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Polanski says guillotine re-post was mistake but refuses to apologise
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The Green leader re-posted a photo of a man wearing a guillotine t-shirt
and the name Nigel.
5 hours ago
Dimethyltryptamine, or DMT is a Schedule I drug according to the Federal government and the DEA. Schedule I drugs, substances, or chemicals are defined as drugs with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule I drugs are the most dangerous drugs of all the drug schedules with potentially severe psychological or physical dependence. -SOURCE
"We tell them, 'Listen, we know what you were doing before and we're watching you.'" -Boston Police Commissioner, Edward Davis
Police Shoot Man 3 Times Immediately Upon Entering House: Hayden’s Note; the Failed War on DrugsThe rest of the article is archived below for discussion purposes. Please click the inline link in the title to visit the original source.
A joint drug task force from Weber and Morgan county, Utah, executed a search warrant on Todd Blair’s house on September 16th, 2010, resulting in the shooting death of Blair only two seconds after entry was made.
The “Weber-Morgan Strike Force” initiated an investigation into Blair’s residence with a focus on his roommate, Melanie Chournos. Police stated in their application for warrant that Ms. Chournos would likely destroy evidence upon their arrival, and requested a night time, “no-knock warrant” for the squirrely female. However, prior to the raid, law enforcement became aware of the fact Blair’s roommate had moved out of the house. With warrant already in hand, or rather, still back at the police station, the Strike Force decided to conduct the night time raid anyway.
Friends and family of Mr. Blair plainly admit to his drug usage, but said he was a drug addict and not a drug dealer.
After the SWAT team hit the door three times in an attempt to open it, and as the video clearly shows, Mr. Blair appears in a far hallway, shirtless, and with a golf club in his hands.
Certainly, any reasonable person would arm themselves at the sound of their front door being kicked in for fear of becoming a victim of robbery, or worse.
The Huffington Post reports Sgt. Burnett as saying, “I was always confident in my close-range shooting ability, and the ammo, I’m absolutely pleased with. It did its job.”This boils down to willfully shooting a man in the face and being in control of your emotions, muscle memory, and reactions. If you can not be trusted to apply logic and calm reasoning in adrenaline-filled situations, perhaps you are not cut out for being the point man in a SWAT stack. There is a massive difference between effectively sizing up the situation and hesitating under pressure. I suppose some of us prefer to make sound decisions, even at the slightly elevated risk of delaying our action for a second or two, instead of blindly reacting out of panic, tunnel-vision, and fear.
“I didn’t think about saying words [giving verbal commands to surrender]. I just thought about not getting hit…or slashed or whatever,” Burnett told investigators, saying that he thought the golf club was “a sword or something.” He also said that it did not appear to him that Blair was moving toward him, an admission that could prove crucial in a federal criminal or civil case.These statements are indicative of “coaching” on what to say rather than true recollection of the events surrounding the decision to shoot or not. Without the inclusion of the “sword” reference, Sgt. Burnett’s armor and helmet, if he were wearing one, would have surely protected him against blunt force trauma from the golf club and it is likely that supervisors who responded to the scene; perhaps even their own internal investigators, suggested Burnett mention fear of being “…slashed, or whatever” in order to further justify the use of deadly force.
According to The Salt Lake Tribune, the raid was hastily planned, diverting from protocol. Sgt. Burnett told investigators that it is “absolutely not our standard” to carry out such a raid with as little planning as was done, reports the Tribune. The raid was conducted so hastily, in fact, that police forgot the warrant. According to the Tribune, in the video it obtained, an officer can be heard asking: “Did somebody grab a copy of the warrant off my desk?”After searching the entire house, police only recovered some drug paraphernalia and a single, small pink baggie with what appeared to be a white crystal substance.
Blair’s death raises the question of why multiple, heavily-armed officers were sent to raid a drug addict – and why Weber and Morgan counties in Utah would even need a “Narcotics Strike Force.” Local police forces are able to keep property they seize in drug raids, often without the necessity of a conviction, creating a perverse incentive to reinvest in military equipment and carry out additional raids in the infamous War on Drugs.
"The Supreme Court has upheld the use of technology as a substitute for ordinary police surveillance," -Magistrate CallahanThere are actually two separate arguments to be made here. The first, is the Constitutional matter of the Fourth Amendment. The second would be to ask if the police have the right to vilate the law in order to enforce the law, which we will discuss below in a few moments.
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -4th AmendmentDebatable, but the Amendment does not specify property, other than to say "effects" which is also defined as moveable property. Land is not moveable (though it is transferable.) This interpretation is more than likely they basis of a 1984 Supreme Court case called Oliver v. United States, in which a majority of the justices said that "open fields" could be searched without warrants because they're not covered by the Fourth Amendment.
NJWeedman found not guilty in pot distribution case
MOUNT HOLLY — Ed “NJWeedman” Forchion hopes the not-guilty verdict a Burlington County jury rendered in his pot distribution trial plants a seed for other medical marijuana patients and sparks a change in the law.
