. Tobin said he’s heard about “zombie-like” people who are “completely stoned” filling public places in Colorado, where marijuana is legal. He said young people already addicted to electronic devices and “attached to their virtual...

One of the nation’s top traffic safety organizations is issuing an urgent warning about driving while high. AAA says that in some states that have legalized marijuana, fatal accidents involving drivers who’ve consumed pot are on the rise. “Marijuana-linked traffic fatalities on the rise, AAA warns”...

Thursday in California, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton had another coughing episode during her campaign rally.

A Park County deputy was shot and killed during a shootout with a suspect at a home in Bailey. Two other deputies, also with Park County, were injured. Their injuries are not life threatening. The Park County Sheriff's Office says the shootout involved the three deputies and one suspect. The suspect was also shot and killed.

The only thing more shocking than murder of an entire family in rural Ohio might be to learn how big the area they grew marijuana in is to the international drug trade. Eight members of the Rhoden family, ranging in age from 16 to 44, were shot to death in four homes early Friday morning and three of those homes had considerable marijuana operations.

Medical teams on Monday finished the autopsies of eight family members shot and killed in a total of four different homes in southern Ohio, as officials revealed the investigation had uncovered three marijuana growing operations. ADVERTISEMENT “This was a preplanned execution of eight individuals,” Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine said. “It was a sophisticated operation. And those who carried it out were trying to do everything they could do to hinder the investigation and their prosecution." DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader did not immediately release the results of the autopsies. The attorney general had prevously said each relative...