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According to the Associated Press, November 5th — Maine has become the fifth state to allow dispensaries where marijuana can be distributed to medical patients. But medical marijuana advocates say Maine won't become like Los Angeles, where hundreds of dispensaries have popped up and come under critical scrutiny. Ethan Nadelmann of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance says Maine's law has stricter provisions than California's. He says "Maine dispensaries will be licensed by the state, unlike those in California, and that Maine narrowly defines medical conditions for which patients can be prescribed pot, while California allows doctors to recommend it...

Heightened efforts by the Drug Enforcement Administration to crack down on narcotics abuse are producing a troubling side effect by denying some hospice and elderly patients needed pain medication, according to two Senate Democrats and a coalition of pharmacists and geriatric experts.

Note: The following text is a quote: DEA Mourns the Loss of Three DEA Special Agents in Afghanistan OCT 26 - WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today confirmed that three Special Agents were killed during a counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan. “Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration mourns the tragic loss of three DEA Special Agents and seven U.S. service members killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan,” said Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “The incident occurred during the early morning hours of October 26, when these heroic individuals were returning from a completed, joint counternarcotics mission.”...

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Farmers from North Dakota and Vermont and four others trying to plant hemp seeds at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration have been arrested. Arlington County police spokeswoman Detective Crystal Nosal says six people were charged with trespassing on Tuesday. They were among 21 people protesting the ban on farming of hemp, which is related to the illegal drug marijuana. The Hemp Industries Association says the protesters turned to civil disobedience for the first time. The group is lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They want to grow hemp for non-drug products. North Dakota farmer Wayne...

A Nebraska military officer who has battled Hurricane Katrina and al-Qaida will spend his final deployment searching for a sticky black substance that might be the key to victory in Afghanistan. Lt. Col. Thomas Brewer will soon head to Kabul, capital of the war-torn country, where he will serve as a military adviser to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as it tries to slow the production and movement of crudely processed black tar heroin. ...Military leaders recognize that insurgent groups in southern Afghanistan use drug money to buy weapons, upgrade their communication systems and bribe politicians... Brewer has spent most...

Baruch Vega's cellphone hardly rings these days. It's not like 10 years ago, when the Colombian photographer of models was an intermediary between the Drug Enforcement Administration and powerful drug traffickers, and his phone rang off the hook with calls from federal prosecutors and attorneys in South Florida while he discussed poses with European models at his Miami Beach penthouse. Now Vega, 61, seems to be tired of living on the razor's edge. He wants to put behind him the world that in 2000 took him to jail in the United States on charges of obstruction of justice and money...

EL PASO -- José Daniel González was living the sweet life in America. He bought the $365,000 two-story Mediterranean with the tile roof and swimming pool. He started a trucking company, was raising a family. But on a Friday night in May, he was executed in his front yard -- eight shots, tight pattern, close range. According to police detectives, González knew the man who ordered his killing. He also knew the man who stood on his lawn and watched him die...A gangland-style slaying is no big news across the river in Ciudad Juarez, where more than 1,300 people have...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The son of actor Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas could face life in prison for selling large amounts of an illegal drug over a three-year period before his arrest late last month, court records show. Cameron Douglas, 30, a sometimes actor who appeared with his father and grandfather Kirk Douglas in "It Runs in the Family," is accused of selling tens of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine, according to a complaint unsealed this week. Douglas was arrested at a Manhattan hotel on July 28, and had charges against him read in Manhattan federal court the next...

MEXICO CITY – Police raided a church service in western Mexico and arrested a man known as "The Truck" who is suspected of moving a half ton of crystal methamphetamine into the United States each month, federal officials said Monday. Authorities detained Miguel Angel Beraza and another suspect after surrounding a church in Apatzingan in drug-plagued Michoacan state, said Ramon Pequeno, head of the Federal Police's anti-drug unit. About 40 others at the Mass were brought in for questioning. DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart said Beraza is a high-ranking lieutenant in the drug cartel known as La Familia and called...

KABUL, Afghanistan, July 29 (UPI) -- The United States' top anti-drug agency will substantially boost its presence in Afghanistan to check opium trafficking, the Taliban's main revenue source. "One year ago, we had 13 personnel in Afghanistan working counternarcotics," Jay Fitzpatrick, the DEA's assistant regional director based in Kabul. "We're in the process of increasing the number of personnel to 81." The U.S. network reported the DEA also plans track the top 10 to 20 narcotics traffickers in Afghanistan with the help of Afghan authorities.

