Free Republic

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., wants to legalize marijuana and has introduced legislation that would accomplish his goals. "Criminalizing choices that adults make because we think they are unwise ones, when the choices involved have no negative effect on the rights of others, is not appropriate in a free society," he said in his new announcement about his plans for two bills. One proposal would remove federal penalties for using marijuana and the second would let people in states where "medical marijuana" is allowed use it freely. The cosponsors on the bills include Reps. Ron Paul, R-Texas and Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y....

Immigration and Customs Enforcement is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and, under current law, its agents can investigate any crime with a connection to the American border, from weapons trafficking to child pornography. Any crime, that is, except drug crimes. The ability to investigate such crimes, known as Title 21 authority, rests with the Drug Enforcement Administration, which is part of the Department of Justice. The attorney general can and, under certain circumstances, does give other federal agents the power to investigate drug crimes. But a longstanding dispute with the D.E.A. severely limits the number...

One of the most dangerous places on earth is our own 2,000-mile border with Mexico. Our southern border is a drug-war zone, and we’re losing. Know it. Before she became secretary of Homeland Security, former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano declared a state of emergency along the Arizona/Mexico border because of drug trafficking, shootouts and an increasing illegal immigration invasion. The Justice Department stated that Mexican drug cartels are the “largest threat to both citizens and law enforcement agencies in this country” with gang members loose in nearly 200 U.S. cities.” This in the big, bad, brave United States of America!...

WASHINGTON -- The Senate has approved the nomination of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the national drug czar. Kerlikowske, a 36-year law enforcement veteran, has said he will take a balanced, science-based approach to the job of director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The position is commonly known as the drug czar. The Senate approved his nomination, 91-1, on Thursday. The 59-year-old Kerlikowske (kur-lih-KOW'-skee) said he will help develop a strategy to address drug-related violence along the Mexican border. While he and other officials would work to reduce the international drug supply, the biggest contribution the...

WASHINGTON – Confronting a security threat on America's doorstep, President Barack Obama is venturing into the heart of Mexico. His swift diplomatic mission is meant to show solidarity with a neighbor — and to prove that the U.S. is serious about halting the deadly flow of drugs and weapons.

The Obama administration is fudging when it claims that 90 percent of guns used in crimes in Mexico come from the United States. The bogus statistics are being used as an excuse to push gun control. The Obama White House and the Mexican government are in agreement that Americans' rights to purchase firearms should be curtailed. Appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday, ahead of President Obama's trip this week to Mexico, Mexican Ambassador Arturo Sarukhan stated that "reinstituting the [assault weapons ban] could have a profound impact on the number and the caliber of the weapons going down...

With little notice and even less controversy, marijuana is now available as a medical treatment in California to almost anyone who tells a willing physician he would feel better if he smoked. Pot is now retailed over the counter in hundreds of storefronts across Los Angeles and is credited with reviving a section of downtown Oakland, where an entrepreneur sells out classes offering "quality training for the cannabis industry." The tabloid LA Journal of Education for Medical Marijuana is fat with ads for Magic Purple, Strawberry Cough and other offerings in more than 400 "dispensaries" operating in the city. Los...

Alcohol did not create Al Capone's gang violence in the hometown of our current president. Prohibition did. Marijuana does not create murderous drug cartels in Mexico. America's War on Drugs does. Surely President Barack Obama, one of the smartest men to inhabit the White House, must understand that truth—even if he chooses to laugh-off those of us who want to get serious about the need to end the social insanity of neo-Prohibition by legalizing marijuana and other psychoactive chemicals. French essayist Georges Bernanos wrote, "The worst, the most corrupting of lies, are problems poorly stated." It is an outrageous lie,...

