"The Drug Enforcement Administration on Tuesday banned for at least a year the chemicals used to make 'K2' and 'Spice,' popular smokable herbs that mimic the marijuana high.
The DEA used its emergency power to control five chemicals used to coat the herbs. It classified them in Schedule I, the most restrictive category under the federal Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I drugs are found to have a high potential for abuse and no accepted medical use...
The emergency ban is effective for a year and can be extended for six months.
Federal scientists will study the chemicals, abuse data and the potential for addiction to determine whether the chemicals should be permanently controlled."
DEA bans chemcials used to mimic marijuana
Donna Leinwand
3-2-11
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-03-02-rw_spice01_ST_N.htm
Showing posts with label DEA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DEA. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Feds move to ban chemicals used to make 'fake pot'
http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/11/24/fake.pot.ban/
Feds move to ban chemicals used to make 'fake pot'
November 24, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
"Fake pot" is often labeled as "incense"
The emergency ban will give the DEA a year to study fake pot safety
Synthetic marijuana sales started in stores and online two years ago
The DEA says reports of illnesses from smoking fake pot are increasing
Washington (CNN) -- "Fake pot" products that give a marijuana-like high could be illegal in another month as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration takes emergency action to ban chemicals used to make them.
"Over the past year, smokable herbal blends marketed as being 'legal' and providing a marijuana-like high, have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults," the DEA said in a news release Wednesday.
Synthetic marijuana is made of plant material coated with chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and are sold at a variety of retail outlets, in head shops that sell drug paraphernalia and over the internet, the DEA said.
"Since 2009, DEA has received an increasing number of reports from poison centers, hospitals and law enforcement regarding these products," the DEA said.
The "fake pot," marketed under brand names including "Spice," "K2," "Blaze" and "Red X Dawn," is often labeled as "incense," White House Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said.
"Until the risks associated with ingesting these products and chemicals can be studied and understood, there is no place for them on the shelves of any legitimate business," he said.
The emergency ban will be in place for a year as federal officials study whether the products and chemicals should be permanently controlled, it said. Fifteen U.S. states have already taken action to control one or more of the five chemicals used to produce synthetic marijuana.
The ban cannot take effect until at least 30 days after the DEA notice was announced in the Federal Register, which happened Wednesday.
The chemicals, which were used in research, have not been approved for human consumption, and there is no oversight of the manufacturing process, the DEA said.
The five targeted chemicals are identified as JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47497 and cannabicyclohexanol.
Feds move to ban chemicals used to make 'fake pot'
November 24, 2010
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
"Fake pot" is often labeled as "incense"
The emergency ban will give the DEA a year to study fake pot safety
Synthetic marijuana sales started in stores and online two years ago
The DEA says reports of illnesses from smoking fake pot are increasing
Washington (CNN) -- "Fake pot" products that give a marijuana-like high could be illegal in another month as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration takes emergency action to ban chemicals used to make them.
"Over the past year, smokable herbal blends marketed as being 'legal' and providing a marijuana-like high, have become increasingly popular, particularly among teens and young adults," the DEA said in a news release Wednesday.
Synthetic marijuana is made of plant material coated with chemicals that mimic THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and are sold at a variety of retail outlets, in head shops that sell drug paraphernalia and over the internet, the DEA said.
"Since 2009, DEA has received an increasing number of reports from poison centers, hospitals and law enforcement regarding these products," the DEA said.
The "fake pot," marketed under brand names including "Spice," "K2," "Blaze" and "Red X Dawn," is often labeled as "incense," White House Drug Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske said.
"Until the risks associated with ingesting these products and chemicals can be studied and understood, there is no place for them on the shelves of any legitimate business," he said.
The emergency ban will be in place for a year as federal officials study whether the products and chemicals should be permanently controlled, it said. Fifteen U.S. states have already taken action to control one or more of the five chemicals used to produce synthetic marijuana.
The ban cannot take effect until at least 30 days after the DEA notice was announced in the Federal Register, which happened Wednesday.
The chemicals, which were used in research, have not been approved for human consumption, and there is no oversight of the manufacturing process, the DEA said.
The five targeted chemicals are identified as JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47497 and cannabicyclohexanol.
Friday, November 19, 2010
Humor Break: The DEA on a Ranch
Courtesy of MagnesiumForLife.com
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer stops at a ranch in Texas, and talks with the old chap who owns it. He tells the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.” The rancher says, “Okay, but don’t go in that field over there,” as he points out the location.
The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me.” Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. “See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish... On any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?”
The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull... With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he’ll get gored before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified. The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs...
“Quick, quick! Your badge. Show him your BADGE!”
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) officer stops at a ranch in Texas, and talks with the old chap who owns it. He tells the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.” The rancher says, “Okay, but don’t go in that field over there,” as he points out the location.
The DEA officer verbally explodes saying, “Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me.” Reaching into his rear pants pocket, he removes his badge and proudly displays it to the rancher. “See this badge? This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish... On any land. No questions asked or answers given. Have I made myself clear? Do you understand?”
The rancher nods politely, apologizes, and goes about his chores.
A short time later, the old rancher hears loud screams and sees the DEA officer running for his life chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull... With every step the bull is gaining ground on the officer, and it seems likely that he’ll get gored before he reaches safety. The officer is clearly terrified. The rancher throws down his tools, runs to the fence and yells at the top of his lungs...
“Quick, quick! Your badge. Show him your BADGE!”
Saturday, September 4, 2010
The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS
http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599201315000
The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS
ADAM COHEN
Thu Aug 26, 2010
Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.
That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant.
It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.
This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.
After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)
In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.
The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno's driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month's decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people's. The court's ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.
Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. "There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist," he wrote. "No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter." The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of "cultural elitism."
The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state - with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.
Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit's - including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.
In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's pro-privacy ruling was unanimous - decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."
Cohen, a lawyer, is a former TIME writer and a former member of the New York Times editorial board.
The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS
ADAM COHEN
Thu Aug 26, 2010
Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn't violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway - and no reasonable expectation that the government isn't tracking your movements.
That is the bizarre - and scary - rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants - with no need for a search warrant.
It is a dangerous decision - one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.
This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents decided to monitor Juan Pineda-Moreno, an Oregon resident who they suspected was growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property in the middle of the night and found his Jeep in his driveway, a few feet from his trailer home. Then they attached a GPS tracking device to the vehicle's underside.
After Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA's actions, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit ruled in January that it was all perfectly legal. More disturbingly, a larger group of judges on the circuit, who were subsequently asked to reconsider the ruling, decided this month to let it stand. (Pineda-Moreno has pleaded guilty conditionally to conspiracy to manufacture marijuana and manufacturing marijuana while appealing the denial of his motion to suppress evidence obtained with the help of GPS.)
In fact, the government violated Pineda-Moreno's privacy rights in two different ways. For starters, the invasion of his driveway was wrong. The courts have long held that people have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their homes and in the "curtilage," a fancy legal term for the area around the home. The government's intrusion on property just a few feet away was clearly in this zone of privacy.
The judges veered into offensiveness when they explained why Pineda-Moreno's driveway was not private. It was open to strangers, they said, such as delivery people and neighborhood children, who could wander across it uninvited.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month's decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people's. The court's ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.
Judge Kozinski is a leading conservative, appointed by President Ronald Reagan, but in his dissent he came across as a raging liberal. "There's been much talk about diversity on the bench, but there's one kind of diversity that doesn't exist," he wrote. "No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter." The judges in the majority, he charged, were guilty of "cultural elitism."
The court went on to make a second terrible decision about privacy: that once a GPS device has been planted, the government is free to use it to track people without getting a warrant. There is a major battle under way in the federal and state courts over this issue, and the stakes are high. After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state - with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi.
Fortunately, other courts are coming to a different conclusion from the Ninth Circuit's - including the influential U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. That court ruled, also this month, that tracking for an extended period of time with GPS is an invasion of privacy that requires a warrant. The issue is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.
In these highly partisan times, GPS monitoring is a subject that has both conservatives and liberals worried. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit's pro-privacy ruling was unanimous - decided by judges appointed by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton.
