A Maine man was arrested and held without bail last week for allegedly operating an unlicensed cannabis operation in a rural area about 60 miles north of Bangor, according to law enforcement officials and court records. Police seized 40 pounds of processed marijuana from a house in Passadumkeag, Maine and arrested Xisen Guo, who is accused of drug trafficking and turning the property into a sophisticated cannabis cultivation operation. 

Maine legalized recreational marijuana in 2016 with the passage of a ballot measure that also established a regulated market for adult-use cannabis. The Maine Office of Cannabis Policy said that Guo has not been licensed to cultivate marijuana and was operating the site illegally, court records show.

Guo was ordered held without bail on the federal charges on Friday, making him the first person in Maine to face such accusations. Two other individuals who were at the site when it was raided in February were released without charges being filed against them.

The grow site was raided after deputies reviewed electricity bills for the property and identified a significant increase in electricity usage. After the rural home was purchased for $125,000 cash, the electricity bill went from about $300 per month to almost $9,000 per month. Investigators said the electricity usage is consistent with the lights, HVAC equipment and other apparatus used in sophisticated cultivation operations.

Federal Investigation Encompasses 20 States

The arrest of the suspect, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in China, comes in the midst of a federal investigation spanning several years and 20 states into illegal pot grows being operated by foreign interests. In 2018, police arrested a Seattle woman and seized thousands of weed plants during an investigation of cultivation sites linked to China. In Oklahoma, law enforcement officials determined that groups from Mexico and China started growing pot in the state after medical marijuana was legalized in 2018. Instead of remaining in Oklahoma for use by registered patients, however, the weed was diverted to states where it is still illegal.

Last week, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told the Senate Appropriations Committee in response to a question from Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine that the Drug Enforcement Administration is investigating international criminal groups that are operating illicit cannabis cultivation operations in about 20 states including Maine. 

In February, a bipartisan group of 50 lawmakers including Collins wrote a letter to the attorney general asking him to answer questions about reports that China may be connected to illegal marijuana cultivation operations in the United States.

“We are deeply concerned with reports from across the country regarding Chinese nationals and organized crime cultivating marijuana on United States farmland,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, CBS News reported over the weekend.

100 Illicit Grow Sites in Maine

In Maine, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, DEA and local law enforcement are working together to investigate unlicensed cannabis cultivation operations, Garland told lawmakers. Federal officials say that there are currently about 100 illicit pot grow sites in Maine similar to the one in Passadumkeag. Since June, approximately 40 search warrants have been issued for unlicensed cultivation operations in the state.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine Darcie McElwee said that dismantling unlicensed cannabis operations with connections to international crime groups is a priority for law enforcement “and we will continue to marshal every tool at our disposal in this effort as appropriate.”

So far, state and local police and federal law enforcement agencies including the DEA and FBI are beginning to see success at dismantling illicit cultivation sites, she said, with “dozens of operations” shut down over recent months.

“The possible involvement of foreign nationals using Maine properties to profit from unlicensed marijuana operations and interstate distributions makes it clear that there is a need for a strong and sustained federal, state and local effort to shut down these operations,” McElwee said, according to a report from the Portland Press Herald.

Raymond Donovan, the former chief of operations for the DEA, told CBS News earlier this month that unusually high electricity bills are one of the easiest ways to identify an illegal cannabis cultivation operation.

“These locations consume huge amounts of electricity,” he said. “In order to accommodate that amount of energy, you need to upgrade your electrical infrastructure — and significantly. We’re getting into specialty electrical equipment that is very scarce and hard to come by, especially in the state of Maine.” 

Another illicit grow site in Machias, Maine was raided in December after police noticed unusual electricity usage. After the raid, which yielded 2,600 plants and about 100 pounds of processed and packaged cannabis, Machias Police Chief Keith Mercier said that the cultivation site was using about four or five times as much electricity as a typical residence would.

“Once we subpoenaed the power records from the power company, [it] was pretty hard to explain why somebody anywhere would be using that amount of power,” he told CBS News.

The post Feds File Charges Against Maine Weed Grower After Probe Spanning 20 States appeared first on High Times.

The post Feds File Charges Against Maine Weed Grower After Probe Spanning 20 States appeared first on Paradise Found.

A multi-million dollar cocaine smuggling attempt was thwarted last month when Chinese customs officials discovered the cocaine had been converted into liquid form and disguised as white wine. 

According to the South China Morning Post, two men local to Hong Kong were arrested in connection with a shipping container sent from Brazil to Hong Kong which was carrying 706 bottles of red wine, white wine and juice. The container was flagged for inspection at the Kwai Chung Customhouse Cargo Examination Compound due to Brazil’s status as a high-risk trafficking area based on the frequency of past narcotics seizures. 

Assistant Superintendent Jacky Tsang Kin-bon of the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department told the South China Morning Post that the monetary value of the amount of cocaine seized was in the hundreds of millions of dollars range. 

