Free Republic

NEWARK -- Shaheed Wright feared police were closing in on him, authorities say, so he hid his bags of cocaine in his son’s jacket pockets, telling the child that it was candy. And when the boy arrived at his daycare center in Newark on Friday morning, he did what any other 4 year old might: The boy handed the white powder out to his friends. One girl ate it. She was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark along with Wright’s son and two other boys from the day care suspected of eating cocaine. They all turned out to...

A New York Times article on Sunday discussed the debate over whether more and more potent types of cannabis affect the levels of addiction to the drug. This particular issue has become part of the larger debate over whether marijuana should be legalized or decriminalized. Antidrug activists say that if the drug is legalized, more people will use it and addiction levels, made worse by the increased potency, will rise too. Legalization advocates note that pot addiction is not nearly as destructive as, say, abuse of alcohol. What would be the effect of legalization or decriminalization on marijuana abuse and...

The Russian parliament and media refer to him merely as a “Russian businessman.” But to much of the rest of the world, Viktor Bout is known as the “Merchant of Death,” the most notorious member of the dark fraternity of global weapons traffickers who arm terrorist organizations, as well as the tyrannical regimes and brutal warlords and militias responsible for horrendous genocidal slaughters over the past two decades. Since his March 2008 arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, in an elaborate U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting, Viktor Bout has been in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Special Prison awaiting trial. The U.S. Department of...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Crack-addicted Felicia Anderson was pregnant with her third child when an ultrasound changed the direction of her life. "You could hear that baby's heartbeat strong and steady. Really, that's her personality today, a strong, vibrant little girl. And at that time, laying there, tears starting rolling down my face," Anderson, 44, recalled. In that moment, Anderson vowed to stay off drugs, something she'd been unable to do in more than a decade addicted to crack cocaine, even when she was pregnant with her first two children. Anderson didn't think she could do it alone, so, like...

PATERSON — Citing the cruelty of the crime and the defendant's extensive criminal background, a state Superior Court judge on Friday sentenced a Newark man to 35 years in prison for his role in the robbery and throat slashing of a Lodi man who survived the attack but killed himself nine months later. The judge also sentenced two other men in the crime against Jason Zabotinsky, which occurred in December 2005.  Drake Primus, 38, of Newark, who received the longest sentence of 35 years, was convicted of aggravated assault, armed robbery and unlawful possession of a weapon. Zabotinsky's blood...

Authorities have seized the first distribution-sized package of "processed DMT" in New Jersey and warned Thursday that the hallucinogenic drug once popular in the '60s could be making a comeback. The drug, dimethyltryptamine, or DMT, differs from other hallucinogens because its powerful effects are relatively short-lived, about 45 minutes to an hour, giving rise to its street-name as the "businessman's trip," authorities said. Two state troopers seized 1 1/4 pounds of the processed DMT — valued at $127,000 — during a traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike in Secaucus, state police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said. The troopers were...

Medical marijuana advocates were celebrating Thursday night. The U.S. Attorney General has announced plans to end raids on medical marijuana dispensaries that are legal under state law.

Ely photographer K.K. Forss is using words rather than a camera to offer a picture of what his life is like without medical marijuana. Forss traveled to the State Capitol to testify in support of medical marijuana legislation at a Senate Health, Housing and Family Security Committee hearing on Wednesday. Medical marijuana use has been a political issue in Minnesota since the mid-nineties. The bill is currently being sponsored in the House by Rep. Tom Rukavina (DFL-Virginia). A five member bipartisan group is pushing it in the Senate. Last year, though the legislation passed in the Senate, it did not...

<p>A Pennsylvania teacher who pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute marijuana in Warren County was sentenced today to 60 days in the county jail.</p> <p>Tyson Scott, 34, also was sentenced in Belvidere to two year's probation and he forfeited the $875 police found on him when he was arrested April 10 during an undercover operation in Phillipsburg, said Assistant Warren County Prosecutor Tara Kirkendall, who handled the case for the state.</p>

A 71-year-old grandfather arrested in a major drug sweep a year ago faces at least five years behind bars after admitting yesterday that he distributed cocaine. Montville resident George DelVecchio, described by Morris County Prosecutor Robert A. Bianchi as a major distributor, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute. The grandfather of four could be sentenced to up to 10 years in state prison under his plea deal. "While it is unfortunate that a person of the defendant's age will be incarcerated for this length of time, it is also equally unfortunate that he made a...

