Free Republic

Hundreds of neighbours left terrified by lawless teenagers running riot in their sleepy Sussex village held an emergency meeting to address the growing crimewave. Villagers in Barnham, West Sussex, say they are scared to leave their homes after shocking footage emerged on social media of a group of teenage girls assaulting an emergency worker after sparking a huge brawl at the station. Within 48 hours, a second clip went viral of another group of young girls appearing to loot the village's local Co-op. The chaos sent shockwaves through the leafy coastal village - so much so, an emergency public meeting...

A Chinese national living in the Guangdong Province, China, became the proud owner of a “fixer upper” in Penobscot County in February thanks, in part, to title transfer services provided by Paul H. Mills, the eldest brother of Maine Gov. Janet Mills (D). Xiling Ou, 44, of Malden, Mass., was the original owner of the ramshackle house and its three-bay garage, along with nine-acres of land, located at 51 Cider Hill in Corinna. But 13 days after the Penobscot Sheriff’s Department and Homeland Security agents raided an illegal marijuana grow just five miles away, she gifted the property to her...

New York weed shops are stocking their shelves with Mike Tyson-branded edibles shaped like an ear with a bite mark – a callback to Iron Mike’s heavyweight showdown with Evander Holyfield. The 57-year-old Brooklyn native — who’s planning a comeback fight against Jake Paul in July — is rolling out his Tyson 2.0 brand “Mike Bites” and he’s planning a promotional blitz at shops next month, including an event in Times Square, a spokesperson told The Post. But the gummies have already appeared at dispensaries Strain Stars in Farmingdale, Housing Works in Greenwich Village, Grow Together in Brooklyn, Flynnstoned in...

A study suggests daily cannabis users have a 25 percent increased risk of a heart attack and a 42 percent increased risk of a stroke. The new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association and funded by the National Institutes of Health showed that cannabis smoke increased the risk of heart attacks similar to tobacco smoke. Abra Jeffers, a data analyst at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and former researcher at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, said that cannabis use should be considered an increased risk of...

Chinese gangs have set up thousands of illicit weed farms across the US as they begin to challenge Mexican cartels for supremacy as America's cannabis kingpins. Authorities in Oklahoma, Oregon, California, New Mexico and Maine have all been battling a surge in Chinese weed farms, with some thought to be linked to criminal gangs known as 'triads'. The spread is seemingly uncontainable, with police in Penobscot County, Maine, last week arresting three Chinese nationals at a weed farm and seizing 40 pounds of the drug alongside $4,700 in cash. It is thought to be one of around 270 illegal weed...

Mike Tyson calls out Joe Biden.Legendary boxer Mike Tyson has long been an advocate for cannabis and now owns a cannabis company called “Tyson 2.0.” As a result, he’s now calling out United States President Joe Biden for failing to uphold his campaign promise to release incarcerated marijuana offenders. In a recent letter to Joe Bide and the White House, Mike Tyson called on the president to offer clemency to all those incarcerated on charges related to marijuana. “I write in support of granting clemency to marijuana offenders still incarcerated in federal prison and restoring civil rights to those haunted...

Mayor Eric Adams made his first public visit to a Big Apple pot shop and walked away with a free “weed bag” — but not the kind with marijuana in it. Adams was gifted a customized leather tote bag branding him “The Cannabis Mayor Eric Adams” as he cut the ribbon at the grand opening of Matawana Dispensary in Park Slope — the city’s 36th legal marijuana store and the first owned by a black woman. “What’s in it?” Adams said as he shook the empty bag, which was covered with images of marijuana buds.

Thailand will ban recreational use of marijuana by the end of this year but continue to allow its use for medical purposes, the health minister told Reuters in an interview. After Thailand became the first country in Southeast Asia to free up medicinal use in 2018, and then recreational use in 2022, tens of thousands of cannabis shops have sprung up in an industry projected to be worth up to US$1.2 billion by next year. Critics say piecemeal rules were rushed out and adopted within a week of decriminalisation, and the government has drafted a new law to regulate cannabis...

State’s licensing process has created too much product and not enough places to sell it, a consultant and retail-store applicant sayNew York state has only opened about 50 legal stores, yet state-legal cannabis farmers grew enough product this past summer and fall to supply up to 1,500 stores, a consultant who works in the industry said. [Snip] Meanwhile, the illicit market continues to thrive, with thousands of unlicensed shops. While the state has issued 460 retail licenses to nonprofits and people displaced by the war on drugs under its CAURD program, it’s been difficult for most licensees to find real...

A Pennsylvania man decapitated his 68 year-old federal government employee dad - then held up the victim's head for a YouTube video blasting the Biden administration. Justin Mohn, 32, beheaded his father Michael at their $390,000 home in Middleton Township, Pennsylvania then displayed the head during a rant blaming the federal government for 'woke mobs' and migrants he claims are destroying the United States. The appalling 14 minute clip - which remained on YouTube for six hours after it was posted - sees Mohn hold up his father's head in a bloodied plastic bag. He says: 'This is the head...