“A total of 444 kilograms of suspected liquid cocaine was discovered in the 37 boxes,” Tsang Kin-bon said. “The estimated street value of the haul is about HK $490 million.”

Tsang Kin-bon indicated that what tipped authorities off to the suspicious contents of the container was that several of the boxes appeared to have been resealed, specifically boxes of white wine, packed in 37 boxes which were supposed to be packaged with four three-liter bags of white wine a piece. These bags tested positive for cocaine. 

The container had been sent by plain clothes officers with Hong Kong customs to Yuen Long where they waited for someone to come collect it. When no one did, it was sent to a yard in Kwai Chung where it was placed under 24-hour surveillance. Eventually, a 50-year-old man turned up to collect the container. He was later arrested along with his 38-year-old accomplice, neither of which was named by the South China Morning Post. 

Superintendent Lui Chi-tak of customs’ ports and maritime command told the South China Morning Post that “drug traffickers took every effort and deployed sophisticated methods to conceal the narcotic in an attempt to evade customs detection.” Senior Superintendent Wong added that this was the largest liquid cocaine bust by weight in the 20 years they’ve been keeping records of such things. 

Customs officials told the Post that the younger suspect was arrested on Saturday and the older a day later. The younger suspect was allegedly responsible for arranging the cargo’s transport from Brazil To Hong Kong and the older suspect was allegedly responsible for collecting and storing the drugs once on Chinese soil. 

As of Monday when the report was published, both suspects were still being held for questioning. Tsang Kin-bon told the post that the increase in product shipments around the holidays is often used as cover for the smuggling of narcotics.

“We believe the drug trafficking syndicate tried to take advantage of the busy logistics services before the Christmas and New Year holidays to smuggle the narcotic into the city and evade detection,” Tsang Kin-bon said, also indicating that their investigation revealed the large shipment was intended to supply the increased demand for cocaine around the holiday season (Chinese New Year is on February 10 and for whatever reason I feel compelled to disclose that 2024 is the year of the dragon).

According to the Post, the investigation into this instance of cocaine trafficking is still ongoing and customs officials have not ruled out further arrests. Trafficking of a dangerous drug in Hong Kong is punishable by a life sentence in prison and a fine of up to $5 million.

“Customs will continue to use its professionalism and determination to prevent illegal drugs from being smuggled into the city, thereby safeguarding the country’s southern gateway,” Senior Superintendent Wong said.

Not for nothing, but cocaine traffickers appear to be getting much more creative with their smuggling techniques. Not only has cocaine been disguised as white wine, but a cursory Google search will show that in recent months it has also been disguised as pasta noodles, charcoal, almond syrup, and bananas and that’s just since last June. Between that, and the constant barrage of headlines concerning kilograms of cocaine washing up on beaches all over the world, it would appear that internationally, narcotics agents are playing a very expensive and futile game of whack-a-mole with cocaine traffickers. 

The post Liquid Cocaine Disguised as White Wine Seized in Hong Kong appeared first on High Times.

The post Liquid Cocaine Disguised as White Wine Seized in Hong Kong appeared first on Paradise Found.

A reader on Twitter recently complained that an earlier article referred to the candidates as “losers,” so I’m curious to know how that reader reacted to Vivek Ramaswamay’s opening remark at the GOP primary debate in Miami which used that same word to refer to the modern Republican party. Republicans lost big in Tuesday night’s elections, leading to both an Ohio constitutional amendment protecting abortion access for women as well as the passing of a bill legalizing recreational marijuana use for adults (Senate President Matt Huffman has promised to repeal the recreational marijuana bill, but there’s nothing to be done about a constitutional amendment at this time). 

In addition to big losses in Virginia and deep-red Kentucky, Vivek also brought up national losses in 2018 and 2020 and lamented the failure of the prophesied “2022 red wave” to materialize. He put a hefty amount of blame on Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel for the losses, who, as it turned out, was sitting in the front row. She declined his offer to immediately resign on camera. He also used his opening statement to attack the moderators of the debate and mainstream media in general, pointedly ignoring the opening question that tasked him with describing his virtues compared to those of national frontrunner Donald Trump. He got some applause, he got some boos, and later Nikki Haley told him that he was scum live on national television and was applauded for it. He had a big night. 

Vivek’s Strategy

Wednesday night’s debate was much more substantive than previous events, possibly because a lot of dead weight has been shaken off. Without Doug Burgum, Mike Pence, or Asa Hutchinson taking up space candidates had more room to maneuver and draw distinctions between themselves and their competitors, and no one accomplished this more successfully than Vivek Ramaswamay. 

Several times throughout the night he was able to sharply separate himself from the predictable Republican talking points the other candidates were giving out. He was far ahead of the curve when it came to Ukraine and the United State’s growing, if unspoken, reluctance to continue funding a war that is taking far too long and accomplishing next to nothing, especially in light of increased spending on Israel’s military assault on Gaza. He alone was willing to question the wisdom of simply attempting to ban a social media app with almost 150 million users in America because China built it. He alone noted some difficulties in going to war with a country that happens to do over 150 billion dollars worth of business with America every year. 

