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MEXICO CITY — The biggest military corruption case here in recent years has worsened an already frayed relationship between American law enforcement officials and the Mexican Army, the institution most trusted and empowered by officials here to fight the drug war. The case involves the arrests this month of four formerly high-ranking army officers, including a former under secretary of defense, who are suspected of passing information to the Beltrán Leyva drug gang for money. For some Americans, the arrests confirm a longstanding wariness of the army, and have reawakened concerns about how closely it may be linked to the...

This is the first look at the naked homeless man who ate another Man's face while high on a new potent form of LSD.

We all know the difference between normal mistakes and those that hint at a deeper, more frightening problem, such as Alzheimer's or other brain conditions. In light of this, how do you interpret a shocking mistake recently made by Barack Obama? Writes Terry Jeffrey of CNS News: In two campaign speeches over the last two days, President Barack Obama has twice mistakenly mentioned "my sons" when defending his administration's regulation requiring virtually all health-care plans in the United States to provide women, without any fees or co-pay, with sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can...

Bill Clinton he was not. When it came to smoking pot, the teenage Barack Obama had rules. You had to embrace "total absorption" or face a penalty. When you smoked in the car, "the windows had to be rolled up." And he could horn his way in, calling out "Intercepted!" and grab the joint out of turn. Best-selling author David Maraniss' "Barack Obama: The Story" describes the future president's teenage antics, notably his copious marijuana smoking, details of which were published early Friday by Buzzfeed. While the book won't be released until June 19, vast sections of it were already...

It has been well known for years that President Obama was an avid user of cocaine and marijuana in both his high school and college years. However, the rabbit hole appears to be much deeper than previously thought. Over the last few days, Mr. Obama's "rules" for taking drugs has been widely publicized. The fact that President Obama took so many drugs that he needed specific guidelines should speak for itself. Additionally, and possibly most shocking, we have learned that in his high school year book, Mr. Obama thanked his drug dealer by name. One person that he failed to...

Several weeks ago, as further information and discovery came to the surface the whole framing of the original media narrative began to crumble, I stumbled over a reference to “DXM” in Trayvon’s Facebook history. It’s nagged at me since, at various times popping to the front of my mind when Trayvon’s drug use was mentioned, was quickly lost to other distractions. A couple of evenings ago it again came to the forefront of consideration. This time I decided to dig in, do a little research, and see if there might actually be something to it. What I found was frankly,...

Police suspected singer Wyclef Jean and activist and TV host Reverend Al Sharpton of being involved in laundering drug money, Brooklyn federal court has heard.....More

Violence like this along the border is getting worse and is already spilling over into the US and Texas. When will the Obama Administration and the Federal Government step up to do more to protect our own border from this escalating violence? The car bomb article today from the associated press (see below) is yet another example of this escalating violence. If you live on the border, massive gun battles and explosions can be heard on a nearly daily basis. Here are some articles I have posted about border violence just in the last year. I barely even scratch the surface: SHOCKING Texas/Mexico Border WARZONE...

<p>OK – so Trayvon is seeking a source for a powerful cough syrup, commonly used in his “culture” to make an intoxicating drink called “Lean” – also known as the infamous “purple drank/Purple Lean/Lean/Sizzurp.”</p> <p>“…Be very careful in trying to restrain the tripper, since she or he may perceive this as a threat, and will probably be mostly immune to pain...the tripper, like a cornered animal, could beat the living shit out of you without thinking twice. (!!) …”</p>

MONTEREY, Tenn. -- "If somebody told me this happened to them, I absolutely would not believe this could happen in America." That was the reaction of a New Jersey man who found out just how risky it can be to carry cash through Tennessee. For more than a year, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has been shining a light on a practice that some call "policing for profit." In this latest case, a Monterey police officer took $22,000 off the driver -- even though he had committed no crime. "You live in the United States, you think you have rights -- and...

Americans consume 80 percent of the world's supply of painkillers -- more than 110 tons of pure, addictive opiates every year -- as the country's prescription drug abuse epidemic explodes. That's enough drugs to give every single American 64 Percocets or Vicodin. And pain pill prescriptions continue to surge, up 600 percent in ten year, thanks to doctors who are more and more willing to hand out drugs to patients who are suffering. As more people get their hands on these potentially-dangerous drugs, more are taking them to get high. Their drug abuse leads to 14,800 deaths a year --...