COMEDIAN Steve Martin once explained how to make a million dollars without paying taxes. First, you make a million dollars. Then, you don't pay taxes. If the IRS finds out, you explain: "I forgot." Then, if that's not enough, you say, "Well, excuuuse me!"  This approach was offered in jest, but these days it's looking pretty promising. Treasury Secretary nominee Timothy Geithner seems to be pulling it off in the tax arena even as I write this, and now the Supreme Court, in its just-released decision in Herring v. United States, has ruled that simple negligence by police - in...

he cause of criminal violence is not drugs or alcohol but rather criminals. To believe otherwise is to expect every drug dealer in America to give up and apply for a job at McDonald’s or WalMart the day legalization occurs. Every society contains a sizable element whose members refuse to make an honest living under any circumstances. The legalization of drugs will not change this large-scale reality of human behavior. For now, many societal malefactors have the option of selling or trafficking drugs. But their real trade is to profit from the unwillingness of others to take the risks involved...

Yes it is time for another “Hippie Report” from Humboldt county Ca. Join us as we explore The Triad of Death. Humboldt State University, the Ciy of Arcata Ca., and The glorification of marijuana aimed at the youth of the community by the local newspaper - The North Coast Journal. 01/07/09

Academics Laud Drug Use by: Bethany Stotts, December 15, 2008 Six academics and Philip Campbell, the editor-in-chief of Nature Magazine, recently argued that society should move “towards the responsible use of cognitive-enhancing drugs by the healthy,” particularly drugs typically used in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). “In this article, we propose actions that will help society accept the benefits of enhancement, given appropriate research and evolved regulation,” write the authors, who hail from prestigious universities such as • Stanford Law School, • Harvard Medical School, • the University of Cambridge, • the University of Manchester, • the...

KopBusters rented a house in Odessa, Texas and began growing two small Christmas trees under a grow light similar to those used for growing marijuana. When faced with a suspected marijuana grow, the police usually use illegal FLIR cameras and/or lie on the search warrant affidavit claiming they have probable cause to raid the house. Instead of conducting a proper investigation which usually leads to no probable cause, the Kops lie on the affidavit claiming a confidential informant saw the plants and/or the police could smell marijuana coming from the suspected house. The trap was set and less than 24...

From the archives: Tynes kicks up cause for jailed brother Myers: Giants kings on Super subway Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes wants one more unlikely victory in this Super Bowl year - and he's hoping the Bush administration can make it happen. Tynes, the hero of the NFC title game, seeks a White House order freeing his jailed brother Mark, a convicted drug trafficker doing 27 years.   Lawrence Tynes acknowledges his older brother's guilt but believes the sentence is overly harsh.  "The situation that Mark found himself in was partly due to his own mistakes," says newly hired lawyer Robert...

Drug dealing on craigslist has become so rampant that the city's special narcotics prosecutor has asked the online trading post to curb the ads, the Daily News has learned. Bridget Brennan's undercover investigators have bought drugs offered on craigslist personals from dealers ranging from a Citigroup banker to an Ivy Leaguer to a violent felon using a halfway house computer. In the past four years, her office has prosecuted dozens of dealers.  "Ski lift tickets are here for sale ... Tina Turner tickets ... best seats around!" Offers like these appear virtually every day on craigslist, and they are thinly...

Arrest in FBI killing Woman held in agent's death; lawyer says she shot during raid, fearing intruder The 11 law enforcement officers weren't looking for Christina Korbe when they showed up outside the sand-colored brick house on Woods Run Road just before 6 a.m. yesterday. But she was there, armed with a .38-caliber handgun, and moments later FBI Agent Samuel Hicks -- the first in the door behind a battering ram -- lay dying. Last night she was charged with homicide in his death. The agents and officers had a warrant for Robert Ralph Korbe, Ms. Korbe's husband, when they...

Some teachers are used to confiscating toys or other disruptive items kids bring from home. But marijuana? A teacher at Harrington Avery D School, at 53rd Street and Baltimore Avenue, did just that yesterday when one of her second-grade students brought a bag of marijuana to school and showed it off to his friends, police said. One alert classmate notified the teacher and the authorities were called, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives. Police searched the home of the child's father, Lamar Anderson, 28, of 54th Street near Warrington Avenue, Southwest Philadelphia, and confiscated more marijuana and crack cocaine,...

Some 40 people have been killed in drug-related violence in the past week in Tijuana, bringing the total so far this year to more than 400. On Monday, 12 bodies were found outside an elementary school and an additional four victims were discovered in another section of the city. Nine more bodies were discovered near a day care on Thursday and two other bodies were found elsewhere.

