By Ethan Nadelmann Executive Director of Drug Policy Alliance For four decades, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has systematically obstructed medical research and rejected scientific evidence. It’s increasingly clear that entrusting decisions involving medical science to the DEA is akin to leaving the fox in charge of the henhouse. And what’s most striking is how…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Michael G. Grimm, the New York Congressman under investigation over his past ownership of a restaurant in Manhattan, is expected to turn himself over to federal authorities today, the Washington Post reports. Grimm faces multiple charges connected to his former Manhattan health food restaurant that had ties with an Israeli fundraiser. The…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Investigators haven’t made much headway in the brutal murder of a Peace Corps volunteer after she claimed a local Peace Corps employee was sexually assaulting girls where she worked in the West African country of Benin five years ago, WPRO.com reports. On Thursday, 184 members of Congress from both sides of the…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com Is the DEA running out of ideas to reverse the seismic shift in attitudes about marijuana? DEA Chief Michele Leonhart told congressional members this week that pot can kill Fido, citing evidence that dogs have died after eating marijuana-infused food, the Huffington Post reports. “There was just an article last week, and…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com ATF Director B. Todd Jones’ first appearance before Congress wasn’t a pleasant one. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that congressional members from both sides slammed Jones over the agency’s blunders in undercover storefront operations. Some of the problems included using people with mental disabilities to promote undercover operations. Jones defended the agency,…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com It was a simple question: Is marijuana more dangerous than alcohol? Yet DEA Deputy Director Thomas Harrigan wouldn’t provide an answer during a House oversight committee hearing. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-TN, asked because DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart insisted in January that pot is more dangerous than alcohol. “Marijuana is a Schedule I…
Steve Neavling ticklethewire.com A special congressional panel will investigate revelations this week that the FBI was in direct contact with Osama bin Laden in the early 1990s, the Washington Times reports. The agency’s close contact with bin Laden was never included in the official investigations of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, but the Washington Times…
By Ross Parker ticklethewire.com One of the most successful of the marijuana legalization lobbying organizations, the Marijuana Policy Project(MPP) announced its 2014 strategic plan and expects a “huge” year in passing state medical marijuana and legalization laws, as well as action in Congress to block drug enforcement activity. Twenty years ago marijuana was illegal in…
