Federal Officials Cash In On Synthetic Drug Busts

With Synthetic drugs on the rise the nation’s Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has become more vigilant.

Just recently President Obama signed a law to ban chemical compounds sold on the street as bath salts—chemical substances that produce feelings of euphoria in users. Among these chemical substances is the popular synthetic marijuana, “K2” also known as “Spice.” As they become more popular on the street, especially among our youth, these chemical compounds have now become available online and in stores across America.

Synthetic drugs are dangerous and they often kill those who use them. According to the DEA, synthetic drug cases have more than quadrupled between 2010 and 2011. In 2010, poison centers nationwide responded to about 3,200 calls related to synthetic “Spice” and “bath salts.” In 2011, that number jumped to more than 13,000 calls. Sixty percent of the cases involved patients 25 and younger.

Today, Federal officials announced the success of their first ever national operation against synthetic drugs. As part of Operation Log Jam, and a joint effort by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and several other agencies, law enforcement officials made 90 arrests.

The DEA believes that by targeting retailers and manufacturers of these synthetics, this major effort to address the problem of synthetic drugs on the streets of America has upset the entire synthetic drug industry.

Michele M. Leonhart, the head of the DEA said, “We are committed to targeting these new and emerging drugs with every scientific, legislative, and investigative tool at our disposal.”

Today’s action netted more than 4.8 million packets of synthetic cannabinoids (marijuana) more popularly known as K2 or Spice, and the products to produce nearly 13.6 million more, as well as 167,000 packets of synthetic cathinones (bath salts), and the products to produce an additional 392,000 were seized.

James Chaparro, an investigations official at ICE said, “The criminal organizations behind the importation, distribution, and selling of these synthetic drugs have scant regard for human life in their reckless pursuit of illicit profits.”

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said, “It’s a testament to the cynicism and greed of manufacturers, importers, and distributors that these products were ever put on store shelves… If they have any conscience, they’ll find legitimate ways to make money instead of preying on 18-year-olds.”

The DEA has used its authority to combat synthetic drugs which include bath salts (Ivory Wave, etc.) and synthetic marijuana (K2, Spice, etc.), by temporarily placing several of the dangerous chemicals into Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). Congress has also acted by permanently placing 26 substances into Schedule I of the CSA.

Their Right to Marry or Our Right to Deny Their Rights

The fight over whether or not couples of the same sex have a right to marry has become one of the nation’s hottest and most controversial subjects, especially since the statement released by President Barack Obama advocating same sex marriage, in which he said in an interview with ABC News, “At a certain point I’ve just concluded that for me, personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.”

The President’s statement shook the entire country, since President Obama had opposed same sex marriage in the past. The President’s affirmation of same sex marriage now has everyone weighing in on what the Bible has to say about the subject of same sex marriage in an attempt to prove that we should not allow it.

While the Bible makes it perfectly clear that marriage should be between a man and a woman (1 Corinthians 7:2), people still have the choice to agree or disagree, because freedom of choice is not only constitutional, it is also rooted in the Word of God. God says in the Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter 30, verse 19, “…I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live.” We each have been given a choice to either follow God’s way which will lead to life, or follow the way of our own intellect, which will lead to death. There is nothing written in the Bible indicating God as a tyrant, but yet some members of the Church would like to oppress gays and lesbians for their stance to follow their own intellect.

In a sermon preached to his congregation, Pastor Charles L. Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina, offered a solution to the so-called gay plague. He said, “I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers; build a great, big, large fence — 150 or 100 mile long — put all the lesbians in there… Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out… And you know what, in a few years, they’ll die.”

As I see it, the Church wants to take the same sex marriage issue to another level and quoting the Bible is how they would like to do it. Not all Christians will go to the level of Pastor Charles Worley, but surely if we agree to take away the rights of gays and lesbians to exercise their freedom of choice, this is where we will end up.

Everybody wants to quote the Bible but many who quote it, well, they really do not read the Bible, and it shows in their actions and statements. Jonah was a man who thought like Pastor Worley. In Chapter 3 of the Book of Jonah God told Jonah to go to Nineveh and preach to the city the message that He told him to preach. So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. So all the people of Nineveh believed God and repented. Then God saw their works and decided not to destroy the city of Nineveh as He had originally planned. But in Chapter 4 of the Book of Jonah we see that Jonah wanted God to destroy Nineveh because he felt their wickedness should be punished and he became angry. Then the Lord said, “Is is right for you to be angry?” (Jonah 4:4).

So I pose that question to the Church. “Is it right for the Church to be angry?” Shouldn’t the Church just preach what God has said about homosexuality and leave the rest up to God, who is the Judge of all the living? Should the Church hate, when God has told them to love? Rather than deny gays and lesbians the right to make their own choice, should the church just pray that God would change their hearts instead? Are Christians evolving into spiritual terrorists for Christ? If we are we are no more righteous than Al-Qaida who will bomb an innocent person for not worshiping Allah.