U.S. currency No. 1 cocaine carrier worldwide BEIJING, Aug. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- When it comes to which country's currency contains the most cocaine the United States is No. 1 worldwide, while Spanish notes take the top spot in Europe, a new study finds. The findings, detailed in the latest issue of the journal Trends in Analytical Chemistry, reflect the popularity of the illicit drug, the researchers say. "These findings should not be surprising, because cocaine and other drugs are traded using cash, which is handled by the same fingers that directly touch the drugs or wrappings," chemists Sergio Armenta and...

It used to be that marijuana came to the Bay Area from the legendary back country of Humboldt County or the desert fields beyond Tijuana. Now the fields are in the Bay Area, and everywhere else in the state. Marijuana is one of the top cash crops in California, NBC Bay Area's Mike Luery reported. Many of the fields are located next to popular trails and in the middle of state parks. A fierce battle is being waged in our own back yard to remove the pot groves. They are hidden in brush so thick that specially trained officers must...

MEXICO CITY — The capture was worthy of an action thriller: elite Mexican troops rappelling from a helicopter onto the deck of a mysterious submarine. The 33-foot vessel turned out to be crammed with parcels believed to contain cocaine, possibly tons. Its disheveled crew of four emerged in stocking feet and baggy shorts, saying they had shipped out from Colombia a week earlier under threat of death. Mexico's military confirmed Thursday that the men are Colombian but offered little new information...Capt. Jose Luis Vergara, a spokesman for the Mexican navy, said authorities were hauling the "very well-constructed" vessel to shore...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The "spiritual" effects of psilocybin from so-called sacred mushrooms last for more than a year and may offer a way to help patients with fatal diseases or addictions, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday...

A Rogers husband and wife who worked as a pastor and school bus driver were sentenced Monday to four years in prison for cooking methamphetamine in their family home. Joseph and Barbara Sisneros pleaded guilty last week to a reduced charge of possession of drug paraphernalia with intent to manufacture as part of a plea agreement between Deputy Prosecutor Drew Ledbetter and defense attorneys Blake Warren and Bobby Digby. "This meth lab was not a small operation," Ledbetter told Benton County Senior Circuit Judge Tom Keith. "Certain people should be held to a higher standard. At best, the court could...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States leads the world in rates of experimenting with marijuana and cocaine despite strict drug laws, World Health Organization researchers said on Tuesday. Countries with looser drug laws have lower rates of abuse, the researchers report in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine. The survey of 54,000 people in 17 countries found that 16 percent of people in the United States had used cocaine in their lifetimes -- far higher than the next highest rate, found in New Zealand, where 4.3 percent of people reported having used cocaine. More than 42 percent of...

More than a third of Danes have used cannabis at least once in their lives, making them the top users of the drug in Europe. The new statistics from the European Centre for Monitoring of Drugs and Drug Addiction show that Denmark comes out ahead of France and the UK for use of the illicit drug. Of Danish adults 36.5 percent have tried it at least once in their lives, compared to 30.6 percent in France and 29.8 percent in the United Kingdom. However, Denmark only lies in seventh place for the use of cannabis in the last year, which...

You can still light up in a Dutch cafe after July 1, but only if you're smoking marijuana, not tobacco. Bloomberg reported June 20 that the Netherlands' new indoor-smoking ban allows patrons to smoke inside marijuana "coffee shops" as long as the joint is pure cannabis. But cutting joints with tobacco will be illegal. Tobacco smoking also will be banned in other public places except in separate, unstaffed rooms. "Every customer will have to learn how to smoke pure,'' said Robert Kempen, co-owner of The NooN and Mellow Yellow Amsterdam coffee shops. "Sales will definitely fall," said Rida Oulad, a...

A sign in front of Mauro Morales' Rio Grande City home announces his business for everyone to see. "Peyote Dealer," it proclaims in large block letters. Each day, drivers passing by slow down for double takes and some even pull over, get out and snap photos. Who can blame them?, Morales asks with a mischievous grin. He is, after all, part of a dwindling fraternity. The slight, 65-year-old Rio Grande City man is one of only three people in the United States - all in Starr and Webb counties -authorized to harvest and sell the psychedelic cactus. But as overharvesting...

Authorities say it's the biggest pot bust in Cocke County in the last five years, maybe more. Around 10 a.m. Monday, helicopter pilots spotted hundreds of thousands of marijuana plants growing in the Cherokee National Forest in Cocke County. They alerted officers on the ground, and the crew trekked more than a mile into the forest from Interstate 40, where they came upon what they call a DTO, or drug trafficking organization. "They just live in it, move in, grow, and that's all they're there to do is grow marijuana," Special Agent Jason Poore said of the growers. Poore is...

