Free Republic

Obama's war against medical marijuana is the biggest of any president, which is the exact opposite of what he had promised Campaign promisesIn May 2008, Obama campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said that Obama would end DEA raids on medical marijuana in states where it's legal.Also in 2008, Obama said that he supported the "basic concept of using medical marijuana for the same purposes and with the same controls as other drugs" and that he was "not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws."Federal raids against medical marijuana in states where it's legalDespite Obama’s campaign...

An admitted crack dealer accused of shooting a Jefferson Parish deputy during a federal drug raid Tuesday (Jan. 26) told investigators he thought he was being robbed when he fired his gun several times at police through his bedroom door, according to court records. Jarvis Hardy, 26, was booked Wednesday (Jan. 27) on federal charges of attempted murder and attempted murder of a federal officer, related to the shooting of deputy Stephen Arnold, a federal criminal complaint says. Arnold, a federally deputized member of a local Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, was leading the entry team into Hardy's house in...

Actor Sean Penn said in a Friday preview of an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" that his article based on a secret interview with then-fugitive cartel leader "El Chapo" "has failed" to achieve his goal of sparking conversation about the War on Drugs. Penn met the notorious Sinaloa Cartel leader, whose real name is Joaquin Guzman, back in October with the help of Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. His story for Rolling Stone went live on Saturday, one day after Mexican authorities announced the fugitive's capture. Journalists immediately criticized the piece. "I have a regret that the entire discussion about...

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...

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.

Hillary Clinton on Saturday called for looser federal regulations governing marijuana, to boost scientific research on a drug that many tout for relieving pain, among other medical benefits, according to media reports. Speaking at a campaign event in Orangeburg, South Carolina, the Democratic presidential candidate said changing U.S. rules would acknowledge the drug's potential for medical uses and give scientists access to the drug for further investigation. "Universities, (the) National Institutes of Health can start researching what is the best way to use it, how much of a dose does somebody need, how does it interact with other medications," Clinton...

These are embarrassing times for the nation's criminal justice system; as the Obama administration executes the nation's largest mass release of federal prisoners, it's sending a Long Island fisherman to jail for reeling in too many... Back in 2010 resident Obama signed a measure that for the first time in decades relaxed drug-crime sentences he claimed discriminated against poor and minority offenders. This severely weakened a decades-old law enacted during the infamous crack cocaine epidemic that ravaged urban communities nationwide in the 1980s. As part of the movement the U.S. Sentencing Commission lowered maximum sentences for drug offenders and made...

The residents of Long Island can rest easier in their beds knowing that another dangerous criminal has been taken out of commission thanks to the diligent work of the Justice Department. Anthony Joseph has finally been brought to justice and won’t plague the coastal residents any longer. What was the nature of his crime spree? He failed to properly report the correct number of flounder that he caught on his fishing boat, and for that he’s heading off to jail, spending years on probation and facing more than a half million dollars in fines. Anthony Joseph, a commercial fisherman from...

Lebanese security forces are interrogating a Saudi prince on charges of carrying drugs on his private plane after they allegedly retrieved 2 tons of narcotics from the aircraft, local media reported. Abd al-Muhsen bin Walid bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud was detained on Monday in Beirut's Rafik Hariri International Airport. The prince was about to conduct a flight on his private plane to Saudi Arabia. Lebanese TV station Al Mayadeen also said that 40 packages of drugs, weighing 2 tons in total, were confiscated. The prince was arrested and taken in for questioning along with four other people.

Former Los Angeles crack cocaine kingpin “Freeway” Ricky Ross was arrested this week in Sonoma County on suspicion of possessing money related to the sale of a controlled substance, authorities said. A law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that Ross was carrying more than $100,000. Ross, who authorities say was a major player in the crack trade in South Los Angeles in the 1990s, was also arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit a crime, according to a Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office arrest log. He is no longer in custody, according to Sonoma County sheriff’s jail records. Ross’...