Plenty of liberals have objected to this kind of spying, but it is the conservative Chief Judge Kozinski who has done so most passionately. "1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last," he lamented in his dissent. And invoking Orwell's totalitarian dystopia where privacy is essentially nonexistent, he warned: "Some day, soon, we may wake up and find we're living in Oceania."
Cohen, a lawyer, is a former TIME writer and a former member of the New York Times editorial board.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
How Weed Won the West
http://www.prisonplanet.com/how-weed-won-the-west-marijuana-legalization-is-a-crucial-issue-for-the-liberty-movement.htmlHow Weed Won the West: Marijuana Legalization is a Crucial Issue for the Liberty Movement
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Jonathan Perri, writing for the Los Angeles Times, declares the war against drugs a dismal failure. Perri mentions an op-ed penned by D.A.R.E. America Chairman Skip Miller who claims his organization has reduced illegal drug usage by America’s children.
One has to ask… what is Mr. Miller smoking?
Perri notes that D.A.R.E. and other such educational programs have in fact not reduced drug use. “But in reality, our drug laws have failed to stop marijuana use among American youth but have succeeded in punishing them with damning criminal records, loss of financial aid for college and removal from after-school activities. As a graduate of D.A.R.E., I know all too well about the shortcomings of this program and of America’s war on marijuana,” writes Perri.
A casual glance at the so-called war on drugs reminds one of Einstein’s famous quip — insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Arresting and throwing recreational drug users in prison — primarily for possessing and smoking marijuana — will not win the supposed war. It simply creates a class of criminals where none existed before.
In fact, it can be persuasively argued that the purpose of the war on drugs is not to decrease use of illegal drugs. Rather the purpose is to feed and grow a multi-billion dollar industry created by the government and Big Pharma. In addition to pushing the “zero-tolerance” orthodoxy through school curriculum (with police as instructors) that parallels current U.S. drug control policy, D.A.R.E. recruits children to act as police informants. The war on drugs is on the cutting-edge of the police state emerging all around us.
The drug war also builds and expands the for-profit prison grid system. In 2007, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the largest state prison demographic consisted of people imprisoned for drug-related offenses. In 2001, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s annual Uniform Crime Report, police arrested an estimated 723,627 persons for marijuana violations. In 1991, the number was 342,314. Since 1992, approximately six million Americans have been arrested on marijuana charges, a greater number than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming combined.
Around the country people are organizing to put an end to this madness. In California, proponents of an initiative to make California the first state to legalize marijuana have collected about 693,800 signatures, virtually guaranteeing that the measure will appear on a crowded November ballot, the Los Angeles Times reported last month. The initiative would make it legal for anyone 21 and older to possess an ounce of marijuana and grow plants in an area no larger than 25 square feet for personal use. It would also allow cities and counties to permit marijuana to be grown and sold, and to impose taxes on it.
Meanwhile, in Colorado, the legality of medical marijuana dispensaries may soon go to a vote. “I don’t see anything wrong with it, I think it’s going to be monitored closely. I think there is a need for marijuana to be okay for people who have terminal illness,” said one resident, a retired nurse.
“Depending on the poll, either a majority or near-majority of Americans say that marijuana should be taxed and legalized. Even the American Medical Assn. has called for the federal government to review its absurd classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, which puts cannabis right alongside heroin and PCP,” writes Jonathan Perri. “D.A.R.E. can warn people all day about the harm associated with marijuana use. What it refuses to acknowledge is that these arguments only support ending prohibition. If marijuana is so dangerous, D.A.R.E. and its allies ought to support efforts to remove control over distribution from black-market drug dealers.”
The Federal and government, however, will not go down without a fight. “While users herald the freedom of legally-licensed ‘weed,’ powerful forces at the DEA and law enforcement haven’t given up their federal enforcement power yet,” a write-up to Kevin Booth’s latest documentary, How Weed Won the West, explains. “In the backdrop of this public dispute is the Dark Alliance– where governments handle the volume of drug trafficking and work with cartels and drug dealers to manage the drug flow. Just like the prohibition of alcohol, drugs have thrived on their illicit appeal, and doomed millions of non-violent offenders to incarceration and prosecution. Now, those swearing by the healing power of medicinal marijuana as well as those who simply refuse to be outlawed by a hypocritical rogue government are daring to stand up and declare that the violence, corruption and uncontrolled flow of drugs is due to the prohibition of the substance, not the substance itself.”
Obama’s handlers billed him as the “change” candidate, but when it comes to marijuana he is merely continuing the policies of his predecessor and those before him, going all the way back to 1937 when marijuana was classified as a dangerous and illegal drug under the Harrison Narcotic Act, a bill pushed by the American Medical Association and supported by the president at the time. On Monday during a forum sponsored by YouTube, Obama refused to answer any questions about legalizing marijuana.
Kevin Booth’s documentary provides crucial background on the government’s long-standing war against marijuana. Even if you are opposed to the use of marijuana, this issue is rapidly becoming one of several focal points in the battle between the states and the federal government. Do the feds have the right to intervene in state-based medical marijuana dispensaries? Do they have the authority to overturn locally enacted laws decriminalizing or even legalizing marijuana?
In How Weed Won the West, Booth investigates these issues and more. “He infiltrates psuedo-legal California growers, investigates DEA raids on licensed dispensaries and even undertakes to sample the disputed ‘medicine’ for himself. He interviews radio host Alex Jones, former drug dealers, real-life gang members, legal-weed pitch men, activists and advocates to find the truth.”
Marijuana legalization — like it or not — is at the forefront of the liberty movement. Booth’s film is a perfect starting point to get educated on this important issue.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Pot legalization gains momentum in California
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h6W7KC63V4xxIsSnUT7zLcWc6upwD9B6FADG3
Pot legalization gains momentum in California
By MARCUS WOHLSEN (AP)
10-7-9
SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get at least three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy.
At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of 40 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana.
Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry.
The state already has a thriving marijuana trade, thanks to a first-of-its-kind 1996 ballot measure that allowed people to smoke pot for medical purposes. But full legalization could turn medical marijuana dispensaries into all-purpose pot stores, and the open sale of joints could become commonplace on mom-and-pop liquor store counters in liberal locales like Oakland and Santa Cruz.
Under federal law, marijuana is illegal, period. After overseeing a series of raids that destroyed more than 300,000 marijuana plants in California's Sierra Nevada foothills this summer, federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske proclaimed, "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine."
The U.S. Supreme Court also has ruled that federal law enforcement agents have the right to crack down even on marijuana users and distributors who are in compliance with California's medical marijuana law.
But some legal scholars and policy analysts say the government will not be able to require California to help in enforcing the federal marijuana ban if the state legalizes the drug.
Without assistance from the state's legions of narcotics officers, they say, federal agents could do little to curb marijuana in California.
"Even though that federal ban is still in place and the federal government can enforce it, it doesn't mean the states have to follow suit," said Robert Mikos, a Vanderbilt University law professor who recently published a paper about the issue.
Nothing can stop federal anti-drug agents from making marijuana arrests, even if Californians legalize pot, he said. However, the U.S. government cannot pass a law requiring local and state police, sheriff's departments or state narcotics enforcers to help.
That is significant, because nearly all arrests for marijuana crimes are made at the state level. Of more than 847,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2008, for example, just over 6,300 suspects were booked by federal law enforcement, or fewer than 1 percent.
State marijuana bans have allowed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to focus on big cases, said Rosalie Pacula, director of drug policy research at the Rand Corp.
"It's only something the feds are going to be concerned about if you're growing tons of pot," Pacula said. For anything less, she said, "they don't have the resources to waste on it."
In a typical recent prosecution, 29-year-old Luke Scarmazzo was sentenced to nearly 22 years and co-defendant Ricardo Ruiz Montes to 20 years in federal prison for drug trafficking through a medical marijuana dispensary in Modesto.
At his bond hearing, prosecutors showed a rap video in which Scarmazzo boasts about his successful marijuana business, taunts federal authorities and carries cardboard boxes filled with cash. The DEA said the pair made more than $4.5 million in marijuana sales in less than two years.
