Free Republic

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) earned praise from “drug justice” advocates after criticizing a growing marijuana legalization and business model that is paving the way for white male investors to reap major profits after minorities spent decades in prisons for selling pot. She made her comments during a House Financial Services subcommittee hearing this week on banking services for the burgeoning cannabis industry as more states legalize the sale and use of marijuana. She suggested the growing industry was “compounding the racial wealth gap” by allowing wealthy white-dominated companies to gain a quick advantage in the industry. She complained that communities...

A Salisbury University student has been charged with illegal wiretapping after prosecutors said he streamed a meeting with a congressional staffer for Maryland Rep. Andy Harris via Facebook Live without permission. Jake Burdett, 20, was charged last week with two felony counts of making an illegal recording and distributing the video filmed during a Maryland Marijuana Justice rally at Harris’s Salisbury office in October, the state prosecutor’s office announced Thursday. Marijuana legalization protesters have long tangled with Harris, who in 2014 worked to block full legalization of the drug in the District of Columbia. A protest outside the Republican’s Capitol...

Older people are the fastest-growing group of cannabis users, as stigma fades and some seek an alternative to prescription drugs As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age. Why are more seniors getting high? It might make more sense to ask: “Why not?” As adults reach retirement, they age out of drug tests and have far more time on their hands. Some feel liberated to abandon long-held proprieties. Elegant vape pens and other attractive, discreet products have helped de...

A California pastor is looking for a job after facing backlash over a church sign that affirms the biblical definition of gender and marriage. Pastor Justin Hoke of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church in Weed, California, posted a new church sign in early January. The sign read: "Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still sin. The culture may change. The Bible does not."

WEED, California, January 10, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) – After an American pastor refused to bow to pro-LGBT protesters’ demands that he change his church message board, he found the sign in ruins. Pastor Justin Hoke of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church in Weed, Siskiyou County, California angered some folks when he put up a message on the marquee outside his church last week reading “Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still a sin. The culture may change. The Bible does not.”Although he normally changes his sign from week to week, Hoke said he would not take down his message until...

Ten states and Washington, D.C., have now legalized adult use of marijuana.Supporters of America's long war on drugs said legalization would create disaster. Has it? No.Colorado and Washington offer the longest points of comparison because weed has been legal in those states now for five years.More people in Colorado tried marijuana after legalization, but that's not a surprise.Colorado's crime rate did rise a bit. But many things influence crime rates. Washington state's violent crime rate rose a little but slightly less than the national average.In California, people I interviewed said legalization made the streets safer. "It's cleaned up the corner,"...

A Pulaski man who allegedly stole a police patrol car and several other vehicles during a four-day effort to avoid arrest was nabbed early Wednesday afternoon in Wythe County. He was charged in Pulaski County last month with failing to complete drug court. The incident began around 1:23 p.m. Sunday when a deputy attempted to stop a car that was reported stolen. Following a road pursuit, the vehicle stopped and the occupants fled on foot, but both were caught and arrested. BUT....After being taken to the hospital for a blood test related to the DUID, Drain was taken to the...

The maker of Budweiser is partnering with medical cannabis company Tilray in a $100 million deal to research cannabis-infused drinks for the Canadian market. The alliance announced Wednesday is the latest foray by a major beer company into the cannabis business in Canada, which legalized recreational marijuana in October. Anheuser-Busch InBev and Tilray Inc. said each would invest $50 million in the project to study non-alcoholic drinks containing cannabidiol, or CBD, which some claim has calming and healing affects, and THC, the cannabis compound known for its psychoactive effects.

Citizens in four states vote Tuesday on ballot initiatives to legalize some form of cannabis. Residents of Missouri and Utah will decide on its medical availability, Michigan and North Dakota on recreational consumption for adults. If all four measures pass, the tally of states that allow some sort of cannabis use will jump to 32, nearly two-thirds of the U.S. The trend could not be clearer: Cannabis prohibition is coming to an end. A Gallup poll last month found 66% of Americans favor legal marijuana. I am now one of those Americans. It began when a friend of mine who...

Violent crime, including murders, are increasing in Denver and Colorado, according to new statistics from police and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Murders in Colorado have jumped 27 percent in the last three years. In 2015 there were 173 murders, while there were 220 in 2017. ... murders in Denver have increased six percent in the last year. So far in 2018, there have been 51 murders, compared to 48 at this time last year, according to Denver Police. Police say the increase is because there are more incidents where multiple people have been killed. ... And for some perspective...

