Free Republic

A state trooper who was popping prescription painkillers to beat a career-threatening injury was arrested yesterday on charges he knocked off a Natick drug store's OxyContin supply at gunpoint the day after Christmas. Christopher Shields, 41, who's been on medical leave for more than a year, was picked up at an undisclosed health-care facility in Worcester where authorities said he checked in after getting bagged shoplifting soda, DVDs and magazines in Sudbury last Thursday. ``There are some personal problems going on here we hope to be able to assist him with, but he's made his bed and he's pretty much...

WHITE HOUSE REPORT STINGS DRUG AGENCY ON ABILITIES WASHINGTON, Feb. 4 - In an unusually harsh critique of an agency with a strong global reputation, the White House has questioned the ability of the Drug Enforcement Administration to stem the flow of narcotics and is threatening to give the agency its smallest budget increase in 15 years. The agency "is unable to demonstrate progress in reducing the availability of illegal drugs in the United States," the Office of Management and Budget wrote in an assessment released this week as part of the budget plan. The agency lacks clear long-term strategies...

The Left is Revolting! The peacniks will be featuring free sex, free drugs and free rock & roll as they insult our country, military and values during their Anti-American protest. Calling all Northern California Freepers and Lurkers (yes, you). This is a onetime ping to let everyone know that we are having a STAND UP FOR AMERICA counter Freep on Sunday 2/16. Please join us! For more information or if you would like to participate please, ping STL to be added to the SF Chapter ping list thread here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/834491/posts If you can't make the Freep, we can still use...

As law enforcement lobbies members of Congress and state legislators coast-to-coast for more funds to finance the war against illicit drugs, Utah's Legislature considers liberalizing Utah's liquor laws. As leaders obsess over how governments will help pay for the costs of medical treatment, Utah's Legislature is considering liberalizing Utah's liquor laws. Someone should teach Utah's legislators that alcohol is the most abused drug. Pretend for a minute that humankind had not discovered alcohol until Drexel distilled it in 2000. After years of testing, would the Federal Drug Administration allow it to be sold as a drink? At best, the FDA...

[…] Now a new breed of American refugee has arrived, seeking asylum from a different kind of war--the fight over medical marijuana. […] The effort languished until 1988, when the chief administrative judge at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration made a startling ruling: Marijuana had a place in medicine. Judge Francis L. Young declared it unreasonable, arbitrary and capricious for the federal government to stand between "sufferers and the benefits of this substance." DEA officials quickly rejected Young's ruling, and the courts backed them. […]

<p>References to medical uses quickly squelched in federal court.</p> <p>The Bay Area's first federal medical marijuana trial ended Thursday with a bizarre touch that symbolized the entire case: The judge took over questioning of a defense witness to make sure he didn't refer to the medical use of marijuana.</p>

Another case of a kid getting a parent in trouble, for bringing something to school that wasn't exactly intended for show and tell.In Iowa, a man is facing charges after his ten year old daughter brought a rock of crack cocaine to school.Police were called in after the girl showed a platic bag containing the crack to the school principal.They say that the girl told them she brought the rock from home and that it belonged to her dad.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Reuters) - Something smells funny in the Arkansas drug-testing business, and a state legislator thinks it might be the urine. Jay Martin, a freshman state representative, won passage through the Arkansas House of Representatives last week of his measure that will make it illegal to sell or use urine to falsify a drug or alcohol screening test. Martin said he is confident the first bill he ever sponsored will become state law. Martin said he was urged to introduce the "clean urine" bill by a local drug-testing company that complained of widespread trafficking in urine untainted by...

Judge Declines To Issue Gag Order in Guru of Ganja Case The federal judge presiding over the marijuana cultivation trial of Ed Rosenthal, the self-described "Guru of Ganja," declined Thursday to impose a gag order. Federal prosecutors had sought to keep the defendant and his attorneys from speaking to the media amid fears that the bombardment of publicity the case has generated could taint the jury. "I think there has been a concerted, organized effort to influence the jury," prosecutor George Bevan told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer. Rosenthal, who has written several how-to-grow marijuana books, faces a possible life...

Breaking News at the bottom of the screen. No on-air report.

Ms. Nancy Snell Swickard - Publisher Shotgun News P. O. Box 669, Hastings, NE 68902 Dear Ms. Swickard, I was very distressed to see the remark of one of your subscribers which you quoted on page 8 of your October 1 (1996) issue. The support of the "Drug War" by anyone who values the 2nd Amendment, and the rest of the Bill of Rights, is the most dangerous error of thinking in the politics of the "gun control" debate. This error is extremely widespread, although there have been some recent signs that some Americans are seeing through the propaganda of...

