Free Republic

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. What about the fifth time? On four separate occasions during Martin Chávez's two terms as Albuquerque mayor, the ACLU has raised serious, well-substantiated concerns about the constitutionality of the mayor's pet legislative projects. First, there was the 1999 teen curfew ordinance. Then there were two radical sex offender laws and an anti-panhandling ordinance, all of which were touted as "the toughest laws of their kind in the country." Four times we asked the mayor to reject these bills as unconstitutional, and four times he ignored us. Four times...

Marijuana seized by police in Chicago last month turned out to be hay from a church Nativity scene. Police got an anonymous tip that a major consignment was being moved in a truck. When officers stopped the vehicle with Jose Galvan and Juan Luna in it, two small plastic bags with crushed green plants fell out of the cab. On-the-spot tests seemed to confirm the plants were marijuana. But a spokesman for the Cook County state attorney's office has confirmed that lab tests found the initial results were erroneous and drugs charges have now been dropped. Mr Galvan and Mr...

The world's oldest euphoric drug is poised to make a return to the medicine cabinet. Cannabis, reputedly taken by Queen Victoria to quell her period pains but banished from Britain's schedule of medicinal drugs in 1971, is on the point of winning scientific backing for its role in easing the symptoms of chronic disease. This week the Medical Research Council is due to announce that it has recruited the last of 660 patients to a £1.2m trial of cannabis-based medicines in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, the largest in the world. Most of the patients recruited over the past two...