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In Mexico's worst case of drug-related corruption in a decade, a drug cartel infiltrated the highest levels of Mexico's Attorney General's Office, paying as much as $450,000 a month to get sensitive information about anti-drug activities, Mexican officials said on Monday. The cartel even seemingly placed a mole inside the U.S. Embassy that fed the drug lords information from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to a copy of an arrest warrant seen by The Wall Street Journal and obtained by Mexican newspaper El Universal. A DEA spokesman said: "We are currently investigating this issue along with our Mexican counterparts."...

Report: Cannabis Less Harmful Than Alcohol, Tobacco Friday, October 3, 2008 9:19 AM Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a research charity Thursday, which called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy. The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior experts and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global...

Muslims are once again offended. This time the offence is a UK supermarket called Tesco who actually has the nerve to want to sell alcohol. It is not enough that the Tesco Supermarket chain already caters to Muslims in a variety of ways. As the chain actually allows Muslim employees to opt-out of handling alcohol when working as a cashier at the supermarket and sells Halal foods to please Muslims.

Yreka, Calif. - Siskiyou County Sheriff Rick Riggins said that approximately 100,000 marijuana plants were discovered at various garden locations in western Siskiyou County last week. Involved in the discoveries were the Sheriff’s Office Marijuana Eradication Team, Siskiyou County Sheriff’s deputies, Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies, the United States Forest Service, the Department of Fish and Game, and the California Highway Patrol Air Division. Riggins noted that a representative from the Fish and Game Department came along to assess the damage to the environment caused by marijuana operations. Riggins said that on Friday, the agencies involved discovered a garden in the...

Senate Sponsors: OBAMA. Short description: 11/1/97-ISLAMIC COMMUNITY DAY Synopsis of Bill as introduced: Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community Center Day. Last action on Bill: SESSION SINE DIE Last action date: 99-01-12 Location: Senate Amendments to Bill: AMENDMENTS ADOPTED: HOUSE - 0 SENATE - 0 Declares November 1, 1997 to be South Shore Islamic Community Center Day. 97-10-16 S REFERRED TO SENATE RULES COMMITTEE RULES 99-01-12 S SESSION SINE DIE 90_SR0110 LRB9007260KBkbA 1 SENATE RESOLUTION 2 WHEREAS, Since 1995, the South Shore Islamic Community 3 Center, located at 2672 E. 75th Street, has worked to improve...

In a bid to cut down on what the Canadian government claims leads to "nasty" smoking habits, stores who sell cigarettes must now "hide" them from customers. We wondered, once cigarettes are hidden from consumers, would this translate to "out of sight, out of mind"? We looked at the granddaddy of all "vice" measures, Prohibition, so "out of sight" that everything related to drinking was criminalized, whether it was effective in curbing the "vice" of drinking. According to Reuters it's known as "de-normalizing the presence of cigarettes". Shopkeepers must now relocate the stigmatized packages of cigarettes behind grey wall coverings...

On Monday, breweries throughout the U.S. celebrated the 75th anniversary of the end of National Prohibition. The thing is, according to the Constitution, National Prohibition ended Dec. 5, 1933. The “Noble Experiment” was caused by a confluence of events that eventually pitted prohibitionists against the “cabal” of German-American-owned saloons and breweries. Congress gradually fell under the relentless lobbying efforts of the well-financed Anti-Saloon League, showing a willingness to end the manufacture and sale of alcohol with the 1913 ratification of the 16th Amendment that brought us the income tax (on a side note, April 15 is just around the corner!)....

At 12:01 a.m. on April 7, 1933, sirens, fire alarms and train whistles shrieked. In Chicago, harried bartenders scrambled to serve crowds that stood 12 deep. At Pabst Brewing Co. in Milwaukee, thousands of onlookers cheered as company employees hoisted barrels and crates onto trucks. About 800 people stood in the rain outside the White House, watching as a man hopped out of his vehicle and unloaded two cases of beer. Secret Service agents accepted the goods, a gift for the chief executive from one of the nation's brewers. "President Roosevelt," read a sign on the side of the truck,...

April 7th is Not the 75th Anniversary of the End of National Prohibition "What was was once a trite beer history canard has become an outright lie," says beer historian Bob Skilnik. "I can only hope that the apparent rewriting of U.S. brewing history is either an innocent result of poor research and not a shameful display of industry greed, just for the sake of a bump in beer sales." August A. Busch’s prediction of a greatly increased cash flow to the coffers of the federal government with the return of 3.2% beer on "New Beer's Eve on April 7,...