AUSTIN — As Dallas County district attorney, Craig Watkins inappropriately spent about $80,000 from an asset forfeiture fund for legal fees covering personal behavior, excessively expensive travel for himself and aides, and a recreational football league sponsorship, a state audit has found.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A push to overhaul criminal sentencing is prompting the early release of thousands of federal drug prisoners, including some whom prosecutors once described as threats to society, according to an Associated Press review of court records. About 6,000 inmates are due to be freed from custody in the coming month, the result of changes made last year to guidelines that provide judges with recommended sentences for specific crimes. Federal officials say roughly 40,000 inmates could be eligible for reduced sentences in coming years. Many of them are small-time drug dealers targeted by an approach to drug enforcement...

One word can sometimes change the way one views things. To wit: if one adds the word “other” to alcohol and drugs (alcohol and other drugs) one’s perspective is likely to change. The failure to use it in normal parlance speaks to an arbitrary distinction that has for too long been accepted. It is difficult to argue that alcohol is not a drug and the same applies to nicotine. Further, like almost all recreational drugs, they offer an immediate “high” followed by a “low” as the pleasure chemicals oscillate back to stasis. “Weed,” cocaine, heroin (OXY) etc. do exactly the...

The Justice Department is set to release about 6,000 inmates early from prison — the largest one-time release of federal prisoners — in an effort to reduce overcrowding and provide relief to drug offenders who received harsh sentences over the past three decades. The inmates from federal prisons nationwide will be set free by the department’s Bureau of Prisons between Oct. 30 and Nov. 2. Most of them will go to halfway houses and home confinement before being put on supervised release. The early release follows action by the U.S. Sentencing Commission — an independent agency that sets sentencing policies...

How many wars can we fight? Our presidential candidates demand "stronger action" against both illegal immigration and illegal drugs. But those goals conflict. The War on Drugs makes border enforcement much harder! America's 44-year-long Drug War hasn't made a dent in American drug use or the supply of illegal drugs. If it had some positive effect, prices of drugs would have increased, but they haven't. American authorities say drugs are more available than ever. Drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, creates fat profits that invite law-breaking. Cato's Ted Galen Carpenter says, "Economists estimate that about 90 percent of the retail price...

Drug Enforcement Administration agents have been accessing personal medical files without a warrant, generating a backlash from doctors and privacy advocates who say the practice is intrusive and unconstitutional -- and have taken the agency to court. “It’s just not right,” Texas attorney Terri Moore said. The controversial record searches are part of the government's effort to crack down on illegal “pill mills” and prescription drug abuse. But they've set up a clash over privacy rights, and a legal battle is now playing out in the 5th and 9th Circuit appeals courts. Lower courts have issued conflicting rulings to date,...

On Monday, President Obama announced the results of his war on unjust sentences and the incarceration of large numbers of low-level, non-violent drug offenders. Now in the seventh year of his presidency, he has added just 46 federal felons to the list of those whose sentences he has commuted. [....] And just who is Obama releasing? Not “low-level, drug-possession offenders” or marijuana users. No, he is releasing crack dealers, cocaine dealers, and methamphetamine dealers. Most of the 46 were crack cocaine distributors, some convicted of dealing more than 10 pounds of crack. Moreover, some of these felony drug dealers were...

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico mounted an all-out manhunt Sunday for its most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who escaped from a maximum security prison through a 1.5-kilometer (1 mile) tunnel from a small opening in the shower area of his cell, according to the country's top security official. The elaborate underground escape route, built allegedly without the detection of authorities, allowed Guzman to do what Mexican officials promised would never happen after his re-capture last year — slip out of one of the country's most secure penitentiaries for the second time. If Guzman is not captured immediately,...

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,”...

Pennsylvania is near the top of the national statistics for drug overdose deaths, but neighboring states West Virginia and Ohio are being hit even worse, according to a report released last week. Use of prescription drugs and heroin is fueling the problem, and the number of deaths from drug overdoses now surpasses car accident-related deaths in Pennsylvania and 35 other states. The report, published by the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, breaks down all injury-related deaths by state. Pennsylvania fell in the middle of the pack for all injury-related deaths, coming in at No. 23,...