The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno. The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana. "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine," he said. "Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit," Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra...

NEW ORLEANS—Ameal Parker, aka Ameal Varnado, age 47, of New Orleans, La., pled guilty to the indictment that charged him with unlawfully killing DEA Supervisory Special Agent Thomas J. Byrne while Supervisory Special Agent Byrne was engaged in and on account of the performance of his official duties, announced U.S. Attorney Jim Letten of the Eastern District of Louisiana, along with Jimmy S. Fox III, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s New Orleans Office, David Welker, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New Orleans Field Office, and Steve Hartman, Acting U.S. Marshal. The...

He calls himself "Cesar," but his real name is Gerardo Aguilar Ramirez. As "comandante" of the 1st Front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- and one of the top 10 leaders of the hyperviolent FARC -- he has well-earned credentials as a drug-dealing terrorist with a penchant for trading in hostages. On Thursday, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents put Cesar in shackles, marched him aboard an aircraft here in Bogota and took him to the United States to stand trial for his crimes. Our Fox News' "War Stories" team was here to record the event -- and a...

Note: The following text is a quote: Remarks by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Efforts to Combat Mexican Cartel Efforts and Grants for Local Assistance Los Angeles, Calif. Wednesday, July 15, 2009 Thank you, DEA Special Agent in Charge Tim Landrum for hosting us today. And thank you to all of the federal law enforcement officials from California and Arizona who took part in our discussion of the challenges we face as we confront the Mexican cartels and cross-border drug trafficking on the Southwest border. I’m also pleased to be joined today by Ralph Partridge, Special Agent in Charge...

BOGOTA – The regime that ousted Manuel Zelaya in Honduras claimed Tuesday that the deposed president allowed tons of cocaine to be flown into the Central American country on its way to the United States. "Every night, three or four Venezuelan-registered planes land without the permission of appropriate authorities and bring thousands of pounds ... and packages of money that are the fruit of drug trafficking," its foreign minister, Enrique Ortez, told CNN en Espanol. "We have proof of all of this. Neighboring governments have it. The DEA has it," he added. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Rusty Payne in...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.

Sen. Tom Coburn, who is also a medical doctor, is calling for an outright ban on the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. "What we should be doing is banning tobacco," the Oklahoma Republican declared on the Senate floor during a debate on a tobacco regulation bill. "Nobody up here has the courage to do that. It is a big business. There are millions of Americans who are addicted to nicotine." The battle against tobacco use has been ongoing. Earlier this year Congress passed legislation that included an increase in the federal tax on cigarettes of more than 60...

The Russian parliament and media refer to him merely as a “Russian businessman.” But to much of the rest of the world, Viktor Bout is known as the “Merchant of Death,” the most notorious member of the dark fraternity of global weapons traffickers who arm terrorist organizations, as well as the tyrannical regimes and brutal warlords and militias responsible for horrendous genocidal slaughters over the past two decades. Since his March 2008 arrest in Bangkok, Thailand, in an elaborate U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting, Viktor Bout has been in Bangkok’s Klong Prem Special Prison awaiting trial. The U.S. Department of...

Since 1999, he's been buying himself favors by working with the DEA. No wonder he still hasn't been arrested. From the very beginning of the Allen Stanford scandal, there's been speculation of his playing some role in the drug trade, and talk that he may have been some kind of US government asset. That's been confirmed by the BBC: Secret documents seen by Panorama (BBC) show both governments knew in 1990 that the Texan was a former bankrupt and his first bank was suspected of involvement with Latin American money-launderers. ... He was initially investigated by the SEC for running...

A federal drug enforcement agent has pleaded not guilty to a federal indictment that accuses him of framing 17 people during controlled drug buys through an informant.

DEA dissenter Sandy Gonzalez reveals the drug war's complicity in torture and murder south of the border. Sandalio “Sandy� Gonzalez spent 27 of his 32 years in law enforcement with the Drug Enforcement Administration, working in Los Angeles, Mexico City, and Washington, D.C., and eventually taking charge of the agency’s operations for all of South America. In 2001, while Gonzalez was working as a high-ranking agent in Miami, there was a raid by a team of DEA and Miami–Dade County narcotics agents on a suspected major drug distributor. Several kilograms of cocaine were mysteriously missing by the time the evidence...