Bill Stamps Jr., a local businessman and community activist, was detained recently at Del Norte County Airport after marijuana was found in his luggage. Stamps was not arrested and faces no criminal charges, according to county District Attorney Mike Riese. Stamps has agreed to take part in a 30-day "home-study" diversion program, said his attorney, George Mavris. Riese said Stamps is being treated "like any other individual who has possession of less than an ounce." Stamps told The Triplicate he has a doctor's approval to use marijuana for treatment of stress that dates to his service during the Vietnam War....

Marijuana potency increased last year to the highest level in more than 30 years, posing greater health risks to people who may view the drug as harmless, according to a report released Thursday by the White House. The latest analysis from the University of Mississippi's Potency Monitoring Project tracked the average amount of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, in samples seized by law enforcement agencies from 1975 through 2007. It found that the average amount of THC reached 9.6 percent in 2007, compared with 8.75 percent the previous year. The 9.6 percent level represents more than a doubling of...

Guatemala plans to send hundreds of troops, elite presidential guards and anti-drug police to its border with Mexico to stem growing drug violence, the government said on Saturday. "The unit should be ready within about 90 days. We are talking about 500 troops" and members of the presidential guard, Interior Ministry spokesman Ricardo Gatica said. Gatica declined to say how many counternarcotics police would be sent to the border, where drug smuggling into southern Mexico, bound for the United States, goes unchallenged. In southern Mexico, suspected drug gunmen dumped a man's head outside a newspaper in Tabasco state on Saturday...

Mexico is beginning to look like a real war zone. The headlines in the news media are reminiscent of those from some of the most brutal days of the Iraq War. They speak of executions, beheadings, cryptic messages and dozens of people killed in a single day. But the war against drugs that Mexico is waging is not one that can easily eliminate the enemies. snip The Mexican government has made the fight against drugs its No. 1 priority.snip The rival drug cartels are killing each other off, law enforcement agents are hunting down drug dealers, and their hit men...

River Dell Regional High School was one of three schools statewide to get a grant for its random drug testing program, federal officials said today. The school was awarded $43,100 for the upcoming school year as part of a $5.8 million grant program from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Schools in Hillsborough and Brick also received grants. “It’s another tool to reinforce positive decisions,” said Stephen Schatz, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. “It’s really geared toward treatment.” River Dell Superintendent Patrick Fletcher said the money will fund better testing that...

Seven officers named in previous list killed CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico - We're getting word a drug cartel in Mexico left another hit list with the names of 12 police officers. Now some of the officers named have already resigned. A similar list of 22 names appeared earlier this year at a monument for fallen police officers in Ciudad Juarez. That list had this message: "For those who still don't believe..." Of the 22 named, seven were killed. Three were wounded in assassination attempts, and all but one of the rest quit their jobs. This new list of officers left at...

The latest threat assessment prepared for special border enforcement teams says pleasure boats are among the increasingly inventive means used by crafty couriers to slip illicit cargo — including drugs, guns and people — from one country to the other. The marine environment “is viewed as particularly vulnerable and porous to smuggling activity” due to the many challenges in keeping tabs on lakes, waterways and tiny coves, says the August 2007 report, obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act. One American criminal group has children carrying bags of tobacco swim across the St. Croix River between...

Federal and local law enforcement have arrested seven alleged members and associates of the Hermanos Pistoleros Latinos prison gang over the last week.Prosecutors say the seven people from Laredo and 17 from the Houston area were involved in a conspiracy to transport large amounts of cocaine from Laredo to Houston and launder the proceeds in Laredo. Pedro Gil III, 37, also known as "Master P," "PG" and "Carwash," was arrested over the weekend and charged with five counts of conspiracy with intent to distribute more than 5 kilograms of cocaine and one count of money laundering. Police later arrested his...

WEED, Calif. — This town is in a tempest over a bottle top. The federal government is telling the owner of a small brewery here that the pun he's placed on caps of his Weed Ales crosses a line. The U.S. Treasury Department's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau says those three little words allude to marijuana use.

Canada's laws prohibiting possession and trafficking of drugs were struck down as unconstitutional Tuesday by the B.C. Supreme Court, in a case focusing on the plague of drug addiction in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. But Justice Ian Pitfield gave Ottawa until June 30, 2009, to fix the law and bring it in line with the Constitutional principle of fundamental justice. The ruling, in a case challenging the federal government's jurisdiction over Vancouver's controversial safe-injection site, goes well beyond the site itself. The case was launched by the non-profit organization that runs Insite and a group of addicts, who argued the site...

