Tag Archives: Drugs & Vice

Robert Parry: Can MSM Handle the Contra-Cocaine Truth?

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“The mainstream news media’s reaction to ‘Kill the Messenger’ has been tepid, perhaps not surprising given that the MSM comes across as the film’s most unsympathetic villain as it crushes journalist Gary Webb for digging up the Contra-cocaine scandal in the mid-1990s after the major newspapers thought they had buried it in the 1980s.  The drug lords show some humanity and even honesty as they describe how they smuggled drugs and shared the proceeds with the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, Reagan’s beloved ‘freedom fighters.’  By contrast, the news executives for the big newspapers come across as soulless careerists determined to maintain their cozy relations with the CIA’s press office.”

http://consortiumnews.com/2014/10/11/can-msm-handle-the-contra-cocaine-truth/

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U.S. DEA ‘most interested’ in U.S. investors in Canadian marijuana firms

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“With marijuana still illegal on a federal level in the United States, American investors in Canadian medical marijuana can be seen as violating the Controlled Substances Act, according to some U.S experts. And the use of the banking system to transfer the proceeds of such investments could be seen as money laundering.  The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has already been tracking investments made in state-sanctioned marijuana business in the United States. When asked by Reuters about the DEA’s view of U.S. investments in Canadian marijuana, DEA spokesman Rusty Payne said the agency is ‘most interested in those types of activities.'”

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclusive-u-dea-most-interested-110809730.html

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Iowa Troopers Steal $100,000 in Poker Winnings From Two Drivers

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“The Des Moines Register highlights an Iowa forfeiture case, the subject of a federal lawsuit filed this week, in which state troopers took $100,000 in winnings from two California poker players traveling through the state on their way back from a World Series of Poker event in Joliet, Illinois.  ‘Both of their California homes were searched the next day by law enforcement based on a tip from an Iowa agent,’ the Register notes. Although both men have state-issued cards identifying them as patients allowed to use cannabis for symptom relief, the paper says, they still faced ‘felony drug charges’ because of the marijuana found in their homes.”

http://reason.com/blog/2014/10/01/iowa-troopers-steal-100000-in-poker-winn

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The Forfeiture Curmudgeons

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“Cash became the crime.  The government figured out that drug sales weren’t done on Visa or MasterCard, but in currency.  Evil currency. So they criminalized cash.  But that still wasn’t enough to feed the hunger of the government and starve the drug kingpins, so then the ‘instrumentalities of the crime’ was conceived. If you drove to a drug deal, the car was an instrumentality. If the drug deal happened in a house, the house was the instrumentality. And even if there was no drug deal at all, it was all an instrumentality or substituted proceeds.  Take the profit out of crime.  This became as important, if not more so, than proving the existence of a crime at all.  And it was so much easier.”

http://blog.simplejustice.us/2014/09/20/the-forfeiture-curmudgeons/

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Aggressive US police take hundreds of millions from innocent motorists

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“Behind the rise in seizures is a little-known cottage industry of private police-training firms that teach the techniques of ‘highway interdiction’ to departments across the country.  A private intelligence network known as Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System enabled police nationwide to share detailed reports about American motorists — criminals and the innocent alike — including their Social Security numbers, addresses and identifying tattoos, as well as hunches about which drivers to stop.  Many of the reports have been funneled to federal agencies and fusion centers as part of the government’s burgeoning law enforcement intelligence systems.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2014/09/06/stop-and-seize/

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After Banning Pinball 80 Years Ago, Oakland Will Finally Legalize It

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“And here you thought games like Mortal Kombat and Grand Theft Auto had it rough: 80 years ago, pinball — yes, pinball — was a seedy, controversial business. So controversial that thousands of U.S. cities passed laws making pinball machines illegal, including Oakland, California, where you might be surprised to find the game remains a criminal matter on the books to this day. That’s about to change, says the San Francisco Chronicle, which writes that Oakland is set to formally un-ban pinball at last, though it’ll be seen as a symbolic move: pinball machines are alive and well across the city, notes the Chronicle, and the ban hasn’t been enforced for decades.”

http://time.com/2912494/california-town-that-banned-pinball-80-years-ago-will-finally-legalize-it/

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Fantasy football: Legal questions arise as gambling games grow

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“Traditional leagues at ESPN and elsewhere received their legal clearance from the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which was designed mainly to stop internet poker. It included an important ‘carve out’ for fantasy football. Meanwhile, most state laws define fantasy football as skill-based propositions, which keeps them legal. ‘Part of the problem with entrepreneurial endeavors on the internet is that some people push the envelope and some cross the line,’ said Las Vegas-based attorney Tony Cabot. ‘Until there’s some sort of enforcement action on some level, I think you’ll see them keep pushing that line out further and further.'”

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_26402528/fantasy-football-legal-questions-arise-gambling-games-grow

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Dark net drug markets kept alive by great customer service

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“History suggests that those who want drugs will usually find a way to get them. And here they can get a better product with fewer negative risks associated with buying drugs on the street. It even bears down on the street crime associated with drug turf wars as street pushers become redundant. These marketplaces are transforming the dirty and dangerous business of buying drugs in dark alleyways into a simple transaction between empowered consumers and responsive vendors. It’s not online anonymity, Bitcoins, or clever encryption that keeps the darknet markets thriving. The real secret is good customer service.”

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-08/21/buying-drugs-on-the-dark-net

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Canada’s Marc Emery is a Man on a Mission

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“Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ Marc Emery has finally returned home after spending just over 4 ½ years in US federal prison for selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.  Not only did the gregarious former libertarian bookseller relentlessly hassle Canadian and American drug warriors, he published Cannabis Culture, created the BC Marijuana Party and helped turn parts of downtown Vancouver’s Hasting Street into a Western Hemisphere Amsterdam, complete with a vaporizer lounge and several other cannabis-related enterprises.  When he was arrested by Canadian police at the behest of US authorities, the DEA was quick to gloat that it had struck a blow against the forces of legalization.”

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2014/aug/25/marc_emery_interview

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Government Bribery and The War on Terror Militarized America’s Police

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“Billions in taxpayer funds have been spent to transform American police forces into clones of the U.S. occupation forces of Iraq and Afghanistan. The 1033 Program and related facilities represent massive profits for U.S. defense contractors. As our Middle Eastern wars wind down, they’ve created a $30 billion-a-year domestic market for their MRAP armored troop carriers, night-vision rifle scopes, camouflage fatigues, Humvees and M16 automatic rifles, amongst other things. This isn’t just cast-off surplus stuff, either. The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency often simply purchases gear from a defense contractor and transfers it to a local law enforcement agency free of charge.”

http://thesovereigninvestor.com/asset-protection/government-bribery-and-militarization-of-americas-police/

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