Tag: police state

France’s Censors Release Their Favorite Captive

French authorities have lifted the travel ban that had confined Telegram founder Pavel Durov to France for more than a year.

The restriction, imposed after his arrest in Paris last August, had prevented him from leaving the country while prosecutors pursued charges tied not to his own actions but to what users on his platform were allegedly doing.

The order, signed on Monday, and reported by Bloomberg, also cancels the obligation for Durov to report regularly to a local police station.

The decision restores his freedom of movement, though the investigation into Telegram itself continues.

Prosecutors have not clarified why the head of a communications service is being held legally responsible for user activity, an approach that raises questions about how far governments are willing to go in policing online speech.

According to France’s Prosecutor’s Office, Durov faces preliminary charges for “facilitating a platform that enables illicit transactions.”

If convicted, he could face up to ten years in prison and a fine of roughly $550,000.

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Anti-Christian Judge Prevents Mother from Taking Daughter to Church or Even Reading the Bible

Child custody cases are often fraught with trying and unusual behaviors and demands, but the recent custody order from a judge in Maine has taken bigotry against Christians to a new level.

Emily Bickford had a daughter, Ava who turns 13 in January, with Matt Bradeen. The two were not married, and Emily has retained primary custody while the father has visitation rights.

Emily is Christian and has worked to provide a foundation of faith for her daughter, something her non-custodial father opposes.  He has been described as ‘hating’ Christianity.

Bradeen took the issue to court, found a former ACLU president who had become a judge, and the war on religion commenced.

The judge issued a custody order that can only be viewed as hostile to Christianity. The order forbids Ava from associating with any of her church friends, attending church or Christian events, and even prevents Ava from studying the Bible, “religious philosophy,” or discussing her faith with her own mother.  Ava is also not allowed to participate in Christian holiday events such as Christmas.

According to Liberty Council, the mother and daughter had been attending Calvary Chapel, an evangelical Christian church in Portland, ME, for 3½ years. Ava shared her excitement with her father over her upcoming baptism and that is when the trouble began.

Instead of sharing his daughter’s excitement, even if his views differ, he engaged the leftist judge and then brought in a Marxist former sociology professor from California as a “witness.” The witness testified that Calvary Chapel (and any church that believes the Bible) is a “cult” that causes psychological harm to children.

“The judge found that Emily is a fit parent EXCEPT for the fact that she is a Christian,” Liberty Council’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver notes.

“The judge mocked Ava and Emily’s faith by purposefully refusing to capitalize the word ‘God’ — something I have never seen.”

The judge even chastised Emily for allowing the church pastor to pray for Ava. And the judge ruled that Emily could not take Ava to ANY church unless Matt approves. And Matt has steadfastly refused to approve ANY church,” he continued.

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Congress Abandons Effort To Let VA Doctors Recommend Medical Marijuana On Veterans Day

Advocates are sharply criticizing congressional leaders for advancing a spending bill ahead of Veterans Day on Tuesday that omits bipartisan provisions allowing U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) doctors to recommend medical cannabis to patients in states where it’s legal—even though the policy was approved by the full Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year.

While there’s been significant focus on language in appropriations legislation that passed the Senate on Monday that would ban hemp products containing THC, another key setback for reform advocates is the lack of the medical marijuana provisions for veterans—different versions of which advanced through both chambers.

“The absence of this provision is incredibly disappointing, and makes no sense whatsoever,” Morgan Fox, political director of NORML, told Marijuana Moment. “It is uncontroversial, revenue-neutral, previously approved by both chambers, and long overdue in order to help veterans find relief.”

“The timing of the announcement—just days before a holiday to show our gratitude to service members—is quite insensitive,” he said, referring to the bill’s unveiling on Sunday, just two days before Veterans Day.

Here’s the text of the House-passed version: 

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used to enforce Veterans Health Directive 1315 as it relates to—

(1) the policy stating that ‘VHA providers are prohibited from completing forms or registering Veterans for participation in a State-approved marijuana program’;

(2) the directive for the ‘Deputy Under Secretary for Health for Operations and Management’ to ensure that ‘medical facility Directors are aware that it is VHA policy for providers to assess Veteran use of marijuana but providers are prohibited from recommending, making referrals to or completing paperwork for Veteran participation in State marijuana programs’; and

(3) the directive for the ‘VA Medical Facility Director’ to ensure that ‘VA facility staff are aware of the following’ ‘[t]he prohibition recommending, making referrals to or completing forms and registering Veterans for participation in State-approved marijuana programs’.”

