Tag: police state

Advocates File California Ballot Initiative To Legalize Psychedelics For Medical, Therapeutic And Spiritual Use In 2024

Advocates in California filed a ballot initiative with state officials on Friday that would create a right “to obtain and use psychedelics for medical, therapeutic and spiritual purposes” with the recommendation of a doctor. It would also allow adults to possess and use the substances in their home as well as cultivate entheogenic plants and fungi on private property.

Known as the Psychedelic Wellness and Healing Initiative of 2024, the measure is the third psychedelics-related prospective citizen-led measure attempting to qualify for next year’s ballot. Another would legalize psilocybin for adult and therapeutic use, while a third would commit $5 billion to create a state agency focused on advancing research and development of psychedelic therapies.

Dave Hodges, an initiative organizer and the founder of the Church of Ambrosia, in Oakland, acknowledged in an interview earlier this month that the campaign behind the newest proposal is filing its paperwork later than initially hoped. Advocates won’t be able to start gathering signatures until the state attorney general’s office issues the proposal an official ballot title and summary, which can take more than a month.

Hodges said the goal of the proposal is to ensure broad access to psychedelics while ensuring a base level of safety.

“We aren’t just saying, ‘Everybody gets psychedelics!’” Hodges said. “We’re saying you gotta go talk to a doctor first, and if the doctor recommends that you try them, then you can come get them.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) recent veto of an adult-use psilocybin bill passed by the legislature this session was a disappointment, he added, “but at the same time, I completely agree with it.” The governor said in his veto statement that he couldn’t support allowing access to psilocybin without first establishing therapeutic standards.

“My church now has over 100,000 members,” Hodges said. “If each of them could have gone and talked to a doctor before having access to psychedelics, I would have considered that a great thing.”

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The Australian Government Says It Will Be Exempt From Its Own Online “Misinformation” Laws

The Albanese administration’s pursuit of overreaching legislation intended to tackle “false” content on social media platforms is drawing sharp criticism and questions about its implications for free speech. A notable exclusion from this potential crackdown is the very government pushing for it.

This exemption, which would allow government messages to bypass these stringent regulations, was questioned by Independent Senator David Pocock. He rightly posited why governmental communications should remain unexamined when content from other entities would be under scrutiny. To many, the exemption smells suspiciously like a double standard, allowing the government to avoid the very accountability they seek to impose on others. “It would not ‘pass the pub test’ for the exemption to stand when the laws were eventually introduced,” Senator Pocock remarked.

Assistant Minister for Infrastructure Carol Brown rushed to defend the exemption, stating that it is intended to prevent critical emergency communications from the government being accidentally removed by social media platforms.

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Ohio Governor Attacks Marijuana Legalization Ballot Measure, Downplaying Polls Showing Broad Voter Support

Less than two weeks ahead of Election Day, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) is talking to local TV stations about his opposition to Issue 2, a ballot initiative that would legalize adult-use marijuana in the state. But newly released state data on campaign fundraising indicate that supporters have an edge, having raised nearly four times what opponents have collected.

DeWine said voters are confused about both the cannabis measure and a separate initiative, Issue 1, which would protect access to contraception, fertility treatment and abortion. He downplayed polls showing popular support for both proposals.

“These are gonna go right down to the wire,” DeWine told WLWT news, a local NBC affiliate. “I think there’s still confusion about both of them, and I think that both of these will be close.”

Asked about polls showing strong support for legalizing marijuana, the governor was dismissive.

“The old saying is, ‘the only poll that really counts is the one on Election Day,’” he said.

A recent survey of likely voters found that 57 percent supported the legalization measure, including a slim majority of Republicans. Another survey of state lawmakers found that majorities of both Democrats (63 percent) and Republicans (52 percent) expected voters to approve the measure.

DeWine’s opposition to legalizing marijuana is not new, but in the past week he’s spoken out against Issue 2 in a number of interviews.

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Senator Reveals How FBI “Improperly” Halted Investigation Into Biden Family Corruption

Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley announced Wednesday that there is evidence that the FBI and the DOJ attempted to shut down investigative activity into the Biden family and initiated a coverup of “criminal information” by labeling it “foreign disinformation.”

Grassley presented the findings in a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, noting that “This letter is based on years of investigation, including the provision of information, records, and allegations from multiple Justice Department whistleblowers.”

