Tag: the war on (some) drugs

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit Overturns the 45-Year Drug Trafficking Sentence of Former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit overturned this April, the conviction and sentence imposed on former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.

The court ordered the case to be remanded to District Judge Kevin Castel with clear instructions to dismiss the accusation in full, declaring the proceedings moot following the presidential pardon granted by Donald Trump on December 1, 2025.

Hernández, who governed Honduras between 2014 and 2022, had been extradited in April 2022 and sentenced in June 2024 to 45 years in prison on charges of conspiring to import cocaine into the United States and related firearms offenses.

The federal prosecution alleged that he facilitated the passage of more than 400 tons of cocaine during his term in office, relying primarily on the testimony of convicted drug traffickers.

However, Trump always maintained that Hernández was the victim of a “setup” and “unfair and harsh” treatment by the previous administration—a position that materialized in the full and unconditional pardon issued in December 2025, the same day the former Honduran leader regained his freedom.

The presidential pardon left the pending appeal without legal basis, rendering it “moot.” For that reason, the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal and ordered the district court’s sentence to be vacated—a step that amounts to erasing the judicial record of the conviction.

Hernández celebrated the victory on his X account with a direct message: “Court of Appeals overturns sentence and conviction, orders Judge Kevin Castel to dismiss the charges.”

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Texas Judge Pauses New Rules Banning Hemp Products Like Smokable THCA Flower Amid Legal Challenge From Industry

A Texas judge has issued a temporary restraining order preventing the enforcement of new state rules restricting access to hemp-derived products such as smokable THCA flower.

The ruling on Friday comes in a lawsuit brought by a coalition of hemp industry leaders and advocacy organizations that claim the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) and the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) illegally bypassed lawmakers to effectively ban the sale and manufacture of certain consumable hemp products.

The order from District Court of Travis County Judge Guerra Gamble pauses the new hemp product restrictions for 14 days while the broader legal dispute is considered.

“This lawsuit is really based on a constitutional separation powers issue,” Jason Snell, an attorney for the plaintiffs, including the Texas Hemp Business Council (THBC) and Hemp Industry & Farmers of America (HIFA), said during a hearing on Friday, characterizing the new restrictions enacted by regulators as “illegal rules.”

“Here we are today, with the regulators attempting to do what the legislators could not and did not do, and that’s illegal,” he said. “What the legislature refuses to enact cannot be imposed through rulemaking. The rule-makers cannot overstep their authority and enact rules that are more restrictive than what the legislators have enacted.”

“Thousands of people lose their products, their lifetime investments, their businesses, their jobs, everything they poured their heart and soul into,” Snell said. “Those are already going away and could be gone forever unless this illegal regulatory framework is stopped.”

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Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana Home Cultivation Amid Concerns About Pesticide-Tainted Products, Poll Shows

Three out of five Americans say it should be legal for people to grow their own marijuana plants at home, according to a new poll that also shows cannabis consumers are broadly concerned about harmful pesticides in the products they consume.

The survey, which was conducted by The Harris Poll on behalf of Royal Queen Seeds (RQS), found that 61 percent of U.S. adults back legalizing marijuana home cultivation, which the company points out is greater than 43 percent of Americans who say they have consumed cannabis—showing that support for the freedom extends beyond those who want to exercise it for themselves.

At the same time, however, 72 percent of consumers are very concerned about pesticides in their cannabis products, while 65 percent say that media coverage of tainted marijuana has made them more likely to want to grow their own instead of buying it.

The poll also found that two-thirds of cannabis consumers (67 percent) would choose cannabis grown without pesticides even if it had lower THC than products that did use agrochemicals.

“Consumers today are more informed and more intentional about what they put into their bodies,” Shai Ramsahai, president of RQS, said in a press release. “Blindly buying products just because of a high THC percentage is a fading trend. People want cannabis they can trust, and many are turning to home cultivation to take control over quality and safety.”

Other findings of the new poll include:

  • More than 3 in 4 cannabis consumers (76 percent) say they prefer the “high” of marijuana over the “buzz” of alcohol.
  • 39 percent of Americans (and 68 percent of cannabis users) would be more impressed if someone brought home-grown marijuana to a dinner party than a bottle of expensive wine.
  • 80 percent of cannabis consumers say their use of marijuana has a broader wellness connection in their habits.

