Free Republic

@RandPaulDemocrats control the House, Senate and White House and we still can’t get cannabis banking reform bills passed. This should be a complete no brainer, as so many states have legalized now and we need business to operate. I would go much further and end the federal war on a plant entirely, but at LEAST let legal business operate as legal business. It probably doesn’t help that the two Democrat leaders are almost as old as the movie Reefer Madness, and clearly gave it two thumbs up when they watched it. The war on cannabis is among the many dumb...

The industry leaders asked for an immediate lifting of the cultivation tax placed on growers, a three-year holiday from the excise tax and an expansion of retail shops throughout much of the state. It’s estimated that about two-thirds of California cities remain without dispensaries, since it’s up to local governments to authorize sales and production. Companies, executives and groups signing the letter included the California Cannabis Industry Association, the California arm of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, the Los Angeles-based United Cannabis Business Association, Flow Kana Inc., Harborside Inc., and CannaCraft. In a conference call with...

This is not the only chaotic incident to transpire at the airport recently. Earlier this month, a man was arrested after he allegedly threatened to kill TSA agents. “This is a free country,” he said before swinging a line post at officers who shocked him with a stun gun, according to charges brought against the man. Shortly before his confrontation with TSA, he was reportedly seen headbutting TV screens, stripping naked and masturbating in the airport.

The gun armorer and assistant director who gave a fatal prop gun to Alec Baldwin have been identified.A search warrant released Friday said that armorer Hannah Gutierrez laid out three prop guns on a cart outside the filming location, and first assistant director Dave Halls grabbed the gun from the cart and brought it inside to Baldwin, unaware that it was loaded.‘Cold gun!’ shouted Halls before handing the gun to Baldwin, using the phrase to signal to cast and crew that the gun was safe to fire for the scene, the warrant said.

A new Norwegian study has shown that alcohol and drug abuse is much more common among patients suffering from schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression than in the population at large. The study, conducted by the Norwegian Institute for Public Health, looked into the extent of drug and alcohol dependence among Norwegians diagnosed with serious mental health disorders. Every fourth patient with schizophrenia and every fifth with bipolar disorder also suffered problems with substance abuse.  One in ten people who were severely depressed also had problems with alcohol or drug-related health problems.  It is estimated that one in forty Norwegians indulge...

Tracy James knew the drug she'd just swallowed was working when her old injuries from high school started twitching with new life. Pressure throbbed from a forgotten busted knee. Her ankle tingled. The fingers she'd sprained roller-skating decades back began to ache. Whatever the 37-year-old had just taken, it shot feeling back into the long-gone ailments. "When I did vomit, it was one of the most amazing moments of my life." For the past 45 minutes, the hut had been dark and silent, the air dripping with jungle moisture. James and nearly 20 others were sitting cross-legged on ornate rugs....

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Magic mushrooms," used by Native Americans and hippies to alter consciousness, appear to have similar mystical effects on many people, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday. At least one team of doctors is already testing whether using them can help terminal cancer patients come to terms with their fates. More than 60 percent of volunteers given capsules of psilocybin derived from mushrooms said they had a "full mystical experience." "Many of the volunteers in our study reported, in one way or another, a direct, personal experience of the 'beyond,'" said Roland Griffiths, a professor of neuroscience and psychiatry...

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that a small congregation in New Mexico may use hallucinogenic tea as part of a four-hour ritual intended to connect with God. Justices, in their first religious freedom decision under Chief Justice John Roberts, moved decisively to keep the government out of a church's religious practice. Federal drug agents should have been barred from confiscating the hoasca tea of the Brazil-based church, Roberts wrote in the decision. The tea, which contains an illegal drug known as DMT, is considered sacred to members of O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao do Vegetal, which has...

Alexander Shulgin, Sasha to his friends, lives with his wife, Ann, 30 minutes inland from the San Francisco Bay on a hillside dotted with valley oak, Monterey pine and hallucinogenic cactus. At 79, he stoops a little, but he is still well over six feet tall, with a mane of white hair, a matching beard and a wardrobe that runs toward sandals, slacks and short-sleeved shirts with vaguely ethnic patterns. He lives modestly, drawing income from a small stock portfolio supplemented by his Social Security and the rent that two phone companies pay him to put cell towers on his...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Illegal drug use and cigarette smoking among sixth- through 12th-graders increased slightly during the last school year compared with the year before, says a new survey. Alcohol use remained at the same level during both years.</p> <p>Nearly one-fourth, or 24 percent, of these teenagers reported using illegal drugs -- marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens and others -- at least once in the 2002-2003 school year, compared with 22 percent the year before, according to the private study by Pride Surveys.</p>

