Barney Frank Ron Paul

A bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a bill this week designed to create enhanced legal protections for valid medical marijuana patients prosecuted due to conflicting state and federal laws regarding the legality of the substance.

Under the Truth In Trials Act, sponsored by California Democratic Rep. Sam Farr and co-sponsored by other representatives such as Barney Frank (D-Mass.) and Ron Paul (R-Texas), state-licensed medical marijuana users would be given the right to provide an "affirmative defense" in the case of a federal prosecution. This effectively allows them to prove that their actions, while illegal at the federal level, were in fact protected under state law.

"Any person facing prosecution or a proceeding for any marijuana-related offense under any federal law shall have the right to introduce evidence demonstrating that the marijuana-related activities for which the person stands accused were performed in compliance with state law regarding the medical use of marijuana, or that the property which is subject to a proceeding was possessed in compliance with state law regarding the medical use of marijuana," the bill reads.

The legislation also lays out specific language stating that cannabis plants grown legally under state law may not be seized. Under the legislation, marijuana and other property confiscated in the process of a prosecution must also be maintained -- not destroyed -- and returned to the defendant if they are able to prove it was for a use accepted by the state.

The latest version of the Truth In Trials Act comes as federal crackdowns on dispensaries in medical marijuana states continue to surge. Last week, federal officials targeted one of the nation's largest pot shops. The Associated Press reported:

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag has threatened to seize the Oakland property where Harborside Health Center has operated since 2006, as well as its sister shop in San Jose, executive director and co-founder Steve DeAngelo said Wednesday. His employees found court papers announcing asset forfeiture proceedings against Harborside's landlords taped to the doors at the two locations on Tuesday.


Morgan Freeman Marijuana
Morgan Freeman is a fan of marijuana.

Morgan Freeman is a long-time advocate of marijuana legalization, a point he recently reiterated in a wide-ranging interview with Newsweek.

Here's what the "Dark Knight Rises" actor had to say on the issue:

Marijuana! Heavens, oh yeah. It’s just the stupidest law possible, given history. You don’t stop people from doing what they want to do, so forget about making it unlawful. You’re just making criminals out of people who aren’t engaged in criminal activity. And we’re spending zillions of dollars trying to fight a war we can’t win! We could make zillions, just legalize it and tax it like we do liquor. It’s stupid.

Pot wasn't the only topic on his mind, however. Freeman also explained his own personal -- to use Barack Obama's word -- evolution on same-sex marriage:

I grew up in the South but I started dancing in my twenties when I got out of the Air Force, and studying dance, you’re surrounded by gay guys all the time. You get to know them and you have to shift gears!

Freeman is often a free-wheeling interview subject. In an interview in June of this year, the actor said he believes "we invented God." In September of 2011, he told Piers Morgan the Tea Party is "a racist thing."

"Their stated policy, publicly stated, is to do whatever it takes to see to it that Obama only serves one term," he continued at the time. "What underlines that? 'Screw the country. [...] We’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man outta here.'"

In an AOL You've Got video featured below the following gallery, Freeman describes his childhood pets. What can one say? The guy's game!

The grenade seized by Phuket police in arresting a man out on bail
The grenade seized by Phuket police in arresting a man out on bail
Photo by phuketwan.com

The connection between weapons and Phuket's drugs trade was exposed today when Phuket police arrested a man in possession of a grenade.


Officers raided a house in Thepkasattri at 4.30am in pursuit of drugs and a drug gang and surprised a man out the front. 
He grabbed a bag and ran as Thalang police approached but was apprehended soon after.

Police discovered that the bag contained a fragmentation grenade. 

Somporn Rampung, 25, was free on bail in a case involving possession of 12 kilos of marijuana, officers discovered.

He told police that a ''Mr Petch'' had sold him the grenade, which came from Thailand's deep south, for 4000 baht.

He planned to use it on a rival drugs gang but added that weapons were often part of the currency in drugs deals. 

Thalang Police Station Superintendent Colonel Witoon Kongsudjai said the fragmentation grenade could cause death or injury within a range of 10 to 15 metres if it exploded.

