Tag: the war on (some) drugs

Is Cannabis Really Legal If You Can’t Grow Your Own Weed?

For many, the cannabis policy reform movement is rooted in the quest for personal liberty. Legalization isn’t just about getting high; it’s about being able to live your life the way you want to live it.

In too many places, however, the legalization of cannabis does not include the freedom to grow the plant. Instead, cannabis patients and consumers are forced to participate in an overregulated and overtaxed market that not everyone can afford.

The Freedom To Grow Depends on Where You Live

A total of 25 states with legal weed have also legalized home cultivation, either for medical cannabis patients or all adults aged 21 and older, according to information from cannabis reform advocacy group the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). But 15 states that have legalized pot (Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah and West Virginia) still forbid home cultivation. Most of these states have only legalized cannabis for medical use. Delaware and New Jersey, however, have legalized recreational use but don’t allow home cultivation.

Additionally, some states that have legalized home cannabis cultivation for some still deny many adults the right to grow. In Illinois and Washington, home cultivation has only been legalized for medical cannabis patients, while in Nevada, only those who live more than 25 miles from a licensed dispensary can grow their own weed.

The fact that so many states that have legalized marijuana still deny the people the right to grow plants at home raises a fundamental question. Is cannabis really legal if you can’t grow your own weed? 

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Chaotic NYC ‘Safe’ Injection-Sites Put On Notice By Trump

Democrats fully own the crime and chaos plaguing major cities, after decades of failed progressive experiments that have only backfired spectacularly, transforming some parts of America’s largest metropolitan areas into lawless, crime-ridden no-go zones. 

There’s an urgent need for course correction and to restore law and order in major cities run by rogue Democratic leaders whose failed social justice policies (influenced by leftist billionaires and their NGOs), like defunding the police and “safe” injection sites, have only fueled more crime, chaos, and disorder on the streets. 

President Trump’s “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets” executive order, issued late last month, has put these taxpayer-funded safe injection sites on notice.

Safe injection sites, such as those run by nonprofit OnPoint NYC in East Harlem and Washington Heights, supervise illegal drug use under the guise of harm reduction.

A clear legal precedent was set in 2019 under President Trump’s first term via the Department of Justice that successfully blocked a proposed safe injection site in Philadelphia under the Controlled Substances Act. The Third Circuit upheld the decision, and the Supreme Court let it stand. That ruling could now be used against NYC’s injection sites if the Manhattan U.S. Attorney chooses to follow Philadelphia’s lead. 

Trump’s new order calls on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to ensure that none of its “discretionary grants” indirectly fund such sites, which have been causing significant problems at the local level.

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13 Minnesota Cities Are Looking To Launch Government-Owned Marijuana Stores

As some Minnesota cities fret over regulating newly legalized and normalized marijuana sales, others see an opportunity.

Elk River is among 13 Minnesota cities considering opening municipally owned cannabis stores. They would be blazing new trails in this regard, as government-run pot shops aren’t currently in use anywhere else in the country. City Administrator Cal Portner talks about Elk River’s approach as making the most of a situation.

“I don’t sense that our council is enthusiastic about the law to legalize, but they’re accepting of reality,” he said.

Revenue potential from cannabis sales, and how it can be put to use in the community, is part of the appeal. Assuring compliance is also part of it.

“Our liquor stores never fail compliance tests, whether for tobacco or liquor,” Portner said. “We feel we can do the same thing within the cannabis industry.”

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Another powerful Democrat nabbed by U.S. Attorney Leah Foley

U.S. Attorney Leah Foley has become the Massachusetts Democratic Party’s worst nightmare.

Foley nabbed yet another powerful Democratic elected official on Friday, indicting longtime Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins for extorting a Boston cannabis company executive.

Tompkins, who has loomed large on the Boston political scene, allegedly demanded a $50,000 “pre-equity interest” in the cannabis company right before it went public with an IPO, according to Foley’s office.

“His alleged actions are an affront to taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department,” Foley said in a statement.

