Free Republic

A few years ago I asked an Alaska State Trooper, “If you had a choice of either having alcohol or marijuana legal which one would you pick?” Without hesitation he said, “Oh, marijuana! People who drink get drunk, get in their cars, drive fast, go home and beat up their families. People, who smoke marijuana get stoned, get in their cars, drive slowly, go home and eat and play with the kids.” It’s always amazed me that alcohol and tobacco, two of the most insidious drugs available, are accepted by the government, while a relatively benign drug like marijuana is...

      NewStandard Home Iraq in Crisis Civil Liberties & Security U.S. Business & Economy News ArticleHouse About to Strip More Civil Liberties in Name of Anti-terrorismby Madeleine Baran (bio) Oct 6 - Civil liberties and immigrant rights advocates say House Republicans are using legislation based on the 9/11 Commission's recommendations as cover to implement a series of troubling, un-related reforms condoning torture, limiting immigration and increasing surveillance of both non-citizens and citizens.The House will vote on the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act this week. Opponents say the Republican leadership rushed the legislation to the floor without much time...

A CHANGE IN MARIJUANA PROSECUTION EYED Chicago Considers Bid To Issue Fines In Certain Cases CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard M. Daley has endorsed a proposal to issue fines for possession of small amounts of marijuana rather than clog the courts with cases that tend to be thrown out by judges. Daley said the volume of marijuana cases that are tossed out by local courts -- upwards of 90 percent, according to one recent study -- mean minor possession is virtually decriminalized in Chicago now. "If 99 percent of the cases are thrown out, when is there a credible arrest for...

Few Americans typically give much thought to the $200 million hemp industry: a $200 million market that includes such wide-ranging products as bread, clothing and soap. But this week hemp producers are getting a powerful marketing boost from an unlikely source—the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Nearly two and a half years ago, the put a chill into the hemp marketplace by interpreting the definition of marijuana in the Controlled Substances Act to include hemp food products. Their logic was that ingestible hemp contained THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and therefore was a Schedule 1 controlled substance, just like marijuana. Never mind that hemp...

WASHINGTON — An annual White House report on countries with drug problems says Canada's relatively lax penalties for marijuana producers and moves toward decriminalizing pot could be an ``invitation" to organized crime that hinders police and prosecutors. Canada isn't on the president's list of 22 major illicit drug-producing and transit countries, which includes Mexico and some South American countries that supply the vast majority of drugs to the United States. But the report cited Canada's "lack of significant judicial sanctions against marijuana producers" and marijuana reform legislation as troublesome. "We are now working intensively with Canadian authorities to address the...

Washington, DC: Three out of four illicit drug users in the United States are marijuana smokers, according to survey data released today by the Department of Health and Human Services.According to the department's annual "National Survey on Drug Use and Health," an estimated 19.5 million Americans currently use illicit drugs (as defined as use within the past month). Of these, 14.6 million - or 75 percent - self-identify as marijuana smokers.By comparison, only 2.3 million Americans reported using cocaine, approximately one million reported using LSD, and fewer than 120,000 said that they currently use heroin. In addition, an estimated 97...

It's Time To Rethink and Reform Drug Laws Thoughtful conservatives such as William F. Buckley are joining the call for sweeping reforms, including legalization, taxation and regulated sale of marijuana. America's war on drugs is now in its 90th year. Federal law first restricted access to cocaine, heroin and related drugs in 1914. Marijuana was outlawed in 1937. Now, after nine decades of largely futile and often counterproductive efforts at drug prohibition, the time has come to reevaluate and reform America's drug laws. All wars have casualties, and this one is no exception. According to a recent report from the...

SALEM, Mass. -- A Beverly (MA) mother is facing charges that she prostituted her 9-year-old daughter in exchange for cocaine, after police showed up at a Salem apartment Monday night looking for child pornography and found a man abusing the girl. In a case a prosecutor said "speaks to the most horrific things you can imagine," Mary Jean Armstrong, 35, of 9 Mill St., is accused of allowing two Salem men to sexually abuse her daughter. Armstrong is now facing multiple felony counts of inducing a child to prostitution, disseminating obscene material involving a child, and indecent assault and battery...

I had to laugh the other night as my wife and I walked our dog. We were strolling through our nearly all-white upper-middle-class suburb singing, "No, no, no, no I don't smoke it no more/I'm tired of waking up on the floor," from the "No No Song" by Ringo Starr, when what to our wondering eyes did appear but a neighbor sporting a joint in his pickup truck. Spying us, he finished his drag and quickly slid the roach into his truck's ashtray. It did not take "Dragnet's" Joe Friday to crack this case. Any American who came of age...

MIAMI (AP) -- Retired Dolphins running back Ricky Williams said he failed a third drug test for marijuana use, which would cost him a four-game suspension if he decides to return to the NFL, The Miami Herald reported on its Web site Thursday. Williams told the newspaper that marijuana played a larger role in his retirement than he indicated when he walked away after just five pro seasons. He said he learned of the failed test and possible suspension days before telling coach Dave Wannstedt last week that he was through playing. Williams said, however, that there were ``a hundred...

Conservatives pride themselves on resisting change, which is as it should be. But intelligent deference to tradition and stability can evolve into intellectual sloth and moral fanaticism, as when conservatives simply decline to look up from dogma because the effort to raise their heads and reconsider is too great. The laws aren't exactly indefensible, because practically nothing is, and the thunderers who tell us to stay the course can always find one man or woman who, having taken marijuana, moved on to severe mental disorder. But that argument, to quote myself, is on the order of saying that every rapist...

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Ever since prescription painkillers such as OxyContin became the drugs of choice among dealers and addicts in Appalachia, the days of small-town pharmacists dispensing medicines from behind an ordinary counter have become a quaint memory.Now, many pharmacies have turned into virtual fortresses. Some now have bars over the windows. The most sought-after drugs are stored in vaults. The pharmacists often work behind safety glass, and some have even armed themselves. Surveillance cameras and alarm systems monitor every spot.Pharmaceutical companies have also adopted practices from the banking industry, delivering prescription pills in armored trucks protected by armed...