Turf battles between U.S. immigration and drug-enforcement authorities could jeopardize narcotics investigations and threaten officer safety, says Congress's investigative arm. A report from the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, set to be released Monday, says Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Attorney General Eric Holder should quickly develop new rules for carrying out drug investigations. It also says Ms. Napolitano should order her agents to share intelligence that has been withheld from the Justice Department. Both Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reporting to Ms. Napolitano, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, which reports to Mr. Holder at Justice, are sending more agents to...

March 4, 2009 Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2009/March/09-crm-189.html Colombian Paramilitary Leader Extradited to the United States to Face U.S. Drug Charges WASHINGTON – Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, a/k/a "El Mellizo," was extradited today from Colombia to the United States to face narcotics trafficking charges, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Rita M. Glavin of the Criminal Division and Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). According to the indictment, Miguel Angel Mejia-Munera, together with his twin brother Victor, led a major Colombian narcotics trafficking organization known as "the Twins" or "Los Mellizos" Organization. Victor...

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to meet Tuesday on a variety of issues with a parade of Israeli officials, headed by Prime Minister-designate and Likud party chairman Binyamin Netanyahu. Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, President Shimon Peres and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat are also on the list to meet with the new Secretary of State. Talks are expected to range from discussions on the situation in Gaza to the specific role of Dennis Ross, Clinton's new Special Advisor on Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia affairs, which has yet...

Supporters of programs to provide legal marijuana to patients with painful medical conditions are celebrating Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement this week that the Drug Enforcement Administration would end its raids on state-approved marijuana dispensaries. Federal raids on medical marijuana distributors continued at least into the second week of Barack Obama’s presidency, when federal agents shut down at least two dispensaries in California on Feb. 3. Holder was asked about those raids Wednesday in Santa Ana, Calif., at a news conference that was called to announce the arrests of 755 people in a nationwide crackdown on the U.S. operations of...

California may be going to pot - literally. Marijuana would be grown and sold openly to adults 21 and older under legislation introduced this morning by a San Francisco lawmaker. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said the cash-starved state could generate more than a billion dollars by taxing pot growers and sellers. Ammiano predicted that the public would support loosening marijuana laws that require substantial public funds to enforce. "I think there's a mentality throughout the state and the country that this isn't the highest priority," he said. "And that maybe we should start to reassess." Before California could legalize...

The head of the Drug Enforcement Administration spent more than $123,000 to charter a private jet to fly to Bogota, Colombia, last fall instead of taking one of the agency's 106 planes. The DEA paid a contractor an additional $5,380 to arrange Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart's trip last Oct. 28-30 with an outside company. The DEA scheduled the trip as the nation was reeling from the worst economic crisis in decades and the national debt was climbing toward $10 trillion. Three weeks later, lawmakers slammed chief executive officers from three automakers for flying to Washington in private jets as Congress...

In the story of the emperor with no clothes, it took someone whose observations are rarely heeded -- a child -- to point out the obvious fact that no one else could acknowledge. In the case of drug policy, it takes people who are usually ignored by Washington policymakers -- Latin Americans -- to perform the same invaluable service. Last week, a commission made up of 17 members, from Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa to Sonia Picado, the Costa Rican who heads the Inter-American Institute on Human Rights, did nothing but admit the truth: The war on drugs is a...

Dear Bambi,I do hope you will not be offended by my familiar term of address. After all, it is the office of president we honor, not the likes of you. (Please excuse my awkward English, I was educated in an American government school.)I know that you are valiantly attempting to impose the blessings of socialism on America, and I think you are right, if that is your goal, to look at the models of other countries that have gone much further down the road of socialism than America has, such as the UK. The idea of foisting (is that the...

Drug Enforcement Administration agents this week raided four medical marijuana shops in California, contrary to President Obama's campaign promises to stop the raids. DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart The White House said it expects those kinds of raids to end once Mr. Obama nominates someone to take charge of DEA, which is still run by Bush administration holdovers. “The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind,"...