Tompkins is the most prominent Democrat in a string of indictments that Foley has secured this year, including Boston City Councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson on a bribery charge and state Rep. Chris Flanagan on wire fraud.

Anderson eventually resigned in disgrace and is awaiting sentencing. Flanagan is still holding on to his seat in the Legislature.

Foley has single-handedly done more damage to the state Democratic Party than the feeble Massachusetts Republican Party.

She has been a breath of fresh air in this politically corrupt state, doing the job because few have the guts to take on the powerful Democratic establishment.

“Public corruption remains a top priority for my administration and we will continue to investigate and prosecute anyone who uses their position of trust and power for their own gain,” Foley said.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell has been a no-show when it comes to prosecuting political corruption, choosing instead to issue frivolous lawsuits against President Donald Trump.

The Tompkins case exposes the continued culture of corruption in Massachusetts politics. It also exposes the corrupt cannabis industry, where a number of politicians have tried to cash in on the lucrative business.

Tompkins’ predecessor in the Sheriff’s office, Andrea Cabral, left to become a top executive for a Boston area cannabis company, Ascend Cannabis, which looms as a likely player in the Tompkins case.

The indictment charges that Tompkins tried to bully a cannabis executive to give him the early $50,000 equity stake in exchange for cooperating in a program the Suffolk Sheriff’s office was participating in with the company. The company was hiring ex-cons from jail to work for the cannabis firm.

The indictment never names the cannabis company or executive, but according to a 2018 story in the Boston Globe, Cabral’s company “plans to work directly with the Suffolk County Sheriff to hire people recently released from jail as workers at its facilities.”

Cabral and Tompkins were also college classmates and close friends, according to the story.

Tompkins “is downright enthusiastic about the partnership,” the fawning Globe story went on to say.

“We’re a nation of second chances, or at least that’s what they used to tell us,” Tompkins was quoted as saying. “If someone who hasn’t had good opportunities in life can catch on and make a decent living? It’s awesome. There’s no squeamishness on my part at all.”

Now we know just why Tompkins wasn’t so “squeamish.” He was allegedly planning to make a pile of cash on the deal as well.

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FBI Arrests Sanctuary County Sheriff in Massachusetts After Cannabis Retailer Extortion Investigation

The FBI announced the arrest of a sheriff from Suffolk County, Massachusetts, on charges of extortion. The arrest of the immigration sanctuary county sheriff follows an investigation into allegations that he extorted $50,000 from a Boston-based cannabis company.

FBI agents arrested Sheriff Steven W. Tompkins on Friday in the Southern District of Florida, according to a statement released by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts. He will be transported to Boston after an appearance in the Florida federal court.

Tompkins is charged by indictment for two counts of Extortion under Color of Official Right. He allegedly extorted $50,000 from the owner of a national cannabis retailer based in Boston.

“Mr. Tompkins is a sitting Sheriff, responsible for over 1,000 employees, who was elected by the good people of Suffolk County,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Ted E. Docks said in a written statement. “Today, he is alleged to have extorted an executive from a cannabis company, using his official position as Sheriff to benefit himself.”

Elected officials, particularly those in law enforcement, are expected to be ethical, honest and law abiding – not self-serving,” Docks said. “His alleged actions are an affront to the voters and taxpayers who elected him to his position, and the many dedicated and honest public servants at the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department. The people of Suffolk County deserve better.”

Court records reveal that the cannabis company sought to open a retail cannabis dispensary in Boston. Following the application with the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, Sheriff Tompkins allegedly pressured one of the owners to obtain stock in the venture. After increasing pressure from the sheriff, he wired a $50,000 payment for shares in the company.

The stock eventually decreased in value to the point that the sheriff allegedly lost money in his investment and demanded a refund of the $50,000. The individual refunded the money in smaller payments, labeling them as “loan repayments” to disguise the nature of the payments, prosecutors stated.

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Before The Supposed Climate Change Crisis Could Ruin John Kerry’s Posh Neighborhood – Drug Addicts Did It Instead

Former Secretary of State and climate change alarmist John Kerry’s high-class neighborhood has reportedly been overrun with drug users, who ironically did more damage to the area than his supposed extreme weather events.