“I think other patients should argue the same points. They can call it the ‘Weedman defense,’ ” he said after a jury of 10 women and two men returned the verdict Thursday following an hourlong deliberation that ended the three-day trial. “The law is wrong. My jury heard that and understood that.”
Forchion, who claims dual residency in Pemberton Township and Los Angeles, was acquitted of possession with the intent to distribute a pound of marijuana that police found in his trunk during a traffic stop on April 1, 2010, in Mount Holly.
The state contended that the sheer volume in Forchion’s possession and the $2,000 in cash he had in his pocket at the time of his arrest were tell-tale signs of distribution, despite the absence of other packaging paraphernalia.
Forchion has maintained that he is no drug dealer. He brought the marijuana from California, where he is a licensed medical marijuana patient, for his own use while on a trip to New Jersey to visit his family, he claimed.
“I don’t use it the way the state says. To me, it’s medicine, it’s food,” Forchion said in his closing argument, noting for the jury that he had been eating pot-laced cookies throughout the trial. “I feel I’m the victim of a flawed law.”
Article continues at link:
http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/crime/njweedman-found-not-guilty-in-pot-distribution-case/article_2d6d582d-0887-53f2-a7d5-c7c10bc8b958.html
NJ “Weedman” found not guilty in jury nullification victory
With few options left for people to protect themselves from the ever growing police state, an old and long forgotten aspect of constitutional law is making a huge comeback, and becoming very popular in cases where people are facing jail time for nonviolent offenses.
This reemerging defense is the act of jury nullification, which is basically the right for any juror to not only judge the facts of the case, but to also actually judge the validity of the law itself. This means that if a jury feels that a defendant is facing an unjust charge they actually have the right to rule in their favor even if they are technically guilty.
Ed Forchion is a medical cannabis user and cancer patient known as the “NJ weedman”. Ed claims dual residency in Pemberton Township, New Jersey and Los Angeles, California. Due to his residency in California he has a prescription for Cannabis and is legally allowed to grow and consume the plant in that state.
However, he is not legally allowed to possess the plant in the state of New Jersey and unfortunately while in New Jersey on April 1, 2012 Forchion was stopped by police and found with a pound of cannabis and $2,000, enough to get slapped with a distribution charge.
Article continues at link:
http://www.activistpost.com/2012/10/nj-weedman-found-not-guilty-in-jury.html
(NaturalNews) If you have ever done any sort of comparison shopping online, chances are you have probably used Google's Shopping portal to pull up product information and compare prices. But if you live in the U.S. and try to use Google Shopping to buy vitamins, supplements, personal care products, and even many health foods, your search queries will now turn up blank, as Google has apparently blocked access to all vitamins and natural products for American customers.
Right around June 28 of this year, Google Shopping users first began noticing that search queries for many common health products like "vitamin C" and "fish oil" began turning up zero results, whereas before they would generate a copious list of vendors that offered these products, as well as corresponding price information. In the days and weeks that followed, these same users learned that vitamins and natural products in general were no longer showing up in Google Shopping.
When asked about the issue by several concerned shoppers, Google's public relations team reportedly gave vague and incomplete answers about why natural products are no longer showing up in its Shopping section, even though they are still showing up in Google's general web search area. Others with inside information claim that Google has quietly, without any announcement to the public or its venders, added vitamins, supplements, and other nutritional products to its "sensitive category" of products, which means they are completely blocked from Google Shopping searches.
In either case, Google Shopping users are now unable to search for nutritional products, which means it has become that much harder for the average person to access vitamins and dietary supplements online. And the venders that used to sell such products through Google's site -- many of these businesses had been paying Google to include their products as part of Google Shopping searches -- are now watching their businesses decline, as Google holds a significant monopoly on the product search and comparison market.
"Google publishes a list of products in [the natural health] category that are blocked as a matter of corporate policy in the public interest. So shopping results for (things like) steroids are always blocked," says the Healthy Chronicle, an online health blog sponsored by California-based supplement company iMedmart.com. "(But) we're talking about something completely different here -- Google is blocking whole categories of respected, brand-name products ... from online shoppers for no stated reason."
Read full article here
...2.6 percent of the state’s cash assistance applicants failed the drug test, or 108 of 4,086, according to the figures from the state... Florida law requires that applicants who pass the test be reimbursed for the cost, an average of $30, the cost to the state was $118,140. This is more than would have been paid out in benefits to the people who failed the test... the testing cost the government an extra $45,780.
“We saw no dampening effect on the caseload”
...under New York's Family Court Act, they
cited two findings that required them to determine neglect. The first is
"proof of actual (or imminent danger of) physical, emotional, or mental
impairment to the child." Second is the danger "must be a consequence
of the parent's failure to exercise a minimum degree of parental care."
The court noted the statutory test is not best or ideal care for children, but a minimum degree.