 

 

Nazario Moreno was shot dead by police in December 2010 during one of the most spectacular battles of President Felipe Calderon's six-year offensive against drug gangs, but his spirit lives on in the criminal underworld that made him.

Soldiers raiding criminal safe houses in the western state of Michoacan have recently found altars topped with three foot high statues in the image of Moreno, shown in golden medieval armour and carrying a sword. A local verse dedicated to the dead trafficker invokes him as a supernatural force.

 

"Give me holy protection, through Saint Nazario, Protector of the poorest, Knights of the people, Saint Nazario, give us life," goes the "Prayer to Saint Nazario".

 

Now calling themselves the Knights Templar, after the medieval military order that protected Christian pilgrims during the Crusades, members carry a code book decorated with pictures of cloaked knights with red crosses.

 

And police have even seized 120 plastic helmets allegedly used by the gang in initiation ceremonies.

 

The Knights Templar is the most bizarre cult-like group to have sprung up since Calderon declared war against Mexico's drug cartels in late 2006, triggering a series of turf wars that have killed more than 55,000 people.

 

Nowhere has his government struck harder than in Michoacan, shattering the leadership of Moreno's quasi-religious cartel La Familia - only for remnants to regroup in a yet stranger guise.

 

Propaganda from the cartel blends a curious mix of Michoacan regionalism, Christianity and revolutionary slogans.

 

But the quirks do nothing to diminish the violent threat posed by the Knights Templar, whose beliefs appear to extend from paying tribute to the Pope to brutally murdering their rivals and extorting local businesses.

 

One of the biggest traffickers of crystal meth to the United States, the cartel has an army of around 1,200 gunmen, according to a report by Mexico's military intelligence.

 

Knights Templar gunmen are believed to be behind most of the 480 drug-related murders in Michoacan in the last 18 months, including dozens of decapitated or dismembered victims.

 

Calderon launched his army-led crackdown in Michoacan, his home state, a few weeks after taking office and it has been a focus of his national campaign since then.

 

So the ability of Moreno's followers to regroup as the Knights Templar after his death serves as a powerful reminder of the task awaiting Calderon's successor, Enrique Pena Nieto, when he takes office in December.

 

The Knights Templar are also blamed for the worst attack on a multinational company in recent years. In May, assailants torched more than 30 trucks and two warehouses in Michoacan belonging to PepsiCo's Sabritas, a leading potato chip brand.

 

Messages signed by the Knights Templar were printed on plastic sheets strung up in 10 towns, saying they launched the attack because federal police had hidden in the Sabritas trucks to arrest one of the cartel's top fugitives.

 

"The companies are sources of employment for Michoacan society and we respect their labour," read the gang's message. "But they must limit themselves exclusively to their business or they will be punished."

 

PepsiCo officials deny that Sabritas let the police ride in its trucks, and say they don't know why they were targeted.

 

MORENO'S RISE AND FALL

 

The roots of the Knights Templar lie in the network of smugglers built up by Moreno, police reports show.

 

Moreno was born in 1970 in a seething valley known as the Tierra Caliente, where traffickers have long grown marijuana and opium poppies.

 

Working as a labourer in the United States in the 1980s, Moreno converted to evangelical Christianity and when he returned home he spread his version of the gospel within the drug trade.

 

In 2006, Moreno named his cartel "La Familia Michoacana" and sent adverts to newspapers claiming his troops were good Christians who defended their kind even if they smuggled drugs.

 

La Familia was given a boost by the rising crystal meth trade, with smugglers bringing in precursor chemicals to Michoacan's bustling Pacific port of Lazaro Cardenas.

 

Federal police finally caught up with Moreno in 2010, when he was handing out Christmas presents of washing machines and cars in a festival in the village of El Alcalde.

 

Elias Alvarez, the police commander who headed the strike on Moreno, said the 2,000 officers involved in the attack ran into hundreds of gunmen who blocked roads with burning cars and trucks.

 

"They have look-outs so they were waiting for us. We drove into the town and they were was a wall of some 40 trucks and they attacked us," Alvarez said. "It was a very hard battle."