Documents call for use of drugs to infiltrate Israeli security and subvert soldiers, and urge Jerusalem Christians to convert to Islam picture .....

Pelosi calls on Obama to respect states’ rights, end medical marijuana raidsBy Steven Nelson | The Daily Caller – 5 hrs ago House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wants President Barack Obama to lay off the weed. Reacting to an ongoing crackdown on medical marijuana facilities in California, Pelosi said in a Wednesday statement, “I have strong concerns about the recent actions by the federal government that threaten the safe access of medicinal marijuana to alleviate the suffering of patients in California.” The California Democrat said that medical marijuana is “both a medical and a states’ rights issue.” California legalized the...

After nearly 13 years in business, a San Pablo Avenue medical marijuana dispensary in Berkeley was set to close Monday evening under pressure from the federal government for being too close to two schools. The 9,000 member Berkeley Patients Group has not yet found a suitable new location in Berkeley and plans to open a delivery service, dispensary management said Monday. Sixty nine employees of the dispensary will be out of work come Tuesday, but they will be paid through the end of the month. "There's a lot to take into account in trying to follow state and local laws...

A review of "Murder Capital of the World," a low-budget documentary that provides a sobering account of drug-cartel violence in Juárez, Mexico, including the sobering statistic that more than 50,000 murders have occurred in Mexico since 2006.We've all seen the news reports: Across the border of El Paso, Texas, the city of Juárez, Mexico, has become a war zone where bloodbaths are a daily routine. As Mexican drug cartels continue their deadly campaigns of narco-terrorism, it quickly becomes clear why Charlie Minn's film is titled "Murder Capital of the World." The film is rife with news clips and staggering statistics,...

MIAMI — A former Venezuelan Supreme Court justice flown by federal agents to the United States is likely to be a trove of valuable information for U.S. authorities investigating the nexus of cocaine, payoffs and corruption in the government of President Hugo Chavez. Ex-Judge Eladio Aponte Aponte, who is associated with a Venezuelan kingpin facing indictment in New York, is expected to supply the Drug Enforcement Administration with the names of high-level suspects in the cocaine trade, Chavez government and its military, according to sources familiar with the former justice and other observers. "Aponte is bringing enough information to prove...

Week after week, messages from Nadia Lockyer came in a barrage of lurid and disjointed emails, texts and photos. They were a confusing attempt to explain her tortured, drug-fueled affair with a meth addict and her crumbling marriage to state Treasurer Bill Lockyer, who is three decades her senior. One email that ended "Goodbye to everyone" seemed so desperate, so disturbing that the newspaper called police to rush to her home.Then, in an effort to be believed and understood, the woman who had held office as an Alameda County supervisor for little more than a year sent us one more...

President Obama's drug czar, Gil Kerlikowske, doesn't like the term "drug war." He argues that none of the smart guys in law enforcement uses it. Instead, the smart guys talk about middle-of-the-road strategies that emphasize treatment over incarceration - as did both Presidents Richard Nixon and George W. Bush - while they also advocate tough law enforcement. Folks in the drug czar's office have "gotten really good at stealing the rhetoric of drug policy reformers," griped Bill Piper of the antidrug war Drug Policy Alliance, but they don't mean it. Obama may talk up having a dialogue on legalization and...

A FORMER British MI6 chief has joined growing calls to end the “war on drugs” and consider legalising them. The battle has left tens of thousands dead in Latin America but failed to reduce drug-use around the world. Here Nigel Inkster, of the International Institute For Strategic Studies, argues that we need to rethink our approach to narcotics.

A MACKAY-BASED business has been producing a synthetic substitute to cocaine and distributing it across the country. The group, called Our Baked Mafia, have been selling the drug 'Shaman's Dust' and a number of other substances via their website and Facebook sites. Users from as far away as Albury-Wodonga have reported purchasing the drug, which is sold through the region's adult shops. Queensland police said it was difficult to determine the drug's legality, as the active ingredient in Shaman's Dust was unknown. However, Curtin University drug and alcohol researcher Stephen Bright said reported chemical tests had suggested the active ingredient...