If we go back to the Creation we will see that God warned Adam beforehand of the consequences of being disobedient and He left it at that. Adam chose to disobey God, but God did not kill him, nor did He hate him, He simply did what He said He would do and that is, He let Adam die. Not everyone will choose to be a Christian nor will every Christian choose to obey the written Word of God; but one thing is certain, no one has the right to force another person to believe in God, or to force another person to believe and keep the Law of God if it is not their choice. When we do that we take away the one thing that God has given to each one of us, and that is our freedom to choose life or death. What will you choose?

All Eyes on GOP Front Runners

All eyes are on GOP Front Runners to see what silly new trick might they pull off on each other next.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich are not only fighting over who's the better GOP candidate, they're fighting over pretty much everything, starting with immigration.

It's still the same old dirty politics: Find all the mud you can on the guy who's running against you and on a nice sunny day throw it on him in an attempt to make him look bad. Seriously guys, do you think that is how you're going to win the office of the president?

Apparently, these two candidates can't stop fighting each other long enough to agree on any of the issues that they're supposed to be getting together to defeat the incumbent President, Barack Obama on.

Against Each Other...

Romney and Gingrich are so busy fighting each other over issues that few American people care about that they are missing the whole purpose for wanting to be the president.

This type of foolishness only shows how far removed from the problems of the average American citizen these guys are.

Let's do a little polling of our own: Do you think Romney and Gingrich have the issues of the American people on their agenda?

50-year-old woman chases, corners, lectures robber

Thou shall not steal. And one Chicago woman went to great lengths Friday to impart it.

A 50-year-old woman gave a robber a religious lecture early Friday after chasing him for almost a mile and cornering him in an alley, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The woman was riding a Chicago Transit Authority bus in the Loop just after midnight when police said Jenar Sanders, 18, swiped her wallet from her purse, jumped off the bus at Huron and State streets and made a run for it.

Read the original story by NBCChicago.com

Trailing Sanders, the woman alerted others as she ran down the street, according to the Tribune. A hotel staff member at the Omni Hotel and the CTA bus driver notified police, officers said.

The race came to a quick halt when police said Sanders ended up cornered in an alley off Superior Street between Wabash Avenue and Rush Street, surrounded by the victim and others who had joined the chase.

“She kept telling him God didn’t want him to steal her wallet,” a police source told the Tribune.
Sanders, who is 6-foot-3 and weighs 270 pounds, was arrested by two officers at 12:35 a.m. The woman is 5-foot-8 and a little more than half his weight.

“The woman’s lucky," a police officer told the Tribune. "She grabbed him. She was lucky this guy wasn’t a violent guy. They had him in an alley without an exit. He’s a fairly substantial man.”

Authorities say Sanders admitted to the crime and was charged with theft.

NBCChicago.com's Shawna Hendrix and msnbc.com staff contributed to this report.

No Respect

Rodney Dangerfield was one of America's funniest comedians. Dangerfield was known for the phrase, "I don't get no respect." It seems as though the then popular phrase has impacted the lives of Americans as respect has literally become a thing of the past.

Not so very long ago most Americans would have considered it a shameful act to disrespect another person. That was a time when people felt that the elderly were citizens worthy of respect just because they were older. In those days everyone had great respect for school teachers, because we believed the future of our children, and the future of our nation was in their hands.

Back then people had respect for the church because it represented the one place where we were sure to find good, and God. Even the church building was held in high regard to even the lowest of vandals; it was a holy place in the community so to speak. Today, people break into church buildings and pilfer them as though they were nothing more than corner liquor stores; some robbers will even interrupt a church service and rob the people who have come to worship at gunpoint.

Although Christ never forced anyone to do anything against their will, we brand ourselves as a Christian Nation, following the letter of the law of God zealously, all the while doing the complete opposite of what Christ did, by forcing others to conform to our views, all in the name of God.

We create laws that make abortion a crime, and banning gay marriages as if to say that God is in need of our help to run the planet. Should we demand that all people think alike, and be alike forcing them to adhere to a so called "Christian" standard of moral living? While we demand respect, should we not also be willing to respect the differences in culture, sexual preferences, race, and the spiritual beliefs and preferences of others?

As for our leadership, how can they, pretending to be blind, justify their ability to lead an entire nation who can see their corrupt hearts?

The office of the Presidency is the most noblest position in America, but most Americans no longer respect the office nor the authority of the President. Many men have occupied this office, many of whom the majority of the nation have totally disagreed with, but never before in the history of this great nation have citizens disrespected the office of the Presidency of President Barack Obama with such hatred and malice as to equate our leader with an ape.

When will we realize that respect demands respect? We are truly living the real life tragedy of Rodney Dangerfield's joke line, "I can't get no respect."