The Senate-passed language reads:

“None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available to the Department of Veterans Affairs in this Act may be used in a manner that would—

(1) interfere with the ability of a veteran to participate in a medicinal marijuana program approved by a State;

(2) deny any services from the Department to a veteran who is participating in such a program; or

(3) limit or interfere with the ability of a health care provider of the Department to make appropriate recommendations, fill out forms, or take steps to comply with such a program.”

The negotiated bill contains no language on the issue at all.

“Denying our veterans access to a medicine that so many use to ease physical pain, or the trauma of PTSD, is straight cruelty,” Adam Smith, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), told Marijuana Moment.

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Pets Will ‘Suffer Needlessly’ If Federal Hemp Ban Takes Effect And Limits CBD Access, Veterinarian Says

The federal hemp ban that was included in a spending bill President Donald Trump signed last week could inadvertently hurt a patient demographic that isn’t usually associated with cannabis: Dogs, cats and other pets who’ve come to rely on cannabinoids as part of their veterinary medical care.

As certain GOP lawmakers in Congress pressed for a policy change to prevent the sale of consumable hemp products, the narrative often revolved around the idea that a strict ban would close a “loophole” in the 2018 Farm Bill that legalized the crop, leading to the expansion of an often unregulated market for intoxicating cannabinoids.

But while there’s broad consensus that gas station THC vapes and copycat hemp edibles appealing to youth should be addressed, stakeholders and advocates say that narrative paints an incomplete picture, as the language included in appropriations legislation that’s set to take effect next year threatens to upend legitimate enterprises as well—including those that provide access to CBD for pets.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) attempted to distance himself from that argument before Congress passed the bill with the hemp provisions. He said that the Farm Bill and hemp legalization provisions he championed were always meant to be about industrial uses, and CBD products would be spared even with a ban on intoxicating elements of the plant.

The way the law is written, however, will permit such limited concentrations of THC that most growers and manufacturers say the idea of a CBD carve-out is infeasible. And for companies marketing such non-intoxicating products, that could spell doom—or at least force them to take on the significant added cost of extracting CBD isolates so as not to run afoul of the law.

Tim Shu, founder and CEO of the company VetCBD, tells Marijuana Moment that the passage of the appropriations legislation is cause for concern for animal companions, many of which have found relief from conditions such as arthritis, epilepsy, pain and other health conditions with the help of CBD.

Just like the 0.3 percent THC by dry weight limit that currently defines hemp, the more restrictive THC limit prescribed under the newly enacted law is “arbitrary,” Shu said. He also stressed the importance of the “entourage effect” for cannabis that makes it so having the plant’s natural ingredients—THC, CBD, terpenes and other compounds—work together often enhances their therapeutic efficacy.

“If the rule stays unchanged, then essentially anyone that’s producing CBD products from hemp are going to have to use CBD isolate,” he said. “And the problem with that is that we know from increasing evidence that the entourage effect does have benefits—it does appear to be a real thing.”

“This is something that people tend to forget about. Everyone’s thinking about intoxicating hemp properties, right? The delta-9, delta-8 THC stuff that you can find at gas stations. But the reality is that there are a lot of people and animals that rely on full-spectrum CBD products from hemp to not suffer,” Shu said. “And as usual, the neediest suffer the most.”

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Canadian government forcing doctors to promote euthanasia to patients: report

Canadian doctors are warning that Health Canada’s push for euthanasia is forcing doctors to suggest assisted suicide to patients.

In a November 6 video by Christian filmmaker Frank Panico, three Canadian doctors, Will Johnston of Vancouver, David D’Souza of Toronto, and Catherine Ferrier of Montreal, revealed that physicians are forced to discuss euthanasia or so-called “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) with vulnerable patients according to Health Canada protocol.

“If a physician is suggesting euthanasia as an option or a treatment option for their pain or their suffering, then that is a very serious thing,” D’Souza, a family physician and a pain specialist in Ontario, warned.

