Free Republic

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. – A Florida man is behind bars after he attempted to steal an airplane at the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport so he could fly to California to meet his girlfriend while carrying nearly 500 grams of marijuana, according to the New Smyrna Beach Police Department. On Saturday, officers were alerted that a stolen vehicle had been found at the airport, and while in the process of locating that vehicle, officers were flagged down by a man who said it was his vehicle that was stolen. The victim told officers that a man unknown to him...

Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dismissed almost 600 criminal cases for what she determined are minor offenses. In other words, minor crimes are allowed in crime-ridden Baltimore. The minor crimes include, among others, drug possession, paraphernalia possession, prostitution (allows for trafficking), trespassing, minor traffic offenses, open container, rogues and vagabond, and urinating/defecating in public. Isn’t that lovely? She boasted that she already filed to vacate almost 5,000 Circuit Court and District Court marijuana convictions. But Circuit Court Judge W. Michel Pierson and District Court Judge Kathleen Sweeney completely shot down Mosby’s request to erase those convictions on April 26, The...

The Marion County Sheriff's Office posted the mugshot of 34-year-old Ricky Deeley on Facebook after he was arrested during a traffic stop in Ocala... Two others in the vehicle, 20-year-old Logan Tindale and 20-year-old Katlyn Spruill, were also arrested. The sheriff's office reports that Tindale had a felony warrant out for his arrest and lied about his name when originally questioned. Upon searching the vehicle, the deputy found Spruill in possession of a bag containing 23 grams of meth, a handgun, cocaine, marijuana, and various other drug paraphernalia.

A 50-year-old Philadelphia man was arrested on the Pennsylvania Turnpike Sunday evening, preventing him from making the 2,800-mile trip to the Super Bowl in California. Charles E. Robinson was pulled over for speeding at around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday near mile marker 230 heading east on the Turnpike, state police said in a news release. Trooper Mark Gray said Robinson was going about 100 mph in a rental car. Robinson told Gray that he was traveling to the Super Bowl, according to the release. Gray wrote in his report that he "immediately detected a strong odor of marijuana," which led...

Messing With Our Heads A "tobacco accessories" merchant fights a proposed ordinance prohibiting the sale of drug paraphernalia. By Alex Pickett Published 07.12.2006 http://tampa.weeklyplanet.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=73642 Weekly Planet Tampa It's 8 p.m. on a Wednesday night, and I'm inside the Home Depot at 22nd Street N. in St. Petersburg so Leo Calzadilla can prove a point. He strolls through the plumbing aisle and stops at the brass fittings. He picks up a five-inch brass nipple, screws on an elbow tube, adds a round connector on top and holds it up to a man next to him. "What does this look like to...

GILLETTE, Wyo. -- Jeffrey Doles wants his bongs back. He owns a store in Gillette, Wyo., called Hip Hop Hippie. Doles has been acquitted of drug paraphernalia charges. Now, he wants authorities to return about 130 brightly colored pipes and bongs that were confiscated when he was arrested last summer. But prosecutors said they'll file a civil lawsuit seeking permission to destroy the items. Doles charges prosecutors are just mad because they didn't win the criminal case against him. About 130 pipes and bongs were confiscated from the store on Aug. 10. Doles was arrested two days later after reopening...

Two Republican state senators want to tighten Minnesota's laws against drug paraphernalia sales. At a Capitol news conference last Thursday, state Sens. Amy Koch, R-Buffalo, and Michael Jungbauer, R-East Bethel, said they want to identify in statute the kinds of pipes and other items they say are only used for illegal drugs. Koch said the proposal closes a "loophole" in the law. Currently, law enforcement can only arrest people who possess drug paraphernalia that contain drug residue or who sell drug paraphernalia to a minor. "It makes absolutely no sense to outlaw harmful drugs and yet allow the open sale...

LITTLE ROCK (AP) -- Attorney General Mike Beebe says a proposed constitutional amendment to ban the sale of slave paraphernalia can be resubmitted for his review. Beebe rejected the proposal Thursday, saying it did not include a copy of the full measure for his review. He also noted several problems with the proposal including that it does not clearly define slave paraphernalia or slave items. But Beebe told Marquitta J. Corbin of Conway that she can submit the proposal again. Corbin wants to get the measure on the November ballot but the attorney general must first review the proposal...

Marc Emery has built a multimillion-dollar business selling marijuana seeds and paraphernalia while thumbing his nose at authorities in his native Canada, even challenging them to arrest him. Yesterday, the man known as Canada's "Prince of Pot" was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on a U.S. indictment charging him with selling millions of dollars worth of marijuana seeds to customers throughout the United States. Emery, the 47-year-old leader of British Columbia's Marijuana Party, has earned about $3 million a year selling the seeds through his Internet Web site and by mail, federal officials said. Emery and two accomplices, Gregory Williams,...

The candy-colored hand-blown glass pipes started it all. They drew Darryl Rouson to the Purple Haze Tobacco & Accessories Shop, where the pipes fill display cases. Rouson asked the owner to stop selling "death utensils under the guise of tobacco accessories," alluding to the contention that the pipes and glass tubes are used to smoke drugs like crack. Purple Haze's owner, Leo Calzadilla, and other employees repeatedly asked Rouson to leave the store at 1427 34th St. S, Calzadilla told police. Rouson said he didn't leave because he was frightened by pit bullterriers in the store. In April, the St....

The war on Hawaii's ice epidemic entered into a whole new area as the federal government Tuesday moved against store owners who sell users the tools of their addiction.KITV 4 News first documented the widespread sale of drug pipes at local stores last fall in an undercover camera investigation. The sales were out in the open because the state law against drug paraphernalia is too hard to use against stores. It turns out that federal prosecutors were doing a very similar investigation, but with much harsher consequences for the storeowners. Last September, an undercover police officer bought a pipe, scale...

Comedian Chong Sentenced on Drug Charges By DAN NEPHIN, Associated Press Writer PITTSBURGH - Tommy Chong (news), who played one half of the dope-smoking duo in the Cheech and Chong movies, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison and fined $20,000 Thursday for selling bongs and other drug paraphernalia over the Internet. The 65-year-old was allowed to remain free until federal prison officials tell him in a few weeks where he must report to prison. Chong also forfeited about $100,000 for his arrest on federal drug paraphernalia charges. He'll spend a year on probation after he's released from prison....

Two men swept up in the multistate federal drug paraphernalia sting known as "Operation Pipe Dreams" in February were sentenced Thursday to five years of probation, and six months in home detention. They were fined $20,000 each. Jason Robert Harris, 31, and Saeed Mohtadi, 33, pleaded guilty in May to one count each of conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia. The pair, both active in Eugene, Oregon's burgeoning art glass scene, operated several Internet businesses that marketed glass pipes and bongs created by a cadre of local glass artists. They advertised their wares as incense burners and labeled other items "for...

Cannabis poses a greater threat to health than tobacco, lung experts have warned. The warning comes on the day that Home Secretary David Blunkett is due to make a Commons statement about the future of government drug policy. Many young people are simply not aware that smoking cannabis may put them at increased risk of respiratory cancers and infections . Dame Helena Shovelton: The Home Affairs Select Committee has recommended that cannabis is downgraded from a class B drug to class C. This would mean that possession would lead to a caution, rather than arrest. The British Lung Foundation is...