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GARCIA, Mexico - A Mexican police chief has been murdered after being on the job for only five days. Brig. Gen. Juan Arturo Esparza is the latest officer suspected of being killed by a drug cartel. He was the police chief of Garcia, a town outside Monterrey. Esparza was on his way to confront drug cartel members who were threatening the city's mayor. Officials say the suspects opened fire on the police chief's car. The chief, two former soldiers, and two police officers were all killed. Five police officers and five other suspects were arrested and are behind bars at...

California is bankrupt. Ten weeks after a nasty budget fight concluding in a compromise everyone hates, the state is broke. They’ve legalized gambling and the state is still broke. They’ve raised the alcohol tax and the state is still broke. They’ve raised the tobacco tax and the state is still broke. So the new push: Legalize pot, tax it and we’ll all be saved. Don’t get me wrong: if you want to legalize Mary Jane, go ahead. I don’t have a problem with the drug or people who smoke it. But if you think this will be the magical fix-all,...

Early Saturday morning, 7Online.com, the website for ABC's New York affiliate WABC-TV, reported the previous night's arrest of Jason Shih, an alleged campaign worker for Governor Jon Corzine (D-NJ) charged with "possession of a controlled narcotic and paraphernalia that is used for distribution." For some reason, although the headline "Corzine campaign worker arrested" shows up in a Google News search, the page is no longer available: "We are sorry, but the URL you requested could not be found. The page you are looking for may have been renamed, moved, or deleted." A search of "Jason Shih" and "Corzine" at 7Online.com...

The British Government's chief drug adviser has sparked controversy by claiming ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a class B drug. He accused former home secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. Prof Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. And he claimed advocates of moving ecstasy into class B from class A had "won the intellectual argument". All drugs, including alcohol and tobacco,...

Patients Who Benefit From Marijuana Disturbed By 'Abuse'. An ear ache, $50, and eight minutes of a doctor's time was all that was needed to obtain a Medical Marijuana certificate from the state of Colorado. A CALL7 investigation found people in medical marijuana clinics and dispensaries coaching potential customers on how to obtain a certificate from the state with something as simple as an earache. the medical marijuana business in Colorado is booming because the fear of federal prosecution vanished with the election and recent statements of President Barack Obama, who said the federal government will not get involved in...

Police have captured a suspected member of a notorious drug cartel. The Jalisco state attorney general's office says Abel Valadez Oribe is accused of trafficking drugs, kidnapping and extortion. Valadez Oribe is also known by the nickname of "El Clinton"and is a suspected leader of the La Familia Michoacana cartel. He was arrested on a highway in Guadalajara late Tuesday. The La Familia cartel mixes violence and pseudo-religion to inspire its traffickers and says its purpose is to protect the local population from rival drug gangs.

SAN FRANCISCO — These are heady times for advocates of legalized marijuana in California — and only in small part because of the newly relaxed approach of the federal government toward medical marijuana. State lawmakers are holding a hearing on Wednesday on the effects of a bill that would legalize, tax and regulate the drug — in what would be the first such law in the United States. Tax officials estimate the legislation could bring the struggling state about $1.4 billion a year, and though the bill’s fate in the Legislature is uncertain, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, has indicated...

Lingo is grim as new terms spring up to describe violence MEXICO CITY — Words can hardly convey how vicious, how over the top, Mexico's drug war has become. So those involved invented some. The Mexican media now have a special expression for being lined up and shot, and another for being dumped in the trunk of a car. There are also terms for mafia kidnappings, for drug-gang spies and for the hand-scrawled notes hit men leave with their victims' bodies. The lingo is grim, but how else to portray such savagery as beheadings and bodies cut up and cooked...

2 Foster Children Killed, 3 Others Seriously Injured After Van Crossed Yellow Lines Suspect Allegedly Removed Middle Row Of Seats, Had Children Sit On Floor QUEENS (CBS) -- A Queens woman behind the wheel of a minivan that crossed the yellow lines and crashed into another van on Monday, killing two foster children inside the van, was charged with manslaughter Tuesday, and sources tell CBS 2 drug paraphernalia was found inside her vehicle. Police say Sheila Bethea, 45, was driving a Mazda minivan with six passengers – five foster children between the ages of 5 and 15 and a 43-year-old...

