Free Republic

A top Chicago police official’s car was stopped on the West Side during a drug arrest earlier this month, a police spokesman confirmed Wednesday. A Lexus registered to Yolanda Talley, chief of internal affairs, was pulled over Feb. 1 in the 500 block of North St. Louis Avenue and officers arrested Kenneth Miles, 34, on drug charges, according to an arrest report and police sources. Talley wasn’t in the car. Her niece was driving the Lexus, said Don Terry, a spokesman for the police department. According to a police report, officers in a gang investigations squad were targeting drug sales...

In an attempt to lower crime and raise government revenue, Uruguay is planning on legalizing marijuana. Currently, it is legal to possess less than 25 grams of cannabis, but it is illegal to grow or sell it. If the proposal passes, Uruguay’s government would oversee the growth and distribution of the $75 million business. Buyers would be required to register with the government. “It’s a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking,” said defense minister Eleuterio Fernandez Huidobro. “We think the prohibition of certain drugs is creating more problems for society than the drugs themselves.” Congress must approve...

In the summer of 1984, 10th-grader Irwin Nanofsky and a friend were driving down the Apalachee Parkway on the way home from baseball practice when they were pulled over by a police officer for a minor traffic infraction. After Nanofsky produced his driver’s license the police officer asked permission to search the vehicle. In less than two minutes, the officer found a homemade pipe underneath the passenger’s seat of the Ford Aerostar belonging to the teenage driver’s parents. The minivan was seized, and the two youths were taken into custody on suspicion of drug possession. Illegal possession of drug paraphernalia...

A Liberal’s LamentTo win, Obama must convince the country that he is a man of substance, not just style. History suggests this won't be easy.

Heart patient Samuel Nim Kama thought he'd won the battle to make Portland officials hand over the 2.5 grams of marijuana they took from him in 1999. Having proved that he was entitled to the drug under Oregon's Medical Marijuana Act -- and having prevailed twice in state court over the city's objections -- Kama was ready to claim his property this month from a police evidence room where it's sat for three years. But in the end, it appears neither Kama, 52, nor the city will get to keep the tin of stale pot denoted by Portland Police Property...