BRIDGEPORT — The stepfather of a 5-year-old boy who brought 50 packets of heroin to show-and-tell was arrested after going to the school in search of the drugs, police say. The student went to kindergarten Monday with his stepfather's jacket and pulled out the drugs in 10 small plastic bags when it came time for his presentation to the class, Bridgeport police told the Connecticut Post (http://bit.ly/HYhtzj ). The teacher grabbed the bags away from the boy, and the principal called police. The boy's stepfather, Santos Roman, 35, was arrested after arriving at the school. Roman was searching the school...

CRAIG COUNTY, Oklahoma - A 73-year-old Craig County woman was arrested Monday after sheriff's deputies searched her home and found marijuana and $278,000 in cash. Darlene Mayes was booked into the Craig County jail. Sheriff Jimmie Sooter says a lengthy investigation led deputies to conduct a search of her home Monday. Along with the five pounds of marijuana, deputies found the cash in vacuum-sealed bags in the house and in her car. Mayes home is located six miles east of Vinita. Mayes was booked into the Craig County jail on a complaint of possession of marijuana.

Why is the federal government under President Barack Obama arguably tougher on medical marijuana operations than it was under George W. Bush? That's the question that anti-drug-war groups have been asking themselves for months. In 2008, antiprohibitionists thought an Obama administration would not tread on medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal. Obama's 2008 campaign spokesman, Ben LaBolt, told me Obama "believes that states and local governments are best-positioned to strike the balance between making sure that these policies are not abused for recreational drug use and making sure that doctors and their patients can safely access pain...

Sugar is a “toxin” that is killing the unwitting masses, according to an April 1, “60 Minutes” hosted by CNN’s chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Gupta and all of the medical experts that he interviewed argued that sugar leads to heart disease, cancer (by leading to the creation of insulin, which cancer cells use to trigger their growth), and that sugar can actually be compared to certain drugs, like “cocaine,” in that it triggers the pleasure centers in the brain. “New research coming out of some of America’s most respected institutions is starting to find that sugar, the way...

If the likes of Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally and Hollywood Film Producer James Cameron want tax breaks for their projects in Michigan, they may have to take a drug test to get the money if a bipartisan group of State Representatives have their way. Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, introduced House Bill 5527 on Wednesday that calls for top executives in companies to be drug tested if they receive certain tax breaks from the state. The bill currently has four co-sponsors: Pat Somerville, R-New Boston, Judson Gilbert, R-Algonac, Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, and Jim Ananich, D-Flint. Rep. McMillin...

Federal agents swooped in Monday morning to search Oakland's Oaksterdam University in Oakland, the state's first cannabis industry training school. Agents with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service's criminal investigation division are searching the university at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway, in the heart of the city's widely recognized downtown cannabis-oriented district, authorities said. The federal agencies are conducting a joint investigation, she said.

The Yassine family of Austin, Texas is apparently quite the enterprising group. Led by Hussein “Mike” Yassine, the Yassines were quite diversified. They own 8 bars. According to law enforcement authorities they are also a one-family crime wave. They are involved in murder, money laundering, drug dealing–and they have a brother back in Lebanon who is part of Hezbollah.

In another significant embarrassment to the scandal-plagued Obama administration, newly released documents revealed that the supposed “drug lords” being targeted in the deadly federal “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation were actually working for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) all along. Thousands of American weapons were illegally offered to violent Mexican cartels by the Justice Department as part of the controversial program — many of them paid for by U.S. tax dollars through the two FBI assets supposedly being targeted in the investigation. Those guns were later linked to hundreds of murders, including the killings of U.S. federal agents. The...

The DEA Web pages on "Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization" are linked with some regularity on FR. They're full of errors in fact and logic; since I couldn't find a comprehensive rebuttal online, I've started creating one. Here's my rebuttal to their "Fact 3;" more to come as time permits. ("Fact 1" rebutted at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2858443/posts; "Fact 2" rebutted at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2861557/posts.) Claim 3: "Illegal drugs are illegal because they are harmful." Fact: The legal drugs alcohol and tobacco are legal despite being harmful. Claim: Drug use can be deadly, far more deadly than alcohol. Although alcohol is used by seven times...

A family spokesman says slain Florida teenager Trayvon Martin was suspended from school last month for having a baggie that contained marijuana residue in his book bag.