“As a patient is more likely to take this option given that a health professional has suggested it,” he continued. “I think it does severe harm to the doctor patient relationship when physicians are now allowed and even suggesting euthanasia as a means to end their suffering.”

D’Souza’s concerns are in response to 2023 guidelines by Health Canada, titled “Model Practice Standard for Medical Assistance in Dying to Ensure Consistent and Safe Practice in Canada.” The document mandates that doctors and nurses must tell a patient about the assisted suicide options available to them while discussing medical care.

“[Physicians/Nurse Practitioners] must take reasonable steps to ensure persons are informed of the full range of treatment options available to relieve suffering,” subsection 6.1 notes, falsely presenting suicide as “treatment.”

Echoing D’Souza’s warning, Johnston, a Vancouver family physician and head of B.C.’s Euthanasia Resistance Coalition, explained that the regulations contradict previous promises that medical personnel would not be forced to participate in the practice.

“Promises were made that no doctor would ever be coerced to participate in euthanasia, no doctor or nurse would ever lose their job because they wouldn’t cooperate with euthanasia,” he declared.

“No hospital would have to do it. No nursing home, no palliative care unit would be forced to host doctors killing patients who wanted to die. All of that was a complete fiction. All of those things have now happened,” Johnston lamented.

Similarly, Ferrier of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at McGill University Health Centre recalled doctors pushing assisted suicide on a family member who had brain cancer.

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Trump Offers Lifeline To UK ‘Thought Criminals’

The Trump White House is mulling political asylum for British free speech activists branded “thought criminals” under Keir Starmer’s regime, in one example offering refugee status to those prosecuted for silent protests outside abortion clinics as well as expressing online dissent.

The transatlantic intervention, said to be largely influenced by Elon Musk continually pointing to cases of the UK punishing people for “thought crimes,” signals America’s readiness to shield allies from creeping authoritarianism.

Administration insiders are intently exploring the option of offering visas and refugee status, focusing on figures like Livia Tossici-Bolt, prosecuted in March 2023 for holding a sign near a Bournemouth abortion clinic reading “Here to talk if you want,” and Adam Smith Connor, convicted for a vigil outside Poole Magistrates Court.

A source close to the process called the plan “serious,” noting officials are “beginning to consider” extending protections to gender critical activists, immigration critics, and even pro-abortion campaigners hit with “thought crimes.”

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UN makes “landmark” deal on information integrity to shut up annoying denialists

Look out. Climate Denialism is a “security threat” now

As the Net Zero fantasy crumbles and the political tide shifts, the Blob has up’d the ante and pressed the red hot “security threat” button. Climate deniers are now such a mortal threat (to the sinecures of the Blobcrats) they must be contained.

As David Archibald says “When they have lost the argument, they change the rules.”

Countries seal landmark declaration at COP30—marking first time information integrity is prioritized at UN Climate Conference

Drafted in collaboration with civil society members of the Global Initiative Advisory Group, the Declaration has been endorsed by ten countries so far – Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Uruguay. 

“Climate change is no longer a threat of the future; it is a tragedy of the present,” said President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Belém. “We live in an era in which obscurantists reject scientific evidence and attack institutions. It is time to deliver yet another defeat to denialism.”

Oh, the horrible obscurantists! Humanity will be saved, but only if governments can rule without having to answer difficult questions.

The UN must be feeling fragile because the term “denialism” is decidedly unscientific — it is the language of political and religious struggle, not of atmospheric physics.

Perhaps they’re afraid the world might recognize that the UN is a superfluous, bloodsucking freeloader?  To make themselves useful, the UN are providing an excuse for sympathetic (socialist) governments to launch information integrity commissions, or to fund “research” into misinformation online.

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Britain’s Speech Gulag Exposed: 10,000 Arrested Last Year For Social Media Posts

A damning study complete with an interactive map has revealed that UK police arrested nearly 10,000 people in 2024 for “grossly offensive” social media posts—equivalent to 30 arrests every single day—while knife crime, burglary, and sexual offences go unsolved.

This Orwellian crackdown, driven by vague “communications” laws, has turned Britain into an international embarrassment, with forces devoting more manpower to policing opinions than protecting citizens.

