Free Republic

Corona beer owner set to buy into world’s largest cannabis grower U.S. drinks company Constellation Brands has agreed to buy a near 10 percent stake in Canopy Growth Corporation, the world's largest publicly traded cannabis company. Constellation, a beer distributor that owns Corona, is reportedly planning to work with the grower to develop, market and sell cannabis-infused beverages. The agreement, confirmed in a press release Monday, is $245 million Canadian dollars ($191 million) in exchange for a 9.9 percent stake in the Canopy Growth Corporation. It is seen by Constellation Brands President and CEO, Rob Sands, as an anticipation of...

A new Gallup poll shows growing support for marijuana legalization, with 64 percent of Americans now in favor of the measure. The number is the highest level of support in nearly half a century of surveying adults on the issue, according to Gallup. Support has steadily increased in recent years, with the latest figure up 4 percentage points over last year and up 14 points from 2011. The poll also showed a majority of Republicans favoring legalization for the first time, with 51 percent expressing support. That number is up 9 percentage points from last year, according to Gallup.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz issued subpoenas Thursday to two ATF agents after they failed to show at a hearing examining the 2011 murder of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata. “I'm tired of hearing from just [Justice Department] management, I want to hear from the people that actually are on the front lines doing this,” Chaffetz, R-Utah, said.  Chaffetz complained ATF “continues to insist” the committee should not speak with Turk and Temple.  The one other witness, DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, did not escape unscathed when he contended he was not prepared for the hearing....

Mexican law enforcement officers last weekend arrested the man believed to be the final fugitive from the “rip crew” that engaged in a 2010 gunfight between Border Patrol agents that resulted in the death of agent Brian Terry. Jesus Rosario Favela Astorga was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the killing of Terry. "The arrest of Favela Astorga resulted from the unwavering commitment of the United States and our law enforcement partners in Mexico to bring to justice those responsible for the murder of Agent Brian Terry, who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving his country," Alana Robinson, the acting...

President Trump said on Tuesday that his choice for drug czar is dropping out of consideration after reports that the nominee pushed legislation that undermined efforts to combat the opioid epidemic in the United States. In a Twitter post on Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump said that Representative Tom Marino “is withdrawing his name” for the White House job of director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. He said Mr. Marino, a Republican from Pennsylvania, was a “fine man and a great Congressman!” Mr. Trump was asked about the future of Mr. Marino’s post on Monday after a joint...

Chuck Rosenberg, the acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, emailed staffers Tuesday announcing he is resigning from the post. Rosenberg’s reason for leaving the agency was not reported, but it comes two months after he emailed DEA employees to reject comments President Donald Trump made about police use of force on suspects. Unnamed law enforcement officials told The New York Times on Tuesday that Rosenberg felt Trump had little respect for the law. Before becoming acting administrator of the DEA in May 2015 during the Obama administration, Rosenberg served as chief of staff for FBI Director James Comey.

A former US secret service agent has pleaded guilty to stealing over $800,000 worth of bitcoin during an investigation into online drug marketplace Silk Road. Shaun Bridges, 33, appeared in federal court in San Francisco and admitted to money laundering and obstruction of justice. Silk Road operated for more than two years until it was shut down in October 2013 having generated more than $214m in sales of drugs and other illicit goods using bitcoin, prosecutors said. Ross Ulbricht, Silk Road’s creator, who authorities say used the alias Dread Pirate Roberts, was sentenced to life in prison after a federal...

The History Channel is running a four-part series tracing the history (duh!) of the so-called War on Drugs. Since I seldom watch TV any more, I learned about this after the third episode had already aired. Rats! However, as luck would have it those of us who missed out didn't really miss anything. We can watch at our own pace, a few minutes at a time if that's all we can digest in one sitting (or or are otherwise distracted by barking dogs, phone calls, kids, meals). The site will remember where you left off so you can resume at...

While the Big Three Networks (ABC, CBS, and NBC) spent Wednesday focusing on a Senate hearing they were hoping would implicate President Trump in obstruction of justice, they ignored a House Oversight Committee report that showed President Obama’s administration did just that. “An absolutely blistering report tonight out saying the Obama administration in general and former Attorney General Eric Holder in particular repeatedly lied to the family of a slain Border Patrol officer about the weapons used in his death, and stonewalled efforts to get at the truth,” announced Fox News’ Bret Baier on Special Report. {..snip..}

The House Oversight Committee released a scathing report Wednesday that accuses former Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice of covering up Operation Fast and Furious and misleading Congress’ investigation into the botched gun-running operation. The nearly 300-page report states that the Justice Department under Holder actively tried to hide the facts from the loved ones of slain Border Patrol Brian Terry – seeing his family as more of a “nuisance” than one deserving straight answers — and at times being openly hostile to them. {..snip..}

On Wednesday the House Oversight Committee, chaired by outgoing Congressman Jason Chaffetz, will hold a hearing re-examining Operation Fast and Furious and the Obama administration's handling of the scandal. The goals of the hearing are to "identify what the new officials at the Department of Justice can learn from the mistakes made by their predecessors in responding to Congress's inquiry" and "to understand the effect of the Justice Department's obstruction on these witnesses." As a refresher, Operation Fast and Furious was a program implemented under the Obama Justice Department (headed by Attorney General Eric Holder) and the Bureau of...

