Free Republic

SUNRISE -- Police seized 2 ounces of marijuana at the home of Anthony Diotaiuto after shooting him 10 times, according to information on the drug raid released Tuesday. Also Tuesday, while many friends and relatives of the 23-year-old bartender and student mourned him at a Davie funeral home, others appeared at a Sunrise City Commission meeting to demand an explanation for the fatal raid "Do 2 ounces of marijuana constitute a death warrant?" asked Sunrise resident William de Larm, a friend of Diotaiuto's.

America has a serious drug problem, but it's not the "meth epidemic" getting so much publicity. It's the problem identified by William Bennett, the former national drug czar and gambler. "Using drugs," he wrote, "is wrong not simply because drugs create medical problems; it is wrong because drugs destroy one's moral sense. People addicted to drugs neglect their duties." This problem afflicts a small minority of the people who have tried methamphetamines, but most of the law-enforcement officials and politicians who lead the war against drugs. They're so consumed with drugs that they've lost sight of their duties. Like addicts...

Bay Area pot farming is taking a frightening new turn. A state Fish and Game warden was shot in both legs and a man was killed Friday during an early morning raid on a huge marijuana garden near Mount Umunhum in a rugged, remote area of Santa Clara County. The operation had the hallmark of aggressive Mexican drug cartels, which in recent years have cornered California's marijuana-growing market, state drug agents say."It's scary," Bob Cooke, special agent in charge of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in San Jose, said of the new trend. "Once you hit the ground, they...