Free Republic

Former Vice President Joe Biden Says He Won't Push to Legalize Marijuana, Says It May Be 'Gateway Drug' Joe Biden raised eyebrows over the weekend when he said he won’t look to legalize marijuana nationwide if elected president because it may be a “gateway drug” that first requires more research.The Democratic presidential candidate and former vice president claimed during a Las Vegas town hall there hasn’t been enough evidence to show whether or not marijuana is a “gateway drug” — a term used to describe habit drugs that lead users to harder illegal substances, like heroin or cocaine. Research by...

You know, there are explosive stories, then there are EXPLOSIVE stories. And a new report in Politico isn’t just explosive; it’s EXPLOSIVE. We all knew that Barack Obama wasn’t going to let anything stand in the way of his stupid Iran Deal. And now we know that includes drug trafficking, arms trafficking, terrorism, and other criminal enterprises. In this Politico piece, we learn that Barack “Scarface” Obama obstructed a DEA operation to shut down the pipeline between Hezbollah and Latin American cocaine suppliers. This operation – called Project Cassandra – began in 2008. And with the aid of thirty US...

Only someone who worked in Hillary Clinton’s State Department and thought giving ISIS summer jobs would stop their beheadings and terrorist attacks could dispute Josh Meyer’s lengthy, well-researched article in Politico detailing “how Obama let Hezbollah off the hook” by undermining his own government’s efforts to take down the terrorist group’s drug trafficking operations: “I was part of the negotiating team that got the Iran nuclear deal done,” the former Obama State Department spokeswoman told Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade on Tuesday. “Until Politico wrote this piece, I had never even heard of this program. You know, the Politico story, this...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announced plans for the deployment of new Russian-made tanks and combat helicopters on the border with Colombia, RIA Novosti reported. Ties between Venezuela and Colombia deteriorated last August after Washington signed a deal with Bogota allowing U.S. forces to run anti-drug operations from Colombian bases. Chavez has criticized the deal and called for the Venezuelan people and army to prepare for a war.

President Hugo Chávez said he ordered two F-16 jets to intercept a U.S. military plane that twice violated Venezuelan airspace on Friday in what he called the latest provocation in the South American nation's skies. Brandishing a photo of the plane, which he described as a P-3, Mr. Chávez said the overflight was the latest incursion in Venezuelan skies by the U.S. military from its bases on the Netherlands' Caribbean islands and from neighboring Colombia. There was no immediate response from the U.S. Defense Department or the White House... Mr. Chávez said the F-16s escorted the U.S. plane away after...

The racism of marijuana prohibition Enforcement of marijuana laws disproportionately affects young African Americans -- even though their usage rates are lower than whites'... So while the purported mainstream is delighting to "Weeds" and contemplating the new revenue that state-regulated marijuana would generate, there's even greater urgency to ending the prohibition of marijuana. California can't wait any longer to end the racist enforcement of marijuana laws.

Last week, the Drug War Chronicle reports, the Drug Enforcement Administration made its first arrests related to medical marijuana since Attorney General Eric Holder promised not to prosecute people who are complying with state law.

The Pentagon has put 50 of Afghanistan’s powerful opium barons on a “kill or capture” list, signalling a radical shift in tactics against the Taleban. The announcement came as the commander of US forces in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, admitted that the insurgency, nurtured by tens of millions of dollars from the country’s vast poppy fields, now held the upper hand. The existence of the “joint integrated prioritised target list” — a rogues’ gallery of drug lords who are earmarked for arrest or assassination — is revealed in an unpublished Senate report obtained yesterday by The Times. It was confirmed...

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – President Barack Obama pressed for a new tone in the United States' relationship with Mexico but found no immediate progress Sunday on the divisions between him and Mexican President Felipe Calderon over the pace of U.S. drug-fighting aid and a ban on Mexican trucks north of the border. Obama kicked off his second trip to Mexico as president with a friendly 45-minute meeting with Calderon that touched on the vast trade relationship between their two countries, their cooperation on swine flu and the violent Mexican gangs dominating the drug trade on both sides of the border. Their...