 

In hours of fighting, five officers were killed, but police shot dead more than 50 gunmen, Alvarez said. The gangsters carried many of the bodies, including Moreno's, into the hills.

 

As police didn't find his corpse, rumours abound in Michoacan that Moreno is still alive and may even be behind his own cult, even though there is no evidence to back up the speculation. Alvarez says he is certain that Moreno is dead and that the trafficker has a marked grave in the mountains.

 

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

 

Following Moreno's demise, one of his top lieutenants and a former rural school teacher called Servando Gomez took over the organization and renamed it as the Knights Templar.

 

However, other operatives kept the name La Familia and became bloody rivals of the Knights, fighting them in pitched battles. One shoot-out this month between the two groups in the State of Mexico, which borders the capital, left 10 dead.

 

Within the Knights, Gomez oversees a council of 12 deputies responsible for areas such as drug production, trafficking and spying networks, according to the military report.

 

In Michoacan state capital Morelia, a business leader said that companies large and small have to pay up to the cartel.

 

"There are shops, gas stations, avocado growers, taxis and even iron mines making extortion payments here," said the businessman, who asked that his name not be used.

 

The Knights owe their strength to support in the Tierra Caliente where many civilians do business with them or work as their spies, said an undercover military intelligence officer.

 

"They help people out by giving them presents like bags of cement. Many people in the area are against authority anyway. Others help the Knights Templar out of fear," said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

The Knights' elaborate ceremonies and codes also help keep the troops in line, the officer said.

 

The exact religious beliefs of the Knights are unclear. While the traffickers had been Evangelicals under Moreno, the name "Knights Templar" is closer to the Roman Catholic Church.

 

Furthermore, when Pope Benedict visited Mexico in March, the Knights displayed signs calling for peace in his honour.

 

The Knights' infamous code book, which soldiers have seized in raids, lists 53 commandments that members must obey.

 

Some justify their movement with a cause. "The Knights Templar will establish an ideological battle and defend the values of a society based on ethics," says order number 12.

 

Others concern discipline and organization.

 

"Any knight who betrays the Templars will receive the maximum punishment, 

Cannabis farm
Hot plants ... lights glare over cannabis leaves

THESE are the first amazing pictures of a secret cannabis factory — hidden UNDER a filthy portable cabin.

    Hidden factory ... the inconspicuous hut leading to the drug lair

    They reveal how the subterranean chamber — made of metal shipping containers sunk into the ground — was crammed with illegal plants capable of generating MILLIONS of pounds for drug barons.

It was busted last year by cops who had kept the site in Irvine, Ayrshire, under surveillance after a tip-off. The images were finally released after the criminal masterminds behind the ingenious dope factory were yesterday sentenced at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.

Gerald McKenna, 60, and Stewart Allison, 54, were sent to jail while Samuel Strachan, 52 — described as “the watchman” — got off with community service.

A fourth man, Roy Dunstance, 58, was cleared of the farm plot at an earlier hearing but fined £350 for possessing cannabis.

Veteran gangster Dunstance was once one of Scotland’s most wanted criminals in Spain.

 

Cabin covering the concealed drug factory
Hiding secret ... the cabin covering the concealed drug factory
Last night, the sophisticated underworld venture was described as like something out of hit movie The Great Escape.

 

Drugs expert Detective Sergeant Michael Miller, who was the first cop to check out the factory, said: “As far as I am aware, this is the first underground cannabis cultivation in Scotland.

“I have been doing this job for 22 years and have never seen anything like this.

“A serious amount of time, effort and experience went into this venture, from placing the containers in the ground to the electrical system. It was there to make money.

“It was like something out of The Great Escape with an elaborate underground network similar to the one in the film — but they all got caught in the end.”

The Scottish Sun was given exclusive access to a 40-minute video taken by DS Miller as he walked through the site.

He is seen applying pressure to a piece of soft ground with his foot and when he digs down a little into the earth, it exposes the metal roof of the factory.

A short distance away lies a pile of leaves and other debris — used to mask the factory’s massive heat source from police helicopter infra-red cameras.

