Free Republic

TAUNTON — A 14-year-old honors student was arrested at Parker Middle School for cocaine possession after students and a parent tipped off school officials.The 8th-grader was charged after school officials found cocaine in her pocketbook Thursday morning.The items included a small white straw with a white powdery residue on it. The powder tested positive for cocaine.Principal Raymond O'Malley also found a plastic baggie containing cocaine, a pink cigarette lighter and two small pills in packaging labeled Loratadine.The girl admitted that she was in possession of the cocaine and told Patrolman Helvio J. Silveira that she had gotten it from a...

Last week, Washington County authorities arrested four people for allegedly growing marijuana at three different homes in Saint Paul Park. The big bust resulted in the seizure of more than 2,000 pot plants. It began last Monday at 1335 3rd St., where authorities opened the door and found 365 marijuana plants. Sheriff Steve Pott called it part of the biggest marijuana growing operation in recent memory. "For some reason people don't see (marijuana) as glamorous as cocaine or methamphetamine, but it's one of the more common drugs," he said, "especially in Washington County." An anonymous tipster led investigators to the...

There's a new poll up on the side. Do you think the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution authorizes federal laws against narcotics and firearms? Now lest everyone forget, this isn't asking whether you personally agree with such laws. It's about whether your honest reading of the Constitution can justify them. While you're thinking it over, it might help to reflect on what James Madison had to say about federal power over interstate commerce:Being in the same terms with the power over foreign commerce, the same extent, if taken literally, would belong to it. Yet it is very certain that...