Free Republic

Wage war on everything? Expect casualties everywhere. And refugees from all over the place. Continue the wars we admit to be un-winnable and never-ending? Then expect, also, to find new victims cropping up all the time, and in unpredictable corners. New enemies, too. The lesson is: choose your wars carefully. The result of not doing that? The current border crisis: Refugees from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. Under-age refugees. Children. Unaccompanied minors from the most recent high impact area of America’s insane “War on Drugs.” Can this really be relevant? Yes. For most of us in America, the War on...

An officer believed they were acting in an aggressive manner," said Sgt. Paul Paulos, a St. Paul police spokesman. "He thought he'd be bit or the dogs would bite one of the team members." Perry and her fiance, Larry L. Arman, said the dogs had been sleeping by the front door and did nothing more than bark when police used a ram to break down the door of their home to execute a search warrant. The warrant wasn't publicly available in court as of Thursday. Perry and Arman said it indicated police were looking for marijuana, drug packaging, weighing equipment,...

(Reuters) - Genes that increase the risk of a person developing schizophrenia may also increase the chance they will use cannabis, researchers said on Tuesday after studying more than 1,000 users of the drug. The results chime with previous studies linking schizophrenia and cannabis, but suggest the association may be due to common genes and might not be a causal relationship where cannabis use leads to increased schizophrenia risk. Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the world, and its use is higher among people with schizophrenia than in the general population. "We know that cannabis increases the...

The Las Vegas police shooters were identified as two Neo-Nazi socialists. Neighbors said “Jared” and “Amanda” had talked about killing police officers then going underground until the time was right to come out and kill some more. They were also meth-heads. The conspiracy nuts were drug addicts. The Las Vegas Review Journal reported: The shooters were a married couple thought to be in their late 20s who were new to the Las Vegas Valley, according to a law enforcement official close to the investigation. Police are looking into their links to the white supremacy movement and found swastika symbols during...

Two people have been arrested in connection with the seizure of 19 marijuana plants, growing equipment and prescription pills at their Mandeville home, the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office said. Members of the St. Tammany Parish Narcotics Task Force executed a search warrant May 21 on the home at 543 Cedarwood Drive after receiving information about a man named "Scooby'' selling marijuana at a Mandeville area car wash, the sheriff's office said.Scooby was later identified as Deshun Jones, 25. Detectives observed him at the car wash, then followed him home and arrested him. Jones initially provided authorities with a fake...

Where The War On Pot Will Go To Die In some states, there's an untenable mismatch between the crime and the time, but does anyone think that pot—medical or recreational—will still be illegal in 10 years? Now that a majority of Americans—54% and climbing, according to Pew Research—believe that marijuana should be treated like beer, wine and liquor, it’s time to ask: where does the war on pot go to die? What episode will trigger that final skirmish that kicks over the hollowed-out edifice of marijuana prohibition like the Berlin Wall? What will be the final outrage against common sense...

An alleged associate of a Mexican drug cartel has been charged in a conspiracy that distributed more than 100 kilograms of cocaine in the Philadelphia region, federal prosecutors said today. Prosecutors say it was Jorge Bautista-Banda’s job to launder the illegal drug proceeds, depositing the money in $8,000 increments at Center City banks. By depositing amounts less than $10,000, prosecutors said Bautista could avoid having to file currency transaction reports.

The FBI is struggling to recruit bright young computer programmers because of their fondness for cannabis, according to the bureau’s director. Under current rules, the FBI cannot hire anyone who has smoked marijuana in the last three years—a policy that rules out many of the best recent graduates. “I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” said James Comey, the FBI’s director. …

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The green-cross storefronts of medical marijuana dispensaries are common in much of Washington, and the state is plowing ahead with licensing people to grow and sell recreational pot to adults. But a federal trial scheduled to begin in the coming weeks for five people in Spokane suggests not all is OK with weed in the state. Larry Harvey, a 70-year-old medical marijuana patient with no criminal history, three of his relatives and a family friend each face mandatory minimum sentences of at least 10 years in prison after they were caught growing about 70 pot plants...

SOUTHWEST MIAMI-DADE, Fla. (WSVN) -- The parents of a teenager and a young girl have been arrested and charged after a marijuana lab was found under a covered, drained swimming pool. The discovery was made late Monday night, at around 11:55, at a home located 21964 S.W. 125th Place. "This is one of the more challenging grow houses we have seen," said Miami-Dade Police Detective Roy Rutland. "This is challenging because you're not going to smell it; more than likely you're certainly not going to see it." After police received a tip, they obtained a warrant and arrested Luis Ramirez-Gonzalez...