The poll involved interviews from March 17-19 with 2,017 U.S. adults aged 21 and older, among whom 851 have consumed cannabis, and has a margin of error of +/- 2.7 percentage points.

The survey is the latest in a series of polls commissioned by RQS.

Last year, the company found that half of U.S. marijuana consumers said they expected to consume more cannabis under the Trump administration than they have before.

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Baltimore Creates $35 Million Reparations Fund But None of the Money Has Been Paid Out Because Everyone is Fighting For Control Of It

When the state of Maryland legalized the sale of marijuana a few years ago, they decided that they would set aside a few dollars from each sale to go into a reparations fund which would pay for all sorts of social programs.

Now the fund has $35 million in it but almost none of the money has been paid out because pretty much everyone involved is fighting for control of the fund. Who could have predicted that such a thing would happen?

It’s probably safe to assume that lots of people are going to be very disappointed when this is all finally sorted out and decided.

The Baltimore Beat reports:

Baltimore has received more than $35 million in cannabis reparations money, but none of it has reached residents

In the three years since Maryland legalized recreational cannabis, Baltimore has received more than $35 million in tax revenue to reinvest in communities devastated by the War on Drugs. To date, not a single dollar has reached the people it was meant to help, and the first round of funding may still be a year away.

At the center of the delay is an escalating dispute over who controls the money: City Hall or the Baltimore Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission, the 17-member body established in November 2024 to oversee how the funds are distributed. City Hall says the mayor has final say, while commissioners maintain the body was created to independently manage the funds.

That holdup means that while Maryland’s legalization of cannabis in 2023 led to over $1.1 billion in sales over the following year alone, even as Black communities continue to be targeted by the drug war, none of it has helped repair that damage…

State Senator Mary Washington, who sponsored SB0894, told the Beat that the law was not intended to give local elected officials control over how the money is spent, and argued Baltimore City’s interpretation is out of step with how the law has been understood elsewhere in Maryland.

“The money was never intended to be a slush fund for a county executive or mayor,” she said. Instead, she said, it was meant to reinvest in communities impacted by the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, which continue to face disparities in homeownership, wealth-building, and life expectancy.

This has disaster written all over it.

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Mexican national pleads guilty in meth trafficking conspiracy linked to Oregon murder

A Mexican national has pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in a violent meth trafficking operation that spanned the Portland metro area in 2019. He fled to Canada, but was extradited and has been charged.

Fernando Adolip Cruz-Lerma, 25, was extradited from Canada and then entered his guilty plea for conspiracy charges related to narcotics distribution. Court filings reveal that Cruz-Lerma was part of a criminal network operating in spring 2019. According to prosecutors, the conspiracy involved both large-scale drug distribution and deadly violence to enforce debts.

“According to court documents, in April and May 2019, Cruz-Lerma conspired with others to engage in drug trafficking. In April, Cruz-Lerma transported a victim from the state of Washington to Clackamas County due to a drug debt that the victim owed to members of the drug trafficking conspiracy. The victim was killed by members of the drug trafficking conspiracy in furtherance of the conspiracy. Cruz-Lerma assisted with leaving the victim’s body along a rural road in Clackamas County after the victim had been killed,” a press release from the DOJ stated.

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Federally Funded Study Reveals Marijuana Breathalyzer Breakthrough With 3-D Printed Roadside Tool Able To Detect THC

There’s been a new breakthrough in the development of a marijuana breathalyzer, with a study partly funded by the Justice Department showing a potential pathway for a “portable, low cost” device that looks like an inhaler for asthma, built with 3-D printed material that can detect delta-9 THC without secondary lab analysis.

The study, led by Emanuele Alves at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), detailed the results of experiments meant to address the current lack of a roadside impairment test for THC similar to those utilized by law enforcement for people suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol. With more states legalizing cannabis, there’s particular “need for rapid, reliable and low-cost roadside tools,” it says.

By using 3-D printed cartridges with a “Fast Blue” dye and gelatin system, the colorimetric experiments established “foundational data” that the device can be used to detect delta-9 THC, CBD and CBN “across multiple matrix systems.”