Above is the iconic picture we’ve been become accustomed to seeing everywhere in the media, used to represent the recent Trayvon Martin shooting in Sanford, Florida. From everything the public has been told, Trayvon Martin was a fresh-faced, innocent looking teenager and the visage of the man who shot him, George Zimmerman, is right out of a booking photo. The media narrative being sold is quite clear, Trayvon Martin is the innocent victim here and George Zimmerman is a horrible bigot who attacked the young man for doing nothing more than buying skittles while being black. Even Barack Obama seems...

There are few people less likely to sell drugs than Fred Skinner. The 76-year-old lives alone on Mc Neeley Road in Victory, getting by with help from neighbors. Much of his home has been quietly abandoned because he can’t get up and down the stairs; his son, also named Fred Skinner, said his mind “goes in and out.” Since suffering a stroke last July, he speaks haltingly, sleeps with an oxygen tank and has a pacemaker in his chest. Skinner doesn’t hear as well as he used to, but there was no missing the pair of crashes he heard late...

ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI has denounced the drug-fueled violence wracking Mexico and is urging Cubans to use dialogue to find new models to replace Marxism, as he begins a pilgrimage to both countries. Benedict spoke to reporters after breakfast aboard a special Alitalia flight Friday bringing him to central Mexico later that day. The pope says "idolatry of money" lies behind the violence that has claimed more than 47,000 lives in Mexico since a government crackdown began in 2006. Benedict also says it's evident that in Cuba today Marxist ideology "no longer responds to reality"...

Singer Whitney Houston's use of cocaine "exacerbated her heart condition" and played a role in her accidental drowning in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel suite, Los Angeles County Chief Coroner Craig Harvey said. The long-awaited autopsy results were released Thursday after weeks of intense speculation over how the 48-year-old pop star died. It marks another high-profile Hollywood death connected to drug use, coming less than three years after Michael Jackson died suddenly at his Holmby Hills mansion. Jackson’s death resulted from intoxication involving a powerful sedative, and his doctor was later convicted of involuntary manslaughter.

Whitney Houston had cocaine in her system when she died -- this according to the L.A. County Coroner. The L.A. County Coroner has just released the singer's official cause of death -- accidental drowning ... but the report also notes heart disease and cocaine use were contributing factors to Whitney's demise. A source connected to the investigation tells us it is "very possible" Whitney had a heart attack that caused her to lose consciousness and drown. The heart attack may have been triggered by hardening of the arteries as a result of cocaine use.

Medical marijuana dispensary workers are expected to announce plans Thursday to unionize. The workers will join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents grocery workers, food workers, pharmacists and health care workers.

You would think a drug runner would know better than to get into a car with a personalized license plate with the letters S-M-U-G-L-E-R. Or that she would think twice before booking a room at the Smuggler's Inn, a mere sprint from the Canadian border. Homeland Security agents received a tip in mid-December about a cocaine deal at a Pizza Hut in Bellingham, Wash., the SeattlePI.com reported, citing recently released court documents. They set up surveillance at the Pizza Hut and watched as a GMC Yukon with a driver and two passengers pulled in. The license plate read SMUGLER

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Gov. Rick Scott has quietly signed into law a bill allowing random drug testing of state workers. The governor's office announced the signing after normal working hours Monday night. The only suspense was when the Scott would sign the bill, not if he would sign it. The Republican governor already has tried to enforce random drug testing through an executive order. He suspended it, though, due to a court challenge. The new law also is certain to generate a lawsuit.

The DEA Web pages on "Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization" are linked with some regularity on FR. They're full of errors in fact and logic; since I couldn't find a comprehensive rebuttal online, I've started creating one. Here's my rebuttal to their "Fact 2;" more to come as time permits. ("Fact 1" rebutted at http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2858443/posts.) Claim 2: "A balanced approach of prevention, enforcement, and treatment is the key in the fight against drugs." Claim: Drug treatment courts are working. Researchers estimate that more than 50 percent of defendants convicted of drug possession will return to criminal behavior within two to...

Just when you think you’ve heard it all involving the Obama Administration’s disastrous Mexican gun-running experiment, new details surface to illustrate a new level of negligence and incompetence on the part of federal authorities orchestrating the scandalous program. Known as Fast and Furious, the federal experiment allowed Mexican drug traffickers to obtain U.S.-sold weapons so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels. Instead federal law enforcement officers lost track of more than 1,700 guns which are believed to have been used in an unknown number of crimes. In the past year lost guns have been linked to violence on...