The DEA would not speculate on the effects of any decision by California to legalize pot. "Marijuana is illegal under federal law and DEA will continue to attack large-scale drug trafficking organizations at every level," spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said.
The most conservative of the three ballot measures would only legalize possession of up to one ounce of pot for personal use by adults 21 and older — an amount that already under state law can only result at most in a $100 fine.
The proposal would also allow anyone to grow a plot of marijuana up to 5 feet-by-5 feet on their private property. The size, Pacula said, seems specifically designed to keep the total number of plants grown below 100, the threshold for DEA attention.
The greatest potential for conflict with the U.S. government would likely come from the provision that would give local governments the power to decide city-by-city whether to allow pot sales.
Hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries across the state already operate openly with only modest federal interference. If recreational marijuana became legal, these businesses could operate without requiring their customers to qualify as patients.
Any business that grew bigger than the already typical storefront shops, however, would probably be too tempting a target for federal prosecution, experts said.
Even if Washington could no longer count on California to keep pot off its own streets, Congress or the Obama administration could try to coerce cooperation by withholding federal funds.
But with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement earlier this year that the Justice Department would defer to state laws on marijuana, the federal response to possible legalization remains unclear.
Doug Richardson, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the office is in the process of re-evaluating its policies on marijuana and other drugs.
Richardson said the office under Obama was pursuing a "more comprehensive" approach than the previous administration, with emphasis on prevention and treatment as well as law enforcement.
"We're trying to base stuff on the facts, the evidence and the science," he said, "not some particular prejudice somebody brings to the table."
Pot legalization gains momentum in California
By MARCUS WOHLSEN (AP)
10-7-9
SAN FRANCISCO — Marijuana advocates are gathering signatures to get at least three pot-legalization measures on the ballot in 2010 in California, setting up what could be a groundbreaking clash with the federal government over U.S. drug policy.
At least one poll shows voters would support lifting the pot prohibition, which would make the state of 40 million the first in the nation to legalize marijuana.
Such action would also send the state into a headlong conflict with the U.S. government while raising questions about how federal law enforcement could enforce its drug laws in the face of a massive government-sanctioned pot industry.
The state already has a thriving marijuana trade, thanks to a first-of-its-kind 1996 ballot measure that allowed people to smoke pot for medical purposes. But full legalization could turn medical marijuana dispensaries into all-purpose pot stores, and the open sale of joints could become commonplace on mom-and-pop liquor store counters in liberal locales like Oakland and Santa Cruz.
Under federal law, marijuana is illegal, period. After overseeing a series of raids that destroyed more than 300,000 marijuana plants in California's Sierra Nevada foothills this summer, federal drug czar Gil Kerlikowske proclaimed, "Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine."
The U.S. Supreme Court also has ruled that federal law enforcement agents have the right to crack down even on marijuana users and distributors who are in compliance with California's medical marijuana law.
But some legal scholars and policy analysts say the government will not be able to require California to help in enforcing the federal marijuana ban if the state legalizes the drug.
Without assistance from the state's legions of narcotics officers, they say, federal agents could do little to curb marijuana in California.
"Even though that federal ban is still in place and the federal government can enforce it, it doesn't mean the states have to follow suit," said Robert Mikos, a Vanderbilt University law professor who recently published a paper about the issue.
Nothing can stop federal anti-drug agents from making marijuana arrests, even if Californians legalize pot, he said. However, the U.S. government cannot pass a law requiring local and state police, sheriff's departments or state narcotics enforcers to help.
That is significant, because nearly all arrests for marijuana crimes are made at the state level. Of more than 847,000 marijuana-related arrests in 2008, for example, just over 6,300 suspects were booked by federal law enforcement, or fewer than 1 percent.
State marijuana bans have allowed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to focus on big cases, said Rosalie Pacula, director of drug policy research at the Rand Corp.
"It's only something the feds are going to be concerned about if you're growing tons of pot," Pacula said. For anything less, she said, "they don't have the resources to waste on it."
In a typical recent prosecution, 29-year-old Luke Scarmazzo was sentenced to nearly 22 years and co-defendant Ricardo Ruiz Montes to 20 years in federal prison for drug trafficking through a medical marijuana dispensary in Modesto.
At his bond hearing, prosecutors showed a rap video in which Scarmazzo boasts about his successful marijuana business, taunts federal authorities and carries cardboard boxes filled with cash. The DEA said the pair made more than $4.5 million in marijuana sales in less than two years.
The DEA would not speculate on the effects of any decision by California to legalize pot. "Marijuana is illegal under federal law and DEA will continue to attack large-scale drug trafficking organizations at every level," spokeswoman Dawn Dearden said.
The most conservative of the three ballot measures would only legalize possession of up to one ounce of pot for personal use by adults 21 and older — an amount that already under state law can only result at most in a $100 fine.
The proposal would also allow anyone to grow a plot of marijuana up to 5 feet-by-5 feet on their private property. The size, Pacula said, seems specifically designed to keep the total number of plants grown below 100, the threshold for DEA attention.
The greatest potential for conflict with the U.S. government would likely come from the provision that would give local governments the power to decide city-by-city whether to allow pot sales.
Hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries across the state already operate openly with only modest federal interference. If recreational marijuana became legal, these businesses could operate without requiring their customers to qualify as patients.
Any business that grew bigger than the already typical storefront shops, however, would probably be too tempting a target for federal prosecution, experts said.
Even if Washington could no longer count on California to keep pot off its own streets, Congress or the Obama administration could try to coerce cooperation by withholding federal funds.
But with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder's announcement earlier this year that the Justice Department would defer to state laws on marijuana, the federal response to possible legalization remains unclear.
Doug Richardson, a spokesman for the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said the office is in the process of re-evaluating its policies on marijuana and other drugs.
Richardson said the office under Obama was pursuing a "more comprehensive" approach than the previous administration, with emphasis on prevention and treatment as well as law enforcement.
"We're trying to base stuff on the facts, the evidence and the science," he said, "not some particular prejudice somebody brings to the table."
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Propofol Killed Michael Jackson
http://www.popeater.com/2009/08/24/documents-propofol-killed-michael-jackson/
Propofol Killed Michael Jackson; Death Reportedly Ruled a Homicide
Monday 24 August
Lethal doses of the powerful anesthetic propofol caused the death of Michael Jackson, according to newly unsealed legal documents. Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray said the King of Pop Jackson was suffering from insomnia, and that he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol nightly.
Also, an Associated Press source says the Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Jackson's death a homicide.
The Jackson family released a statement Monday afternoon commending the authorities on their hard work. "The Jackson family has full confidence in the legal process, and commends the ongoing efforts of the L.A. County Coroner, the L.A. District Attorney and the L.A. Police Department," the statement said. "The family looks forward to the day that justice can be served."
Murray, who has been at the center of the investigation into Jackson's death, says he dropped the dosage because he feared Jackson was forming an addiction.
He then gave Jackson 25 milligrams of propofol mixed with other sedatives. On June 25, Murray says he gave Jackson valium, lorazepam, midazolam and other drugs. When Jackson still wasn't able to sleep, Murray gave him 25 milligrams of Propofol after Jackson demanded it.
According to the unsealed documents, Murray told police that Jackson was medicated when he left to make phone calls to family members, but was not breathing upon his return. He performed CPR on Jackson, who was rushed to UCLA Medical Center where he was declared dead.
An Associated Press law enforcement claims the death has already been ruled a homicide, reporting the coroner determined a fatal combination of drugs was given to Jackson, causing his death. The AP reports that Murray is already the target of a manslaughter investigation by the LAPD.
According to TMZ, Murray reported Jackson wasn't breathing at around 11 AM, but a 911 call wasn't made until 12:21. Murray made 3 separate calls from 11:18 to 12:05 according to the documents. Murray also refused to sign the death certificate at the UCLA Medical Center, TMZ is reporting.
Authorities said they could find no evidence that Murray ordered or obtained the drugs under his medical license or DEA tracking number. Police did spot at least eight bottles of propofol in the house along with other prescription drugs prescribed to Jackson by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger.