The Senator further noted that the findings “indicate there is — and has been — an effort among certain Justice Department and FBI officials to improperly delay and stop full and complete investigative activity into the Biden family, including but not limited to FD-1023s referencing the Biden family.”

“As just one initial example, I’ve been made aware that at one point in time the FBI maintained over 40 Confidential Human Sources that provided criminal information relating to Joe Biden, James Biden, and Hunter Biden,” he continued.

“It’s been alleged that the basis for shutting the investigative activity down was an August 2020 assessment created by FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten,” Grassley added, further noting “That assessment was used by an FBI HQ team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease.”

The Senator goes on to detail how the FBI used Auten’s assessment and other briefings to discredit bribery and corruption allegations as “foreign disinformation.” 

Grassley alleges that the “partisan media” and Congressional Democrats then cited the FBI’s assertions as a way of stymying his investigation into the Bidens.

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Tribal officer who shot, killed a deer is no longer deputized

The Pokagon Band Tribal Police officer who shot and killed a deer in Van Buren County is no longer deputized. 

Officials confirmed that the officer will no longer have any authority working with the Van Buren County Sheriff’s Office, and will now only have the authority to enforce laws on tribal land.

The incident on Friday sparked outrage in the town of Lawrence, as the officer was filmed forcing a deer to the ground and then shooting it in the neck. It happened after tribal police were assisting county law enforcement in serving an unrelated arrest warrant.

Neighbors say they knew the deer as “Annie,” and while they say she was a wild deer, they say she was remarkably friendly to people, and was loved throughout the area.

“It was amazing. It was one of the most coolest things we’d ever seen. She let us pet her. She let my three-year-old pet her, and, you know, she kind of wandered around our yard, but she always came back to see us. She did no harm,” said Amanda Beck, a resident. 

Community members have formed the online group “Justice for Annie,” and have been sharing memories along with voicing concern over how law enforcement handled the incident. A neighbor who witnessed the incident says the officer shot the deer in front of the family who originally found her when she was injured, and provided her aid. 

“You’ve not only traumatized everybody in the family who watched it happen 10 feet from them, but what could have happened with you firing that firearm 10 feet from a house, 10-foot from a busy highway?” questioned neighbor Theresa Braswell.

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A mother reported her son missing in March. Police kept the truth from her for months.

Seven months of searching for her lost son brought Bettersten Wade to a dirt road leading into the woods, past an empty horse stable and a scrapyard.

The last time she’d seen her middle child, Dexter Wade, 37, was on the night of March 5, as he left home with a friend. She reported him missing, and Jackson police told her they’d been unable to find him, she said. 

It wasn’t until 172 excruciating days after his disappearance that Bettersten learned the truth: Dexter had been killed less than an hour after he’d left home, struck by a Jackson police car as he crossed a nearby interstate highway. Police had known Dexter’s name, and hers, but failed to contact her, instead letting his body go unclaimed for months in the county morgue. 

Now it was early October, and Bettersten had finally been told where she could find her son. 

She pulled up to the gates of the Hinds County penal farm, her sister in the passenger seat. A sheriff’s deputy and two jumpsuited inmates in a pickup told her to follow them. 

They bounced down the road and curved into the woods, crawling past clearings where rows of small signs jutted from the earth, each marked with a number.

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New speaker of the House Mike Johnson once wrote in support of the criminalization of gay sex

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a history of harsh anti-gay language from his time as an attorney for a socially conservative legal group in the mid-2000s.

In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.”

And, in another editorial, he wrote, “Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”

At the time, Johnson was an attorney and spokesman for Alliance Defense Fund, known today as Alliance Defending Freedom, where he also authored his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas – which overturned state laws that criminalized homosexual activity between consenting adults.

ADF wrote an amicus brief in the case which supported maintaining criminalization.

“States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse,” Johnson wrote in a July 2003 op-ed, calling it a public health concern.

“By closing these bedroom doors, they have opened a Pandora’s box,” he added.

Now, Johnson is the speaker of the House at a time when a majority of Americans are strongly supportive of gay rights.

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Newly Elected GOP House Speaker Voted Against Numerous Marijuana Measures, Including Banking, Research And Legalization

The U.S. House of Representatives officially has a new speaker: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). A review of his marijuana-related votes reveals a new leader who has consistently opposed reform, including on incremental issues like cannabis banking and making it easier to conduct scientific research on the plant.

