Free Republic

A Ross County deputy sheriff has been placed on leave after authorities say he accidentally shot and killed a woman before a drug raid on Wednesday. Sgt. Brett McKnight was identified yesterday as the deputy whose gun went off outside a trailer that members of a drug task force were about to raid as part of a heroin bust. The bullet went through the exterior of the trailer before it struck and killed 35-year-old Krystal Barrows, according to a news release. In the release, Ross County Sheriff George Lavender’s office said that members of the U.S. 23 Task Force were...

“I’ve always paid my taxes and have never been arrested or charged with any crime in my life. I am a successful small-business man. But in January of this year, I woke up to find that my business’ entire bank account — more than $35,000 — had been wrongly seized.” These are the words of Terry Dehko, who since 1978 has owned Schott’s Supermarket in Fraser, Michigan. His daughter, Sandy, began working with her dad at the store when she was 12, and now helps him run the business. Last year, the IRS conducted an audit of the store, and...

A state trooper accused of triggering a three-car crash on Route 1 in Revere that smashed up a cruiser and put an on-duty trooper in the hospital has been suspended indefinitely without pay today, state police announced. Trooper Shawn D’Amato, 43, who authorities said told EMTs he had smoked crack within an hour of yesterday's crash, was arraigned in his Massachusetts General Hospital bed yesterday on charges of drunken and drugged driving, negligent operation; and failure to change lanes for an emergency vehicle. EMTs also observed "apparent track marks on (D'Amato's) arms, suggesting intravenous drug use," Jake Wark, spokesman for...

... David Eckert, a resident of Deming, NM, was pulled over by police officers after failing to come to a complete stop at a stop sign. For whatever reason, the officers decided Eckert was hiding something, or perhaps they were unsatisfied that a routine stop hadn't blown up into something bigger. ... 1. Eckert's abdominal area was x-rayed; no narcotics were found. 2. Doctors then performed an exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. 3. Doctors performed a second exam of Eckert's anus with their fingers; no narcotics were found. 4. Doctors penetrated Eckert's anus to...

The number of drug users in Afghanistan is estimated to be as high as 1.6 million, or about 5.3 percent of the population, among the highest rates in the world. Nationwide, 1 in 10 urban households has at least one drug user, according to a recent report from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. In the city of Herat, it is 1 in 5. From 2005 to 2009, the use of opiates doubled, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, putting Afghanistan on par with Russia and Iran, and the number of heroin users jumped...

A drug-smuggling tunnel equipped with electricity, ventilation and a rail system has been found connecting San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico. Authorities seized more than eight tons of marijuana and 325lb (147kg) of cocaine in the discovery. Officials have not revealed the exact length or location of the recently finished tunnel, but Mexican media report it is near Tijuana's airport. More than 75 such secret tunnels have been discovered since 2008.

(CNSNews.com) - Decriminalize marijuana possession before legalizing it, says a man who wants to be the next mayor of Washington, D.C. City Councilman Tommy Wells, a Democrat, has introduced a bill that would fine people a maximum of $100 for possessing less than an ounce of pot in the nation's capital. The city passed a medical marijuana law in 1998, but Congress didn't approve that measure until 2009. Wells told WMAL-Radio on Tuesday that he's "open to legalization," but he sees "decriminalization" as the first step. He also said he doesn't envision a city full of stoned federal workers: "Legalization...

The Food and Drug Administration is recommending new restrictions on prescription medicines containing hydrocodone, the highly addictive painkiller that has grown into the most widely prescribed drug in the U.S. In a major policy shift, the agency said in an online notice Thursday that hydrocodone-containing drugs should be subject to the same restrictions as other narcotic drugs like oxycodone and morphine.

Uruguay’s drug czar says the country plans to sell legal marijuana for $1 per gram to combat drug-trafficking, according to a local newspaper. The plan to create a government-run legal marijuana industry has passed the lower house of Congress, and President Jose Mujica expects to push it through the Senate soon as part of his effort to explore alternatives in the war on drugs. The measure would make Uruguay the first country in the world to license and enforce rules for the production, distribution and sale of marijuana for adult consumers. …

Few remember Enrique 'Kiki' Camarena, the DEA agent killed in the line of duty almost 30 years ago, when the War on Drugs was the talk of Washington. "On February 7, 1985, Special Agent Camarena was kidnapped by the traffickers," then First Lady Nancy Reagan somberly told a room full of anti-drug advocates. "He was tortured and beaten to death." Camarena's killer was sentenced to 40 years in jail. Now, he's free after serving only 28 years. And those who knew the agent and became close to his family are fighting to see that his story is not forgotten. "I...