Other drugs confiscated in the search of Jackson's house include Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Lorazepam, Tamsulosin, Temazepam, Tizanidine, Trazodone and Valium.
The investigation of Murray's involvement has focused on whether he was negligent in giving Jackson the drug to Jackson outside a hospital setting and whether that justifies an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Last week, Murray released a video in which he claimed he "told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail."
Propofol Killed Michael Jackson; Death Reportedly Ruled a Homicide
Monday 24 August
Lethal doses of the powerful anesthetic propofol caused the death of Michael Jackson, according to newly unsealed legal documents. Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray said the King of Pop Jackson was suffering from insomnia, and that he had been giving Jackson 50 milligrams of propofol nightly.
Also, an Associated Press source says the Los Angeles County coroner has ruled Jackson's death a homicide.
The Jackson family released a statement Monday afternoon commending the authorities on their hard work. "The Jackson family has full confidence in the legal process, and commends the ongoing efforts of the L.A. County Coroner, the L.A. District Attorney and the L.A. Police Department," the statement said. "The family looks forward to the day that justice can be served."
Murray, who has been at the center of the investigation into Jackson's death, says he dropped the dosage because he feared Jackson was forming an addiction.
He then gave Jackson 25 milligrams of propofol mixed with other sedatives. On June 25, Murray says he gave Jackson valium, lorazepam, midazolam and other drugs. When Jackson still wasn't able to sleep, Murray gave him 25 milligrams of Propofol after Jackson demanded it.
According to the unsealed documents, Murray told police that Jackson was medicated when he left to make phone calls to family members, but was not breathing upon his return. He performed CPR on Jackson, who was rushed to UCLA Medical Center where he was declared dead.
An Associated Press law enforcement claims the death has already been ruled a homicide, reporting the coroner determined a fatal combination of drugs was given to Jackson, causing his death. The AP reports that Murray is already the target of a manslaughter investigation by the LAPD.
According to TMZ, Murray reported Jackson wasn't breathing at around 11 AM, but a 911 call wasn't made until 12:21. Murray made 3 separate calls from 11:18 to 12:05 according to the documents. Murray also refused to sign the death certificate at the UCLA Medical Center, TMZ is reporting.
Authorities said they could find no evidence that Murray ordered or obtained the drugs under his medical license or DEA tracking number. Police did spot at least eight bottles of propofol in the house along with other prescription drugs prescribed to Jackson by Dr. Murray, Dr. Arnold Klein and Dr. Allan Metzger.
Other drugs confiscated in the search of Jackson's house include Clonazepam, Lorazepam, Lorazepam, Tamsulosin, Temazepam, Tizanidine, Trazodone and Valium.
The investigation of Murray's involvement has focused on whether he was negligent in giving Jackson the drug to Jackson outside a hospital setting and whether that justifies an involuntary manslaughter charge.
Last week, Murray released a video in which he claimed he "told the truth and I have faith the truth will prevail."
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Interview: Former DEA agent Celerino 'Cele' Castillo
Vietnam veteran and former DEA agent Celerino 'Cele' Castillo III is getting ready to serve a 22 month jail sentence. Listen to Cele tell his side of the story in this exclusive telephone interview with Kevin Booth, recorded July 15, 2009.
MP3 Link: http://www.sacredcow.com/cele_715.mp3
Cele needs all the media attention he can get, so please pass this on to whoever you can. You can donate to Cele's legal fund at his website - http://powderburns.info
This is only the latest twist in the long story of Cele's life, known to many from "American Drug War" and his auto-biography "Powderburns". For more info on the case, read Bill Conroy's report from The Narcoshpere on NarcoNews.com:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/07/cele-castillo-ordered-report-federal-prison
_______________________________________________________________
JOIN THE FIGHT @ AMERICANDRUGWAR.COM & SACREDCOW.COM!
MP3 Link: http://www.sacredcow.com/cele_715.mp3
Cele needs all the media attention he can get, so please pass this on to whoever you can. You can donate to Cele's legal fund at his website - http://powderburns.info
This is only the latest twist in the long story of Cele's life, known to many from "American Drug War" and his auto-biography "Powderburns". For more info on the case, read Bill Conroy's report from The Narcoshpere on NarcoNews.com:
http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/bill-conroy/2009/07/cele-castillo-ordered-report-federal-prison
_______________________________________________________________
JOIN THE FIGHT @ AMERICANDRUGWAR.COM & SACREDCOW.COM!
Friday, February 20, 2009
War On Drugs DVD Combo
http://infowars-shop.stores.yahoo.net/warondrugs.html
War On Drugs DVD Combo
Get three incredible DVDs covering the fraudulent War on Drugs.
In the first and second volumes of his powerful Never Get Busted DVD series, Former DEA Agent Barry Cooper reveals secret police tactics to help you protect your precious liberties while celebrated filmmaker Kevin Booth delves into the American Drug War to uncover the police state being constructed in the name of protecting the nations' children.
Regular price: $64.85
Sale price: $48.90
Never Get Busted Volume 1: Traffic Stops (DVD)
This DVD is truly a one-of-a-kind, never before seen, information packed tool which can help you save thousands in legal fees and stay out of jail!
Watch Real Footage of former DEA Agent Barry Cooper Making Marijuana Arrests, Learn Secret Drug Enforcement Tactics, Avoid Narcotics Profiling, Where Not to Hide Your Stash (Do Coffee Grounds Really Work?), How Police Cause Drug Dogs to False Alert, Search & Seizure Law Made Easy, How Police Can Tell When You’re Lying, 90 Minutes of One-On-One Training.
$19.95
Never Get Busted Volume 2: Never Get Raided (DVD)
This newly released film is the second in Barry Cooper's' series of controversial NeverGetBusted videos. The title, NeverGetRaided, describes the DVD perfectly. Part documentary and all instruction, NeverGetRaided promises to reveal all the latest drug enforcement tactics giving the viewer confidence in maintaining a cannabis culture lifestyle without ever being raided!
Alongside the cannabis friendly citizens, the non-smoker will enjoy the film as well because it interestingly catalogs secret police tactics and gives the audience an insider's view into what caused one of America's top drug cops to "switch sides."
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT Never Get Busted
"Cooper is a former narcotics officer once considered among the top cops in Texas, where more marijuana is seized each year than in any other state."
---USA Today
This hard hitting film contains 90 minutes of non-stop instruction taught in the same "shocking but polite" teaching style delivered in Barry's first film, Traffic Stops that recently gained world attention.
"Totally amazing. It's incredible watching Barry and Candi sneak into the marijuana field. Barry will need an agent soon to help him manage becoming one of today's top documentary film makers."
---Jim Grimes, Channel 33 Dallas,Texas
""The audience laughed, cheered, cried and cursed. It was amazing. More than I could've ever imagined. Truly an educational experience for whomever watches it."
--Mark Meisinger, Attorney At Law
MORE INFORMATION
Chapter 1: Guerrilla Growing Undetected
Barry teaches from the DEA training he received on how to spot marijuana fields from the air. He takes you on a helicopter ride over a genuine clandestine marijuana patch and then "creeps" you into the field while pointing out the grower's mistakes.
Chapter 2: Spotting Undercovers and Informants
Undercover officers and informants are perhaps the strongest and most dangerous tool used against American Citizens in the unjust War on Drugs. Barry points out only 28 officers have lost their lives in the War on Drugs in a ten year period (1996-2005) compared to millions of non-violent citizens who have lost their lives or have been placed in prisons to be raped or stabbed. Barry uses his experience as an undercover officer and interviews a seasoned drug dealer to teach you exactly how to detect these secret government agents.
Chapter 3: Selling Marijuana Safely (Cops are more dangerous than Dealers)
Discover a GUARANTEED method to sell marijuana and NeverGetRaided. The alcohol dealers do not have police invading their homes in the middle of the night and neither should pot dealers. Barry explains a method to use that even he could not bust! It really works.
