Free Republic

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...

DENVER (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul courted donors from the new marijuana industry Tuesday, making the Kentucky senator the first major-party presidential candidate to publicly seek support from the legal weed business. Paul's fundraiser at the Cannabis Business Summit - tickets started at $2,700, the maximum donation allowed for the primary contest - came as the marijuana industry approached its first presidential campaign as a legal enterprise....

A large pro-legalization group ranks Paul above all Democratic candidates.Sen. Rand Paul bested his rivals for the White House in a candidate report card issued Friday by the Marijuana Policy Project, one of the largest organizations pushing to regulate the drug like alcohol. The group gave the Kentucky Republican an A- in recognition of his efforts to overhaul federal drug laws and his support of states’ right to legalize marijuana. Second place – a B+ – went to former Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who has not officially announced a bid, and Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, a former Republican seeking...

Colorado’s legal marijuana market is far exceeding tax expectations, according to a budget proposal released Wednesday by Gov. John Hickenlooper that gives the first official estimate of how much the state expects to make from pot taxes. The proposal outlines plans to spend some $99 million next fiscal year on substance abuse prevention, youth marijuana use prevention and other priorities. The money would come from a statewide 12.9 percent sales tax on recreational pot. Colorado’s total pot sales next fiscal year were estimated to be about $610 million. Retail sales began Jan. 1 in Colorado. Sales have been strong, though...

When confronted with the Republican Party’s poor standing among minority communities, GOP politicians have usually taken one of two approaches: claim these communities constitute “natural conservative constituencies” or advocate a broad change in policy or ideology to attract minority voters. Neither one of these tactics has been effective, for various reasons–chief among those reasons is that the communities under consideration are usually not “natural conservative constituencies.” Take Hispanics, for example. It is often noted by GOP politicians that Hispanic immigrants are hard-working, family-oriented strivers who tend to be religious. That may be true, but polls showed that while Mitt Romney...

Two Seneca Falls residents were charged with forcing a 2-year-old to smoke marijuana. New York State Police charged Kristen A. Brewster, 19, of 1875 Auburn Road, lot 3, and George R. Lavare Jr., 22, of 1875 Auburn Road, lot 11, with unlawful possession of marijuana and endangering the welfare of a child. Both were arraigned in the Town of Seneca Falls Court and sent to to jail in lieu of $5,000 bail or $10,000 bond. The two are due in Town of Seneca Falls Court on Oct. 28. Police said the state Child Abuse Hotline was contacted and the Seneca...