...The U.S. (federal and states) will spend about $47 billion this year on drug enforcement, clogging our court systems and overcrowding our prisons, in many cases dooming young men to a life in the underclass...And I don’t think we’re getting a good value for our $47 billion. In fact, I think our efforts may be counterproductive, and that we should explore a more sensible route, the same one we use for alcohol and tobacco. In short, legalize it, regulate it and tax it. Legalization would quickly shrink that $47 billion annual cost of law enforcement to a small fraction of...

Note: The following text is a quote: DEA Mourns the Loss of Three DEA Special Agents in Afghanistan OCT 26 - WASHINGTON, DC – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) today confirmed that three Special Agents were killed during a counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan. “Today, the Drug Enforcement Administration mourns the tragic loss of three DEA Special Agents and seven U.S. service members killed in a helicopter crash in Afghanistan,” said Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart. “The incident occurred during the early morning hours of October 26, when these heroic individuals were returning from a completed, joint counternarcotics mission.”...

The Justice Department says it's backing off the prosecution of people who smoke pot or sell it in compliance with state laws that permit "medical marijuana." Attorney General Eric Holder says "it will not be a priority to use federal resources to prosecute patients with serious illnesses or their caregivers." Party hardy! I mean -- let the healing begin! I don't think the federal government should be spending a whole lot of time on small-time druggies, and I'm undecided about legalizing pot, which enjoys 44 percent support among the general public, according to a recent poll. Recreational use is not...

MCALLEN - The U.S. Coast Guard patrols the coasts, and a limited stretch of the Rio Grande, but a bill in the works would change that. Congressman Henry Cuellar wants the coast guard to work out a plan that would help secure the 1200 miles of the river. It's aimed at addressing drug and human smuggling along the river. Right now, the river is only patrolled by local law enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. The bill is called the Coast Guard Authorization Act.

Local, state and federal police respond to bridge number one and two in force following a shootout in Nuevo Laredo. The officers were armed with high-powered weapons in an attempt to keep any of the gunmen from coming across the border. They checked people and vehicles coming into the US for several hours. It was a quick response following the shootout between Mexican soldiers and drug traffickers near the US Consulate. An American Consulate in Nuevo Laredo was put on lock down after the shots were fired. Mexican police will not release very much information. We do know that the...

MEXICO CITY – A general is among the nearly 4,000 officers and men who have deserted from the Mexican army during the past 6½ years, Milenio newspaper reported Monday, citing government documents. The defense department opened legal proceedings for desertion against 3,972 soldiers between 2003 and July 2009. Among the soldiers being investigated are a general and more than 1,000 other officers. The report does not specify the number of those cases that have arisen since December 2006, when newly inaugurated President Felipe Calderon began deploying tens of thousands of soldiers to battle Mexico’s powerful drug cartels. Since then, there...

The AP reports that "federal drug agents won't pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state law. The guidelines to be issued by the department do, however, make it clear that agents will go after people whose marijuana distribution goes beyond what is...

A new study finds that the development of bullous lung disease occurs in marijuana smokers approximately 20 years earlier than tobacco smokers. A condition often caused by exposure to toxic chemicals or long-term exposure to tobacco smoke, bullous lung disease (also known as bullae) is a condition where air trapped in the lungs causes obstruction to breathing and eventual destruction of the lungs.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal drug agents won't pursue pot-smoking patients or their sanctioned suppliers in states that allow medical marijuana, under new legal guidelines to be issued Monday by the Obama administration. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes.

Obama Won't Seek to Arrest Medical Pot Users Federal prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws, officials say October 19, 2009 WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday. Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of...

In one case, an innocent man died in gang’s 3 tries to kill target It was not the first time a rival tried to kill Mexican drug cartel-connected gangster Santiago “Chago” Salinas, but it would be the last. When 28-year-old Salinas was shot in the head at point-blank range three years ago at the Baymont Inn & Suites hotel on the Gulf Freeway, it was the latest round in a deadly feud that has played out here and in Mexico. Just a few weeks before, Salinas' brother-in-law who also had lived in Houston, was found dead, charred in a barrel...