Chapter 4: Growing Indoor Plants That Are Invisible To Law Enforcement
Are you currently growing your medicine indoors? Do you want to grow indoors but haven't because you don't want to get raided? Heat from lights are the grower's worst enemy so Barry teaches how to beat the heat by explaining FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red Radar.) Walk into an actual grow room and witness real police FLIR footage of an indoor grow operation. Not only does Barry teach how to confuse these heat imaging video cams but he also explains how to obtain grow equipment undetected. You will also learn how to spot police surveillance, tails and stakeouts and learn how to counter these efforts.
Chapter 5: Knock and Talks and K-9 Proofing.
Learn tips that GUARANTEE how to win 100% of the time when facing a police encounter at your door. Learn how to fool the dogs in case you didn't listen to Barry's advice and you get raided.
Chapter 6: A Message To DEA.
Barry pulls no punches when outlining an effective way to conduct search warrants without the violence. The DEA and other drug enforcement agencies will owe an answer after Barry exposes this non-violent method to seizing persons and property.
Chapter 7: Those Are Your Kids! Drugs Are Not Harming Them...The Police Are.
This "no holds bar" chapter challenges government propaganda programs such as D.A.R.E and encourages parents to take charge of their families by teaching the truth about drugs. In this chapter, Barry says what the "closet smoking parents" can't say...highly charged and controversial. Note: We currently have 1.5 million children missing one or both parents because of the Drug War.
$19.95
American Drug War DVD
Order This Incredible New Exposé Today!
Over 4 years, 4 festival wins – Sold out screenings from California to Manchester England.
Angered by the death of several family members from the "legal Drugs" of Alcohol, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals - Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth delves into a world of deceit and corruption controlled by a drug dealing government who's only allegiance is to its corporate masters.
The official DVD contains over THREE HOURS of BONUS features. Including a sixty minute mini doc about Tommy Chong’s arrest. Sheriff Joe Arpaio serving rotten food to non-violent drug offenders. Mike Ruppert going into great detail about various CIA operations. Ricky Ross talking from a prison Pay Phone. And much much more making the DVD a must have especially if you have already seen the film.
This final version of the film features extensive sound mixing and post production for the SHOWTIME broadcast, and is the version we would like to have spread across the country and the world.
$24.95
Never Get Busted Again Combo
Regular price: $39.90
Sale price: $33.90
Alex Jones' terrifying new film End Game: Blueprint For Global Enslavement explores the history of eugenics and answers why the elite are so obsessed with thinning the human population. Order the DVD or Subscribe to prison planet.tv and watch the documentary in high quality online streaming format.
Now every order gets a free copy of the powerful Citizen's Rule Book!
War On Drugs DVD Combo
Get three incredible DVDs covering the fraudulent War on Drugs.
In the first and second volumes of his powerful Never Get Busted DVD series, Former DEA Agent Barry Cooper reveals secret police tactics to help you protect your precious liberties while celebrated filmmaker Kevin Booth delves into the American Drug War to uncover the police state being constructed in the name of protecting the nations' children.
Regular price: $64.85
Sale price: $48.90
Never Get Busted Volume 1: Traffic Stops (DVD)
This DVD is truly a one-of-a-kind, never before seen, information packed tool which can help you save thousands in legal fees and stay out of jail!Watch Real Footage of former DEA Agent Barry Cooper Making Marijuana Arrests, Learn Secret Drug Enforcement Tactics, Avoid Narcotics Profiling, Where Not to Hide Your Stash (Do Coffee Grounds Really Work?), How Police Cause Drug Dogs to False Alert, Search & Seizure Law Made Easy, How Police Can Tell When You’re Lying, 90 Minutes of One-On-One Training.
$19.95
Never Get Busted Volume 2: Never Get Raided (DVD)
This newly released film is the second in Barry Cooper's' series of controversial NeverGetBusted videos. The title, NeverGetRaided, describes the DVD perfectly. Part documentary and all instruction, NeverGetRaided promises to reveal all the latest drug enforcement tactics giving the viewer confidence in maintaining a cannabis culture lifestyle without ever being raided!Alongside the cannabis friendly citizens, the non-smoker will enjoy the film as well because it interestingly catalogs secret police tactics and gives the audience an insider's view into what caused one of America's top drug cops to "switch sides."
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT Never Get Busted
"Cooper is a former narcotics officer once considered among the top cops in Texas, where more marijuana is seized each year than in any other state."
---USA Today
This hard hitting film contains 90 minutes of non-stop instruction taught in the same "shocking but polite" teaching style delivered in Barry's first film, Traffic Stops that recently gained world attention.
"Totally amazing. It's incredible watching Barry and Candi sneak into the marijuana field. Barry will need an agent soon to help him manage becoming one of today's top documentary film makers."
---Jim Grimes, Channel 33 Dallas,Texas
""The audience laughed, cheered, cried and cursed. It was amazing. More than I could've ever imagined. Truly an educational experience for whomever watches it."
--Mark Meisinger, Attorney At Law
MORE INFORMATION
Chapter 1: Guerrilla Growing Undetected
Barry teaches from the DEA training he received on how to spot marijuana fields from the air. He takes you on a helicopter ride over a genuine clandestine marijuana patch and then "creeps" you into the field while pointing out the grower's mistakes.
Chapter 2: Spotting Undercovers and Informants
Undercover officers and informants are perhaps the strongest and most dangerous tool used against American Citizens in the unjust War on Drugs. Barry points out only 28 officers have lost their lives in the War on Drugs in a ten year period (1996-2005) compared to millions of non-violent citizens who have lost their lives or have been placed in prisons to be raped or stabbed. Barry uses his experience as an undercover officer and interviews a seasoned drug dealer to teach you exactly how to detect these secret government agents.
Chapter 3: Selling Marijuana Safely (Cops are more dangerous than Dealers)
Discover a GUARANTEED method to sell marijuana and NeverGetRaided. The alcohol dealers do not have police invading their homes in the middle of the night and neither should pot dealers. Barry explains a method to use that even he could not bust! It really works.
Chapter 4: Growing Indoor Plants That Are Invisible To Law Enforcement
Are you currently growing your medicine indoors? Do you want to grow indoors but haven't because you don't want to get raided? Heat from lights are the grower's worst enemy so Barry teaches how to beat the heat by explaining FLIR (Forward Looking Infra-Red Radar.) Walk into an actual grow room and witness real police FLIR footage of an indoor grow operation. Not only does Barry teach how to confuse these heat imaging video cams but he also explains how to obtain grow equipment undetected. You will also learn how to spot police surveillance, tails and stakeouts and learn how to counter these efforts.
Chapter 5: Knock and Talks and K-9 Proofing.
Learn tips that GUARANTEE how to win 100% of the time when facing a police encounter at your door. Learn how to fool the dogs in case you didn't listen to Barry's advice and you get raided.
Chapter 6: A Message To DEA.
Barry pulls no punches when outlining an effective way to conduct search warrants without the violence. The DEA and other drug enforcement agencies will owe an answer after Barry exposes this non-violent method to seizing persons and property.
Chapter 7: Those Are Your Kids! Drugs Are Not Harming Them...The Police Are.
This "no holds bar" chapter challenges government propaganda programs such as D.A.R.E and encourages parents to take charge of their families by teaching the truth about drugs. In this chapter, Barry says what the "closet smoking parents" can't say...highly charged and controversial. Note: We currently have 1.5 million children missing one or both parents because of the Drug War.
$19.95
American Drug War DVD
Order This Incredible New Expos̩ Today!Over 4 years, 4 festival wins РSold out screenings from California to Manchester England.
Angered by the death of several family members from the "legal Drugs" of Alcohol, Tobacco and Pharmaceuticals - Texas filmmaker Kevin Booth delves into a world of deceit and corruption controlled by a drug dealing government who's only allegiance is to its corporate masters.
The official DVD contains over THREE HOURS of BONUS features. Including a sixty minute mini doc about Tommy Chong’s arrest. Sheriff Joe Arpaio serving rotten food to non-violent drug offenders. Mike Ruppert going into great detail about various CIA operations. Ricky Ross talking from a prison Pay Phone. And much much more making the DVD a must have especially if you have already seen the film.
This final version of the film features extensive sound mixing and post production for the SHOWTIME broadcast, and is the version we would like to have spread across the country and the world.