The evidence for keeping weed illegal keeps mounting — even as the laws get looser. A new, peer-reviewed study (on a significant data set of nearly 60,000 Canadians) has shown that adults who misuse pot have a 60% higher risk of experiencing their first heart attack, stroke, or other major cardiovascular event. In other words: Weed’s not a harmless vice. It’s a killer, like cigarettes. And unlike cigarettes, it literally drives people insane. A massive Danish study based on nearly 7 million health records drew a strong correlation between heavy cannabis use and increased risk of schizophrenia in young men....

Cannabis users who contracted Covid-19 had better outcomes and reduced mortality compared to people who do not use marijuana, according to new research presented at a conference in Hawaii this week. A presentation on the study, which was conducted through a review of the medical records of more than 320,000 individuals, was delivered on Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) in Honolulu. “Marijuana smokers had better outcomes and mortality compared to non-users,” the authors of the study wrote in their conclusion. “The beneficial effect of marijuana use may be attributed to its potential...

President Joe Biden took major action ahead of the holiday and pardoned all Americans arrested, prosecuted, or convicted on federal charges for marijuana use, following through on his 2020 campaign promise to expunge cannabis use offenses. Biden signed a proclamation Friday that forgives U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents caught by law enforcement for possessing the drug and charged, going far beyond the sweeping actions he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession. The new action includes "additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law," the White House said in a...

Hundreds of illegal Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations have been popping up across Maine over the past three years.A criminal marijuana growing operation in Henryetta, Oklahoma. Illegal grow operations are a nationwide problem, responsible for billions in revenue. (Picture courtesy Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics)On Tuesday, Nov. 28, local law enforcement shut down an illegal marijuana grow that was being operated in a building located behind a licensed marijuana cultivation facility in Franklin County.Officers from the Wilton Police Department were assisting investigators from the Maine Office of Cannabis Policy (OCP) during a routine follow-up inspection of a licensed facility in Wilton when...

A California woman was convicted of involuntary manslaughter Friday in the 2018 death of her boyfriend after she stabbed him over 100 times during a “cannabis-induced psychosis.” The jury took less than four hours to find Bryn Spejcher, 32, guilty of killing her partner Chad O’Melia as she sobbed during the court appearance, according to KTLA 5. The couple had only been together for a few weeks when Spejcher attacked O’Melia after she took two hits from his bong — a smoking device regularly used for marijuana — in May 2018.

The city and county of Santa Cruz have faced a string of 11 burglaries at cannabis facilities this year. The author — a licensed cannabis business owner — thinks the police and sheriff’s office need to work harder to make arrests. “We aren’t looking for special treatment. Legal cannabis is a relatively new industry and it is appropriate to have a certain level of oversight and regulation,” he writes. “But we do want the community and law enforcement to take us seriously when our businesses are being targeted by groups of armed and dangerous criminals who appear to be acting...

The U.S. cannabis production industry's first reported occupational asthma death took the life of a worker in Massachusetts, federal health and safety officials said. The woman, 27, was working in a cannabis cultivation and processing facility when she experienced worsening work-related respiratory symptoms that ended in a fatal asthma attack in January 2022, officials said in a federal report published Thursday. The report states that allergic diseases such as asthma are a growing concern in the U.S. cannabis industry, which has grown rapidly in recent years thanks to a wave of state-level legalizations. The report said the worker's death "illustrates...

This spring, rumors were swirling that HERBL, one of California’s largest cannabis distribution companies, was on the verge of collapse. So Mike Beaudry, the company’s CEO, sent out an email on May 18 declaring that “these rumors are categorically not true. HERBL continues to be fully operational.” Less than a month later, HERBL had completely collapsed. HERBL’s failure left a trail of damage that hurt small pot brands and shorted the state some $17 million in unpaid taxes. HERBL is only the latest high-flying California pot startup to crumble, following companies like Flow Kana, which raised $175 million in capital...

A woman who stabbed her boyfriend 100 times after inhaling marijuana sobbed in court, while clutching a picture of dog - which she also killed. Bryn Spejcher, 32, originally from Chicago, committed the horrific attack in May 2018, after taking two hits of her boyfriend's marijuana 'bong'. According to an expert witness, the violent act was a result of a 'psychotic episode' caused by the cannabis. 'Dog lover' Spejcher is said to have smoked pot just five to ten times in her life, according to testimony heard in the trial that started last week at the Superior Court of California....

Marijuana, cannabis, pot, weed—call it what you will, the psychoactive drug is incredibly popular. This is especially true in the United States, where weed is big business. A staggering 16 percent of Americans—roughly 54 million—admit to smoking weed. In 2021, 13 percent said they smoked the drug.According to a recent Brightfield Group report, the annual revenue of the U.S. weed industry is estimated to reach $31.8 billion by the end of the year. By 2028, the industry is expected to be worth $50.7 billion. In New York City alone, legal marijuana appears set to become a $1.2 billion-a-year industryIn recent...