Free Republic

Generally, there are two types of marijuana users. First is the most commonly stereotyped “stoner,” depicted in the media of movies (e.g. Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and television (e.g. Shaggy from Scooby Doo). These are the dead-end job, ambitionless abusers who ingest marijuana to escape their already dismal lives. They represent the image which is most often associated with marijuana use. Certainly, the average American high school is teeming with similar directionless pot-smoking losers, further cementing this public perception.

Former Seattle police Chief Norm Stamper doesn't have dreadlocks, a Zig-Zag T-shirt or a single Phish album. He just sounds like it. "It's laughable when people say we are winning the drug war," said Stamper, who had just finished a main-stage speech to the crowd gathered Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest in Myrtle Edwards Park. "The people who are prosecuting the drug war are invested psychically and financially. It's a holy war for them. "We should legalize all drugs." While the comments might be unusual for most law enforcement careerists, they are nothing new for Stamper, who was Seattle's top...

Marijuana Amendment Will Be On Ballot Denver -- Coloradans are to decide this fall whether to make it legal under state law for anyone age 21 and older to possess up to an ounce of marijuana. Secretary of State Gigi Dennis said Wednesday that backers of that initiative had turned in enough signatures to qualify for the Nov. 7 general election. The proposal will be Amendment 44 on the state ballot, Dennis said. Under Colorado law, anyone in possession of an ounce or less of marijuana can be charged with a Class 2 petty offense, punishable by a fine of...

SUMMIT — Sheriff's patrol Sgt. Mark Yanez surveys the mess the pot farmers left behind: trash, empty propane tanks and gardening supplies. A blue jug of Power Force Multi Insect Killer and a paper sack with crumbly remains of ammonia sulfate are most damaging to the forest, he says. But Sgt. Steve Carney, leader of the three-man team, knows his crew's efforts will only slow the expanding problem on state and federal lands: marijuana-growing operations that deputies say are controlled by Mexican drug cartels. The pot farms present a multitude of problems. Armed men camp nearby to defend the gardens,...

Reefer is Worth Getting Mad About Vienna -- Supporters of the legalization of cannabis would have us believe that it is a gentle, harmless substance that gives you little more than a sense of mellow euphoria. Sellers of the world's most popular illicit drug know better. Trawl through websites offering cannabis seeds for sale and you will find brand names such as Armageddon, AK-47 and White Widow. "This will put you in pieces, then reduce you to rubble -- maybe quicksand if you go too far," one seller boasts. This is much closer to the truth. In Canada, as in...

The use of injected drugs such as heroin, methamphetamine and steroids is at an all-time high for high school seniors statewide, according to a survey released Monday by the Indiana Prevention Resource Center. The number of students injecting drugs has increased from 1.8 percent in 2001 to 2.2 percent in 2006. Statistics for the northeast part of Indiana, which includes Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, LaGrange, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley counties, mirrored the statewide average. “I was surprised by the injected drug use that was elevated by 12th-graders,” said Ruth Gassman, executive director of the center. Rich Beck, chief of...

Excuse me for a moment while I vent about the mind-boggling stupidity of the autocratic, bureaucratic, right-wing, Neanderthal numskulls who keep pushing an insane, inane, and inhumane holy war against marijuana – which is, after all, a weed. The most embarrassing thing for these holy warriors is that the weed is winning! They've been at this war since 1937, spending billions and billions of our tax dollars, militarizing our borders, and stomping on our Bill of Rights. They've used phone taps, garbage searches, jackbooted raids, and draconian prison terms to ... well, to do what? To nab peaceful, mellow tokers...

Paper on America's love affair with the SWAT team and "dynamic entry" raids. See scary accompanying map of botched no-knocks and other SWAT-style raids.

A Nashville judge is calling the state's tax on illegal drugs "unconstitutional". The levy took effect in 2005 and applies to substances like cocaine, crack, methamphetamine and marijuana. Chancellor Richard Dinkins says the tax violates the defendants' right against self incrimination and to due process and is levied long before the accused stands trial. The ruling stopped the state from collecting more than one million dollars from Jeremy Robbins, who is one of at least eight people accused of moving two tons of marijuana from Arizona to East Tennessee. The ruling applies only to the Robbins case; legal experts say...

NEWARK, N.J. -- Six police officers from northern New Jersey were indicted Tuesday, accused of protecting targets of a drug ring by tipping them off about imminent raids in return for some of the drugs. What began as a "social relationship" between the officers and their young contemporaries, who would use small amount of drugs together, soon spiraled out of control, authorities said. "Several of the officers were engaging in some partying," said Passaic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Jay McCann. "It wasn't really a drug distribution for profit. It was more of a social relationship between the officers and the...