$24.95
Never Get Busted Again Combo
Regular price: $39.90
Sale price: $33.90
Alex Jones' terrifying new film End Game: Blueprint For Global Enslavement explores the history of eugenics and answers why the elite are so obsessed with thinning the human population. Order the DVD or Subscribe to prison planet.tv and watch the documentary in high quality online streaming format.
Now every order gets a free copy of the powerful Citizen's Rule Book! Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Medical marijuana supporters fuming over raids
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-la-pot-raid5-2009feb05,0,4249491.story
Medical marijuana supporters fuming over Westside dispensary raids
Three actions by DEA teams Tuesday point up the continuing conflict between federal and state drug laws. Some had hoped an Obama administration would change the dynamic.
By Corina Knoll
February 4, 2009
A raid by federal agents of several Westside medical marijuana dispensaries has generated outrage among advocates of the drug, some of whom had expressed hope that the federal government would halt such crackdowns once President Obama took office.
At least three groups of officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration simultaneously served search warrants on dispensaries Tuesday about noon, said Sarah Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman.
"I can't get into details as to the probable cause behind the warrants except for the fact that they're dealing with marijuana, which is illegal under federal law," she said.
State law, however, is a different matter. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for seriously ill patients and reduced criminal penalties for possession. But that conflicts with federal law.
Medical marijuana advocates were hopeful when Obama, while on the campaign trail, said he supported prescriptions for medical marijuana as long as the drug was regulated and that he didn't plan to use Justice Department resources to circumvent state laws. Tuesday's raids showed that, so far, things haven't changed.
"The local government is trying to implement Prop. 215, but while they're doing that we've got the federal government intimidating property owners and raiding facilities," said Don Duncan, co-founder of Americans for Safe Access, which promotes safe and legal access to marijuana. The group is planning a noon rally today at the L.A. federal building.
"What would be best for the people in California is if the federal government backed off and let the local government regulate this issue."
L.A. City Council members placed a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in 2007 while they weighed whether to tighten city regulation of them.
"Until we get something on the books, we're going to have more of these conflicts," Councilman Dennis Zine said.
Federal agents make a handful of dispensary raids each year in Los Angeles.
"DEA has a legal right to do what they're doing," said Charlie Beck, chief of detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department. "Is it controversial? Yes."
At the heart of the controversy are places like the Beach Center Collective in Playa del Rey, where an employee said DEA officers confiscated so much property Tuesday that it would not be able to reopen.
"They took everything," said the 32-year-old employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of prosecution.
"You name it, they took it -- right down to the television. The computer, patient files, medicine, cash in the register -- that's it, we're done."
Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director of the Drug Policy Alliance Network, said it's up to the Obama administration to resolve the dispute.
corina.knoll@latimes.com
Medical marijuana supporters fuming over Westside dispensary raids
Three actions by DEA teams Tuesday point up the continuing conflict between federal and state drug laws. Some had hoped an Obama administration would change the dynamic.
By Corina Knoll
February 4, 2009
A raid by federal agents of several Westside medical marijuana dispensaries has generated outrage among advocates of the drug, some of whom had expressed hope that the federal government would halt such crackdowns once President Obama took office.
At least three groups of officers with the Drug Enforcement Administration simultaneously served search warrants on dispensaries Tuesday about noon, said Sarah Pullen, a DEA spokeswoman.
"I can't get into details as to the probable cause behind the warrants except for the fact that they're dealing with marijuana, which is illegal under federal law," she said.
State law, however, is a different matter. In 1996, California voters passed Proposition 215, which legalized marijuana for seriously ill patients and reduced criminal penalties for possession. But that conflicts with federal law.
Medical marijuana advocates were hopeful when Obama, while on the campaign trail, said he supported prescriptions for medical marijuana as long as the drug was regulated and that he didn't plan to use Justice Department resources to circumvent state laws. Tuesday's raids showed that, so far, things haven't changed.
"The local government is trying to implement Prop. 215, but while they're doing that we've got the federal government intimidating property owners and raiding facilities," said Don Duncan, co-founder of Americans for Safe Access, which promotes safe and legal access to marijuana. The group is planning a noon rally today at the L.A. federal building.
"What would be best for the people in California is if the federal government backed off and let the local government regulate this issue."
L.A. City Council members placed a moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in 2007 while they weighed whether to tighten city regulation of them.
"Until we get something on the books, we're going to have more of these conflicts," Councilman Dennis Zine said.
Federal agents make a handful of dispensary raids each year in Los Angeles.
"DEA has a legal right to do what they're doing," said Charlie Beck, chief of detectives at the Los Angeles Police Department. "Is it controversial? Yes."
At the heart of the controversy are places like the Beach Center Collective in Playa del Rey, where an employee said DEA officers confiscated so much property Tuesday that it would not be able to reopen.
"They took everything," said the 32-year-old employee, who asked not to be named out of fear of prosecution.
"You name it, they took it -- right down to the television. The computer, patient files, medicine, cash in the register -- that's it, we're done."
Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director of the Drug Policy Alliance Network, said it's up to the Obama administration to resolve the dispute.
corina.knoll@latimes.com
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
NSA Monitored All Communications
http://www.prisonplanet.com/nsa-monitored-all-communications.html
NSA Monitored All Communications
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, January 22, 2009
On January 21, former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice appeared Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show. Tice, who helped expose the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, told Olbermann government programs designed to spy on the American people are more extensive and far reaching than previously admitted. “The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications — faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications,” Tice said. “It didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications.”
During the Bush administration, it was claimed the intercepts involved foreign communications and the intelligence gathered was integral to the conduct of the so-called global war on terrorism. In order to get around the warrant requirements of FISA, a bill authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those supposedly responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001, was passed (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists). The authorization granted Bush the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or those who harbored said persons or groups. AUMF allowed the Bush administration to avoid FISA and Wiretap Act restrictions.
But according to Tice, the NSA program was not limited to alleged al-Qaeda members, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed at the time, but included “news organizations and reporters and journalists” in the United States. The data “was digitized and put on databases somewhere.” It was not simply journalists, however, the NSA spied on and likely continues to spy now.
“Spying on Americans by the super-secret National Security Agency is not only more widespread than President George W. Bush admits but is part of a concentrated, government-wide effort to gather and catalog information on U.S. citizens, sources close to the administration say,” Doug Thompson wrote for Capitol Hill Blue on December 27, 2005. “Besides the NSA, the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and dozens of private contractors are spying on millions of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
According to Thompson and his sources in the government, the “Pentagon has built a massive database of Americans it considers threats, including members of antiwar groups, peace activists and writers opposed to the war in Iraq.” In response to publicity, the Pentagon claimed it was “reviewing the files” to determine if the information was necessary to the conduct of the putative war on terrorism. “Given the military’s legacy of privacy abuses, such vague assurances are cold comfort,” Gene Healy of the CATO Institute told Thompson. “There’s a long and troubling history of military surveillance in this country,” added Healy. “That history suggests that we should loathe allowing the Pentagon access to our personal information.”
In addition to spying by the NSA and the Pentagon, documents released in 2006 revealed the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force monitored and infiltrated several nonviolent activist groups. “Labeling law abiding groups and their members ‘domestic terrorists’ is not only irresponsible, it has a chilling effect on the vibrant tradition of political dissent in this country,” Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU, said at the time.
According to a Washington Post report, the NSA has turned over information to the Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security.
Although the NSA monitors all communications — faxes, phone calls, and computer communications — it is impossible to collect all of this data, according to Tice. “What was done was sort of an ability to look at the metadata … and ferret that information to determine what communications would ultimately be collected,” he told Olbermann.
Obviously, the NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, and the Department of Homeland Security are not interested in “every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York,” as Olbermann sarcastically put it. They are primarily interested in the communications of “domestic terrorists,” or those opposed to government policies.
