Free Republic

<p>WEAVERVILLE, Calif. (Reuters) - Pollution from illegal marijuana farms deep in California's national forests is far worse than previously thought, and has turned thousands of acres into waste dumps so toxic that simply touching plants has landed law enforcement officers in the hospital.</p>

A South Florida man charged with growing marijuana he claims he needs for a medical condition was found not guilty Monday. Jesse Teplicki, 50, had been charged with manufacturing cannabis and was facing up to five years behind bars. "This case is about medical marijuana and for the hundreds of thousands of patients who can use this medicine as an alternative," Teplicki said. It took jurors just 30 minutes to return the verdict.

Tobacco industry once had high hopes for marijuana business USA -- Richard Nixon was in the White House, his "war on drugs" was in full swing, yet Big Tobacco was secretly exploring the possibility of becoming Big Pot. Newly discovered documents from tobacco company archives at UC San Francisco show that major companies in the cigarette industry investigated joining the marijuana business in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The companies were driven then by the same shift in public attitudes that is now pushing legalization around the country. One company even asked a federal counter-narcotics official to secretly secure...