By Justin Blum Bloomberg Derek Williams was working as a trash-truck driver when his cousin told him about K2, a product made from plant materials and chemicals that provided a legal, marijuana-like high. Williams saw his ticket out of the residential rubbish business: Make a better blend. He studied compounds that mimic the effects of…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com WASHINGTON — The DEA on Wednesday announced it was using its “emergency scheduling authority” to temporarily outlaw five chemicals used to make “fake pot” products. The DEA said the move was in response to the increasingly popularity of the products that were harming people. The DEA said plans to oulaw the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Senior U.S. District Judge Jack Camp of Atlanta, one of three judges featured in a ticklethewire.com story on “Fed Judges Gone Wild”, pleaded guilty Friday in a case in which he is accused of buying drugs for a stripper he was having a relationship with, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. Camp pleaded…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com Federal authorities on Wednesday discovered a 600-yard long tunnel with lighting and ventilation that went from Tijuana to California that was used to smuggle marijuana, the New York Times reported. DEA and ICE officials said they found about 30 tons of marijuana in the Otay Mesa section of San Diego,the Times…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The California initiative to legalize marijuana — a law that would have complicated enforcement for federal agents — went down in defeat on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Times reports that Proposition 19, which would have allowed pot to be sold for recreational use, failed to get the support of the state’s…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com More signs of the Mexican drug cartels reaching into the U.S.: The Washington Times reports that the Department of Homeland Security is warning Arizona authorities that Mexican drug gangs have sent assassins or “sicarios” into the state to kill bandits who are ambushing and stealing loads of cocaine, marijuana and heroin,…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The FBI and other agencies are probing an incident Friday in which a U.S. Border Patrol agent in Texas shot and killed an unarmed teen who was driving a pickup truck filled with marijuana,the Associated Press reported. AP reported that the driver Juan Mendez,18, of Eagle Pass, Tex., died after getting…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com The latest sign in the U.S. that there’s a drug war in Mexico: U.S. Border Patrol agents fired gunshots into Mexico Saturday after coming under attack in south Texas along the Rio Grande, the Associated Press reports. Authorities said the incident happened during a half-ton drug bust that involved Border Patrol…