Twelve bodies were discovered in the western Mexican state of Guerrero today. Ten were beheaded and mutilated in the latest drug war killings. The bodies of two men were found in the trunk of a car just a few hundred feet from one of the most famous attractions in Acapulco. In another part of the state, drug hit men killed, beheaded and mutilated the bodies of ten rivals and left the bodies in plastic bags in a delivery truck. One of the messages said, "The familia doesn't kill innocent people." More than 14-thousand people have died in drug-related violence since...

"Deadliest city in the world" JUAREZ, Mexico -- The drug violence in Juarez, Mexico, just across the Texas border, is growing worse. So far this month, nearly 100 people have been killed. The city now holds the infamous title of "deadliest city in the world." Eyewitness News Anchor Art Rascon traveled to Juarez and he has a closer look at the violence in the region. The world sees Juarez as repeated scenes of bloodshed where drug cartels rule. On any given night, as we drive the back streets of Juarez, they are eerily empty. The main streets are filled with...

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Farmers from North Dakota and Vermont and four others trying to plant hemp seeds at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration have been arrested. Arlington County police spokeswoman Detective Crystal Nosal says six people were charged with trespassing on Tuesday. They were among 21 people protesting the ban on farming of hemp, which is related to the illegal drug marijuana. The Hemp Industries Association says the protesters turned to civil disobedience for the first time. The group is lobbying lawmakers on Capitol Hill. They want to grow hemp for non-drug products. North Dakota farmer Wayne...

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - The number of airplanes smuggling cocaine through Honduras has surged since the United States suspended drug cooperation in the wake of an army coup, the Central American country's drugs chief said on Tuesday. Honduras has been internationally isolated since soldiers exiled President Manuel Zelaya at gunpoint on June 28, and it lost $16.5 million of U.S. military aid after the putsch. Drugs chief Julian Aristides said Honduras' de facto government, engulfed in a serious political crisis, had no clear anti-drugs strategy, although he added that Zelaya's government had also not fought trafficking well. In the last month...

A Houston man found asleep with a corpse inside a closet of a vacant home has been charged with misdemeanor drug offenses, authorities said Monday. Cody Jean Plant, 21, was discovered Sunday after the owner of the house reported hearing voices and seeing signs of forced entry at the home in Cypress, about 25 miles northwest of Houston, according to a Harris County Precinct 4 Constable official. Authorities did not immediately release the dead man's identity. "There were two guys in the closet. They appeared to be sleeping, one was snoring and the other was deceased," said Assistant Chief Deputy...

LAREDO, Texas -- A Texas Highway Patrol trooper found 5,408 lbs. of marijuana inside a school bus after pulling over the vehicle north of Laredo, Texas Department of Public Safety officials said. The driver fled on foot from the scene. The bus was marked to resemble a United Independent School District bus. DPS officials estimate the marijuana is worth more than $1.7 million. DPS continues to investigate leads in the case.

SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get at least three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy. At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of 40 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana. Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive...

ARCATA, Calif. — Stiff competition from thousands of mom-and-pop marijuana farmers in the United States threatens the bottom line for powerful Mexican drug organizations in a way that decades of arrests and seizures have not, according to law enforcement officials and pot growers in the United States and Mexico. Illicit pot production in the United States has been increasing steadily for decades. But recent changes in state laws that allow the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purposes are giving U.S. growers a competitive advantage, challenging the traditional dominance of the Mexican traffickers, who once made brands such as...

Milton Friedman puts forward a compelling case for the legalization of drugs

....This article is not another polemic about why it should or shouldn't be (legalized). Today, in any case, the pertinent question is whether it already has been -- at least on a local-option basis. We're referring to a cultural phenomenon that has been evolving for the past 15 years, topped off by a crucial policy reversal that was quietly instituted by President Barack Obama in February....

Mexico's nimble drug cartels are leapfrogging tightened border security and establishing sophisticated marijuana-growing operations in North Texas and Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say. "There is no doubt" that three big marijuana fields uncovered this month in Ellis and Navarro counties "have a tie to the border and a Mexican drug cartel," said a drug investigator for the Department of Public Safety. "They brought the tenders up here from Mexico to do the work.

