Free Republic

THE WORDS “retirement community” summon up images of easy chairs, overcooked food and endless daytime TV. Latitude Margaritaville, a community being built near Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, quickly disabuses these. “There was a toga party this past weekend,” says Lynette, a resident. “There was a live band, and it was a riot.” Barbie, another of the community’s “ambassadors” (residents employed by the developers to help sell it to potential newcomers), compares living there to “starting college all over again”. There are, she says, “drinks on the driveway, cocktails on the concrete”. If Margaritaville’s residents are representative of their...

President Trump on Thursday delivered the biggest federal policy win yet for marijuana reform advocates in signing a “common sense” order to no longer classify the drug as serious as heroin and LSD. The landmark action will move pot from “Schedule I,” the most restrictive Controlled Substance Act designation for drugs with a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical value, to Schedule III alongside ketamine — but the change stops short of full legalization. Trump stressed the order doesn’t sanction recreational pot smoking, but rather opens the door for medical research for patients in pain. “I promised to...

SACRAMENTO, Calif.— Agents have seized more than $2.6 billion worth of marijuana plants this year, already surpassing last year's season total by 20 percent, authorities said. The state Department of Justice's annual Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, or CAMP, is still a month away from wrapping up operations after the season peak at the end of September. The raids, many in remote, forested terrain, pit agents against often heavily armed guards protecting their marijuana plots. About three weeks ago, a grower was shot dead and a state Fish and Game warden was wounded during a raid on a 22,000-plant pot farm...