Compiled from Freedom of Information requests to 39 police forces, the data shows 9,700 arrests in 2024 alone under the Communications Act 2003 and Malicious Communications Act 1988.

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“You Can’t Handle the Truth”: UK Health Watchdog Reportedly Refuses To Release Data On Vaccine Deaths

The United Kingdom’s public health service is reportedly refusing to release data on the potential relationship between the COVID vaccine and excess deaths.

The reason?

It would upset people to know the truth.

The question is whether British citizens have become so passive and yielding that they will support their government, keeping them from learning the facts about vaccines and allowing them to reach their own conclusions.

The UK has long embraced speech controls and censorship to protect citizens from unacceptable views or what one criminal defendant was told were “toxic ideologies.”

Social media companies assisted governments in censoring opposing scientific views during the pandemic, including those regarding the potential dangers of the vaccines.

Over the years, dissenting faculty members have been forced out of scientific and academic organizations for challenging preferred conclusions on subjects ranging from transgender transitions to COVID-19 protections to climate change. Some were barred from speaking at universities or blacklisted for their opposing views.

Many of the exiled experts were ultimately proven correct in challenging the efficacy of surgical masks or the need to shut down our schools and businesses. Scientists moved like a herd of lemmings on the origin of the virus, crushing those who suggested that the most likely explanation is a lab leak (a position that federal agencies would later embrace).

Scientists have worked with the government in suppressing dissenting views. For example, The Wall Street Journal released a report on how the Biden administration suppressed dissenting views supporting the lab leak theory, as dissenting scientists were blacklisted and targeted.

When experts within the Biden Administration found that the lab theory was the most likely explanation for COVID-19, they were told not to share their data publicly and were warned about being “off the reservation.”

Universities and associations joined the crackdown. Scientists questioning the efficacy of those blue surgical masks and the six-foot rule were suppressed. So were those arguing that we should, as in Europe, keep schools open. These experts were also later vindicated, but few were rehired or reestablished in universities or associations.

It was all done in the name of protecting the public from opposing views or data.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) shows that little has changed. 

According to the Telegraph, the agency declared that releasing the data would lead to the “distress or anger” of bereaved relatives if a link were to be discovered.

It also suggested that the data might stress or undermine the mental health of the families and friends of people who died.

The story has received little attention in the media, which previously joined efforts to suppress opposing views during the pandemic.

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Trump Administration Sees Marijuana As A ‘Hazard,’ Federal Prosecutor Says, Drawing Criticism From Lawmakers And Advocates

Lawmakers and advocates are pushing back after a U.S. attorney announced his office will be aggressively prosecuting cannabis possession and use offenses on federal lands, stating that it’s the administration’s position that “marijuana use is a public safety hazard.”

U.S. Attorney for the District of Wyoming Darin Smith caught some by surprise on Thursday after his office said it would be “rigorously” prosecuting cannabis cases, while citing a recent reversal of previously unpublicized Biden-era marijuana enforcement guidance that deprioritized such action.

“Marijuana possession remains a federal crime in the United States, irrespective of varying state laws,” Smith said. “The detrimental effects of drugs on our society are undeniable, and I am committed to using every prosecutorial tool available to hold offenders accountable.”

He doubled down on that position in comments to WyoFile, telling the local outlet: “This administration thinks that marijuana use is a public safety hazard and this office is going to uphold the law and ensure safety and security of the public within our jurisdiction.”

Marijuana Moment reached out to the White House for clarification on President Donald Trump’s position on cannabis, but a representative did not provide comment by the time of publication.

While questions remain as to the specifics of both the Biden- and Trump-related marijuana prosecutorial guidance actions, the federal attorney’s message has added to the uncertainty around how the current administration views its enforcement role as federal and state cannabis laws continue to conflict.

U.S. Rep. Dina Titus (D-NV), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Marijuana Moment that simple cannabis possession “is not a threat to public safety, and it is ridiculous to justify the prosecution of individuals with an outdated law that does not reflect the current use of cannabis in the United States”

“The federal government needs to catch up to the states, recognize the legitimate industry that has emerged, dismantle the stigma surrounding the plant, and reform its outdated scheduling of marijuana as a dangerous drug,” she said.

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