Free Republic

Perhaps it is uncharitable of me, but the minute I hear the words "as a former addict myself," I stop listening to the speaker. Yesterday that speaker was Patrick Kennedy of the famed Kennedy clan. Kennedy, who had some problems with drugs back when he was a congressman, was testifying before a joint committee of the Legislature that is looking at legalization bills. He did a lot of fulminating, as Kennedys do, raising his voice and gesturing with his hands as he said things like, "As a father of five, the last thing I want is edibles sold on every...

Jury selection is underway in the trial of Darien Allen, the former Passaic housing authority chairman and city school district employee who is charged with dealing cocaine and possession of an illegal handgun. Allen, 47, is due back in Superior Court on Tuesday morning for a second day of jury selection with Judge Sohail Mohammed presiding. More than three years after his arrest, Allen will get the chance to defend himself against drug-dealing and weapons charges that could send him to prison for 10 years or more. "He maintains he is innocent of all the charges," said his attorney, Miles...

Murphy's win boosts prospects for legal marijuana in New Jersey

New Jersey Gov.-elect Phil Murphy said he would legalize marijuana within 100 days of taking office in January, and his Tuesday win makes a Democrat-packed statehouse the only obstacle. Supporters feel confident it will happen, but legalization foes plan to campaign for Democratic defections as the other side debates different visions for reform. Legalization in the state — across the river from both New York City and Philadelphia — would be significant geographically, but also because no state has passed legalization legislatively, despite Gallup putting national support at 64 percent.

FULL TITLE: America's heroin epidemic laid bare outside McDonald's: Shocking footage emerges of the moment two men had to be rescued after overdosing in a parking lot A disturbing video has emerged showing the extent of the country's heroin epidemic, with two men having to be rescued after overdosing in a McDonald's parking lot in Ohio. The video, taken on a cellphone and posted to Facebook Live, has been viewed more than 50,000 times following the incident in Sandusky on Thursday afternoon. According to police, a group of people found one man passed out behind the wheel of a car,...

United States Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions is against legal marijuana and once said “good people don’t smoke marijuana.” What does that mean for Washington State, where voters legalized marijuana?

A man who lives across the street from a prominent drug treatment program was arrested Tuesday night on charges involving almost 1,900 packets of heroin, according to authorities. The suspect, 24-year-old Lirse Jones, was wearing an ankle bracelet because he is on probation stemming from a previous drug conviction, according to Passaic County Sheriff Richard Berdnik. Narcotics detectives spotted Jones pacing back and forth near the corner of Straight Street and 20th Avenue while on his cell phone, the sheriff said. Shortly after that, a man driving a black Range Rover pulled up to the curb and made an exchange...

U.S. authorities announced charges on Wednesday against a former Drug Enforcement Administration supervisor and a technology specialist at the agency for failing to disclose their ownership stake in a New Jersey strip club. David Polos and Glen Glover, the DEA employees, made false statements to the government by not disclosing they were part owners of Twins Plus Go-Go Lounge in South Hackensack, according to a complaint filed in federal court in Manhattan. The club features scantily clad and sometimes topless women, many of whom were undocumented immigrants illegally in the United States, the complaint said. Prosecutors said the men did...

Marijuana should be legalized in New Jersey because existing laws waste police resources, unfairly target minorities and leave millions of dollars in potential tax revenue unrealized by relegating it to the black market, a coalition said Wednesday in announcing a public education initiative. New Jersey United for Marijuana Reform wants to legalize marijuana for people over 21, tax it and regulate its distribution. Among the groups represented at Wednesday's news conference were the American Civil Liberties Union New Jersey, the NAACP State Conference of New Jersey and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. NJUMR is focusing its efforts on educating the public...

The Real Reason Pot Is Still Illegal Opponents of marijuana-law reform insist that legalization is dangerous—but the biggest threat is to their own bottom line. USA -- Patrick Kennedy, son of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, did several stints in rehab after crashing his car into a barricade on Capitol Hill in 2006, a headline-making event that revealed the then–US congressman for Rhode Island had been abusing prescription drugs, including the painkiller OxyContin. Kennedy went on to make mental health—including substance abuse—a cornerstone of his political agenda, and he is reportedly at work on a memoir about his struggles with...

