Dea

What happened to the 224 luscious weed plants that Highlands Ranch pot farmer Chris Bartkowicz lavished money and attention on and that landed him in a federal clink? Local police are required to keep confiscated plants until if and when a court has ruled they aren’t medicinal. DEA agents don’t have to play by the [...]

Colorado’s medical marijuana chronicles went federal this weekend when the state’s top drug cop, DEA special agent Jeff Sweetin, seemed to directly defy the Attorney General and the Obama administration by raiding a Highlands Ranch home a day after owner Chris Bartkowicz spoke to KUSA-TV 9News about his major basement marijuana grow operation. Bartkowicz showed 9News his medical-marijuana license and the documentation for the people to whom he serves as a caregiver. He said he was “living the dream.”

Sweetin and his agents were apparently embarrassed.

Earlier in April, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration claimed in a TV news broadcast that campaigns to legalize marijuana in Denver and throughout the state had increased organized crime in Colorado.

The agency received harsh criticism from legalization proponents when it later admitted that there was no hard data to back up the statements and that [...]

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration is claiming that proposals to legalize marijuana in Colorado are causing an increase in organized crime, but the agency says it doesn’t have any hard data to back up such statements.

Now proponents who worked to push pot legalization measures in Denver and throughout the state are crying foul over what [...]

A fiery e-mail sent by a federal agent from his government address does not violate employee policy, according to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official.

In July, Colorado Confidential reported on an angry letter originating from a Department of Justice e-mail address. The message, riddled with spelling errors, was sent to Independence Institute analyst Jessica Peck [...]

UPDATE: Very current Secretary of State records are now showing GOCAM with a total of $1921.40 on hand. It would appear that a man linked closely with the ONDCP, Tom Gorman, who is director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area as of a few days ago, has given GOCAM $3000. SOS has [...]

Beverly Kinard has been battling drugs for over a decade.

She was president of the Christian Drug Education Center [1], the director of Drug Watch Colorado, and an “international delegate” for Drug Watch International.

And now, she’s an agent with Guarding Our Children Against Marijuana (GOCAM), a group that, according to federal officials, was responsible for sending [...]

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent did not send an e-mail requesting assistance to defeat a Colorado ballot initiative, says a Denver agency spokesman. Instead, it was all part of an elaborate mix up, first reported in the Boulder Daily Camera last Sunday, and then picked up by national outlets like the Associated Press.

But proponents [...]

What’s up with the DEA?

First, it was reported that a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent had sent out an e-mail seeking a campaign manager to defeat a Colorado ballot issue that would make up to an ounce of pot legal for adults.

Proponents of the issue said it was illegal interference by the federal government [...]

Usually, federal drug agents make the news by arresting people. On the DEA’s website, there are many pictures of disheveled captives wearing handcuffs, who are thought to be involved with things like a narcotics “conspiracy” or a drug “kingpin.” There is also a list of the most wanted international fugitives, who come from countries all [...]