Context  Previous studies have reported that early initiation of cannabis (marijuana) use is a significant risk factor for other drug use and drug-related problems.Objective  To examine whether the association between early cannabis use and subsequent progression to use of other drugs and drug abuse/dependence persists after controlling for genetic and shared environmental influences.Design  Cross-sectional survey conducted in 1996-2000 among an Australian national volunteer sample of 311 young adult (median age, 30 years) monozygotic and dizygotic same-sex twin pairs discordant for early cannabis use (before age 17 years).Main Outcome Measures  Self-reported subsequent nonmedical use of prescription sedatives, hallucinogens, cocaine/other stimulants, and opioids; abuse or dependence...

<p>He played Joan Collins' husband on "Dynasty," Susan Lucci's husband on "All My Children." And then his career came crashing down with a drug bust. Tonight he opens up for the first time about the addictions that almost destroyed his life, the multimillion dollar lawsuit he's filed to reclaim his career and those rumors about his health.</p>

Using Marijuana May Not Raise the Risk of Using Harder Drugs Marijuana is widely regarded as a "gateway" drug, that is, one whose use results in an increased likelihood of using more serious drugs such as cocaine and heroin. This gateway effect is one of the principal reasons cited in defense of laws prohibiting the use or possession of marijuana. A recent analysis by RAND's Drug Policy Research Center (DPRC) suggests that data typically used to support a marijuana gateway effect can be explained as well by a different theory. The new research, by Andrew Morral, associate director of...

<p>IT WAS ONLY a matter of time: A new television ad campaign suggests that if you drive a sport -utility vehicle, you are helping terrorism by putting money in the pockets of oil-producing, terrorism-sponsoring countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq. One of the commercials cuts from a man at a gas station to a map of the Middle East to video footage of a terrorist training camp, while a little girl's voice says, ''These are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time George fills up his SUV.''</p>

After fighting the war on drugs for nearly 30 years, Lt. Jack Cole is ready to admit defeat. The retired New Jersey State Police detective -- who spent 12 years as an undercover narcotics officer -- spearheads a movement to legalize all narcotics as a way of ending the bloody, expensive war. "The war on drugs was, is and always will be a dismal failure," said Mr. Cole yesterday to a meeting of the Fairhaven Rotary Club. Mr. Cole is one of the founders of an international nonprofit group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP. That group, which includes...

If most parents knew there was a federally funded organization lying to their children about the effects of drug use, they would likely be appalled and seek to have the organization's funding removed. Yet the frightening truth is that such a group exists, operating under the family-friendly monicker, Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA). In its newest line of Public Service Announcements (PSAs), the group equates marijuana use with wrongful death, rape and even murder...crimes that sensible people realize marijuana usage alone would never lead to. Last year, the American public was misled into thinking that every joint they...

Twenty-five years ago, Lester Grinspoon noted in his classic study, Marihuana Reconsidered, that "the single greatest risk encountered by the user of marihuana is that of being apprehended as a common criminal, incarcerated and subjected to untold damage to his social life and career." What was true then is even more true today: around 700,000 Americans are arrested annually for simply possessing marijuana, and more than 10,000 Americans are currently in jails and prisons because they have been convicted of marijuana possession, and no other crime. The government's propagandists are taking full advantage of these statistics: A new anti-drug commercial...

Donovan No Runner walked out of the San Luis Obispo Police station all smiles Friday, holding the bag of marijuana authorities had returned to him. A local Superior Court judge had ordered the city to return the marijuana it confiscated from No Runner last summer, ruling the 23-year-old Grover Beach man had a valid doctor's recommendation. But police were concerned that handing the pot over to No Runner would violate a federal law prohibiting the distribution of controlled substances. As a result, the City Council considered appealing the court's ruling during a last-minute meeting Friday, but instead it decided to...

BENTON - Prosecutors around the country are being urged to take a stand against attempts to legalize or decriminalize controlled substances - in particular, marijuana. “Those who support drug legalization are well funded and highly adept at manipulating the media,” reads a Nov. 1 letter to prosecutors from the president of the National District Attorneys Association, Dan M. Alsobrooks. “And they do not mind deceiving the American public as well.” The letter warns of “incremental victories” by those in favor of legalizing drugs and notes the “key role” local prosecutors play in anti-drug efforts. Included with the letter was an...