Subject: Illegal Drugs

• Growing Up Gangster, Part II

  June 20, 2007

• Smoked Out

  July 9, 2007

• 'Blood for Blow' Blows Up

  January 15, 2008

• Dope at the drive-through?

  October 14, 2008

• Kansas City Strip

  March 22, 2001

• What does your mommy do?

  She runs a meth lab in Merriam. That's what the police man said.

  January 27, 2009

• Daily Briefs: Sorry about your testicles, pothead.

  In a disturbingly specific instance of anatomical and fiduciary braggadocio, rapper Mase said "I'm young, black and famous / with money hangin' out the anus" in the song "Can't Nobody Hold Me Down." Weird, but truly aspirational for a man like me, who is barely a hundredaire. I, too, would like to have money "hangin' out the anus." Meanwhile, my favorite joke about money is going into a restaurant, snapping a twenty-dollar bill at the hostess, and saying, "Me and my friend Abraham Lincoln were h

  February 11, 2009

• Raw Deal

  September 16, 2004

• Barack will not bogart that joint

  Flickr: Toronto JimIf you happen to live in one of the 13 states that allow medical marijuana, President Obama is cool with that. For all intents and purposes, pot is de facto legal there now. In case you're wondering, Kansas and Missouri are not two of those states. But neighbor Colorado is.Last Wednesday, Attorney General Eric Holder, discussing some bigger news about a Mexican pot bust, smoothly slid in the news that the DEA would no longer conduct raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. For

  March 2, 2009

• Low Road

  March 10, 2005

• High times foiled near Cameron

  A federal judge sentenced a Kansas City man today to 11 years and three months in federal prison for running a marijuana-growing operation in Daviess County, which is holy land but I don't think Joseph Smith was growing weed. In July, a federal jury found 30-year-old Jhanmay Molina-Perez guilty of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana between May 1 to October 31, 2006, on a 22-acre property that he was renting near Cameron. The operation went south after a neighbor heard gunshots and found a coupl

  March 12, 2009

• Prosecutor on Jawanza Brown case calls it "sad"

  Jawanza BrownBig whoops: Kevin Harrell was the prosecutor in the Jawanza Brown case that ended this week in a conviction and 36-year jail sentence for the 19-year-old. I'd previously reported that Teresa Moore was the state's attorney. My confusion came from the fact that Brown was scheduled for trials in two cases on the same day: Moore is the state's attorney for the other case, in which Brown is accused of three counts of distribution of a controlled substance, one count of drug possession an

  March 13, 2009

• Pot Roast

  June 15, 2006

• Legalize it! (And then invest in it)

  More and more I hear arguments for legalizing marijuana. Joe Klein and Andrew Sullivan are two people pushing especially hard for it right now, although President Barack Obama has blown off the issue -- and for good reason. If Obama made a huge deal about legalizing pot he might make gains among a percentage of people who probably already support him, but he'd lose plenty more voters. But what if pot were to be legalized without becoming legal?That appears to what's happening. Two weeks ago, Att

  April 6, 2009

• Afroman

  February 22, 2007

• Mucho Love

  August 2, 2007

• The grass grows around absent-minded rapper Devin the Dude

  March 19, 2009

• Operation: Operation

  Criminals with a liking for cereal and Muppets just may have inspired titles for police actions.

  July 31, 2008

• 420 on 4/19

  April 17, 2008

• Still Smokin’

  August 16, 2007

• The Housing Authority

  Kansas City’s public housing officials want you to think everything’s great. Miss Lizzie Brown knows otherwise.

  June 28, 2007

• Life Sucks

  April 5, 2007

• The Cop Who Killed a Murder Case

  Officer Holmes says a supervisor made him lie. But KCPD brass say he bungled a murder investigation.

  March 22, 2007

• School of Rock

  September 21, 2006

• High Above the Law

  She has cerebral palsy, four kids and loads of debt. Meet the unofficial spokeswoman for marijuana legalization.

  June 8, 2006

• To Each Theron

  April 27, 2006

• The Chase

  February 23, 2006

• Spilled Blood

  This cop wants to clean up your crime scene — just ignore those spots on her own record.

