Did David Green have to die? Police say yes. His family says no. You would expect that sort of fracture. But we'd also expect more details about the matter. Yet a week after the Illinois State Police gunned down Green, the public remains antsy with questions that cops refuse to answer. I keep getting calls and questions, gossip and rumors. The bottom line is this: People don't understand why police had to blow away a guy growing a little weed at his rural residence. [continues 1202 words]
WASHINGTON, D.C. - When the Supreme Court ruled last week that medical marijuana users could be federally prosecuted, it suggested that Californians and others who supported the drug's medicinal use "may one day be heard in the halls of Congress." Well, they were heard Wednesday, but it didn't turn out any differently. By a vote of 264-161, the House rejected legislation that would have blocked the Justice Department from interfering with California and nine other states that have laws allowing marijuana to be used to treat diseases like AIDS, glaucoma and cancer. [continues 93 words]
Water Department Employees In Chicago Among Those Charged CHICAGO - Eight people, including two employees of Chicago's scandal-plagued water department and another city worker, were arrested Wednesday as federal investigators rolled up what they described as one branch of a Colombian drug-trafficking operation. The water department itself, already awash in charges of bribery and other political corruption, was not charged with being part of the heroin distribution ring. But investigators did find that department workers "were engaging in this kind of conduct during weekdays, during workdays, when they should not have been," U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald said at a news conference. [continues 658 words]
You may not have thought to ask, but the answer is yes. Those tomatoes you're growing in the backyard are subject to future federal regulation. The U.S. Supreme Court said so Monday when it found that federal authorities had the right to confiscate six marijuana plants a California woman grew for relief from severe back pain. The court majority said the commerce clause of the Constitution gives Congress the right to regulate homegrown marijuana and denies states a role. This is true even in cases such as this one, where the product wasn't being sold across state lines - in fact, wasn't being sold at all - because, according to the court, the mere possibility that it could be would have "a substantial effect on interstate commerce." [continues 369 words]