A gunbattle inside a North Park marijuana dispensary midday Friday left a robber dead and a security guard wounded, police said. Two men with handguns held up the shop to steal marijuana San Diego police homicide Lt. Manual del Toro said. Del Toro described the fleeing robber as a black man in his 20s, about 6 feet tall, 190 pounds, and wearing a blue hoodie. Around the corner, at Holistic Health Gurus, office worker Michael Adams arrived after the shooting and was surprised to hear what happened. "Ray Street is very artsy," Adams said. "It's very surprising to have any...

WASHINGTON – Former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens says he thinks the federal government should legalize marijuana. The 94-year-old retired justice tells NPR that public opinion has changed on the issue. Stevens also says that there isn't much distinction between marijuana and alcoholic beverages.

FRIDAY, April 25, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- American teens' use of marijuana doesn't increase when states approve the drug for medical use, a new study finds. "Any time a state considers legalizing medical marijuana, there are concerns from the public about an increase in drug use among teens," principal investigator Dr. Esther Choo, an attending physician in the department of emergency medicine at Rhode Island Hospital, said in a hospital news release. Choo's team examined 20 years of data from states that do and don't permit medical marijuana use. They found that legalizing medical marijuana did not lead to increased...

School officials in northern Colorado are asking parents to take care with their newly legal recreational marijuana, after fourth graders were caught dealing the drug on an elementary school campus. John Gates, director of safety for Weld County School District 6, said Wednesday that the students involved, three 10-year-old boys and a 10-year-old girl at Greeley’s Monfort Elementary School, faced tough discipline but not suspension or expulsion. He would not elaborate on their punishment. […] The marijuana appears to have been legally purchased by adults—grandparents in two families—and no charges were expected to be filed, Gates said. He said the...

While Americans of all ages in Colorado happily celebrate the legalization of marijuana in various forms on April 20, 2014 as a “smoking holiday” the mental health and safety risks are being ignored by the media.

DENVER – A college student eats more than the recommended dose of a marijuana-laced cookie and jumps to his death from a hotel balcony. A husband with no history of violence is accused of shooting his wife in the head, possibly after eating pot-infused candy. The two recent deaths have stoked concerns about Colorado’s recreational marijuana industry and the effects of the drug, especially since cookies, candy and other pot edibles can be exponentially more potent than a joint. “We’re seeing hallucinations, they become sick to their stomachs, they throw up, they become dizzy and very anxious,” said Al Bronstein,...

It's a sunny afternoon at Kelly's Collective, a medical marijuana dispensary in Los Angeles, and Nikki Esquibel is getting stoned. But you wouldn't know it. Nikki Esquibel, 19, has a medical prescription for marijuana. She uses a vaporizer pen around her neighborhood in Los Angeles. The 19-year-old, who has a medical prescription for marijuana, is "smoking" pot with a handheld vaporizer, or a vape pen. It's sleek, black, and virtually indistinguishable from a high-end e-cigarette. That's the point, says Esquibel. "I use it mostly around my neighborhood. It's easy to hide." The vapor coming from the device doesn't even have...

A married former Washington Post vice president has been found dead in a gay bar in Manhattan with drug paraphernalia near his body. Guyon Knight was found dead around 8am on Saturday in a bar called the Out in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York. The New York Post reported the circumstances of the 64-year-old's death, saying that he was seen with a needle, a pipe and unspecified pills near his body. The club where Knight was found describes itself as being gay-but-straight friendly, but a person familiar with the bar told MailOnline that it is mostly frequented by...

Was just watching the show and they played a clip of Rick Perry saying that Texas has lowered fines for first time offense for marijuana use. So far he has not said he would legalize it. So the members went around the table and all but Beckel (recovering addict) said they were for legalizing marijuana. Dana Pirino said Texas might as well legalize it because Texans are coming into Colorado to legally smoke the stuff. She also said that if a republican wants to get a hand in an audience full of hipsters all they have to say is they...

The use of heroin has risen over the past few years in the Hudson Valley. In part one of News 12's special report "Hooked on Heroin," Tara Rosenblum speaks with parents who have lost children to the drug. After Renee Hustins lost her son Benjamin to an overdose three months ago when he was 23, she met other parents who have lost children to heroin. The parents now all rely on each other for support. The parents Rosenblum spoke to all say they never would have expected their children to become addicted to heroin. Some of them also shared their...