Ol' PJ here is perfectly happy with his drug of choice...caffeine. I simply can't function without several cups of java in the morning. Therefore I never felt a need for marijuana. Plus I am like Woody Allen in that scene from "Annie Hall." Any inhalation of smoke causes me to go into coughing fits so that pretty much nixes the use of the green weed for me. However, I don't have strong feelings one way or another about it although I suspect that it reduces mental ability over the long run. I've had friends that strongly support the legalization...

Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the massive instability in Mexico (7000 murders in the past year, including multiple decapitations of policemen) is the fault of the United States. And this, despite the fact that the violence is spilling over into our borders. What on Earth is going on? Is this more of the "blame America first" crowd shooting from the hip? Well, given the speaker, one might be tempted to think so. But in this case, she just may have something of a point. Even the Cato Institute, that known libertarian/rightwing stronghold, has hosted discussions...

WHILE Washington fo cused on terrorists half way around the world, a narco-terror crisis exploded -- with 8,000 dead in two years -- along our border with Mexico. Were we blindsided? Only because we closed our eyes on purpose. One administration passed the problem on to the next. And the next. Are we taking this crisis seriously at last? Let's hope. After her disastrous pilgrimage to Beijing, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears to have gotten a big diplomatic move right: On Wednesday, she acknowledged both the seriousness of Mexico's narco-insurgency and our complicity as a huge drug consumer and...

...The dismissiveness toward the question of ending Prohibition as both a good in itself and a form of tax revenue is, however, depressing. His answer was a non-answer. I'm tired of having the Prohibition issue treated as if it's trivial or a joke. It is neither. It is about freedom and it's deadly serious....

One week after President Barack Obama's top law enforcement official seemed to indicate the feds would no longer raid pot clubs, DEA agents busted a medical marijuana facility in San Francisco Wednesday night. As agents carried large plastic containers of marijuana plants out of Emmalyn's California Cannabis Clinic at 1597 Howard Street, a small crowd of protesters formed a gauntlet outside the door, booing the agents and chanting, "our medicine is marijuana … listen to Obama!" DEA spokeswoman Casey McEnry told CBS 5 the documents regarding the raid are sealed, so the DEA was not able to give any details....

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived here Wednesday with the clearest acknowledgment yet from a senior Obama administration official of the role the United States plays in the violent drug trade racking Mexico.“Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade,” she said, using unusually blunt language. “Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the deaths of police officers, soldiers and civilians.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Eric Holder signaled a change on medical marijuana policy Wednesday, saying federal agents will target marijuana distributors only when they violate both federal and state law. That would be a departure from the Bush administration, which targeted medical marijuana dispensaries in California even if they complied with that state's law

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Eric Holder has signaled a change in policy on medical marijuana.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. government is working on an integrated plan to address Mexico's escalating war with drug traffickers and could complete work on the initiative as early as this week, a top U.S. military official said on Tuesday. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, who oversees U.S. military interests on both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border as the head of Northern Command, told the Senate that the plan would likely involve all agencies of government including law enforcement and the military. Among the priorities are likely to be measures to deal with violence that spills over the U.S. border,...

When Vice President Biden later today formally announces the nomination of Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the new Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, he will also be in a way formally downgrading the office from Cabinet-level status to non-Cabinet level status. Interestingly, Biden himself criticized a similar move by then-President George HW Bush in 1989.

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration plans Wednesday to nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as the nation's drug czar. Vice President Joe Biden was expected to name Kerlikowske as chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a job that requires Senate confirmation, at a midday ceremony, an administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made. Kerlikowske had been widely expected to be named to the position, after his name was leaked in early February. The administration official said the delay in announcing his appointment was not linked to disclosures that...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama will nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske to be U.S. drug czar and remove the job's Cabinet designation, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday. If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Kerlikowske would head the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which was elevated to Cabinet level under former President George W. Bush. The nomination of Kerlikowske would end a long search for a candidate to oversee U.S. efforts to fight illegal drugs. Kerlikowske was long speculated to be the front-runner, but revelations about his stepson's arrest on drug-related charged complicated the nomination process,...