CLINTON — When Sally Harpold bought cold medicine for her family back in March, she never dreamed that four months later she would end up in handcuffs. Now, Harpold is trying to clear her name of criminal charges, and she is speaking out in hopes that a law will change so others won’t endure the same embarrassment she still is facing. “This is a very traumatic experience,” Harpold said. Harpold is a grandmother of triplets who bought one box of Zyrtec-D cold medicine for her husband at a Rockville pharmacy. Less than seven days later, she bought a box of...

A Chilton County [AL] woman is fighting an effort by federal prosecutors to seize her home and 40 acres in a marijuana case against her husband, who committed suicide during his trial. Mara Lynn Williams, 56, a cancer survivor who works as a nurse at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery, said she knew that her husband, Royce, 53, used marijuana for chronic pain after multiple surgeries. But she said she did not know he was growing it on their acreage, and she was not charged in the criminal case. Her husband was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot in a car...

Whether You Like it or Not - California Will Legalize Pot Next Year (That seems to be the idea behind a new article out today) According to a well known, and outspoken leader from the left it’s a good bet that the state will legalize Pot next year. Part of the reason? The state needs...

Gov. Rick Perry’s latest plan to stomp out illegal activity along the border has all the hallmarks of an old Western movie: The state’s elite team of cowboy-hat wearing law enforcers — the Texas Rangers. A growing threat from cross-border bandits. And, in a modern twist, a few Texas National Guard troops thrown in for good measure. The only problem, local leaders say, is that it ignores ongoing efforts to clamp down on border crime and fundamentally mischaracterizes life as it is now for the region’s residents. “What does (Perry) think we’ve been doing down here for the past couple...

HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS -- The Hidalgo County Sheriff's Department busted a ring of men posing as fake cops Thursday. Deputies are still looking for more suspects. They arrested Eduardo Varela and Rafael Saenz. The men are accused of storming into a home north of Mercedes earlier this month and posing as FBI agents. The suspects allegedly took a 2003 BMV. Investigators said Varela and Saenz implicated five other men. "Ricardo Guzman known as 'El Borrado' may be a former Mexican police officer who also had a district job to recruit illegal immigrants to participate in these home invasions," explained Sheriff...

That proposed ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in California for people 21 and older - and let local government tax the sales - has a good chance of passing. People are no longer outraged by the idea of legalization, and truth be told, there is just too much money to be made both by the people who grow marijuana and the cities and counties that would be able to tax it. Unlike the 1970s, when Mayor George Moscone first moved to decriminalize pot, marijuana is no longer about hippies. Thanks to medical marijuana, pot has moved from the alleyways to...

Federal judge sends Oklahoma sheriff and deputy to jail for two years for pulling over and stealing from drivers. An Oklahoma sheriff and his deputy were sentenced to two years and three months in jail on Tuesday for the crime of stopping and searching motorists so that they could steal their cash. An undercover federal sting operation caught McIntosh County Sheriff Terry Alan Jones, 36, and Under-sheriff Mykol Travis Brookshire, 38, red-handed. The pair were forced to resign their positions in May and plead guilty to Conspiracy Under Color of Law to Interfere with Interstate Commerce. "The court imposed the...

The sun is beating down as Elizabeth Padilla is laid to rest in the Garden of Eternity cemetery. She lies under a pane of glass. Her pretty face has been made up one last time. "Open your eyes, my darling," her mother cries. "There is something I wanted to tell you." "Princess," her sister wails. "I'll never forget the way you danced and sang." "Why you?" her mother screams. "You were so good." Elizabeth Padilla was 29 and had been a policewoman for eight months when she died. She was killed one Wednesday just before 1:30pm while on her way...

4 Police Officers Shot in NJ The Associated Press LAKEWOOD, N.J. - Four Lakewood police officers have been shot executing a search warrant in New Jersey. Deputy Chief Michael Mohel (mohl) says members of the tactical unit were serving a no-knock narcotics and weapons warrant around 2:25 a.m. Thursday when Jamie Gonzalez opened fire

In growing parts of the country, drug gangs now extort businesses, setting up a parallel tax system that threatens the government monopoly on raising tax money. In Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas, handwritten signs pasted on schools warned teachers to hand over their Christmas bonuses or die. A General Motors distributorship at a midsize Mexican city was extorted for months at a time, according to a high-ranking Mexican official. A GM spokeswoman in Mexico had no comment. "We are at war," says Aldo Fasci, a good-looking lawyer who is the top police official for Nuevo...