The DEA has informed Congress that an established nexus exists between drug traffickers and terrorism. As an example, the agency, which is a component of the U.S. Department of Justice, mentioned its work in thwarting the scheme to murder the Saudi Ambassador to the United States. The plot involved Middle Eastern criminals who believed they were dealing with a member of a violent Mexican cartel. “The nexus that exists between terrorism and drug trafficking organizations necessitates that DEA engage in proactive enforcement and intelligence gathering operations with its host nation law enforcement counterparts by targeting the command and control structure...

Much like the late Osama bin Laden, the man the U.S. calls the world's most powerful drug lord apparently has been hiding in plain sight. Mexican federal police nearly nabbed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman in a coastal mansion in Los Cabos three weeks ago, barely a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same southern Baja peninsula resort town. Jose Cuitlahuac Salinas, Mexico's assistant attorney general in charge of organized crime investigations, confirmed on Sunday that there was a near miss in late February in the government's efforts to arrest...

The DEA Web pages on "Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization" are linked with some regularity on FR. They're full of errors in fact and logic; since I couldn't find a comprehensive rebuttal online, I've started creating one. Here's my rebuttal to their "Fact 1;" more to come as time permits. Claim 1: "We have made significant progress in fighting drug use and drug trafficking in America. Now is not the time to abandon our efforts." Claim: On the demand side, the U.S. has reduced casual use, chronic use and addiction, and prevented others from even starting using drugs. Overall drug...

MEXICO CITY - The U.S. government has dispatched a career Navy SEAL and anti-terrorism expert to the U.S. embassy in Mexico City to serve as liaison with Mexican troops waging war on gangsters. Rear Adm. Colin Kilrain, a former senior commander of the U.S. Navy's special forces who last year worked on anti-terrorism for the National Security Council, recently took up the post of military attaché. He arrives amid a rising debate over the role and effectiveness of Mexico's military in President Felipe Calderon's anti-gangster campaign. "It is an interesting choice," U.S. political scientist Roderic Camp, who has specialized in...

Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader - including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing - his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."

Pat Robertson, America's longest-serving eschatological bigot and spiritual leader, took to the airwaves of the 700 Club last week and denounced the war on weed, as well as liberals, all of whom write laws in a "punitive spirit." Putting aside the fact that Robertson has, on occasion, invited God to smite people people of abominable politics and preferences, this time he is making (some) sense: We here in America make up 5% of the world's population, but we make up 25% of jailed prisoners... Every time the liberals pass a bill -- I don't care what it involves -- they...

It started last summer, when it seemed that Mexican President Felipe Calderón had understandably reached the end of his rope. After 52 innocent people were massacred in August by drug gangsters who set fire to a Monterrey casino – 52 added to the almost 50,000 drug-related murders in Mexico since 2006 – an angry Calderón said that if Americans were so “determined and resigned to consume drugs, then they should seek market alternatives in order to cancel the stratospheric profits” fueling the ghastly narco-bloodshed. Everyone agreed that by “market alternatives,” Calderón meant some sort of drug legalization.

Three San Jose residents charged Monday in one of the largest methamphetamine busts in U.S. history are tied to a Mexican drug trafficking organization, said officials from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Defendants, Alberto Rodriguez, Carlos Aguilar, and Liliana Lopez, appeared in Santa Clara County Superior Court for the first time Monday as a judge set bail at $2 million each.

ASHTABULA, Ohio -- A drug lab in the room of a nursing home resident caused a fire that killed one person and injured six others, a fire chief in northeast Ohio said. The man died Monday, following the Sunday night fire at Park Haven Nursing Home, Ashtabula fire Chief Ron Pristera said. The lab was making methamphetamine, Pristera said. The Plain Dealer reported that 31-year-old Shaun Warrens died in the fire. The man was among three residents and two non-residents hospitalized, the AP reported

When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced her concerns on Wednesday over intelligence reports that Latin American drug cartels are closely linked with Hezbollah and Iran, many within the U.S. law enforcement community were grateful that Obama Administration officials were finally acknowledging what cops already knew.