The tool was able to detect 10-100 nanograms of the cannabinoids, which could be differentiated using color-space modeling. Specifically, the tests revealed “two primary clusters,” with evidence that delta-9 THC and CBN analytes can be distinguished from CBD analytes based on color hue.

“Overall, this project established foundational data supporting the feasibility of a portable, low-cost, colorimetric tool for detecting cannabinoids using 3D-printed cartridges and readily accessible reagents,” the study says. “While additional validation and field-oriented development are needed, these findings provide a proof-of-concept framework for future roadside or point-of-collection testing technologies.”

The Justice Department provided funding for the study and posted the results on the Office of Justice Programs’s National Criminal Justice Reference Service website last month, but the author’s findings “do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies” of the agency, it says.

“The development of a breathalyzer for the early detection of marijuana’s recent use is an important matter considering the current legal status of marijuana-based products around the country,” VCU’s Alves said. “To achieve this goal, our initial approach was to develop a portable cartridge that would be able to react with cannabinoids selectively to detect THC use, but not CBD.”

“Most THC breathalyzers in the market are merely collection devices that will need further laboratory analysis,” he continued. “Considering the working system of an alcohol breathalyzer, using a redox reaction would be risky for the THC approach as it would not be selective for the specific cannabinoids and it would give a positive result to any molecule capable of oxidizing the reagent.”

Because of the “excellent results” of the experiment in the “establishment of the foundational chemical profile needed for the development of a THC breathalyzer,” the study says, a patent application has been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), with a proposed design for a future prototype.

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Tennessee House votes to ban kratom, bill now moves to Senate

The State of Tennessee is another step closer to becoming Kratom free.

State representatives voted Wednesday to approve legislation that would outlaw all forms of the substance, including a more potent derivative known as 7-OH.

The proposal now heads to the Senate.

Kratom is a plant-based substance from a Southeast Asian tree, often sold in gas stations and smoke shops. It has been at the center of a growing debate in Tennessee.

Supporters of the bill say the ban is needed to address safety concerns.

“This bill addresses the growing public concern and safety surrounding kratom,” Rep. Esther Helton-Haynes said during earlier hearings.

The legislation is named after a Chattanooga man whose family says he died after using kratom with other substances.

Lawmakers have pointed to risks, including possible links to overdose deaths and concerns about how the substance is marketed.

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Voters Gave Ohio Legal Cannabis. Then Lawmakers Took Away the Part That Helped Me.

I’m Tobey MacCachran – a senior journalism and English student at Denison University– and an intern with NORML since December. I came to cannabis advocacy the way most people arrive at anything that matters: it stopped being abstract. 

I’ve had a birthmark on my right wrist my whole life. Other kids would notice it, point at it, and make jokes, but I never minded. It was a part of me that was as ordinary as my hands or my name. I was born with it, and I was comfortable. 

Eczema was different. 

It showed up in my early teens, uninvited and impossible to ignore. Red, cracking patches spread across my skin during dry winters, causing my hands, wrists, and neck to resemble the surface of Mars. The birthmark was mine. The eczema felt like an invasion. And somewhere in the space between those two things, my relationship with my own body quietly changed. 

By high school, my life was dictated by small adjustments. Long sleeves on some days. Certain seats. Situations I’d remove myself from before anyone noticed. Shirt always on at the beach. And then at 17, I tried a cannabis topical for the first time. 

Something actually worked. And last Friday, Ohio made it a crime to access the product that helped me most. 

SB56 was sold as consumer protection. For people who depend on cannabis topicals for chronic pain and skin conditions, it landed like a punishment.

A cannabis topical isn’t recreational. It’s a cream or balm infused with cannabinoids applied directly to the skin. No high. No altered state. For millions of people managing chronic pain, inflammation, and skin conditions, it’s simply the thing that works when nothing else does. It was that for me – the first treatment in years that gave back some ordinary comfort in my own body. The kind of comfort I hadn’t realized I’d lost until I had it again. 

Ohio Senate Bill 56 went into effect on March 20th. Governor DeWine signed it in December, framing it as consumer protection – a crackdown on unregulated intoxicating hemp products that flooded gas stations and corner stores. And there’s a real conversation to be had there. But buried inside the bill are provisions that go far beyond protecting anyone. 

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