I’m a very straight-laced guy. Some would even say boring. I’ve never done drugs, for instance. But not because they’re illegal. I’ve never done drugs for the reason that I’ve never smoked cigarettes. Just doesn’t seem like a smart thing to do. And I encourage friends and family to have the same approach. "Why Are So Many Violent Criminals Walking Free?" | LearnLibertyBut this isn’t about cost-benefit analysis. Watch this powerful video from Reason TV about how one family has been victimized by drug prohibition. Riverside Cop Tricks Autistic Teen into Buying PotNow ask yourself what purpose it served...

A designer street drug made in Russia has hit the Chicago area according to a drug rehab doctor in Joliet, Illinois. The doctor has said that he’s seen as many as three patients who are suffering extreme effects of the drug. Those effects include scaly lesions, rotting flesh, gangrene and, eventually, death. Some reckon the life expectancy of chronic users at two years. Made by combining codeine with gasoline and other toxics, Krokidil (Russian for crocodile) is many times more potent than morphine and three times more potent than heroin, with withdrawal symptoms beginning shortly after the one and a...

Holy smoke! Police set light to $250 million of cocaine seized from an international organized crime ring. Armed officers stood by as others burned 2,551 lbs of the Class A drug inside a military base in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. According to the attorney general, the 1.2-ton haul was confiscated from a drug smuggling gang in a recent police operation in Peravia Province. …

If numbers make an event a success, then day two of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s annual convention was just that. The halls and conference rooms of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Northwest Washington, D.C. were filled with attendees who sat in on policy sessions, made plans to attend a bevy of social functions, and networked with other convention-goers. The CBCF’s Annual Legislative Conference is a gathering of African-American industry leaders, policy makers, elected officials and citizens. More than 70 policy sessions were planned for the four-day event, which began Sept. 18. As the convention unfolded, events took...

Ron Kelly didn’t do it, even if he thought he did. Kelly, who lives in Tomball, was outraged a few months ago when he failed a computerized background check required to buy a gun over a minor pot charge from 1971. At the time of the rejection, he insisted that he’d been convicted of a misdemeanor, not a felony, and there was no justification for denying a right that he defended with a 20-year career in the Army. This is a portion of a June 25, 2013 letter from the FBI to Ron Kelly letting him know about what appeared...

Dan from Squirrel Hill's Blog The biggest current obstacles to medical marijuana are President Obama and the progressives on the Supreme Court I’m a libertarian, and I think that both medical and recreational marijuana should be legal. That being said, I myself have never smoked marijuana, or tobacco, or been drunk, or used any illegal drug. I do, however, think that it’s completely ridiculous to put non-violent people in jail for using mind altering substances. And I especially detest the idea of the government preventing people from using a medical treatment which has been proven in scientific studies to be beneficial...

Attorney General Eric Holder is calling for major changes to the nation’s criminal justice system that would scale back the use of harsh prison sentences for certain drug-related crimes, divert people convicted of low-level offenses to drug treatment and community service programs and expand a prison program to allow for release of some elderly, non-violent offenders. In remarks prepared for delivery Monday to the American Bar Association in San Francisco, Holder said he is mandating a change to Justice Department policy so that low-level, non-violent drug offenders with no ties to large-scale organizations, gangs or cartels won’t be charged with...

ROUND ROCK -- He never thought his visit with her Thursday, July 25 would be his last. “We got to sit down at McDonalds and have lunch and play for a while,” said Round Rock resident Joshua Hill. “She got a little 'Despicable Me 2' toy in her happy meal and she loved it. She kept climbing up in my lap and she fed me french fries.” But on Monday night, Hill’s daughter Alexandria, or Alex as they liked to call her, was rushed to a Rockdale hospital with severe head injuries, then flown to Scott and White Children’s Emergency...

Student forgotten in DEA holding cell gets $4.1M SAN DIEGO — A UCSD student scooped up in a drug raid and left in a Drug Enforcement Administration holding cell for 4 1/2 days without food or water will get $4.1 million to settle his claims, his attorneys announced Tuesday. Daniel Chong, 25, was among seven people detained in an April 21, 2012, raid on a University City home. Chong, an student at UCSD, was handcuffed and put in 5-by-10-foot cell, by an officer who told him, “Hang tight. We’ll come get you in a minute,” his attorney Julia Yoo said....

In average, 34 people die every day in Mexico, in crimes related to drug trafficking and the war on drugs. In the latest numbers released by Mexico’s government 4,451 people had been murdered in the period between January and April 2013. Besides the 4,451 deaths, this year there are 26 people that have been reported missing and are currently unaccounted for. ... People executed by drug gangs are found shot, beheaded, dismembered and wrapped in black plastic bags, with or without written messages in pieces of cardboard. In Mexico, drug cartel related executions have become so common that some news...