Free Republic

CHICAGO — Mexican drug cartels whose operatives once rarely ventured beyond the U.S. border are dispatching some of their most trusted agents to live and work deep inside the United States — an emboldened presence that experts believe is meant to tighten their grip on the world's most lucrative narcotics market and maximize profits. If left unchecked, authorities say, the cartels' move into the American interior could render the syndicates harder than ever to dislodge and pave the way for them to expand into other criminal enterprises such as prostitution, kidnapping-and-extortion rackets and money laundering. Cartel activity in the U.S....

Indiana State Police Troopers in Bloomington arrested a man Tuesday evening after children were present in an apartment during a meth lab bust. Troopers with the Indiana State Police Meth Task Force and officers with the Bloomington Police Department responded to the 1400 block of North Arlington Park and located a meth lab. Troopers also found reaction vessels, lithium, sodium, and other chemicals in the residence, according to a release. Two children were in the home at the time of the discovery – one was 4 years old and the second, troopers say, was less than 30 days old. It...

Wall Street sees opportunity in marijuana BELVIDERE, N.J. — Amid the whir of fans and the glow of soft white light, workers tended to bright green seedlings sprouting in a giant greenhouse. Located about an hour's drive from Manhattan in the hills of northwestern New Jersey, the facility produces basil, chives, oregano and other herbs that are sold in grocery stores around New York City. But if Ken VandeVrede has his way the facility will one day be growing a much more valuable plant: marijuana. VandeVrede is chief operating officer at Terra Tech, a hydroponic equipment maker based in Irvine....

As the New York Legislature considers a bill to allow medical marijuana, a couple of Rhode Island business journalists are reaping the profits. Anne Holland and Ron Perry founded Medical Marijuana Business Daily two years ago in Providence to cover the emerging industry of legitimate marijuana sales, as total black market business continues to represent the single largest cash crop in America at more than $35 billion. The trade in illegal marijuana - mostly for recreational use - trumps the second-largest cash crop, corn, at a mere $23.2 billion, of which $4.5 billion worth is exported from America's breadbasket to...

The female Texas trooper who performed a roadside cavity search on two Irving women has been indicted by a Dallas County grand jury. The two women from Irving are suing Trooper David Farrell, Trooper Kelley Helleson and the director of the Department of Public Safety for what they call an unconstitutional search without probable cause. The Department of Public Safety terminated Trooper Kelly Helleson. Dallas County District Attorney spokeswoman Debbie Denmon confirmed on Monday that a grand jury indicted Helleson on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression. NBC 5 contacted Helleson's attorney for comment. "The...

s I posted earlier, the 17-year-old Houston resident was shot to death Tuesday by a police SWAT team during a drug raid on his family's home. It's increasingly looking like yet another paramilitary drug raid gone horribly wrong. The father of a 17-year-old killed by a police officer who was looking for drugs at his home said the shooting was unprovoked. [...] The elder Castillo said his son was awakened by the pleas of his 20-year-old sister, Ashley. When the younger Castillo turned toward Falks, he said, the officer shot him in the face. "My son heard her say, 'Don't...

The Supreme Court has ruled that police use of a drug-sniffing dog on a homeowner's porch is a violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. [...]

Sen. Rand Paul said Sunday that President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush could have "conceivably been put in jail” for their drug use, ruining their lives and impacting their getting elected to office. "Look, the last two presidents could have conceivably been put in jail for their drug use and I really think - look what would've happened, it would've ruined their lives. They got lucky. But a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don't get lucky and they don't have good attorneys and they go to jail for some of these things and...

SEATTLE -- The passage of I-502 made things difficult enough for the humans tasked with creating and enforcing the laws for legal marijuana. Now, try explaining the difference between "personal use" and "intent to sell" or the gray area between state and federal law to a dog. That's why many law-enforcement agencies around the state, including the Seattle Police Department and Washington State Patrol, will no longer be training their drug-sniffing dogs to alert for marijuana. “Moving forward, it makes most sense not to train dogs to alert to marijuana as that would likely lead to unwarranted investigatory detentions of...

Violence along the southern border has gotten so out of control that both Mexican and American journalists have stopped reporting it out of fear that drug cartels will retaliate against them and their families. This means Americans will be kept in the dark about the crisis along the porous and increasingly dangerous Mexican border. We certainly can’t expect the truth from the government. Remember that the nation’s Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, insists that the region is “as secure as it has ever been.” This delusional assessment has been repeated by Napolitano over and over again in a seemingly...