High Society: How Substance Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It, by Joseph A. Califano Jr., New York: Public Affairs, 270 pages, $26.95 The Cult of Pharmacology: How America Became the World’s Most Troubled Drug Culture, by Richard DeGrandpre, Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 294 pages, $24.95On the opening page of High Society, which aims to explain “how substance abuse ravages America,� Joseph Califano declares that “chemistry is chasing Christianity as the nation’s largest religion.� Although it is not always easy to decipher Califano’s meaning in this overwrought, carelessly written, weakly documented, self-contradictory, and deeply misleading anti-drug screed,...

Citing and hailing the latest production of epidemiological junk science … Here comes the first solid prelude to the "denormalization" of alcohol -- the third and final phase of "public health’s" sick-minded social engineering. Of course alcohol causes cancer! They “proved it” with the same methods used to “prove” the carcinogenicity of smoking: a) multifactorial epidemiological junk science; b) finding molecules that, administered in millions of times greater quantities, may cause cancer in mice. What else is new? All of you non-smokers who were so happy about “smoke-free” pubs and bars and restaurants, enjoy: it is your turn. The gipsy...

U.S. Rep. Leonard Boswell, D-Iowa, has introduced the Toll Road Prohibition Act, the latest bill designed to prevent tolling on federally built highways. HR 3802, introduced Oct. 10, would require states and cities to repay the U.S. government all federal funds used for construction of highways, bridges or tunnels, along with “reasonable interest,� before introducing tolls. “The American people should not be required to pay for the same highway twice, once through their tax dollars and again through new tolls on federal interstate highways,� Boswell said. The legislation would not prohibit the states from entering into public-private toll agreements, but...

As often as possible, I share time well-spent with America’s greatest humorists and philosophers. This week it is Mark Twain and Thomas Sowell. That combination is not as odd as it first seems. Philosophers dig down to basics, to find and state the truth. Think about it, humorists do the same, but faster. Humor is truth by surprise. Mark Twain wrote: “When I arrived in Virginia City, there were eleven saloons, five jails, and some talk of building a church. It was no place to be a Presbyterian, and I did not remain one long.” In those two sentences, he...

FORT WORTH – The Sierra Vista housing development has long been awaited on the city's southeast side, putting the area plagued by drugs, crime and alcoholism on the verge of rebirth. But supporters of revitalization for the area are worried that a proliferation of liquor stores and convenience stores selling alcohol nearby could mar the development and stymie the economic opportunities it is expected to bring. The latest liquor store is planned for Yuma and East Berry streets – the gateway to Sierra Vista.

ATHENS - People here apparently like things the way they are. By wide margins Tuesday, voters in all of Limestone County chose not to increase the sales tax rate and Athens voters elected to continue the legal sale of alcohol. With all but provisional ballots counted, the bid to increase the sales tax by 1 percent countywide failed 7,875 votes to 3,991 votes, or 66.4 percent against to 33.6 percent for. The pro-alcohol sales vote in Athens won by a similar margin - 67.9 percent (4,288 votes) to 32.1 percent (2,030 votes). The Limestone County Board of Education asked for...

LONDON (AP) — Last call at a British pub can be like a contact sport, with a crush of drunken customers suddenly heaving toward the bar in search of one last round. It's a hallowed British tradition, and doctors say an increasingly dangerous one. Britain's taste for binge drinking, driven by a pub culture in which a good night out means packing in as many pints as possible before the traditional 11 p.m. closing time, could lead to a liver-disease epidemic within two decades unless Britons learn to drink more responsibly, authorities warned. "There's been a frightening increase in alcoholic...

Voters have a chance on Tuesday to return this northern Alabama city to the days of Prohibition. A measure to end the sale of alcohol in Athens is up for a citywide vote, a rare instance where voters could overturn a previous vote to allow sales. Business interests are against repeal, but church leaders who helped organize the petition drive that got the measure on the ballot are asking members to pray and fast in support of a ban. Christians who oppose drinking on moral grounds believe they have a chance to win, however small. "If it can be voted...

TAMPA - An appeals court called the case against Mark O'Hara "absurd" and "ridiculous," but the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is refusing to drop charges against the 45-year-old Dunedin man. O'Hara appeared before Hillsborough Circuit Judge Ronald Ficarrotta Wednesday morning, his first time in court since his release from prison July 25. During the brief hearing, prosecutor Darrell Dirks indicated his office plans to pursue a second trial for O'Hara, who was accused of drug trafficking after authorities found 58 Vicodin pills in his bread truck. He had legal prescriptions for the drugs.

