Category: Press Coverage

    Newton County deputy charged with selling marijuana to undercover FBI agents

    COVINGTON — Former Newton County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Darrell Mathis has been arrested and charged with selling marijuana to an undercover FBI agent while in uniform.

    Mathis, who was arrested Thursday, was initially placed on administrative leave pending an internal investigation, but Sheriff Ezell Brown said Friday afternoon that Mathis had been terminated.

    “My office is completely cooperating with the FBI in this investigation,” said Brown. “This is an embarrassment to the Newton County Sheriff’s Office, as well as law enforcement in general.”

      Senate Holds Hearing on State Marijuana Legalization

      WASHINGTON, DC — The Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon held a hearing on marijuana legalization and conflicts between state and federal marijuana laws. Led by committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the hearing featured testimony from the deputy attorney general who has set Justice Department policy, two officials in states that have legalized marijuana and one critic of marijuana legalization.

      The hearing marked the first time Congress has grappled with the issue of responding to state-level marijuana legalization and was notable for its emphasis on making legalization work in states where it is legal. It was also notable in that of all the senators present, only one, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), bothered to dredge up the sort of anti-marijuana rhetoric that had in years and decades past been so typical on Capitol Hill.

      “Marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug,” said Grassley, who turns 80 next week. “It’s illegal under international law as well, and the treaty requires us to restrict its use to scientific and medical uses. These [legalization] laws flatly contradict our federal law. Some experts fear a Big Marijuana, a Starbucks of marijuana,” he lamented.

        Marijuana is safer than alcohol – Fox News pundit thinks

        The U.S. government might officially consider marijuana more dangerous than alcohol, but at least one Fox News personality thinks otherwise.

        On Tuesday night, Fox News host Bill O’Reilly was fretting about children smoking marijuana now that Washington state and Colorado had legalized it Columnist Charles Krauthammer, however, informed him marijuana was safer than alcohol.

        “If I were starting a society from scratch and had to choose the intoxicant, I would outlaw alcohol and I’d allow marijuana,” Krauthammer said. “It’s benign compared to alcohol. The problem is this, Bill, you never start society from scratch. Alcohol is engrained in the culture. We learned that in prohibition. You have to regulate it. My question is, do we really want to add a second intoxicant onto that? Because who knows, it leads to other things.”