Free Republic

There’s absolutely tragic news to report as former Stone Temple Pilots and Velvet Revolver frontman Scott Weiland died Thursday night (Dec. 3) at the age of 48. The news has been confirmed with an official statement posted on the rocker’s social media sites.

CHICAGO - State regulators have suspended the license of a dentist whose 5-year-old patient fell into a coma in his office and later died. Dr. Hicham Riba's practices posed an "imminent danger to the public," the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation said Friday. It said Riba failed to properly monitor Diamond Brownridge's blood pressure, pulse and respiration during her treatment Sept. 23 at his storefront clinic. The complaint said Riba recorded that Diamond was "alert and responsive" on discharge, although her mother claims to have found her comatose in the dental chair. Diamond died Wednesday at Children's Memorial...

It is this reporter's opinion that each generation in turn takes a new look at the marijuana question. Now it's this generation's turn. In a 6-to-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal anti-marijuana statutes overrule the laws in ten states that allow the use of marijuana plants to ease pain or nausea. Fifty years ago, as a much younger television reporter, I did a series of interviews with Dr. Hardin B. Jones, Professor of Medical Physics and Physiology at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Jones, in his thorough study, raised disturbing questions about marijuana's effects on the...

Comedian Mitch Hedberg dead at 37BY MATT PEIKEN Pioneer Press Even family and close friends had a hard time understanding Mitch Hedberg, a St. Paul native who ran away from home and, despite living a scattershot life, became a runaway success as a standup comic. Hedberg, whose space-case persona was as much part of his soul as it was his act, died early Wednesday morning in a New Jersey hotel room. He was 37. A medical examiner hasn't issued findings, but Hedberg's family is told he suffered a heart attack. His wife was with him. After graduating St. Paul's Harding...

"BRITISH actress Vanessa Redgrave, who campaigns for prisoners at the US detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, today denounced alleged torture at the jail and demanded the repatriation of the inmates. Ms. Redgrave was speaking in the town of Venissieux, France, home to two of the prisoners held at the centre. "The health and detention conditions at the Guantanamo base are a genuine reason for urgency," she said in French after meeting relatives of the detainees, Mourad Benchelalli and Nizar Sassi..."

<p>Hollywood — Robert Pastorelli (search), who played the oddball housepainter and confidante to "Murphy Brown," (search) was found dead in his Hollywood Hills home in what could be a drug-related death, the coroner's office said Tuesday. He was 49.</p> <p>Coroner's office Lt. Ed Winter said Pastorelli's body was found by his assistant shortly before 3 p.m. Monday in a bathroom of the Hollyridge Drive home. An autopsy was planned to determine the cause of death.</p>

U.S. Drug Czar Claims Canada is Too Lax Prosecuting Drug Crimes Seattle -- While police are aggressive about arresting people for drug crimes north of the border, Canada's court system treats marijuana and methamphetamine producers too leniently, the U.S. drug czar said Thursday. "What Canadian officials tell us is that they have laws on the books that could be used here, but that the Canadian system has developed the practice of not sentencing people to anything approaching serious time unless they commit a violent crime," John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy told The Associated Press....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A redesigned survey of who uses and abuses drugs in the United States has found millions of "missed" users and addicts, with an estimated 22 million Americans suffering from alcohol or drug abuse. The study, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Friday, finds that 19.5 million Americans used illicit drugs in 2002. This works out to 8.3 percent of the population age 12 or older. Last year's survey found that 15.9 million Americans used an illegal drug in 2001 -- but SAMHSA stressed that the latest survey used new methods and turned...

Escobar's rise to power: From small-time gangster to the terror of Colombia Pablo Escobar was arguably the richest and most violent criminal in history. Forbes Magazine in 1989 listed him as the seventh-richest man in the world. A small-time gangster and car thief from Medellin, the second-largest city in Colombia, Escobar violently consolidated the cocaine industry there in the late 1970s. Elected as an alternate to Colombia's Congress in 1983, Escobar enjoyed widespread popularity among the poor in Colombia, especially in his home state of Antioquia. He turned his violent methods against the state in 1984, when Colombia began cracking...

I was having lunch last week with a senior member of the Garda Siochana or Irish police in Dublin. He is a man with 32 years of service fighting crime in the Irish capital. Throughout his career he has witnessed three major drug waves in the Irish Republic - the first heroin epidemic of 1980; the explosion of ecstasy and cocaine use in the mid 1990s and now the introduction of crack cocaine at the start of the 21st century. He is a superintendent with some major successes under his belt including the operation against John Gilligan, the drugs baron...