The Obama administration is demanding the nation’s two biggest shipping companies police the contents of Americans’ sealed packages, and a FedEx spokesman is warning that the move “has the potential to threaten the privacy of all customers that send or receive packages.” FedEx and UPS are in the Justice Department’s cross-hairs for not flagging shipments of illegally prescribed drugs the companies say they had no way of knowing were in their possession. Criminal charges could be coming against the carriers, even though the government has not alleged any deliberate wrongdoing by the companies. FedEx spokesman Patrick Fitzgerald said his company...

Westchester County Republican Assemblyman Steve Katz was pulled over yesterday morning for speeding and hit with a possession charge when an officer recognized the distinct smell of marijuana. "He was alone and cooperative," said the police, who ticketed him for a small baggie and going 80 in a 65 mph zone. Katz was oddly arrested twice for allegedly mishandling dogs when he worked as a veterinarian, but both cases were dismissed. Last year, he voted against legalizing medical marijuana, although maybe this will be his Portman moment. The assemblyman sits on Assembly committees for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, as well...

In his column of March 12, 2013, my beloved friend wrote on the issue of legalized marijuana in the state of Colorado. On his radio show, he justifiably bemoaned readers of his column who had written comments questioning his sanity and their relationship over this one issue despite years of being Prager groupies. I will not do any of that. But for only the second time in our long relationship, Mr. Prager, you are dead wrong on a topic … but I still love you. We Baby Boomers grew up in a generation where marijuana made the jump from the...

The federal government should stop enforcing the Controlled Substances Act, with its draconian definition of marijuana, in Washington and Colorado, which voted last November to legalize and tax the growing and sale of cannabis, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told interviewers Monday. “The state (Colorado) has spoken: The law has been passed. There are issues with taxation and regulation, and we should get on with it,” Pelosi told the editorial board of the Denver Post.

A Washington mother has been arrested and her 22-month-old child put into care after shocking footage of her feeding the boy marijuana from a bong was anonymously handed into police. The cell phone footage shows the young boy taking a hit from the top of the device while his 24-year-old mother, Rachelle Braaten laughs uproariously with a group of adults.

SEATAC, Wash. -- One person was killed and another person was wounded in a shooting at a marijuana grow operation in SeaTac early Monday. King County sheriff's Sgt. Cindi West said a woman called 911 just before 3 a.m. to report the shooting. Deputies found one person dead inside the home in 3000 block of South 146th Street, and another person who had been shot was taken to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. West said the two attackers got away. No description was immediately available, but West said they believe the victims knew the attacker and it wasn't a...

Denver television station CBS4 reports that Colorado has seen a sharp spike in marijuana use among teenagers since voters passed Amendment 64 last November, legalizing recreational use of the drug. As described in The Economist, along with a Washington State measure also legalizing marijuana, Amendment 64 is “an electoral first not only for America but for the world.” That means two American states are to the left of the Scandinavian countries, Holland, and every other liberal country regarding marijuana. CBS4 quotes a number of local high-school students: “I’ve seen a lot more people just walking down the street smoking (joints),”...

A Mexican officer claims the military is indeed at war with drug cartels for territory in northern Mexico and that vast numbers of children have been left homeless and hungry by the war in the seemingly unreachable cartel-controlled territory. The officer spoke with me in person on the condition of anonymity. When I asked him to explain which cartels were fighting in Nuevo Laredo, he explained that things were not so simple and not so easily defined. The officer did not speak in law enforcement terms but instead used military terms. It grew clear that the troubles facing Mexico had...

In Afghanistan, farmers grow poppy for opium, which is later processed into heroin and, ultimately, sold as heroin on the black market. How, when the Quran defines drugs as “the filth of Satan’s handiwork,” does the Islamic populace in Afghanistan justify growing this illicit crop? For one thing, the sale, but not consumption, of opium is acceptable to the locals because it is supposedly consumed by the West–by infidels–and thus furthers the war on them, outlines Gretchen Peters in her book Seeds of Terror: How Drugs, Thugs, and Crime Are Reshaping the Afghan War. Peters has worked for the Associated...

SPRINGFIELD — A panel of state lawmakers Wednesday approved legislation to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois. Supporters of the plan say it would be the most tightly regulated marijuana law in the country, restricting who can use the drug to people suffering from specific diseases and limiting the total number of marijuana dispensaries statewide to 60. "This is clearly model legislation for the country if we pass it," said state Rep. Lou Lang, a Skokie Democrat sponsoring the plan. An Illinois House committee approved it by an 11-4 vote this morning, sending the legislation to the full House. "Why would...