Well before president Truman established the NSA in 1952, government cryptologists were spying on Americans under the Armed Forces Security Agency’s Project Shamrock, a program that worked with telegraphic companies to turn over the telegraphic correspondence of Americans to the government. “The NSA kicked its spy campaign into high gear in the 1960s,” writes Earl Ofari Hutchinson. “The FBI demanded that the NSA monitor antiwar activists, civil rights leaders, and drug peddlers. The Senate Select Committee that investigated government domestic spying in 1976 pried open a tiny public window into the scope of NSA spying,” but this window was slammed shut in the name of national security. “The few feeble Congressional attempts over the years to probe NSA domestic spying have gone nowhere. Even though rumors swirled that NSA eyes were riveted on more than a few Americans, Congressional investigators showed no stomach to fight the NSA’s entrenched code of silence.”
More recently, Congress has not only “showed no stomach” when it comes to illegal and unconstitutional spying of Americans, it has worked hand-in-hand with the executive and intelligence agencies to facilitate this process. In essence, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security serve as a domestic political police force little different than the NKVD of the former Soviet Union. The domestic political police force in the United States, like the NKVD’s Special Board, is interested in “socially dangerous” people, that is to say people opposed to the government.
Unlike Stalin’s NKVD, the FBI and Homeland Security have yet to engage in a Great Purge of arrests, interrogation, torture, imprisonment, and deportation. Bush, however, through the Military Commissions Act and other draconian legislation, has set the stage for a political purge, especially if another false flag attack occurs in the United States. Executive Orders associated with FEMA stand ready to suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and round up “socially dangerous” people and send them to newly constructed KBR concentration camps.
Unfortunately, far too many people naively believe all of this will change under Barack Obama. Mr. Obama, however, is merely a figurehead and window dressing packaged for public consumption, a friendly and smiling face slapped as a deceptive cover on the secret government of the bankers. If and when push comes to shove — another manufactured terrorist attack or civil disturbances related to an economic depression — Obama will pen an executive order sending “socially dangerous” people to concentration camps.
NSA Monitored All Communications
Kurt Nimmo
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, January 22, 2009
On January 21, former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice appeared Keith Olbermann’s MSNBC show. Tice, who helped expose the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, told Olbermann government programs designed to spy on the American people are more extensive and far reaching than previously admitted. “The National Security Agency had access to all Americans’ communications — faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications,” Tice said. “It didn’t matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications.”
During the Bush administration, it was claimed the intercepts involved foreign communications and the intelligence gathered was integral to the conduct of the so-called global war on terrorism. In order to get around the warrant requirements of FISA, a bill authorizing the use of United States Armed Forces against those supposedly responsible for the attacks on September 11, 2001, was passed (Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists). The authorization granted Bush the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or those who harbored said persons or groups. AUMF allowed the Bush administration to avoid FISA and Wiretap Act restrictions.
But according to Tice, the NSA program was not limited to alleged al-Qaeda members, as Attorney General Alberto Gonzales claimed at the time, but included “news organizations and reporters and journalists” in the United States. The data “was digitized and put on databases somewhere.” It was not simply journalists, however, the NSA spied on and likely continues to spy now.
“Spying on Americans by the super-secret National Security Agency is not only more widespread than President George W. Bush admits but is part of a concentrated, government-wide effort to gather and catalog information on U.S. citizens, sources close to the administration say,” Doug Thompson wrote for Capitol Hill Blue on December 27, 2005. “Besides the NSA, the Pentagon, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and dozens of private contractors are spying on millions of Americans 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.”
According to Thompson and his sources in the government, the “Pentagon has built a massive database of Americans it considers threats, including members of antiwar groups, peace activists and writers opposed to the war in Iraq.” In response to publicity, the Pentagon claimed it was “reviewing the files” to determine if the information was necessary to the conduct of the putative war on terrorism. “Given the military’s legacy of privacy abuses, such vague assurances are cold comfort,” Gene Healy of the CATO Institute told Thompson. “There’s a long and troubling history of military surveillance in this country,” added Healy. “That history suggests that we should loathe allowing the Pentagon access to our personal information.”
In addition to spying by the NSA and the Pentagon, documents released in 2006 revealed the FBI and its Joint Terrorism Task Force monitored and infiltrated several nonviolent activist groups. “Labeling law abiding groups and their members ‘domestic terrorists’ is not only irresponsible, it has a chilling effect on the vibrant tradition of political dissent in this country,” Ann Beeson, Associate Legal Director of the ACLU, said at the time.
According to a Washington Post report, the NSA has turned over information to the Defense Intelligence Agency, FBI, CIA and Department of Homeland Security.
Although the NSA monitors all communications — faxes, phone calls, and computer communications — it is impossible to collect all of this data, according to Tice. “What was done was sort of an ability to look at the metadata … and ferret that information to determine what communications would ultimately be collected,” he told Olbermann.
Obviously, the NSA, FBI, CIA, DIA, and the Department of Homeland Security are not interested in “every conversation I had with my little nephew in upstate New York,” as Olbermann sarcastically put it. They are primarily interested in the communications of “domestic terrorists,” or those opposed to government policies.
Well before president Truman established the NSA in 1952, government cryptologists were spying on Americans under the Armed Forces Security Agency’s Project Shamrock, a program that worked with telegraphic companies to turn over the telegraphic correspondence of Americans to the government. “The NSA kicked its spy campaign into high gear in the 1960s,” writes Earl Ofari Hutchinson. “The FBI demanded that the NSA monitor antiwar activists, civil rights leaders, and drug peddlers. The Senate Select Committee that investigated government domestic spying in 1976 pried open a tiny public window into the scope of NSA spying,” but this window was slammed shut in the name of national security. “The few feeble Congressional attempts over the years to probe NSA domestic spying have gone nowhere. Even though rumors swirled that NSA eyes were riveted on more than a few Americans, Congressional investigators showed no stomach to fight the NSA’s entrenched code of silence.”
More recently, Congress has not only “showed no stomach” when it comes to illegal and unconstitutional spying of Americans, it has worked hand-in-hand with the executive and intelligence agencies to facilitate this process. In essence, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security serve as a domestic political police force little different than the NKVD of the former Soviet Union. The domestic political police force in the United States, like the NKVD’s Special Board, is interested in “socially dangerous” people, that is to say people opposed to the government.
Unlike Stalin’s NKVD, the FBI and Homeland Security have yet to engage in a Great Purge of arrests, interrogation, torture, imprisonment, and deportation. Bush, however, through the Military Commissions Act and other draconian legislation, has set the stage for a political purge, especially if another false flag attack occurs in the United States. Executive Orders associated with FEMA stand ready to suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and round up “socially dangerous” people and send them to newly constructed KBR concentration camps.
Unfortunately, far too many people naively believe all of this will change under Barack Obama. Mr. Obama, however, is merely a figurehead and window dressing packaged for public consumption, a friendly and smiling face slapped as a deceptive cover on the secret government of the bankers. If and when push comes to shove — another manufactured terrorist attack or civil disturbances related to an economic depression — Obama will pen an executive order sending “socially dangerous” people to concentration camps.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Legal hallucinogenic drug moves onto officials' radar
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080312-9999-1n12salvia.html
Legal hallucinogenic drug moves onto officials' radar
By David Hasemyer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 12, 2008
The teen in the YouTube video sucks in air through a pipe. Within moments, his arms start flailing. He flops out of a chair and wriggles on the floor, chanting, “Oh man. Oh man! This is weird.”
The video is one of hundreds on the site that give a vivid glimpse of an emerging – and still legal – hallucinogen from Mexico that can rock a user's mind with the power of LSD.
The drug, known as Salvia divinorum, is gaining buzz on streets and school campuses across the country, and it is setting off alarms among law enforcement and health officials.
Eight states have classified it as a controlled substance, and many others are considering regulating its use, including California.
“It's coming on our radar screen now, and we want to know what we may be up against,” San Diego Police Officer Jim Johnson said yesterday.
Although authorities say the drug hit the United States in the 1980s or early 1990s, it didn't become widely available until five or six years ago. It comes in the form of fresh or dried leaves, whole plants, seeds or sometimes as an extract.
It's generally smoked but can also be chewed or taken as a concentrate, and it's easy to find on the Internet and in San Diego smoke shops and herbal stores for $15 to $50 a dose, depending on its potency.
The drug hits the system fast, usually within a minute or so, and causes a high that can send users into frightening mind-altering trips or dreamlike states for a few minutes to two hours.