Ralph Nader has been many things: lawyer, consumer-rights bulldog, political activist and perennial third-party presidential candidate. He has now added a new title to his business card: fiction writer. His latest book, Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!, is a 700-page populist fantasy in which a small group of billionaires and media moguls — led by Warren Buffett and including Ted Turner, George Soros, Bill Cosby, Yoko Ono and Phil Donahue — pool their massive resources to reform the U.S. With the help of a $15 billion war chest and a p.r. campaign starring a talking parrot, the group successfully...

"Don't hate my father," Mackenzie Phillips tells PEOPLE. But in a tell-all book out Wednesday, the former childhood actress reveals that her dad, musician John Phillips of the '60s band the Mamas and the Papas, engaged with her in a long-term incestuous relationship. Phillips, 49, who has survived drug addiction, arrests and divorce, writes in the book High on Arrival that she was already a star playing a boy-crazy teen on the TV sitcom One Day at a Time when her father had sex with her on the night before she was to marry Jeff Sessler, a member of the...

Under the cover of darkness this morning, about 1,200 heavily armed officers from the Los Angeles Police Department, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration and several other agencies launched a major assault on the Avenues gang, hoping to deal a blow to one of Los Angeles' most notorious criminal groups. Warrants in hand, teams of officers departed a massive command center in Elysian Park around 3 a.m. and descended on dozens of homes in search of 54 alleged members or associates of the Avenues gang who were wanted on an array of federal charges related to the gang's extensive drug dealing,...

"The Supreme Court of Honduras has constitutional and statutory authority to hear cases against the President of the Republic and many other high officers of the State, to adjudicate and enforce judgments, and to request the assistance of the public forces to enforce its rulings." —Congressional Research Service, August 2009 Ever since Manuel Zelaya was removed from the Honduran presidency by that country's Supreme Court and Congress on June 28 for violations of the constitution, the Obama administration has insisted, without any legal basis, that the incident amounts to a "coup d'état" and must be reversed. President Obama has dealt...

Authorities in Juarez have closed ten unregistered drug rehabilitation centers following a pair of shootings that left 28 people dead. The shootings took place at two of the rehab locations, and a spokesman from the office of the Juarez mayor says there is evidence drug cartels are recruiting members from unregulated centers. The spokesman adds that some of these centers are grounds for cartel-related activity. However, drug rehabilitation professionals assert that shutting down the centers may contribute to an increase in substance abuse. Officials say they will continue to crack down and close rehab centers that violate the rules.

NEWARK -- Shaheed Wright feared police were closing in on him, authorities say, so he hid his bags of cocaine in his son’s jacket pockets, telling the child that it was candy. And when the boy arrived at his daycare center in Newark on Friday morning, he did what any other 4 year old might: The boy handed the white powder out to his friends. One girl ate it. She was rushed to Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark along with Wright’s son and two other boys from the day care suspected of eating cocaine. They all turned out to...

Four former members of an now-disbanded Chicago police unit admitted Friday to taking part in a brazen scheme in which they barged into homes and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from suspected drug dealers and others—once after withholding insulin from a diabetic man until he told them where to find the cash. Former police officers Bart Maka, Guadalupe Salinas, Brian Pratscher pleaded guilty to felony theft, and former officer Donovan Markiewicz pleaded guilty to official misconduct, in deals that called for each to be sentenced to six months in jail and various terms of probation in exchange for their...

As a high-ranking U.S. anti-drug official, Richard Padilla Cramer held front-line posts in the war on Mexico's murderous cartels. He led an office of two dozen agents in Arizona and was the attache for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Guadalajara. While in Mexico... Cramer also served as a secret ally of drug lords.... allegedly advised traffickers on law enforcement tactics and pulled secret files to help them identify turncoats. He charged $2,000 for a Drug Enforcement Administration document that was sent to a suspect in Miami.... But the investigation revealed that he worked for "a very high-level drug lord," the...