Kerry’s been preaching about climate-change consequences for decades. Yet before any of the hypothetical chaos had a chance to affect him, liberal governance brought another plague to his doorstep: Addiction.

Back in 2007, Kerry spoke with the Council on Foreign Relations about how climate change is “a national security issue.”

The former senator was introduced as having spoken out “on the topic of climate change for some 20 years now and has promoted hi-tech green solutions to stabilizing climate change and called attention to the economic risks of failing to address climate change. He’s also [an] advocate for the adoption of innovative and strategic national energy policy.”

Kerry’s 2009 claim in a Huffington Post op-ed that the Arctic would be “ice free by the summer of 2013” was examined by PolitiFact and judged to be “mostly false” at the time.

“Scientists project that the Arctic will be ice-free in the summer of 2013. Not in 2050, but four years from now,” Kerry wrote. “Make no mistake: catastrophic climate change represents a threat to human security, global stability, and — yes — even to American national security.”

In 2017, when Kerry paid $11.75 million for property on the water in Martha’s Vineyard, he didn’t seem too concerned about rising sea levels or climate catastrophes.

Fast forward to today, and an actual crisis is playing out in Beacon Hill, where Kerry also owns property, according to Fox News.

Local residents are complaining that city leaders aren’t doing enough to contain open drug use in the streets, creating a chaotic situation.

“Prior to this year, I’ve never seen the Boston Common, Cambridge Street or the Esplanade get this overrun with drug paraphernalia or folks in crisis,” resident Katherine Kennedy said. “As a mother of two small children, this is very scary.”

Boston’s Democratic mayor hasn’t helped the situation, either.

Back in 2022, Mayor Michelle Wu launched a needle exchange program, which also included distributing free pipes for smoking crack or meth.

Wu defended the program, claiming it prevents addicts from contracting diseases that could spread into the general populace, WHDH in Boston reported.

So, using liberal logic, we should spend billions — even trillions — of dollars on climate-change funding with no questions asked, despite its ever-changing benchmark. But when it comes to a drug epidemic, we should feed the fire by giving out free paraphernalia?

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Dealer’s Talking Parrot Helps Police Nail Entire Drug Ring

A British drug ring was busted and its members jailed after police found the next best thing to a stool pigeon.

Mango, a pet parrot, became vital evidence through his vocabulary lessons after police arrested multiple members of a drug gang in Blackpool, according to ITV.

Fifteen people in all, including a man who ran a drug dealing operation from prison, were convicted in an investigation that got its big break when cell phones were discovered in the prison cell of Adam Garnett, the ringleader, according to a post from Lancashire police on their website.

From those phones, police were able to identify his contacts, which included Shannon Hilton, Garnett’s girlfriend. Videos found on her phone became important evidence that led to multiple convictions.

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How Obama Dismantled America’s Drug, Crime, and Gang Intelligence Infrastructure

The Obama administration dismantled several key intelligence programs that once played a vital role in the fight against drug trafficking, gang violence, and organized crime. These programs integrated law enforcement data with public health metrics to create early warning systems for emerging threats.

Yet they were terminated, driven largely by political considerations and concerns that the data disproportionately reflected criminal activity in specific demographic groups.

Under Democrat administrations, uncomfortable truths, such as the disproportionate amount of crime, drug trafficking, gang activity, and smuggling committed by illegal aliens, Latinos, and other minority groups, are suppressed and dismissed as disinformation.

The National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC), established by Congress in 1993 and placed under the Attorney General’s authority, served as the nation’s primary hub for strategic domestic counterdrug intelligence until President Obama shut it down in 2012. Based in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, the NDIC employed over 300 federal and contract personnel at its peak.

What made the center unique was its integration of law enforcement intelligence with data from drug treatment facilities, enabling a more comprehensive view of the national drug landscape.