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Federal agents raided a medical marijuana dispensary in South Lake Tahoe on Thursday. At about 11 a.m., five agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency — joined by members of the Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, the South Lake Tahoe-El Dorado County Narcotics Enforcement Team and the South Lake Tahoe Police — served a federal search warrant on Patient to Patient Collective, located at 2314 Lake Tahoe Boulevard. Agents seized between five and 10 pounds of processed marijuana and a “small amount” of U.S. currency from the collective, said DEA Special Agent Gordon Taylor. Police made...

Corrupt officials inside Mexico's security forces have leaked U.S. anti-drugs intelligence directly to drug traffickers to help them escape raids, a senior U.S. law enforcement agent said. A recent anti-corruption sweep showed the infiltration of Mexican police forces had reached alarming levels, with several high-ranking investigators and a presidential guardsman arrested for selling information to drug cartels. The U.S. agent said the arrests were an encouraging sign that Mexico's government is serious about stopping drug gangs from getting their hands on intelligence, some of which comes from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA. "There have been occurrences where we...

On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics. Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, rationing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600...

No, it's not some hypothetical offered by critics of lawsuits against gun manufacturers; it's a real case. From Ashley County v. Pfizer, Inc., decided today by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit (some paragraph breaks added): The Defendants are manufacturers and distributors of over-the-counter cold and allergy medications containing either ephedrine or pseudoephedrine. None of the Defendants are retailers, nor do they sell the medications directly to the public. The Counties allege that the Defendants marketed and sold their products in Arkansas knowing that the products were being used illegally to manufacture methamphetamine. [Footnote: In their briefs...

A jury sentenced a Lakeview man to 10 years in prison for growing nearly 7,500 marijuana plants. Andrew Stever, 40, was sentenced on Monday after a three-day trial in the Federal District Court in Medford.Ten years is the mandatory minimum sentence for anyone convicted of growing 1,000 or more pot plants. In July 2007, officers from several local, state and federal agencies found 7,459 plants growing on Stever's Lakeview property, which bordered Forest Service land. Two men fled the scene, leaving behind personal property and three firearms, according to the U.S. attorney's office in Portland. Physical evidence and testimony linked...

President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending "indefinitely" the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia.Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him to do. Bolivia's first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country's union of coca-growers.

In Mexico's worst case of drug-related corruption in a decade, a drug cartel infiltrated the highest levels of Mexico's Attorney General's Office, paying as much as $450,000 a month to get sensitive information about anti-drug activities, Mexican officials said on Monday. The cartel even seemingly placed a mole inside the U.S. Embassy that fed the drug lords information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a copy of an arrest warrant seen by The Wall Street Journal and obtained by Mexican newspaper El Universal. A DEA spokesman said: "We are currently investigating this issue along with our Mexican counterparts."...

A while back, radio talk show host Michael Savage brought up the notion that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama couldn’t pass a background investigation to become an FBI special agent. He doesn’t know how right he is. Sen. Barack Obama wouldn’t pass a routine government background investigation, not only to become an FBI agent, but a police officer as well. If he were a soldier, his background would preclude him from obtaining a security clearance. He wouldn’t even qualify to be a support person in a federal agency, such as secretary, for that matter. His past cocaine usage disqualifies...

There is real danger that Islamic extremist groups such as al-Qaida and Hezbollah could form alliances with wealthy and powerful Latin American drug lords to launch new terrorist attacks, U.S. officials said Wednesday. Extremist group operatives have already been identified in several Latin American countries, mostly involved in fundraising and finding logistical support. But Charles Allen, chief of intelligence analysis at the Homeland Security Department, said they could use well-established smuggling routes and drug profits to bring people or even weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. "The presence of these people in the region leaves open the possibility that...

Nine people have been arrested in connection with a drug importation ring that shipped cocaine from Puerto Rico to New York City hidden in boxes of children's toys and puzzles, officials said Tuesday. Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent-in-Charge John Gilbride said the five-month investigation revealed that Jose Diaz, 28, of Bronx, N.Y., directed associates in Puerto Rico to ship kilograms of cocaine concealed inside children's toy tool boxes and large toy container boxes to New York City. The organization then used U.S. Postal Service Express Mail to deliver the packages to addresses in Manhattan and the Bronx

When Owen Beck was 17, doctors amputated his right leg to stop the spread of bone cancer. His parents, desperate to find a drug that would relieve their son's excruciating phantom limb pain, brought him to Charlie Lynch's medical marijuana dispensary in Morro Bay, Calif., carrying a recommendation from a Stanford University oncologist. The marijuana not only eased the pain but also alleviated the nausea caused by chemotherapy. Called to testify as a character witness in Lynch's federal marijuana trial, Beck did not get far. When he mentioned his cancer, U.S. District Judge George Wu cut him off and sent...

