Free Republic

Thirty-six people are facing new charges accused of dealing K2 or related synthetic drugs. Austin police are rounding up people involved with synthetic drugs stemming from a late-2016 string of overdoses... Unlike dealing with an epidemic of crack cases, where officers can quickly identify the drug using field tests and arrest the suspect, when officers encounter a person with a substance they suspect to be K2 or another synthetic drug, they have to confiscate the drug and send it off for testing and let the person go. It takes months of lab testing to identify the drug before a warrant...

HARRISBURG (March 6, 2017) – Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said today Pennsylvania should strongly consider regulating and taxing marijuana to benefit from a booming industry expected to be worth $20 billion and employ more than 280,000 in the next decade. “The regulation and taxation of the marijuana train has rumbled out of the station, and it is time to add a stop in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” DePasquale said during a news conference at the state capitol. “I make this recommendation because it is a more sane policy to deal with a critical issue facing the state. Other states are...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The Israeli government voted on Sunday in favor of decriminalizing recreational marijuana use, joining some U.S. states and European countries who have adopted a similar approach. "On the one hand we are opening ourselves up to the future. On the other hand, we understand the dangers and will try to balance the two," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet in broadcast remarks. According to the new policy, which must still be ratified by parliament, people caught smoking marijuana would be fined rather than arrested and prosecuted. Criminal procedures would be launched only against those caught repeatedly...

Israel’s Cabinet voted to decriminalize recreational use of marijuana. The cabinet voted on the policy at its regular meeting on Sunday. An inter-ministerial committee will now create legislation in order to implement the new policy, which still must be ratified by the Knesset. Thecommittee will present its recommendations to the government by May 7. The proposal was submitted by Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan of the Likud Party and Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked of the Jewish Home Party. “The government’s approval is an important step on the way to implement the new policy, which will emphasize public information...

While Trump may claim he’s for states rights, Attorney General Jeff Sessions just pissed on the opinions of about 71% of Americans who do not believe the federal government should attempt to ram federal laws down the throats of states where voters have legalized marijuana. After Press Secretary Sean Spicer essentially warned everyone last week that the Trump administration plans to crack down on states with recreational marijuana laws, AG Sessions backed that up on Monday with some bizarre statements that prove the guy actually believes Reefer Madness was a documentary. Via Politico: “Most of you probably know I don’t...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will try to adopt "responsible policies" for enforcement of federal anti-marijuana laws, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday, adding that he believes violence surrounds sales and use of the drug in the U.S. In a meeting with reporters, Sessions said the department was reviewing an Obama administration Justice Department memo that gave states flexibility in passing marijuana laws. "Experts are telling me there's more violence around marijuana than one would think," Sessions said....

ttorney General Jeff Sessions has twice in two days publicly bashed marijuana legalization, abandoning his confirmation-process reticence to discuss the topic and reclaiming his colorful opposition. On Tuesday, Sessions told a Washington ballroom packed with state attorneys general – many of them in charge of defending laws that conflict with federal prohibition – that pot legalization should be resisted, though he did not describe any specific plans to challenge state-regulated markets. Attorneys general of three states with laws allowing for recreational sales told U.S. News after the remarks that Sessions needs to clarify his intentions.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS/AP) — Country singer Willie Nelson, the children of the late reggae icon Bob Marley and comedian Whoopi Goldberg are just a few of the growing number of celebrities publicly jumping into the marijuana industry and eyeing the California pot market, which is expected to explode after voters legalized the recreational use of weed. Regulators are still scrambling to get California’s recreational pot market launched and are racing to issue licenses to growers and sellers by early 2018. Still to be decided is who will receive the first licenses to grow, distribute and sell recreational marijuana. Growers already...

To understand what inspires Jim McAlpine, a fit and exuberant 46-year-old, you must conjure an image of the American stoner. Are you picturing someone heavy-lidded, couch-bound, and struggling to make an animated GIF of that Big Lebowski scene without knocking his bong off the coffee table? That stereotype drives McAlpine crazy, and he’s made it his mission to change it. This spring, the surfer, skier, and weed lover will open the world’s first cannabis fitness center in San Francisco. Power Plant Fitness will be a premier gym, McAlpine says, not just a hangout for potheads. Though, to be clear, there...

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s administration said on Thursday for the first time that it will crack down on marijuana sales in states that have approved recreational pot use. White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said the Department of Justice will pursue enforcement of federal law against recreational use, but not medical use. The statement marked a major break with the Obama administration’s hands-off approach to the growing marijuana legalization movement. “I do believe that you’ll see greater enforcement,” Spicer told reporters at his daily briefing. “Because again there’s a big difference between the medical use … that’s very different than...