The House Oversight Committee released a scathing report Wednesday that accuses former Attorney General Eric Holder and his Department of Justice of covering up Operation Fast and Furious and misleading Congress’ investigation into the botched gun-running operation. The nearly 300-page report states that the Justice Department under Holder actively tried to hide the facts from the loved ones of slain Border Patrol Brian Terry — seeing his family as more of a “nuisance” than one deserving straight answers — and at times being openly hostile to them. […] The report also says that Holder’s Justice Department stonewalled inquiries from Sen....

Six years late, we have new insight into the government’s secretive Fast and Furious operation in which federal agents purposely let thousands of assault rifles and other weapons be trafficked from the U.S. to Mexican drug cartels, where they were used in many murders and other crimes.

The efforts were launched after the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act from 2010, giving the DEA the power to form drug disposal programs nationwide...Have a medicine cabinet full of pills and medicines you don’t need anymore and need a safe place to dispose of them? It’s time for another Drug Take Back Day. In Oct. 2016, America turned in 366 tons of unwanted drugs. In its 12 previous Take Back events, the Drug Enforcement Agency has taken in over 7.1 million pounds of the potentially dangerous substances.

The Drug Enforcement Administration seized more than $4 billion in cash from people suspected of drug activity over the last decade, but $3.2 billion of those seizures were never connected to any criminal charges. A report by the Justice Department Inspector General released Wednesday found that the DEA's gargantuan amount of cash seizures often didn't relate to any ongoing criminal investigations, and 82 percent of seizures it reviewed ended up being settled administratively—that is, without any judicial review—raising civil liberties concerns. In total, the Inspector General reports the DEA seized $4.15 billion in cash since 2007, accounting for 80 percent...

El Chapo could compromise hundreds, possibly thousands of federal drug investigations with a well-placed mole on his legal team ... that's the fear of federal officials. We've learned Chapo's legal team will become privy to thousands of sensitive DEA documents that chronicle his activities in the international drug trade. The worry ... that the lawyers Chapo hires will use the info to warn other drug kingpins of the DEA's moves, compromising the investigations. Prosecutors went to court and asked the federal judge in Brooklyn who is presiding over Chapo's drug trafficking case to allow them to screen every potential foreign...

Patrons at the Iron Addicts Gym in Miami said they were disrupted from their morning workouts Wednesday by DEA agents who raided the facility. Ten people were arrested on warrants for selling anabolic steroids, including Richard Rodriguez, a part-owner of the business. Several gym patrons posted about their experiences on Facebook and Instagram, sharing photos of DEA agents in the gym. One man wrote on Facebook that “there is a hormone club for prescription upstairs.” …

Kentucky U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie says his bill that would abolish the federal Department of Education should be taken seriously because the interest it has generated means the measure could ultimately end up on President Donald Trump’s desk. “I think the reason people have to take this bill seriously now, is because, for the first time since Ronald Reagan, we have a president in the White House who would conceivably sign this bill,” he explains in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News. Massie, who introduced his bill to abolish the federal education department on February 7, says he and many...

IT’S NO SECRET that the Drug Enforcement Administration relies heavily on an army of confidential sources — men and women compelled, coerced, or enticed to share information with law enforcement, sometimes to alleviate their own legal troubles, sometimes for cash. Precisely how those relationships play out, however, is often shrouded in secrecy. A recently published audit by the Department of Justice has now offered a startling glimpse behind the scenes of those operations, revealing a world in which hundreds of millions of dollars have been doled out to thousands of informants over the last five years. Those informants include package...

U.S. Gun-Show Customers’ License Plates Come Under Scrutiny Federal agents enlisted local police to scan cars’ plates at shows’ parking lots By Devlin Barrett Oct. 2, 2016 7:35 p.m. ET Federal agents have persuaded police officers to scan license plates to gather information about gun-show customers, government emails show, raising questions about how officials monitor constitutionally protected activity. Emails reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show agents with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency crafted a plan in 2010 to use license-plate readers—devices that record the plate numbers of all passing cars—at gun shows in Southern California, including one in...