Fans say it's nonaddictive and can be used responsibly. Others, such as San Diego resident Tamara Soto, said the effects are too strong to be fun.
Soto, 29, said she found herself reeling with the sensation of sliding through a tunnel of light and dark when she tried salvia a couple of years ago.
“It was really super-intense,” she said. “It wasn't a very pleasurable experience.”
San Diego State University has conducted one of the few studies that gauge salvia use. Among the more than 1,500 students surveyed last year, 4.4 percent reported using it in the previous year.
The study is a snapshot, but it shows that salvia is making an appearance on campus, said James Lange, the university's coordinator of alcohol and drug initiatives and one of the study's directors.
What remains unknown are the long-term health consequences, Lange said.
“We have no sort of human studies on its effects or potential for harm,” Lange said. “We do know college students are using it and are in a sense becoming human guinea pigs for what may or may not be a dangerous substance.”
Lange said he had his researchers study hundreds of YouTube videos such as the one featuring the wriggling teen because so little is known about the drug's effects.
Officials say use of salvia is not as widespread as alcohol and illicit drugs such as marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms or cocaine. San Diego Unified School District police Lt. Rueben Littlejohn said salvia has not been an issue on any of the district's 185 campuses.
“We've got the heads-up that it's out there, but haven't seen it,” he said.
Nevertheless, police and school officials are taking early action.
This week, salvia was added to the drugs featured in a presentation by the regional Narcotics Task Force during a meeting of campus police officers from schools around the county.
“It's a new trend we're seeing,” Officer Johnson said. “It's just now starting to be encountered frequently enough that it needs to be addressed.”
Johnson, like others in law enforcement and school administration, cautioned that it is too early to say whether salvia will become a problem. They hope the drug's intensity and harsh effects will limit its popularity.
“When they realize it is not a good high, it might steer them away,” Johnson said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has listed salvia as a “drug of concern” and is evaluating whether it should be banned, according to Rogene Waite, a national spokeswoman for the agency.
Local DEA spokeswoman Eileen Zeidler said salvia is not much of a concern in San Diego, so the agency does not want to draw attention to the drug through public discussion.
“If it's here, it's not here in great mass,” she said. “If it is emerging, we don't want to bring attention to it so kids see it and say, 'Let me jump on board.' ”
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department took a different approach. At the department's urging, Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, proposed legislation to make it a misdemeanor to sell salvia to minors.
The bill passed the Assembly this year and is pending in the state Senate.
The legislation is a compromise after a harsher bill was defeated last year because of some lawmakers' concerns that salvia was not classified as an illegal drug by federal authorities.
“This is a potentially explosive problem, and one we can get a head start on before it hits quasi-epidemic proportions and we are at a loss for what to do,” Adams said yesterday.
Daniel Siebert, a Malibu herbalist who runs the Web site sagewisdom.org, is among the more vocal salvia supporters who say worries about its effects are overblown.
“Salvia has much to offer: fascinating psychoactive effects, sensual enhancement, magical journeys, enchantment, apparent time travel, philosophical insights, spiritual experiences and perhaps even healing and divination,” the Web site says.
However, the site warns that salvia should be used only by adults in a “thoughtful, intelligent manner,” and that someone else should be present in case users “freak out, become confused, injure (themselves), fall, or do anything that might harm others.”
Staff librarian Denise Davidson contributed to this report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hasemyer: (619) 542-4583; david.hasemyer@uniontrib.com
Legal hallucinogenic drug moves onto officials' radar
By David Hasemyer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 12, 2008
The teen in the YouTube video sucks in air through a pipe. Within moments, his arms start flailing. He flops out of a chair and wriggles on the floor, chanting, “Oh man. Oh man! This is weird.”
The video is one of hundreds on the site that give a vivid glimpse of an emerging – and still legal – hallucinogen from Mexico that can rock a user's mind with the power of LSD.
The drug, known as Salvia divinorum, is gaining buzz on streets and school campuses across the country, and it is setting off alarms among law enforcement and health officials.
Eight states have classified it as a controlled substance, and many others are considering regulating its use, including California.
“It's coming on our radar screen now, and we want to know what we may be up against,” San Diego Police Officer Jim Johnson said yesterday.
Although authorities say the drug hit the United States in the 1980s or early 1990s, it didn't become widely available until five or six years ago. It comes in the form of fresh or dried leaves, whole plants, seeds or sometimes as an extract.
It's generally smoked but can also be chewed or taken as a concentrate, and it's easy to find on the Internet and in San Diego smoke shops and herbal stores for $15 to $50 a dose, depending on its potency.
The drug hits the system fast, usually within a minute or so, and causes a high that can send users into frightening mind-altering trips or dreamlike states for a few minutes to two hours.
Fans say it's nonaddictive and can be used responsibly. Others, such as San Diego resident Tamara Soto, said the effects are too strong to be fun.
Soto, 29, said she found herself reeling with the sensation of sliding through a tunnel of light and dark when she tried salvia a couple of years ago.
“It was really super-intense,” she said. “It wasn't a very pleasurable experience.”
San Diego State University has conducted one of the few studies that gauge salvia use. Among the more than 1,500 students surveyed last year, 4.4 percent reported using it in the previous year.
The study is a snapshot, but it shows that salvia is making an appearance on campus, said James Lange, the university's coordinator of alcohol and drug initiatives and one of the study's directors.
What remains unknown are the long-term health consequences, Lange said.
“We have no sort of human studies on its effects or potential for harm,” Lange said. “We do know college students are using it and are in a sense becoming human guinea pigs for what may or may not be a dangerous substance.”
Lange said he had his researchers study hundreds of YouTube videos such as the one featuring the wriggling teen because so little is known about the drug's effects.
Officials say use of salvia is not as widespread as alcohol and illicit drugs such as marijuana, psychedelic mushrooms or cocaine. San Diego Unified School District police Lt. Rueben Littlejohn said salvia has not been an issue on any of the district's 185 campuses.
“We've got the heads-up that it's out there, but haven't seen it,” he said.
Nevertheless, police and school officials are taking early action.
This week, salvia was added to the drugs featured in a presentation by the regional Narcotics Task Force during a meeting of campus police officers from schools around the county.
“It's a new trend we're seeing,” Officer Johnson said. “It's just now starting to be encountered frequently enough that it needs to be addressed.”
Johnson, like others in law enforcement and school administration, cautioned that it is too early to say whether salvia will become a problem. They hope the drug's intensity and harsh effects will limit its popularity.
“When they realize it is not a good high, it might steer them away,” Johnson said.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has listed salvia as a “drug of concern” and is evaluating whether it should be banned, according to Rogene Waite, a national spokeswoman for the agency.
Local DEA spokeswoman Eileen Zeidler said salvia is not much of a concern in San Diego, so the agency does not want to draw attention to the drug through public discussion.
“If it's here, it's not here in great mass,” she said. “If it is emerging, we don't want to bring attention to it so kids see it and say, 'Let me jump on board.' ”
The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department took a different approach. At the department's urging, Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, proposed legislation to make it a misdemeanor to sell salvia to minors.
The bill passed the Assembly this year and is pending in the state Senate.
The legislation is a compromise after a harsher bill was defeated last year because of some lawmakers' concerns that salvia was not classified as an illegal drug by federal authorities.
“This is a potentially explosive problem, and one we can get a head start on before it hits quasi-epidemic proportions and we are at a loss for what to do,” Adams said yesterday.
Daniel Siebert, a Malibu herbalist who runs the Web site sagewisdom.org, is among the more vocal salvia supporters who say worries about its effects are overblown.
“Salvia has much to offer: fascinating psychoactive effects, sensual enhancement, magical journeys, enchantment, apparent time travel, philosophical insights, spiritual experiences and perhaps even healing and divination,” the Web site says.
However, the site warns that salvia should be used only by adults in a “thoughtful, intelligent manner,” and that someone else should be present in case users “freak out, become confused, injure (themselves), fall, or do anything that might harm others.”
Staff librarian Denise Davidson contributed to this report.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
David Hasemyer: (619) 542-4583; david.hasemyer@uniontrib.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