NDIC fulfilled several critical functions. Its predictive analysis capabilities allowed it to forecast emerging drug trends, giving federal agencies time to prepare and respond proactively rather than reactively. Its Document and Media Exploitation (DOMEX) teams analyzed seized assets, financial records, communications, and other materials to produce detailed profiles of drug trafficking networks, helping law enforcement “make sense of everything they seized.”

NDIC also produced in-depth regional threat assessments, such as the 2008 Indian Country Drug Threat Assessment, which examined trafficking across Native American reservations. Additionally, the center played a vital role in inter-agency coordination, synthesizing intelligence from the DEA, FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshals, and state and local law enforcement into unified reports.

Despite its effectiveness, NDIC faced political pressure throughout its existence and was ultimately shut down in 2012 under President Obama.

The Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program operated from 1997 to 2003, collecting vital data on drug use among individuals arrested for various offenses. Revived briefly as ADAM II from 2007 to 2014, the program combined interviews and urinalysis to track drug use patterns within the criminal population, offering a rare and valuable window into the link between substance abuse and criminal behavior.

Unlike general population surveys, ADAM focused exclusively on arrestees, delivering real-time intelligence on drug use among those actively engaged in criminal activity. It highlighted regional variations by operating across dozens of metropolitan areas, allowing law enforcement to identify geographic patterns and emerging threats. Interviews provided long-term behavioral context, while urinalysis delivered objective, verifiable data on recent drug use, eliminating the inaccuracies of self-reporting.

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Opening Legal Marijuana Dispensaries Is Tied To A Huge Drop In Opioid-Related Deaths, Analysis Finds

Counties that have marijuana dispensaries see an average of 30 percent fewer opioid-related deaths compared to counties without legal cannabis shops open, suggesting a substitution effect away from prescription pills and heroin toward the plant-based treatment, according to a new data analysis.

In a Washington Post piece on Wednesday, Harvard University economics student Julien Berman used data from the University of Michigan that identifies dispensary locations at the county level to compare opioid overdose trends over 10 years in jurisdictions where cannabis became legally available compared to those without regulated access.

“The theory is straightforward: making cannabis more available—and reducing its cost—could induce people to shift from opioids, which are super dangerous, to marijuana, a significantly safer alternative,” Berman said. “Existing opioid users seeking pain relief can choose marijuana instead of heroin, especially in counties where recreational use is legal and access is easy. And new potential users might never turn to opioids at all if they could get marijuana instead.”

Other factors were taken into account to support the conclusion, including comparisons of opioid mortality rates in counties within a legal state where some allow retailers to operate and others have chosen to opt out.

“That kind of variation helps rule out other state-level changes such as expanded access to naloxone—a drug that can reverse the effects of an overdose—as the main cause of the drop in deaths,” Berman said.

On average, the opioid death rates following the establishment of cannabis dispensaries declined more sharply in the immediate years after the opening compared to dry counties. But from years five to 10, there’s a more precipitous effect, with an average rate of 27 percent fewer opioid deaths in jurisdictions that have cannabis storefronts after a decade.

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Trump’s Anti-Crime Order Brings Back Long Term Facilities to House the Mentally Ill and Addicted

President Donald Trump issued a July 24 executive order titled “Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets.” A record of more than 274,000 individuals were found to be experiencing homelessness. Homelessness often leads to increased crime and fires. Trump’s order pushes local governments to redirect the homeless to “long-term institutional settings for humane treatment through the appropriate use of civil commitment.” Cabinet heads have been instructed to prioritize funding to cities that work to abolish open drug use and camping on the streets. During the Biden administration, from 2022 – 2024, the federal government spent $28 billion, with most of the money going to Democrat cities that include New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Denver, Portland and San Francisco. During this period, homelessness increased by a whopping  33%. 

As of 2025, an estimated 72,308 people experienced homelessness in Los Angeles County. Homelessness is a business, and non-profit organizations are getting rich, in Democrat -majority California. The state currently is “missing” $24 billion in funds intended for the homeless! The Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) is set to lose $300 million in funding, about 40% of its $875-million budget. LAHSA the lead agency that coordinates and manages federal, state, county, and city funds for the homeless.

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