MEXICO CITY – Police raided a church service in western Mexico and arrested a man known as "The Truck" who is suspected of moving a half ton of crystal methamphetamine into the United States each month, federal officials said Monday. Authorities detained Miguel Angel Beraza and another suspect after surrounding a church in Apatzingan in drug-plagued Michoacan state, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the Federal Police's anti-drug unit. About 40 others at the Mass were brought in for questioning. DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said Beraza is a high-ranking lieutenant in the drug cartel known as La Familia and called...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States' top anti-drug agency will substantially boost its presence in Afghanistan to check opium trafficking, the Taliban's main revenue source. "One year ago, we had 13 personnel in Afghanistan working counternarcotics," Jay Fitzpatrick, the DEA's assistant regional director based in Kabul. "We're in the process of increasing the number of personnel to 81." The U.S. network reported the DEA also plans track the top 10 to 20 narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan authorities.

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno. The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana. "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra...

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...

Eric Holder makes quiet visit to mosque to meet with Muslim Americans July 17, 2009 Atty. Gen. Eric Holder Jr. made a well-publicized visit to Los Angeles this week to announce stimulus grants to help fight drug trafficking and to help the victims of domestic violence. But in a quieter event not announced to the news media or public, Holder stopped at a mosque to meet with Muslim American youths. “The point was to engage the Muslim community here in Los Angeles and make sure they understand this administration’s commitment to work with that community,” Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller...

WASHINGTON — House lawmakers on Thursday blasted a White House decision not to provide money next fiscal year for upgrades to combat-worn equipment, and promised a fight to put billions back into the defense budget. The House version of the fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill already contains about $20 billion for the repair of equipment worn down by desert conditions and purchase of new gear to replace items destroyed in combat. About $11 billion of the total is for the Army alone. But that’s down more than $2 billion from previous years’ requests, and doesn’t include any funds for things...

The Rainbow Gathering and the U.S. Forest Service continue to trade charges over the festival that is expected to draw 10,000 people to a Northern New Mexico forest by Independence Day. More than 200 people so far have had to travel 240 miles round-trip from the site in the Santa Fe National Forest near Cuba, N.M., to Albuquerque to see U.S. Chief Magistrate Lorenzo Garcia ... Forest Service spokeswoman Denise Ottaviano said only six of the arrests have been for felonies — assault on a federal officer, theft of government property, damage to government property and conspiracy. Seized drugs, she...

TRIESTE, Italy (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday. Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilizing Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its August 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote. "The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. They did not result in any damage to the Taliban, but they put farmers out of work," Holbrooke told Reuters after...

The United States is to change the way it deals with the massive poppy growing industry in Afghanistan. Instead of destroying the crops it will spend money encouraging Afghan farmers to grow different ones. US special envoy to Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke, at a G8 meeting in Italy, said current measures against poppy growers had been "a failure". The conference of foreign ministers in Trieste also called for credible elections in Afghanistan in August. Mr Holbrooke said that existing programmes of eradication had not reduced by one dollar the amount of money the Taliban earned from production. "Spraying the crops just...

U.S. reverses Afghan drug policy, eyes August vote * U.S. to phase out poppy eradication * Wants to avoid questions over Afghan vote * Seeks more aid for Pakistan RIESTE, Italy, June 27 (Reuters) - Washington is to dramatically overhaul its Afghan anti-drug strategy, phasing out opium poppy eradication, the U.S. envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan told allies on Saturday. Richard Holbrooke, attending a G8 conference on stabilising Afghanistan, also discussed efforts to support its Aug. 20 election. Washington has nearly doubled its troops to combat a growing Taliban insurgency and provide security for the vote. "The Western policies against...

B A controversial law in Massachusetts could go national if Congressman Barney Frank gets his way. Frank has filed a bill that would eliminate federal penalties for personal possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana. It would also make the penalty for using marijuana in public just $100. "I think John Stuart Mill had it right in the 1850s," said Congressman Frank, "when he argued that individuals should have the right to do what they want in private, so long as they don't hurt anyone else. It's a matter of personal liberty. Moreover, our courts are already stressed and...