The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States goes like this: Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people weren't giving up drinking. Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in 1934. This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here's what really happened: National alcohol prohibition did begin on Jan. 16, 1920, following ratification of the 18th...

State lab manager quits after she's accused of signing false statementsAllegations that the manager of the state toxicology lab has repeatedly signed false statements over nearly seven years could raise questions about criminal cases and prompt hundreds of drunken-driving suspects to challenge their breath tests. Ann Marie Gordon resigned July 20, several days after the Washington State Patrol began investigating an anonymous tip about work done in its own Seattle toxicology lab. Gordon is accused of signing sworn statements -- under penalty of perjury -- that she tested ethanol-water solutions used to make sure breath-test machines are working properly even...

The standard, schoolbook history of alcohol prohibition in the United States goes like this: Americans in 1920 embarked on a noble experiment to force everyone to give up drinking. Alas, despite its nobility, this experiment was too naive to work. It soon became clear that people weren't giving up drinking. Worse, it also became clear that Prohibition fueled mobsters who grew rich supplying illegal booze. So, recognizing the futility of Prohibition, Americans repealed it in 1934. This popular belief is completely mistaken. Here's what really happened: - snip - So, if the history of alcohol prohibition is a guide, drug...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Smugglers trying to sneak alcohol into Sweden are unwittingly helping fuel the country's public transport system and reducing its greenhouse emissions. Almost all of the 185,000 gallons of smuggled alcohol seized by the customs service last year was turned into alternative fuel and used to power buses, trucks and a biogas train, officials said Friday. "We used to just pour it down the drain, but because of the increased volumes we had to look around for new solutions," customs spokeswoman Ingrid Jerlebrink said.

Interesting that almost every homebrewer can tell you when homebrewing was once again legalized. Through the efforts of Senator Alan Cranston from California, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill in 1978 that brought legal status to homebrewing in 1979, most homebrewers are unaware of the particulars that ended homebrewing during Prohibition. In actuality, however, it was not homebrewing per se that was criminalized, it was the way that malt syrup (extract) could be labeled and advertised that was altered…

Alcohol banned in Aborigine areas Alcohol and poverty have blighted Aboriginal communities Australia is to ban alcohol and pornography in Aboriginal areas in the Northern Territory in a bid to curb child sex abuse. All Aboriginal children in the territory will be medically examined. The new proposals follow a report last week which found evidence of abuse in each of the territory's 45 communities. The report blamed high levels of alcohol and poverty for the situation, which Prime Minister John Howard has described as a national emergency. "We're dealing with a group of young Australians for whom the concept of...

A judge on Thursday made it official: Bilbo's Bar and Grill will have to remove its smoking paraphernalia, making it Southern Nevada's first business reprimanded for violating the Nevada Clean Indoor Air Act. Customers responded: Kiss my ashtray. On Thursday night, while watching the NBA Finals, a few customers at Bilbo's on West Charleston Boulevard had their lighters on the bar, cigarettes in hand, discarding their ashes in red plastic cups. Even if the spirit of the law was going up in flames, the bar was complying with the letter of the law, having removed the ashtrays and matches that...

Business Week is reporting that “lawmakers from both parties are casting about for money to dedicate to Oregon’s depleted state highway patrol, and see the beer tax as a possible solution.” However, when names are bantered about of moronic Oregon legislators who are behind the push to raise state beer taxes by “10 cents a drink,” the article just can’t seem to find a Republican for attribution. A staff member for state Sen. Bill Morrisette, D-Eugene, said raising the alcohol tax by 10 cents a drink would bring in $121.6 million — enough to set aside $24 million to hire...

In the first four years of Operation Iraqi Freedom, 563 Americans under the age of 21 were killed in the line of duty. These citizen soldiers were old enough to vote, old enough to put on military uniforms, and old enough to die for their country: They were old enough to do just about anything, except drink a red-white-and-blue can of Budweiser. Apparently they weren’t grown-up enough to enjoy that privilege. That’s because when it comes to alcohol, the United States is more like Indonesia, Mongolia, and Palau than the rest of the world: It is one of just four...

The government will retry a prominent marijuana advocate on cultivation charges even though he faces no punishment if convicted, beyond the one day in jail he's already served, a federal prosecutor said today. Prosecutors decided on a second trial for Ed Rosenthal after a "thorough and careful review,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan told U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer... Defense lawyer Shari Greenberger said she would ask Breyer to order the government to reimburse Rosenthal for the time his lawyers spent getting the new charges dismissed.