ANTA, Ecuador — The scene at the Manta Ray Cafe, a mess hall here at the most prominent American military outpost in South America, suggests all is normal.

About a month ago I got a call from a reporter for the Arkansas Times inquiring about my research into paramilitary drug raids. He'd been reporting on a raid in North Little Rock involving a 40-year-old man named Tracy Ingle. When he told me the story over the phone, I was floored, even given all the abuses and mistakes I've reported and read about over the last few years. What makes the case especially egregious is not that the police may have gotten the wrong home, that they shot a man, or that they were covering it up or going...

WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors are investigating Wachovia Corp. as part of a broad probe of alleged laundering of drug proceeds by Mexican and Colombian money-transfer companies, according to people familiar with the matter. Wachovia is one of several large U.S. banks that have come under scrutiny for their relationships with such companies. It is in discussions with the Justice Department about reforms in its compliance system and faces a possible deferred-prosecution agreement that would require extensive federal oversight. An official of Wachovia said it is cooperating in the probe. Wachovia, based in Charlotte, N.C., and some other U.S. banks severed...

WEED, Calif. — Vaune Dillmann thought the wording on his bottle caps was just a clever play on the name of the Northern California town where he brews his beer — Weed. Federal alcohol regulators thought differently. They have ordered Dillmann to stop selling beer bottles with caps that say "Try Legal Weed." While reviewing the proposed label for Dillmann's latest beer, Lemurian Lager, the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau said the message on the caps he has been using for his five current beers amounts to a drug reference.

"Nine, eight, seven ..." A crowd of about 10,000 people collectively began counting down on the University of Colorado's Norlin Quadrangle just before 4:20 p.m. Sunday. Yet the massive puff of pot smoke that hovers over CU's Boulder campus every April 20 -- the date of an annual, internationally recognized celebration of marijuana -- began rising over the sea of heads earlier than normal this year. "Oh forget it," one student said, aborting the countdown to 4:20 p.m. and lighting his pipe early. He closed his eyes, taking a deep, long drag. "Sweet." Although it's become an annual and renowned...

The state’s top drug prosecutor was fired on Friday, hours after reports were published that he was under investigation for possessing child pornography. Assistant Attorney General James Cameron of Hallowell, who worked as the drug prosecution coordinator for the Attorney General’s Office, had been on paid administrative leave for several months, according to one law enforcement source.

Last month, police in Kentucky went on a 24-hour drug raid blitz. According to local media accounts, the raids uncovered 23 methamphetamine labs, seized more than 2,400 pounds of marijuana, identified 16 drug-endangered children and arrested 565 people for illegal drug use. That's quite a day's work.What inspired the blitz? Complaints from the citizenry? A vicious string of drug-related murders? An outbreak of overdoses?No, none of that.It seems that they were concerned that the federal government is about to turn off the funding spigot."During 'Operation Byrne Blitz,'" a local television station reported, "state police and highway patrol agencies, local police...

There are two kinds of people in the world: the kind who think it's perfectly reasonable to strip-search a 13-year-old girl suspected of bringing ibuprofen to school, and the kind who think those people should be kept as far away from children as possible. The first group includes officials at Safford Middle School in Safford, Arizona, who in 2003 forced eighth-grader Savana Redding to prove she was not concealing Advil in her crotch or cleavage. It also includes two judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, who last fall ruled that the strip search did not...

The brick house with the enormous black satellite dish in the driveway sits empty now, the tenants evicted. The building is fenced, its windows are boarded and a For Sale sign hangs outside. Last year, the Los Angeles city attorney's office sued to close the house at 3304 Drew St. in Glassell Park as a public nuisance. Authorities are now seeking to demolish it. For more than a decade, the Satellite House, as it's known in the neighborhood, was the center of the drug trade on two-block Drew Street, where dealers and gang members have operated with near-impunity for years,...

Rep. Barney Frank said he plans to file a bill to legalize "small amounts" of marijuana. Frank announced his plans late Friday on the HBO show "Real Time," hosted by Bill Maher. "I’m going to file a bill as soon as we go back to remove all federal penalties for the possession or use of small amounts of marijuana," Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Maher. Frank didn’t define "small amounts." Efforts to reach Frank on Saturday were not immediately successful. Frank said he’d filed a similar bill in the Massachusetts Legislature in the 1970s, but hasn’t tried since he was...