It took the Republican majority about three weeks to elect a speaker after multiple GOP conference nominees failed to amass the required votes to ascend to the position. Johnson was nominated just hours after House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), who has backed cannabis banking and other reforms, was selected and then dropped out on Tuesday following pushback from former President Donald Trump and his allies. Then, on Wednesday, the lesser-known Johnson secured 220 votes on the House floor to become the next speaker.

The congressman entered Congress in 2017, though sizing up his record is more difficult in light of his atypically high absence during roll call votes. But for the votes that he did cast on cannabis issues, there is a clear pattern: he’s again even modest, bipartisan reform proposals.

Importantly, Johnson, who serves as vice chair of the Republican conference, voted against bills to safeguard banks that work with state-licensed marijuana businesses in 2019 and 2021. That could come into play sooner than later, as Senate leadership works to advance the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act that cleared committee last month to the floor before potentially transmitting it to the House.

Under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), leadership wasn’t an especially significant concern for advocates and stakeholders, even under the GOP-controlled chamber. McCarthy had voted in favor of marijuana banking reform, so it was expected that he would not stand in the way of its advancement. How Johnson might approach the issue is less certain.

While he did cosponsor a coronavirus relief bill in 2020 that included the text of the SAFE Banking Act, he was among the chorus of Republican members who blasted Democrats for attaching the cannabis language to the broader legislation.

“The bill mentions the word ‘jobs’ only 52 times—but listen, it mentions ‘cannabis’ 68 times,” he said in 2020. “I’m not being flippant here, but we’re wondering if the staff that wrote this might have been high when they put the pen to paper.”

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‘We feel nothing for you but hate’: Victims of ‘sadistic’ paedophile police officer who blackmailed 200 girls into sharing explicit images on Snapchat say they have self-harmed, contemplated suicide and are too afraid to go out – as he’s jailed for life

The victims of a police officer who blackmailed more than 200 teenage girls into sending him explicit images have spoken of the trauma they experienced after being subjected to his crimes. 

Lewis Edwards, 24, who groomed 210 girls aged between 10 and 16 on Snapchat between November 2020 and February 2023, was today jailed for life with a minimum term of 12 years.

The South Wales Police officer, who joined the force in January 2021, posed as a 14-year-old boy and forced his victims to make indecent videos and images of themselves, which he covertly recorded.

He then used the recordings to blackmail his victims into sending increasingly graphic and explicit images. He also sent videos of himself performing a sex act.

Some of the girls that were subject to his campaign of abuse told the court of how his crimes had affected them – with many self-harming, contemplating suicide, losing friends and left fearful of going out.

The court heard all but one of the victims were abused while he was a serving police officer, and he targeted one teenager just 17 days after meeting her as part of his duties.

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New Jersey Police Have Waited Almost 2 Years To Expunge a Man’s Criminal Record, Lawsuit Claims

According to a new class-action lawsuit, police in New Jersey are taking as long as 20 months to comply with court-ordered expungement of individuals’ criminal records.

Under New Jersey law, individuals can generally have their criminal records expunged after 10 years without a criminal conviction. Those convicted of substance use–related crimes, though, can have their records expunged as soon as they complete an addiction treatment “Recovery Court” program. Additionally, after the passage of a 2022 law, those who are convicted of certain crimes committed due to being victims of human trafficking can apply to have their records expunged any time after conviction.

But many individuals are waiting months, even years, to actually have their criminal records expunged after a judge has granted their request, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender on Monday. Plaintiffs say that they have been rejected or chilled from employment, licensure, and volunteer opportunities after their record was revealed. 

The New Jersey State Police (NJSP), which is tasked with administering expungements, has delayed processing expungement orders for the plaintiffs in the suit for at least several months. One plaintiff still has his criminal convictions on record 20 months after a court ordered his expungement. 

“Plaintiffs, and the class members they seek to represent, share a common grievance— that the NJSP’s extreme delay in processing expungement orders deprives them of their right to a timely expungement and its resultant benefits,” the lawsuit reads. “Because of this delay, criminal records that should have been expunged have instead been repeatedly shared with employers and other entities, throughout the State and in other jurisdictions, by the NJSP, for months after petitioners’ expungement orders were granted and received by the agency.”

The lawsuit further alleges that the delay violates plaintiffs’ rights under New Jersey civil rights statutes by “allowing their expungement orders to languish unprocessed for an unreasonable amount of time after such orders were received.”

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