  February 2, 2006

• Screen Test

  January 19, 2006

• Soldiers of Meth

  Meth addiction, adultery and murder. Welcome to today's Army.

  January 19, 2006

• Critical Fatwa

  December 1, 2005

• Marijuana potency at three decade high

  Not only is pot becoming more legalish, it's becoming more potent too. On Thursday, scientists will gather in a circle to report that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels in thousands of confiscated marijuana samples have exceeded 10 percent for the first time. THC is an indicator of the potency of the pot. Back in the '60s and through most of the '90s THC levels never reached much higher than 5 percent. Scientists are using this new info to warn kids to look-out, this ain't their parents' pot.

  May 19, 2009

• So Long, Mr. Jones

  We'll miss the Ol' Dirty Bastard.

  November 18, 2004

• A Bad Trip

  Rebecca Beach didn’t kill the drug dealer from Topeka. But she’s in prison for life because Kansas’ felony murder law says she did.

  June 10, 2004

• No Drugs, No Traffic

  With exhibits like this, Union Station doesn’t need enemies.

  March 4, 2004

• The Last Resort

  Notorious for drugs and prostitution, the midwest hotel faces forfeiture to the state. So we checked in.

  September 25, 2003

• Rave Review

  The RAVE Act could mean trouble for even legitimate promoters.

  August 21, 2003

• God Forsaken

  The brutal, brilliant City of God takes us inside Rio de Janeiro's urban decay.

  March 13, 2003

• Kind Bud

  Author Michael Pollan talks about the persuasive powers of plants.

  June 20, 2002

• Hit Happens

  Sometimes, even a drug dealer can have a really bad day.

  September 6, 2001

• Drinking and Driving

  Ford workers arrested on drug charges should have just come to work drunk instead.

  August 2, 2001

• American High

  With Traffic, Steven Soderbergh takes on the unwinnable war.

  January 4, 2001

• One Toke Over the Line

  Touting the merits of harmony and hedonism, the Kottonmouth Kings bring their hardcore rap/metal to Lawrence in a cloud of smoke.

  July 6, 2000

• Spin City

  DJ and rave promoters insist it's all about the music and the vibe -- something the police and government bureaucrats need to know.

  June 22, 2000

• On the black-hand side

  February 10, 2000

• Fat City book club

  A couple of interesting food-related books are coming out soon. Flickr: Tommy IronicThe first is Food of a Younger Land by Mark Kurlansky, who has written books about oysters, cod and salt. While poking around the Library of Congress, Kurlansky discovered a forgotten work that was part of the Federal Writers' Project of the 1930s. To keep writers busy, the government sent them across America as amateur food anthropologists, making notes of what people in different regions ate, the cooking method

  April 17, 2009

• You know what today is don't you?

  Aww dudes, you're never going to guess what time today I originally planned to put up this post. Wait for it -- 4:20!!!Yes, today you can be certain that the smell wafting from your neighbor's apartment is what you think it is as stoners celebrate the second most annoying made-up holiday. (Valentine's still first.) To anyone busted for pot today, I have no sympathy. But I do have news.

  April 20, 2009

• Daily Briefs: CRIMEWATCH!

  CRIMEWATCH! According to Kansas City police and Federal drug authorities, in 2007, a dude named James Everson entrepreneurially broke into Aventis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. in Kansas City and stole 110 pounds of pseudoephedrine during Super Bowl Roman Numeral 41. Once a popular over-the-counter allergy medicine, pseudoephedrine is now used exclusively and solely in clandestine meth labs to make crystal methamphetamine, period. Which Everson allegedly did, like $6 million Americos worth. And now he

  May 11, 2009

• Barney Frank: a one-man decriminalizing-pot machine

  For better or worse, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank has seen his profile rise in the past year. He's chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee and was one of the bailout's most vocal backers, urging fellow members to pass it. Then, after losing confidence in Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, he became one of the most vocal backers for putting restrictions on that same TARP money.But when Frank is not saving the economy, he's got other things on his mind, specifically sw

  June 23, 2009

• The Unicorn’s Speech & Debate team has something to say, as do Ron Simonian’s potty-mouthed characters

  June 18, 2009