![[Image: drug-test-coaster.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkrx88kYtdvjJnlGIcUGokRWxq1pjOHsj7bk_U-mVed9orFUfpd32s29O-qIhcXDnqwNDEXTMveQl8kKgyIUVrQKns6Bbn7bzYgqNLxcPRb4axTJM8jFUKpOXLuMIzC-b6X3jo-k3TXc1W/s320/drug-test-coaster.jpg)
![[Image: mcdonalds-fail.jpg]](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMiIWshNt7iZ3d-QWiPyRaoJTf79tvwuBiF4cXxBdzbpd9FXSSZgtr9OYf6HD4GLl0gMpb7Yj2_OC_OrZMXrnmuYVAJ11fjhTT3DZ4BCDIwEzYrNWLQ_PV_pcVRK41bj4oil6aGSE0Q5rW/s320/mcdonalds-fail.jpg)
Video documentation by local activists and independent media shows that police officers and county deputies from across Minnesota have been picking up young people near Peavey Plaza for a training program to recognize drug-impaired drivers. Multiple participants say officers gave them illicit drugs and provided other incentives to take the drugs. The Occupy movement, present at Peavey Plaza since April 7th, appears to be targeted as impaired people are dropped off at the Plaza, and others say they've been rewarded for offering to snitch on the movement.
Local independent media activists and members of Communities United Against Police Brutality began investigating police conduct around the Plaza after witnessing police dropping off impaired people at the plaza and hearing rumors that they were offering people drugs. We videotaped police conduct and interviewed participants, learning some very disturbing information about the DRE program.
Officers stated on record the DRE program, run by the Minnesota State Patrol, has no Institutional Review Board or independent oversight. They agreed no ambulances or EMTs were on site at the Richfield MnDOT facility near the airport where most subjects were taken. Multiple times, participants left Peavey Plaza sober, returned intoxicated, and said they'd been given free drugs by law enforcement. We documented on more than one occasion, someone being told they were sober by one officer, and then picked up by a different officer, and returning intoxicated.
Given the dangers of impaired driving, there is value in training law enforcement officers to distinguish between the effects of various drugs and several common medical conditions. However, we have captured video footage of instances in which DRE trainees recruited subjects who are not already impaired, and those participants say they were given drugs by the officers.
Although program documents indicate that participants must sign a waiver, https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/msp/forms-reports/Documents/SFSTSponsorResponsib... there was no indication from any of the participants interviewed that a waiver was offered or obtained. Further, video footage seems to validate the recollections of participants that no medical personnel or ambulance were on site during the observation and testing in Richfield. A DRE officer told one of our investigators that no Institutional Review Board assessment of the program has been made, a requirement of all experiments involving human subjects. Since it's unethical to encourage people to take drugs--whether by giving them drugs directly or enticing them with food, cigarettes, or other rewards (which participants say they were given)--it is unlikely such a program would pass IRB review as it endangers the test subjects.
According to the WCCO article from May 2011, officer trainees in the past have worked with various non-profit organizations to recruit drug users. It would appear now that they are no longer relying solely on this tactic, instead recruiting users directly and, participants say, providing them with drugs. After the sessions, these individuals are then dropped off in public areas without supportive care, creating a public safety hazard. In an example at Peavey Plaza caught on film, an individual who said he's been smoking courtesy of the police for an hour, crossed a line of Minneapolis police barricades, climbed to the top of a large sign and sat 15 feet above the sidewalk swinging his arms and legs in front of a police camera.
Our investigation points to particular efforts to target and recruit youth. Further, law enforcement officers have been taped recruiting people from the Peavey Plaza area of Nicollet Mall and have dropped off a number of impaired individuals at Peavey Plaza. In some instances, Minneapolis police squad cars were present while DRE trainees recruited people at Peavey Plaza. After receiving drugs, some subjects were asked to snitch on the Occupy movement or asked about various people and activities of Occupy, they said. Given efforts by the Minneapolis city council to pass an ordinance designed to restrict access to Peavey Plaza by the Occupy movement, the conduct of DRE trainees points to the possibility that they are working hand-in-glove with Minneapolis police to discredit and disrupt the Occupy movement.
"I think most people would be very surprised to have our tax dollars used to get people high," states Michelle Gross, president of Communities United Against Police Brutality. "These activities call into question the methods and motives of this DRE training."
Obama’s New Drug Control Report Calls for More Workplace Drug Testing, Nationwide Zero Tolerance Laws, Prescription-Only Ephedrine Products, and the Return of the “Above the Influence” Campaign
The first thing you should know about President Barack Obama’s 2012 Drug Control Strategy report is that it begins and ends with the declaration that the war on drugs is working and will continue apace.
MC Short-Change
Obama administration policies have “yielded significant results,” according to the President’s introductory letter, which concludes by saying, “While difficult budget decisions must be made at all levels of government, we must ensure continued support for policies and programs that reduce drug use and its enormous costs to American society.”
The report ends with a familiar refrain: “Legalization of drugs will not be considered in this approach. Making drugs more available and more accessible will not reduce drug use and its adverse consequences for public health and safety. We will continue to educate young people and all Americans about the science on the harmful health effects of marijuana use.”
The pages in between those two statements contain a broad outline for increased drug enforcement, mandatory rehabilitation programs for people who don’t need or want them, and the return of melodramatic Reefer Madness-style agitprop aimed at teenagers.
The worst policy plans contained in the report are outlined after the jump.
Read the complete article at link:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/04/17/obamas-new-drug-control-report-calls-for