It's been 20 years that America has had a minimum federal drinking age. The policy began to gain momentum in the early 1980s, when the increasingly influential Mothers Against Drunk Driving added the federal minimum drinking age to its legislative agenda. By 1984, it had won over a majority of the Congress. President Reagan initially opposed the law on federalism grounds but eventually was persuaded by his transportation secretary at the time, now-Sen. Elizabeth Dole. Over the next three years every state had to choose between adopting the standard or forgoing federal highway funding; most complied. A few held out...

The actress, who is teetotal and follows a strict vegan macrobiotic diet, hates seeing girls intoxciated and thinks women should limit their alcohol intake. Gwyneth said: "I think it's gross! I really don't like drunk women, it's such a bad look. I think it's completely inappropriate." The Oscar winner's Colplay star husband Chris Martin is also known for being teetotal, and as well as her strict diet Gwyneth keeps in shape with regular yoga sessions. Earlier this month, Gwyneth revealed she loves getting together with fellow celebrity-mothers so their children can play together. The actress is good friends with Madonna...

In the D.C. Gun Law Case, a Chance to Affirm the Second Amendment By Robert A. LevyMonday, March 12, 2007; A13 Unless and until the Supreme Court says otherwise, it looks as though the District of Columbia's 31-year-old gun ban is history. Good riddance.In a landmark opinion Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed a lower federal court on all counts and concluded that "the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms."The case, Parker v. District of Columbia, was brought by six D.C. residents who want to possess functional firearms within their...

A Scottish whiskey manufacturer plans to reopen an Islay distillery that was put out of business 80 years ago by Prohibition in the United States. Executives at Bruichladdich, a private company that reopened another distillery on Islay in 2001, said their plan to bring the Port Charlotte distillery back to life is part of an effort to keep at least some Scotch-manufacturing in Scottish hands, The Scotsman reported. Seven of the eight distilleries now on Islay are foreign-owned. "The only Scottish one here is us. There are very few truly Scottish distilleries left now in the country," said Mark Reynier,...

For students living on Beige Block, the potential move of the liquor store closer to the area may be a godsend. But to Ahmed Rushdie, the news is nothing less than "insulting."

TWO WEEKS AGO, U.S. drug agents launched raids on 11 medical-marijuana centers in Los Angeles County. The U.S. attorney's office says they violated the laws against cultivation and distribution of marijuana.Whatever happened to America's federal system, which recognized the states as "laboratories of democracy"?According to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, 11 states (Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have eliminated the penalties for physician-approved possession of marijuana by seriously ill patients. In those states people with AIDS and other catastrophic diseases may either grow their own marijuana or get...

SANTA FE— US Airways, which served Dana Papst liquor hours before he plowed his pickup into a Las Vegas, N.M., family's minivan, has been ordered to stop serving alcohol on any flights in and out of New Mexico. On Monday, the state Regulation and Licensing Department hit US Airways with a cease-and-desist order [because] the airline did not have a license to serve alcohol in New Mexico. The state DPS also issued US Airways an administrative citation for selling alcohol to Papst while he was intoxicated. In a related move, Gov. Bill Richardson said in a news release that he...

January 24, 1935: First canned beer goes on salehttp://www.history.com/tdih.do?action=tdihVideoCategory&id=52350 Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production. By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer....

I personally find all currently illegal drugs loathsome; they stunt the mind, inhibit the body, and curtail productivity. I would never consume such substances myself, and I would advise others against doing so. Yet, compared to the adverse effects of their illegalization, the harm of drugs themselves is small indeed. Drug-taking is extremely unhealthy for the persons engaging in it, but not for anybody who abstains from it. The “War on Drugs,” by contrast, harms everybody subject to a government that undertakes it. I have no sympathy for drug addicts; I wish to argue the case of the innocent, moral,...

THIS DAY IN HISTORY - December 27 1900: Militant prohibitionist Carry Nation marches into the Hotel Carey in Wichita, Kansas, and wrecks the bar.

Last month, President Bush declared Nov. 30 "National Methamphetamine Awareness Day."The official statement from the White House implored, "I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate programs and activities."There's no question that meth is a particularly nasty, vicious drug, both in how it's manufactured and in what it does to the people who use it. I think some skeptics have raised legitimate questions about the accuracy of some of the more hysterical media proclaiming we're in the midst of an "epidemic," but there's no question that the drug is widely available, and that...