Houston and Harris County are poised to decriminalize low-level possession of marijuana in a sweeping move that puts the area at the forefront of efforts in Texas to halt minor drug arrests that clog jails and courts. District Attorney Kim Ogg is set to announce the new policy Thursday with Mayor Sylvester Turner, Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez. The new policy, set to begin March 1, means that misdemeanor offenders with less than four ounces of marijuana will not be arrested, ticketed or required to appear in court if they agree to take a...

If the American people are worried about freshly confirmed Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ approach to enforcing federal marijuana laws, he says they should get Congress to change them. “It’s not so much the attorney general’s job to decide what laws to enforce. We should do our jobs and enforce laws effectively as we’re able,” Sessions said during his hearing. “The U.S. Congress made the possession of marijuana in every state — and the distribution — an illegal act. If that’s something that’s not desired any longer, Congress should pass a law to change the rule.”

US Customs and Border Protection officers seized nearly two tons of marijuana packed in phony limes near the Texas-Mexico border last week, according to authorities. The 3,947 pounds of weed came through a commercial shipment of key limes in Pharr, Texas, on Jan. 30, officials said. The truck hauling the "produce" crossed the Pharr-Reynosa International Bridge along the Texas-Mexico border near the Gulf of Mexico. Over 34,000 of the fake fruit packages were discovered by an imaging inspection system and narcotics K-9 team.

DENVER -- The man accused of fatally shooting his wife while investigators said he was high on marijuana edibles pleaded guilty to second-degree murder .. Richard Kirk, 50, had pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, citing marijuana intoxication, in September to a first-degree murder charge in the death of his wife Kristine. Under terms of the plea, Kirk, who had been charged with first-degree murder, will be sentenced to 25 to 30 years in prison and fined $5,000 to $1 million. He will also give up parental rights to the couples' three children to Kristine Kirk's parents ... The...

Too funny. A guest was talking about the dangers of various drugs on the show. One of 12 Millennial deaths is now caused by heroin. And then for a zinger. Our brains continue to develop until about 25. Regular marijuana use dumbs down our brains. MEDVED: Should the government do something about that? GUEST: If the government were to ban everything that dumbs us down, they would have to ban MSNBC.

According to ganjapreneur Rick Byrd, the future of farming is tall, dirtless and local. Byrd’s vision of skyscraper farms to feed city dwellers begins with a much different kind of crop: marijuana. The 45-year-old is chief executive officer and founder of Pure Agrobusiness Inc., a company that sells equipment to grow legal cannabis, a market worth $6 billion in 2016 and expected to reach $50 billion by 2026, according to Cowen & Co. Because cannabis has higher profit margins than food, and pot is mostly grown inside, Byrd said he hopes the innovations perfected by PureAgro, with the help of...

ALBANY - The lead state Senate sponsor of New York's medical marijuana law has written to President Trump asking that the feds allow such state programs to continue. Sen. Diane Savino (D-Staten Island) wrote to Trump on Dec. 9 when he was President-elect encouraging him to direct his Attorney General nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions "to respect the wishes of the citizens and elected officials of 29 states and allow carefully regulated and closely monitored medical cannabis programs to continue without undue interference from the federal government." Despite the growing number of states allowing some type of marijuana use, the drug...

High-profile inmates serving life sentence for marijuana crimes were not given clemency by President Barack Obama on Thursday, leaving their families devastated after long public campaigns urging their freedom. John Knock, whose sister Beth Curtis has lobbied for the release of nonviolent marijuana convicts, learned Wednesday that his application had been denied. Knock was arrested in 1996 and convicted in 2000 of participating in an international pot-smuggling operation. “It’s an incredibly painful disappointment that my brother – a wonderful person who is totally nonviolent – is going to die in prison,” Curtis says, holding back tears.

How North Korea became a magnet for pot-seeking tourists January 15, 2017 NORTH Korea has been getting some pretty high praise lately from the stoner world. Marijuana news outlets including High Times, Merry Jane and Green Rush — along with British tabloids, which always love a good yarn — are hailing North Korea as a pothead paradise and maybe even the next Amsterdam of pot tourism. They’ve reported North Korean marijuana to be legal, abundant and mind-blowingly cheap, sold openly to Chinese and Russian tourists at a major market on the North’s border for about $3 a pound (or $AU4...

Vials of cannabis-laced sprays, lotions and tinctures line display shelves a few steps from handbags specially designed to tote marijuana products.-snip. A stylish kitchenette and table is on the opposite side of this ... medical marijuana showroom, space used to host educational sessions on the merits of the drug — something legal only under very strict circumstances in Florida until Amendment 2 took effect last week. This ... storefront ... looks more like a day spa lobby or high-end salon. Nothing about it evokes images of the seedy bong-filled pot shops of popular imagination. -snip- More than 60 Florida communities...