A study recently came out analyzing the damage to the brain caused by pot smoking. Unfortunately, it came out during the week of the Triduum, and a Catholic blog like this had another focus at that time. But it’s time to circle back and have a look.I wrote some time ago of my anecdotal observation that the pot smokers I knew all developed serious problems with motivation, and that the effects of being “high” lingered long after toking a joint and went on to become semi-permanent. It involved a glazed look, a shuffling gait, and a lethargic attitude largely exemplified...

DEA administrator claims that marijuana legalization imperils dogs Washington, D.C. -- It’s hard to come up with a new angle on a much-debated policy issue like the War on Drugs. But Drug Enforcement Administration head Michele Leonhart may have succeeded with her recent claim that we should oppose marijuana legalization because it poses a health risk for dogs. Unfortunately, her argument ignores the reality that the War on Drugs poses a far greater threat to dogs than marijuana does. It is indeed true that ingesting marijuana creates some small risks for dogs. As Jacob Sullum notes, marijuana itself is not...

Here’s a new edition of my “you be the judge” series. These are posts designed to explore some of the more challenging aspects of a pro-libertarian philosophy. Today’s example comes from Colorado, which had displayed a libertarian streak on issues ranging from school choice to drug legalization. But the latter issue is the source of today’s quandary. Should marijuana be legal if it means more tax revenue that will be used by the political elite to expand the burden of government spending? Here are the details from the Denver CBS station.A draft bill floating around the Capitol late this week...

John "Big Man" Venizelos wears horn-rimmed glasses and fancies Ralph Lauren Polo but the prepster is just a doper, and the reputed Bonanno associate will plead guilty for his role in an alleged $1 billion drug ring which brought hydroponic bud into New York and sent powder cocaine into Canada as reported by Mitchel Maddux for the New York Post: "prosecutors also say they seized letters written by an unnamed colleague of Venizelos that discussed the Bonanno associate's ties to organized crime - including references to sit-downs with captains in various New York La Cosa Nostra families." Drug trafficking always...

DENVER (AP/CBS4) — Marijuana legalization could be going back to the ballot in Colorado — a prospect that infuriated pot legalization activists Friday. The proposal for a marijuana ballot measure came as the House started debate Friday evening on bills to regulate and tax pot. One bill would state how pot should be grown and sold, and the other would tax recreational marijuana more than 30 percent. A draft bill floating around the Capitol late this week suggests that a new ballot question on pot taxes should repeal recreational pot in the state constitution if voters don’t approve 15 percent...

My thought is certain recreational drugs, such as marijuana, should remain off legal limits for the under 18 year olds, but become legally available when used in the proper environment. In many ways, pot is quite similar to alcohol, in that they should be used responsibly. My thought is to make the sale of marijuana less profitable by making it legal for home use. Personally, I don't smoke anything now, and do not want the smell of tobacco or pot on my clothes should I visit a public place, such as a shopping mall or bus stop. I know this...

<p>Police in Tacoma could soon be in real trouble over pot.</p> <p>The department could be found in contempt if they continue to refuse to return a small amount of marijuana seized from a man after a traffic stop. Municipal Court Judge Jack Emery repeated an order to police Thursday to return the drug to Joseph L. Robertson within seven days or they could be found in contempt.</p>

New York's proposal to ban purchases by those under 21 is off-base.As thoroughly awful as everyone knows cigarettes to be — still the No. 1 cause of premature death in this country — public officials walk a blurry line when they try to reduce smoking's terrible toll. As long as they lack the will to ban tobacco altogether, they face all sorts of ethical, legal and political problems in regulating a product that is, after all, perfectly legal. High tobacco taxes, critics say, unfairly punish smokers, who are disproportionately low income. Banning advertising of a legal product raises free-speech issues....

Peter Sagal, host of NPR's highly entertaining "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me," is planning a new PBS special on the US Constitution. In an interview with Politico, Sagal explains that he will be using the show to "educate" Americans about our government's framing document . The tax-payer funded show, "Constitution USA with Peter Sagal," sounds harmless enough: … We talked to people who were basically living the Constitution whether they wanted to or not, as opposed to the usual array of pundits or activists who have opinions about it. But as Sagal reveals his personal views of the constitution, a...

A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house. Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door. The two officers, 25-year-old Kyle Shedran and 24-year-old Greg Day, were placed on administrative leave with pay. “They need to get rid of those men, boys with toys,” said Adams’ 70-year-old widow, Loraine. John Adams was watching television when his wife heard pounding on the door. Police...