WEST COVINA - Two men believed to be Mexican federal police officers were arrested along with two others Wednesday on suspicion of being part of a narcotics ring at a home in an unincorporated county area near West Covina, authorities said. Victor Manuel Jaurez, 36, and Carlos Cepano Filippini, 34, were taken into custody by a Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Jane Robison said. They are both believed to members of the Agencia Federal de Investigacion. Filippini is a commander in the AFI, she said. Juarez's rank was not clear Friday.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela said Thursday it arrested a man who identified himself as a U.S. anti-drugs agent, which if confirmed could inflame tensions between the United States and one of its biggest oil suppliers. President Hugo Chavez in 2005 ended cooperation with the the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), saying the agency was spying on him. The United States denied the charge and says Chavez does too little to stop trafficking from neighboring Colombia, the world's largest cocaine exporter. Gen. Gabriel Oviedo said the man was acting suspicious when he was detained close to the border with Colombia while...

U.S. Wary Of Small Boat Terrorism As boating season approaches, the Bush administration wants to enlist America's 80 million recreational boaters to help reduce the chances that a small boat could deliver a nuclear or radiological bomb somewhere along the 95,000 miles of U.S. coastline and inland waterways. According to an April 23 intelligence assessment obtained by The Associated Press, "The use of a small boat as a weapon is likely to remain al Qaeda's weapon of choice in the maritime environment, given its ease in arming and deploying, low cost, and record of success." While the United States...

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. -- Federal agents on the hunt for criminals on Thursday raided the wrong house while searching for drugs. Police and federal agents raided 50 marijuana grow houses around Florida on Thursday, calling it "Operation D-Day." They seized $7 million worth of pot plants, but they also kicked in the door of Noel Llorente's Opa-locka home and found nothing but bewildered homeowners. "I was frightened for my husband because they threw him on the ground," Llorente's wife said. "I was scared. Llorente said he was just leaving for work when unmarked cars pulled up, Drug Enforcement Administration agents jumped...

Top drug agent tells area residents, however, that violence is likely to "get worse." The Drug Enforcement Administration is doing its best to keep Mexican border violence from spilling over to the U.S. side, DEA Special Agent in Charge Jack Riley told the Las Cruces Sun-News in an interview. "We're very prepared for it and I can assure you, you won't see an increase in violence in Las Cruces. We're all over it," said Riley, who heads the DEA's El Paso sector, which includes New Mexico.

ATF added another weapon to its gang-fighting arsenal Nov. 28 with the formal opening of a new facility in Northern Virginia that will house 80 intelligence analysts, agents, prosecutors and support personnel — all from different agencies — and all working together to investigate and dismantle the most violent gangs in the United States. “Coordination has brought us success in the past, and can yield even more in the future,” said ATF Acting Director Michael Sullivan, speaking during the formal opening of the new facility. The new site brings together two separate gang deterrence units — the National Gang Intelligence...

The Drug Enforcement Administration is losing more guns but fewer laptops than it was about five years ago, the Justice Department's inspector general said Friday.< >The majority of stolen guns had been left in an official's car, despite a policy prohibiting leaving a weapon unattended in a vehicle. The report cited examples of guns stolen from cars parked outside restaurants, hotels, schools and gyms. Some agents had their guns taken from their cars while they were shopping or getting coffee. One firearm was stolen while the car was at the body shop.< >

Now The Fun Begins With Russia Over Bout's Arrest By Douglas Farah It did not take the Russian government long to the Russian government friends and lawyers for the recently-arrested Viktor Boutto begin working to protect him again. The tactic now is to seek the extradition of Bout, arrested in Thailand in an elaborate sting operation run by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), back to Russia, rather than the United States. Of course, Bout, who has armed rebels, criminals and terrorists from the Taliban in Afghanistan to the RUF in Sierra Leone to the FARC in Colombia, has always...