Let 'em eat foie gras, they declare Almost 4 months after ban, a number of restaurants appear to be dishing up the delicacy with impunity By Josh Noel Tribune staff reporter December 21, 2006 NOTE: This story contains corrected material, published Dec. 22, 2006. When the letter came from City Hall threatening punishment if he continued to serve foie gras at his North Side restaurant, Doug Sohn framed the warning and set it beside his cash register. And he kept serving the fattened duck liver without a care. "We displayed it proudly," said Sohn, owner of Hot Doug's, a gourmet...

Marijuana is not a "gateway" drug that predicts or eventually leads to substance abuse, suggests a 12-year University of Pittsburgh study. Moreover, the study's findings call into question the long-held belief that has shaped prevention efforts and governmental policy for six decades and caused many a parent to panic upon discovering a bag of pot in their child's bedroom. The Pitt researchers tracked 214 boys beginning at ages 10-12, all of whom eventually used either legal or illegal drugs. When the boys reached age 22, they were categorized into three groups: those who used only alcohol or tobacco, those who...

On this day in 1933, the Blaine Act was passed in Congress. The Blaine Act allowed for the manufacture and sale of 3.2 beer, thus amending the Volstead Act. In 1934, the 18th Amendment was completely repealed by the passage of the 21st Amendment which allowed for full manufacture, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. I thought you all might want to know...

County attorney says people with licenses allowed to carry the armsHarris County Commissioners Court today ordered the removal of signs banning legally concealed handguns in county parks, after hearing legal advice that the county could not enforce such a ban. County Attorney Mike Stafford's office told the court that the county has been violating state law by banning people with concealed handgun licenses from carrying their guns into parks. A complaint from a resident who saw one of the signs while using a county park prompted the county attorney's office to look into whether it is legal to ban the...

'Dry' counties are drying up in Texas Even more are putting the liquor option to voters since easing of law LUFKIN — Sarah Strinden is tired of what she calls the "pain-in-the-neck" drive she must take as a consequence of Texas' patchwork of local liquor laws. From her house it's a 10-mile jaunt to the metal-sided beer barns and package stores in either of two adjoining wet counties. ''We don't buy a lot and store it, so when we're planning a casual drink with friends it's a 40-minute trip," she said. ''It's just inconvenient." Strinden and others in Angelina County...

When flight attendant Eva Buzek returned to Minneapolis from a trip to France, five taxi drivers refused to take her home from the airport. The reason? She had two bottles of wine in her suitcase -- and the drivers were Muslims, who don't drink and refuse to have alcohol in their taxis.

All too many denizens of the city instinctively rail against corporate America as an article of their political faith but inevitably undermine the entrepreneurial spirit of the mom-and-pop tavern operators in their neighborhoods. This disconnect is played out in various areas of the city, initiated by civic association groups and the elected officials of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Their hubris is surpassed only by their thorough misunderstanding of the marketplace.

A public advocacy group wants tougher laws for drinking and driving. But even Mothers Against Drunk Driving – long known for its efforts to keep boozy drivers off the road – said the proposal could do more harm than good. The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation has proposed lowering the legal blood-alcohol limit from .08 percent - the current standard – to .05 percent. The change, the group said, would save lives on the road. But Mothers Against Drunk Driving is opposed, fearing a backlash could erode legal gains. "Do you know how hard it was to get it...

Up in Smoke City Hall and the Greater Houston Restaurant Association once again threaten the right to light up in bars Health nuts are gonna feel pretty stupid someday, lying in hospitals, dyin' o' nothin'. -- Redd Foxx Here we go again...City Hall is a-rumble once more with talk of a smoking ban in bars. And no, they aren't responding to a groundswell of popular support -- they are acting at the behest of the Greater Houston Restaurant Association, which has now officially flip-flopped from its partial-ban position from last year. You'll recall that sensible, live-and-let-live legislation -- it banned...

It turns out that alcohol is legal for the simplest, most nostalgic, and most American reason of all. Despite its risks and harmful side-effects, adults are reserved right to drink because they are independent adults in a free country. For all of the empty rhetoric about economics and black markets, the end of Prohibition was due to a single principle: even if drinking may be bad for society, government has no right to keep the people from doing it. The ability to get drunk is an inalienable right that we have forever confirmed with the 18th Amendment.

(AP) WASHINGTON A federal judge ruled Thursday that the nation's top cigarette makers violated racketeering laws, deceiving the public for years about the health hazards of smoking, but said she couldn't order them to pay the billions of dollars the government had sought. U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler did order the companies to publish in newspapers and on their Web sites "corrective statements" on the adverse health effects and addictiveness of smoking and nicotine. She also ordered tobacco companies to stop labeling cigarettes as "low tar," "light," "ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no...