Free Republic

Brittney Griner, the WNBA “star” that protested against America in the wake of George Floyd’s death by refusing to appear on the court for the national anthem and saying that she thought the national anthem shouldn’t be played at all, is not fading quietly into the night and just accepting that she’s going to go to prison in Russia for breaking that nation’s laws and smuggling drugs into the country (an act that she admitted to). Rather, she’s making absurd excuses for her conduct, as if the Russians will let her free if only she comes up with just the...

The public outcry around the plight of Brittney Griner is growing louder — and that spells trouble for President Biden, who has been unable to free the basketball star from detention in Russia. Griner wrote to Biden in recent days saying she was “terrified I might be here forever”. Her wife, Cherelle, appears to have lost patience with the administration to take a low-profile approach to Brittney’s jailing. On Tuesday, Cherelle Griner told “CBS Mornings” that it was “very disheartening” not to have heard from Biden directly. Cherelle Griner added: “It kills me every time that, you know, when I...

One hundred forty-three days.That is how long Brittney Griner has been behind bars in Russia. That is how long she has been stuck in the middle of a high-stakes staredown between the United States and Russia at exactly the wrong time, ......The seven-time All-Star center for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury pleaded guilty Thursday, admitting wrongdoing. In so many words, Griner and her lawyer said her troubles began with a mistake: She was readying quickly for her flight to Russia in February and inadvertently packed the smoking cartridges with the small amounts of hashish oil — less than a single gram,...

Britney Griner’s wife said it is “very disheartening” that she still has not heard directly from President Biden, even after the WNBA star — who’s been languishing in a Russian jail — sent a handwritten letter to the president, begging him to not “forget” her. Cherelle Griner appeared remotely on “CBS Mornings” on Tuesday, telling host Gayle King that she has decided to “not be quiet anymore” about her wife’s plight because the Biden administration so far has been unable to bring her home. “I will find that balance of … harm versus help in pushing our government to do...

Two people were arrested after an explosion at a Riverside apartment led to the discovery of a butane honey oil lab, police said Thursday. The 6 a.m. Monday blast in the the 600 block of Central Avenue displaced neighbors as police and firefighters responded to the scene, the Riverside Police Department said in a news release. Fire investigators determined the cause of the fire was a butane honey oil lab that was set up inside one of the apartments, where they spotted empty butane canisters, hash oil extract and marijuana plants, according to police. Butane is a flammable and odorless...

The Los Angeles Fire Department said Sunday it may call on federal help for its probe into Saturday night's massive fire and explosion downtown that injured 12 firefighters, including two who remain in critical condition.

Trick-or-treating. It’s always a little creepy. But now parents have another trick to worry about—candy that’s been infused with marijuana. Denver police think maybe you should be worried ... "They infuse it by using viscous hash oil. They spray that onto the candy. And once that candy dries there's no way to tell the difference." ... "It's a color reaction test and based on the saturation of the color you will know the potency of TCH and CBD in the products. If it turns pink, any shade of pink, there’s THC in the product for sure,"

The opening months of Colorado’s first-in-the-nation recreational marijuana industry have seen a rise in fiery explosions and injuries as pot users try to make the drug’s intoxicating oil in crude home-based laboratories. Since Jan. 1, when sales began, the state’s only certified adult burn center has treated 10 people with serious injuries they suffered while making hash oil, compared with 11 in 2013 and one in 2012. Law enforcement and fire officials, meanwhile, are grappling with how to respond, as the questionable legality of the process has made it difficult to punish amateur chemists. Some prosecutors are charging them with...

The Mile High City was jammed with pot revelers Sunday for the annual 4/20 festival, but the mood was far from celebratory Monday as state legislators moved to tighten rules on marijuana products in the wake of two tragic deaths. The Colorado House passed unanimously bills to set possession limits for concentrated forms of marijuana such as hash oil, and to make cookies, candy and other foods infused with pot more easily identifiable. ... But industry officials aren’t thrilled with the edibles bill, which will require the state Department of Revenue to adopt rules by Jan. 1, 2016, that require...

In a report I did on the marijuana business, I focused on a company called mCig, which sells a hybrid between an electronic cigarette and a joint. Basically, the $10 device takes anything from "dry herb" to oil, heats the substance to the edge of combustion and creates a vapor, or a vapor/smoke combination, that can be inhaled. To demonstrate the product, we asked mCig COO Mark Linkhorst to heat up some mCigs and vape them on camera. It was all done legally in a medical marijuana setting. Linkhorst is allowed to do this under Washington state law. First, there...

From Spokane to Seattle, Vancouver to Mount Vernon, amateur chemists have caused explosions in recent months, often in homes, while using flammable solvents to produce hash oil. The most recent blast occurred Monday in a Spokane Valley kitchen. Three weeks earlier, an explosion in a Vancouver home left a man hospitalized with burns to his face. [...] This phenomenon is not part of the state’s legal marijuana system. Under rules for the state’s new industry, hash oil can only be made in licensed facilities, and those do not include homes. State rules also require that only certain equipment and chemicals...

MORENO VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — Authorities said Friday a 30-year-old man was burned in an explosion caused by marijuana refining. The explosion happened about 12:50 a.m. Thursday at the Walker Terrace Apartments in the 13200 block of Heacock Street, Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Holmes said. When deputies arrived, the man was outside the apartment, suffering from burn wounds over his body, Holmes said. The man was taken to a hospital for treatment. Investigators later discovered his apartment contained a lab used to extract concentrated oil from marijuana, he said. Investigators with the sheriff’s Drug Endangered Children unit responded, discovering four...