Medical marijuana users and growers in California could cite state law as a defense against federal prosecutors who criminalize their actions, under a bill planned by three federal lawmakers. U.S. Reps. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, and Lynne Woolsey, D-Petaluma, plan to co-sponsor the bill next month with Rep. Dana Rohrbacher, an Orange County Republican. The proposed legislation comes in the wake of stepped-up federal raids on medical marijuana gardens over the past year, including one at a Santa Cruz County cooperative last September. The legislation also comes after marijuana guru Ed Rosenthal was convicted on federal charges of growing pot in...

<p>Eureka(AP) - - If you're looking for a place to stage a pot party April 20th, don't bother coming to Clam Beach in Humboldt County. The county Board of Supervisors has been asked to close the beach that day because hundreds of people gathered last year for what's known as "420 Day."</p>

A state lawmaker from Houston wants to change the punishment for possession of marijuana. Right now it's a Class B misdemeanor in Texas, punishable by a fine not to exceed $2,000 and/or confinement for a maximum of 180 days. Rep. Harold Dutton, D-Houston has written a bill that makes possession of less than an ounce of marijuana a Class C misdemeanor. It would also be the equivalent of a traffic ticket. "You wouldn't lose your drivers license, you don't lose any of these other things that you do in a Class B setting," Dutton said. Dutton doesn't condone marijuana use,...

Given that Drug Enforcement Administration officials already have said 14-year-old Ashley Villarreal caused her own death, we shouldn't hold our breath for that agency's investigation into the tragedy. Can't police agencies learn to at least pretend they are conducting a thorough investigation before declaring their agents free of blame? The problem is, when juries get to examine all the facts, they often disagree: Take the case of David Aguilar of Three Points, Ariz., a small town outside Tucson. Aguilar wasn't 14, but 44. He had moved with his family from Tucson to get his children away from drugs and gangs....

Twelve Israelis were arrested recently on suspicion of providing intelligence information to Hizbullah agents in exchange for drugs, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and Israel Police said on Monday. Charges were filed yesterday against nine of the suspects - three Jews from Kiryat Shemona and six Arab residents of the divided village of Ghajar, which is located half in Israel and half in Lebanon. Members of the ring, arrested about a month ago, are believed to have provided Hizbullah with intelligence regarding IDF deployment along Israel's northern border, the location of bases and military installations, and maps of the...

Nora Callahan knows firsthand the effects of America's war on drugs. Her brother was indicted for a drug conspiracy in 1989. After he was sent to prison for 27 years, she began trying to educate the public about how drug laws have increased the prison population. As executive director of the November Coalition in Colville, Wash., Callahan travels nationwide talking about the drawbacks of punitive drug laws. She speaks tonight at Savannah State University. Jails and prisons are clogged with people serving sentences for drug offenses, many of which are non-violent, Callahan said. A drug arrest in any family, Callahan...

<p>Drug agents wanted to make sure that they found the evidence when they traced a suspect to Vintage Faire Mall in Modesto. So when he went inside to meet with an alleged cohort, they stole his car. Eventually, and not without difficulty, the agents uncovered 54 pounds of black-tar heroin. Officials called it the largest single heroin seizure ever in the Central Valley, from Redding to Bakersfield, and valued the drugs at $21 million on the street.</p>

Even in these difficult times, a few simple rules can take some of the peril out of everyday life. For instance, if you’re planning to become a crackhead, make sure that you are the president’s niece. And a governor’s daughter. And that your family is rich enough to hire three lawyers to ply every legal trick to prevent you from doing hard time. Noelle Bush, the 25-year-old daughter of Florida’s governor, Jeb Bush, has been caught with three drug-law violations this year. The first one occurred in January when she feigned a doctor’s name and phoned in a prescription for...

CHEYENNE -- Sen. Keith Goodenough's years-long crusade to get the Legislature to legalize marijuana for medical purposes got off to a good start this year when the Senate Judiciary Committee gave its approval to Senate File 44 on Wednesday. "This is a big deal -- a glimmer of progressive light -- after many predicted it would sink for sure in committee," said Goodenough, D-Casper, after the 3-2 committee vote for his medical marijuana bill. Joining him in support of the bill were Sens. Ken Decaria, D-Evanston, and Bruce Burns, R-Sheridan. Panel Chairman Sen. John Hanes, R-Cheyenne, and Sen. Curt Meier,...

Landlords warned about drug dealing By Lawrence Budd LEBANON | The commander of the Warren-Clinton County Drug Task Force gave notice Monday to the landlords of properties where drug dealing is alleged: Clean up or face seizure under public nuisance laws. The warning came after an infant and 3-year-old girl were removed from their parents last week as Warren County drug agents were about to shut down purported crack cocaine trafficking at two homes in downtown Lebanon. The unrelated girls were turned over to Warren County Children Services, one on Thursday and one on Friday — the same day a...