 

Low production ... furnished living quarters for the crooks
Low production ... furnished living quarters for the crooks
Police found an electricity generator outside the cabin, Inside, a pillow and duvet cover, several TVs, an ashtray full of the butts of cannabis joints and an AXE were discovered.

 

A hatch on the floor concealed what turned out to be an ultra-sophisticated cannabis cultivation.

A set of sturdy, dark grey metal ladders led down into the factory.

A total of 350 plants were crammed into one of four sunken containers.

They were blasted by powerful UV lamps which mimic the sun to encourage growth.

The operation was designed to grow a crop every three months rather than the average once a year. Another container acted as a nursery for fresh cuttings.

The cavern was raided on June 16 last year by Strathclyde Police’s Major Crimes and Terrorist Investigation Unit.

McKenna, Allison and Strachan later admitted producing cannabis from the plants which were valued at £150,000.

But after the raid, a source said: “It is suggested you can get one harvest every six or so weeks, which would bring in £100,000.

“If you are pulling in that kind of money, then it is not going to take too long to clock up a million quid.”

It was revealed during yesterday’s court hearing how grandfather-of-five McKenna, of Scotstoun, Glasgow, had been the “head gardener”.

His lawyer Murray Macara said: “His role was effectively that of a gardener giving advice.

“He got involved because he had an interest in cannabis. There was a financial interest too but he was taking cannabis for effective pain relief.”

Allison, of Duntocher, Dunbartonshire, was described as the “assistant” gardener.

Strachan, of Knightswood, Glasgow, was dubbed the “watchman” who looked after security for “one day only”, according to his solicitor Andrew Lambie.

Sheriff Seith Ireland jailed McKenna for 45 months while Allison was ordered to serve 26 months behind bars.

Strachan, who has learning difficulties, was hit with a community payback order and 210 hours of unpaid work.

Sheriff Ireland said: “This was a sophisticated operation at industrial scale. It involved the construction of underground chambers to grow cannabis with potentially high yields of illegal profits.”

And he told McKenna: “You played a major — but not pinnacle — role in the production.”




30 gang members have been sentenced to over 40 years in prison following a widespread anti-drug operation by the Trident Central Gangs Unit and Haringey police. Crack cocaine, heroin and cannabis were some of the drugs found by officers during the operation which was codenamed Fadden and targeted prolific offenders. The North London Somalian Gang, Albanian Young Guns, The Wood Green Mob and the Ida Road Gang were all implicated in the illegal supply of Class A or Class B drugs. Some 31 gang members were arrested over four separate dates in late February and early March of this year after simultaneous raids were conducted across Haringey borough in an effort to stop the street gangs’ criminal activity. All pleaded guilty at court hearings at Wood Green Crown Court between March and July. Among them was a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who pleaded guilty to two counts of supplying cannabis and was given a 12-month referral order. Detective Superintendent Stephen Clayman of Haringey’s Gang Crime Unit, said: “We continue to police the areas of Turnpike Lane, Philip Lane and Wood Green using a range of tactics, such as intelligence led stop and search and dispersal orders to ensure that the problem does not return and that the local community can go about their lawful business in safety. “We are determined to enforce the law against those who damage our local communities through their involvement in gang crime. Equally, we will continue to work with local partner agencies to support those that want to leave their gang lifestyle behind.”

A gang member from Victorville was convicted in U.S. District Court on racketeering and drug charges and faces a life prison term, federal officials said. Gary White, aka Big J-Killa, 47, is scheduled to be sentenced by a U.S. District judge on Nov. 19, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. White was one of 46 defendants charged in 2010 following a multi-agency investigation into the Pueblo Bishops Bloods street gang’s violent and intimidating activities in the Pueblo del Rio housing project in South Los Angeles, prosecutors said. White was found guilty Monday of violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act along with two Los Angeles men, Jermaine Hardiman and Anthony Gabourel. Additionally, White was convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin, and drug trafficking within a public housing project and near schools and parks. Thirty-nine others were previously convicted in the investigation; prosecutors dismissed one defendant’s case and three others remain to be tried on Aug. 22, officials said. The two-year investigation that led to the August 2010 arrests was joined by the FBI, the Los Angeles Police Department, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Inspector General and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

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