It's a case of an athlete who submitted regularly to the Athlete Biological Passport, who was outspoken against doping, but whose career has now ended because of the ban. Unfortunately for Compton, the test determined the source was exogenous. Also unfortunately for Compton, the news of the CIR result came five months after she'd given the sample, making it highly unlikely she could provide proof it came from a contaminated supplement or food. Compton told Cyclingnews she suspected some beef she'd had for dinner the night before the doping control was to blame. The meat was not organic and, in...

On June 26, 2018, Oklahoma voters approved State Question 788, the Medical Marijuana Legalization Initiative, legalizing “the licensed use, sale, and growth of marijuana in Oklahoma for medicinal purposes.” The state question was written to allow anyone to claim just about any medical need for a card. The ease of access to medical weed made Oklahoma virtually unique among states with similar laws. Politico noted that “Oklahoma is now the biggest medical marijuana market in the country on a per capita basis.” Head Shops on Every Corner The dispensaries proliferated rapidly, sometimes more than one on a single block, more...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi will remain in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court on Friday overturned an initiative that voters approved last fall — a decision that also limits other citizen-led efforts to put issues on the statewide ballot. At the heart of the ruling is the fact that initiatives need signatures from five congressional districts to get on the ballot, but because of Mississippi’s stagnant population, the state only has four districts. Six justices ruled that the medical marijuana initiative is void because the state’s initiative process is outdated. Three...

Introduction The ongoing push to legalize recreational marijuana in all fifty states is a very clever juke move on the part of the progressive left. It certainly looks like an expansion of personal liberty, but it doesn’t smell that way at all. Liberty smells like crisp mountain air, right next to a glacier-fed lake. Legalized pot smells like something sweet and sticky coming out of that particularly seedy basement apartment, with the only redeeming feature being the fact that it is strong enough to overcome the smell of urine on the landing. Okay, I thought of another advantage. Since the...

The FBI arrested the president of the Philadelphia Proud Boys on Wednesday morning at his Port Richmond home, weeks after photos and videos emerged placing him at the front of the organization’s presence during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. ---snip--- Prosecutors have charged at least two other men with trashing Merkley’s office, including Brandon Fellows, 26, of Schenectady, N.Y., who was arrested within two weeks of the attack. He told CNN on his way out of the Capitol Jan. 6 that he and others were smoking weed in “some Oregon” room. Merkley later posted a video to Twitter showing the...

At the Condado Vanderbilt hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Christian Correa clocked in to work the night-shift as a doorman and braced for the worst. Correa, who is also a bellman at the hotel, has seen a surge in American tourists coming to the US territory in the last three months and the hotel has been busy. Although he used to enjoy high season before the pandemic, recently, many tourists arriving to Puerto Rico have enraged local residents and hospitality workers as the island eases its Covid-19 restrictions. “The tourists think they can do whatever they want,” says Correa,...

Far-Left City Of Evanston, IL Becomes First City In America To Give Reparations To Black Residents…But There’s a Catch According to the 2019 US Census– 16.5% of citizens living in Evanston, IL, are black. The far-left city is set to become the first city in America to dole out $10 million in reparations—but there’s a catch. Not every black Evanston resident will qualify for the $25K payout. The money used to pay reparations to some black residents will come from a 3% tax on the sale of recreational marijuana. Black leaders warn it’s not enough. Evanston NAACP President Rev Michael...

California adults can smoke marijuana without fear of going to jail, but using it after hours can still have consequences at work. A new bill in the Legislature aims to end a still common employment practice five years after Californians voted to legalize recreational cannabis in which private companies require can workers to test for marijuana use. Assembly Bill 1256, introduced by Assemblyman Bill Quirk, D-Hayward, is intended to prevent employers from using past evidence of marijuana use, such as a hair or urine test, as justification for discrimination against an employee, such as denying or terminating employment, according to...

Virginia, which for decades has sent thousands of people to jail for selling or using marijuana, is about to make it legal. In a historic shift for this traditionally conservative Southern state, the General Assembly voted Friday to allow its possession, manufacture and sale.

While nations argue over how intelligent it is to legalize marijuana, a new study finds the drug may literally be impacting the intelligence of young users. Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) say frequent use of cannabis during adolescence can lead to having a lower IQ as an adult.