It sounds like the opening for another stoner movie, maybe “Harold and Kumar Go to Heaven.” Giant bundles of marijuana, apparently containing individually wrapped five-kilo bricks, have been washing up on the shores of Florida since the approach of Hurricane Florence last week, possibly from a boat that was either capsized by the storm or an airplane drop that went awry.

WASHINGTON—Canadians will be barred from entering the United States for smoking marijuana legally, for working in Canada’s legal marijuana industry and for investing in legal Canadian marijuana companies, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official says. Todd Owen, who spoke to the U.S. website Politico, said the U.S. does not plan to change its border policies to account for Canada’s marijuana legalization, which takes effect on Oct. 17. “We don’t recognize that as a legal business,” said Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the office of field operations. Owen’s comments corroborated anecdotal reports that have accumulated over the course of...

DALLAS - Following the shooting death of Botham Jean by the hands of Dallas Police Officer Amber Guyger, multiple search warrants were executed at Jean’s apartment as part of the investigation. One of the warrants became a public record Thursday afternoon when it was returned to the judge who signed it. It was shortly after Jean’s funeral had ended. It listed several items found in Jean's apartment, including a small amount of marijuana.

Smoking cannabis ages the brain by an average of 2.8 years, new research suggests. This is compared to four years in schizophrenia patients, according to the largest study of its kind. Brain ageing is defined as reduced blood flow through the organ. Excessive alcohol also ages the organ by 0.6 years, the research adds. Lead author Dr Daniel Amen, founder of Amen Clinics, said: 'The cannabis abuse finding was especially important, as our culture is starting to see marijuana as an innocuous substance. This study should give us pause about it.' Reduced brain blood flow has previously been linked to...

The maker of Corona and Modelo beers in October took a 9.9 percent stake in the Canadian cannabis company. The deal included the option for future investments, giving Constellation a first toehold in an industry the brewer said it expects to soon be legalized across the United States. Shares of Canopy Growth surged 23.2 percent in Wednesday trading, while Constellation's stock fell 8.9 percent. With this latest investment and the execution of some warrants, Constellation says its stake will become 38 percent of Canopy. Constellation also received an opportunity over the next three years to buy up to 139.7 million...

On August 9, Denver experienced its first triple homicide since the summer of 2016, when a drug deal went bad in Park Hill. On Thursday, three bodies were discovered near the RTD light-rail station on South Broadway near the I-25 overpass. And according to the Denver Police Department, there's an added dimension to these latest murders: The three victims were all homeless. The DPD has yet to announce the names of the three victims, their causes of death or any suspects in the crime. But the gravity of the murders and the fact that the victims were homeless has many...

Diners accused of smoking weed, walking out on $420 restaurant bill Police are looking for a group of more than a dozen diners who allegedly tried to smoke marijuana inside a restaurant before causing a scene and walking out on the $420 bill. The incident happened Sunday night at Frida’s Mexican Restaurante in Memphis, Tennessee, WREG reported. The group of 16 came in at 10:30 pm, a half an hour before closing. “They came in at the last minute,” Frida’s manager Jesse Gonzalez told WREG. “We didn’t think anything of it.” According to Gonzalez, the group ordered some of the...

President Trump said he likely will support a congressional effort to end the federal ban on marijuana, a major step that would reshape the pot industry and end the threat of a Justice Department crackdown. Trump’s remarks put him sharply at odds with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions on the issue. The bill in question, pushed by a bipartisan coalition, would allow states to go forward with legalization unencumbered by threats of federal prosecution. Trump made his comments to a gaggle of reporters Friday morning just before he boarded a helicopter on his way to the G-7 summit in Canada. His...

BOSTON — A former high school dean known as an anti-violence advocate was convicted Thursday of shooting and nearly killing a student he had recruited to sell marijuana for him. Shaun Harrison, 58, was found guilty of all charges, including armed assault with intent to murder, by a Suffolk Superior Court jury in its second day of deliberations. “Shaun Harrison was really a fraud, he was living a lie, and it was clearly exposed in this case,” District Attorney Dan Conley said. “Not only was he not a man of God or a role model for young people, he manipulated...

The plane landed safely at San Jose Mineta International Airport, about 50 miles south of San Francisco. The airline says the passenger accused of smoking was turned over to law enforcement. The remaining 32 passengers were placed on other aircraft to continue their trips. Passengers reported smelling smoke, and one said he smelled marijuana. “It looked like that someone needed to smoke a joint on a plane, and he went into the bathroom, smoked his blunt, and set off the fire alarm,” passenger Jonathan Burkes said.