In what could be a coup for antimarijuana forces, new research shows that rats exposed to pot's active ingredient at an early age devour more heroin as adults than rats without early exposure. Some experts, though, say the jury is still out on whether the finding is enough to officially label marijuana a "gateway" drug. According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most adults who take illicit drugs start doing so in their early teens. In addition, the earlier kids start smoking dope, the more likely they are to use harder drugs later on. For example, of...

SAN FRANCISCO, July 3 — The newest attraction planned for Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco's most popular tourist destination, has no sign, no advertisements and not even a scrap of sourdough. Yet everyone seems to think that the new business, the Green Cross, will be a hit, drawing customers from all over the region to sample its aromatic wares. For some, that is exactly the problem. "The city is saturated with pot clubs," said T. Wade Randlett, the president of SF SOS, a quality-of-life group that opposes the planned club. "Fisherman's Wharf is a tourism attraction, and this is not the...

Two years ago, my 23-year-old brother became addicted to painkillers after breaking his leg and undergoing several operations to repair it. Last year, while he was checking into rehab for abusing OxyContin, I was drafting a chapter in my new book calling for drug legalization. It was a difficult moment to believe in individual liberty: I felt firsthand the effects of what it's like when people make bad decisions. I saw how hard my brother struggled to get clean, first moving forward and then backsliding again into substance abuse. One of the more compelling arguments for the war on drugs...

Should last week’s joint disqualify a pot smoker from driving today?A police officer pulls you over at a checkpoint and asks, "Have you been drinking?" Assuming he wants to know whether you have consumed alcohol in the last few hours, such that it might be affecting your ability to drive, you say no. "Not at all?" he asks. Well, you admit, you did have a beer the night before, whereupon he arrests you for driving under the influence. If that scenario makes sense to you, you should have no problem with Michigan's new policy regarding driving and drug use. As...

If ever a piece of legislation should pass readily through the U.S. House of Representatives, it is a measure sponsored by Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., that would prevent the Department of Justice from using tax dollars to prosecute medical-marijuana patients in states that have legalized medical marijuana. Because it is a good bill, expect it to fail. Polls show that some three out of four Americans support allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana for patients who need it. Members must know that constituents within their districts use marijuana to control pain and nausea -- their families...

Fentanyl-laced heroin found in Ohio Mansfield, Columbus labs identify fatal combo Friday, June 16, 2006 Margaret Harding THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH MANSFIELD, Ohio — The deadly mix of drugs that has killed addicts in Detroit, Chicago and Philadelphia has reached Ohio. Mansfield police have identified the powerful prescription painkiller fentanyl in six of the last 10 batches of heroin confiscated by police. Mansfield police laboratory director Anthony Tambasco said he decided to start looking for fentanyl after hearing about the deaths in Detroit just before Memorial Day. Authorities there have confirmed 100 fentanyl/heroin deaths. Another 60 were confirmed in the Chicago...

David F. Downey, the Montgomery County businessman whose 17-year-old escort was found dead last summer of a drug overdose in Northeast Philadelphia, has been indicted on third-degree murder charges. A grand jury accused Downey, 52, of Limerick, of purchasing the cocaine that Ashley Burg ingested, which caused her overdose death. "The grand jury found that Downey's conduct was particularly heinous in light of the fact this young girl was immediately in distress," said Bruce L. Castor Jr., Montgomery County district attorney. "He did nothing." Burg was born in Philadelphia and later moved to Willingboro, N.J. An arrest warrant charging Downey...

The Science of Medical Marijuana Prohibition USA -- The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently opined that smoked marijuana has no scientifically accepted medical uses. The FDA received much criticism for this decision because in 1999 the Federal Government’s own scientists concluded that even in smoked form marijuana has medical uses. At the heart of the debate about medical marijuana is the question of science. But what, exactly, is science? Since modern civilization bases itself on a belief in the ability of science to solve any and all problems (human or otherwise), prudent people are obligated to at least try...

SCOTLAND'S drugs tsar has sparked a furious row by openly declaring that the war on drugs is "long lost". Tom Wood, a former deputy chief constable, is the first senior law enforcement figure publicly to admit drug traffickers will never be defeated. Wood said no nation could ever eradicate illegal drugs and added that it was time for enforcement to lose its number one priority and be placed behind education and deterrence. But his remarks have been condemned by Graeme Pearson, director of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA), who said he "strongly disagreed" with Wood. The row...

A new La Crosse County ordinance would send criminal charges up in smoke for low-risk offenders busted with under 25 grams — a little less than an ounce — of marijuana. At a Thursday meeting, the county board voted 15-12 to pass the ordinance, which would send first-time offenders away with a citation and fine instead of a misdemeanor charge. The vote followed nearly two hours of debate that included testimony from the district attorney, a judge and the county sheriff — and a few moments of levity that would please Cheech and Chong. District Attorney Scott Horne argued against...