Glorious war with China, banning the perfidious TikTok, and assured victory in Ukraine are all things that almost all republican candidates think they have to vocally believe in and support, but they are all also extremely unlikely if not outright impossible. But only Vivek Ramaswamay is apparently willing to go against the orthodoxy. Vivek has always sought to set himself apart from the crowd of established politicians, and on Wednesday he cranked this up a notch.

But Aren’t Vivek’s Numbers Still in the Toilet? 

Boy, are they ever! Immediately after the last debate, a Fox focus group of Republican voters had found Ramaswamay “untrustworthy” and “arrogant”. His numbers in Iowa reflect this attitude. His unfavorables are a disaster and a shocking number of republican voters have straight up said they will never, ever vote for him, no matter what happens or who is still in the race, which is not what you want to hear going into an election. 

Will This Debate Help?

Help him become president? Absolutely not, except in one very, very particular case. It’s important to remember that Chris Christie has the exact opposite opinions on China, TikTok, and Ukraine, and he’s bouncing along the bottom of the toilet bowl underneath everyone else. Republican voters aren’t deciding this election based on foreign policy. In fact they’ve already decided who they want to be president, and his name is Donald Trump. As long as he’s alive and eligible, he is going to be their pick for the 2024 nominee, and every loser on that stage knows it. They stopped running for President a long time ago. Most of them aren’t even running for Vice President; over half of them either worked directly for Trump, or owe their political career to him, and as a result are seen now as back-stabbers and betrayers for having the temerity to run against him. None of them are getting the nod from Trump. Standing behind them is Tim Scott, a weird possibly-50 year old virgin who pronounces the word “do” with three distinct vowel sounds. He’s probably not going anywhere either. 

And then there’s Vivek, who, while deeply unpopular, has not betrayed Donald Trump, and even went out of his way to avoid criticizing him twice on Wednesday night. There’s more than one way to end up in the White House, even if your campaign is a joke and falls apart a year before  the election. Just ask Kamala Harris. 

The post Miami Losers’ Club appeared first on High Times.

The post Miami Losers’ Club appeared first on Paradise Found.

In an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett on Monday, Janet Yellen recounted eating at a restaurant chain in Beijing called Yi Zuo Yi Wang, a meal that had Chinese social media abuzz last month.

A post on Weibo, the popular Chinese blog platform, detailed what Yellen’s party ordered that day, including “jian shou qing, an unusual yet highly sought-after mushroom prized for its unique properties,” according to CNN.

Those properties can include hallucinations –– unless the mushrooms are cooked and prepared a certain way, which was the case when Yellen dined there.

“So I went with this large group of people and the person who had arranged our dinner did the ordering,” Yellen told Burnett, as quoted by HuffPost. “There was this delicious mushroom dish. I was not aware that these mushrooms had hallucinogenic properties.”

Yellen said that she “learned that later.”

“I read that if the mushrooms are cooked properly, which I’m sure they were at this very good restaurant, that they have no impact,” Yellen added. “But all of us enjoyed the mushrooms, the restaurant, and none of us felt any ill effects from having eaten them.”

The dish has been selling out in Beijing following Yellen’s diplomatic visit there last month.

Jokes aside, we are probably getting closer to the day when a cabinet official actually does talk about a hallucinogenic experience. 

A growing number of politicians and policymakers have expressed a receptivity to changing laws surrounding psychedelics, particularly for therapeutic treatment.

Last month, President Joe Biden’s younger brother, Frank Biden, said that the president is open to psychedelic treatment options.

“He is very open-minded,” Frank Biden said. 

“Put it that way. I don’t want to speak; I’m talking brother-to-brother. Brother-to-brother,” he added. “The question is, is the world, is the U.S. ready for this? My opinion is that we are on the cusp of a consciousness that needs to be brought about to solve a lot of the problems in and around addiction, but as importantly, to make us aware of the fact that we’re all one people and we’ve got to come together.”

But President Biden has also been reluctant to embrace outright cannabis legalization, which has concerned some of his fellow Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Ocasio-Cortez said last month that she is concerned Biden’s position on marijuana could undermine her bipartisan effort to expand research into psychedelics.

“I believe the president has displayed a regressiveness for cannabis policy,” she said. “And if there’s a regressiveness toward cannabis policy, it’s likely to be worse on anything else.”

Despite that “regressiveness,” Biden took some of the strongest steps toward cannabis reform of any president in history last fall when he issued pardons for federal cannabis offenses.

“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates,” Biden said in the announcement at the time.

In addition to the pardons, Biden said he was also “asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.”

“Federal law currently classifies marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances.  This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic,” Biden said.

The post Treasury Secretary Yellen Ate Magic Mushrooms in China (But Didn’t Trip) appeared first on High Times.

The post Treasury Secretary Yellen Ate Magic Mushrooms in China (But Didn’t Trip) appeared first on Paradise Found.

A 32-year-old woman was recently put in prison for possession of CBD in Hong Kong. According to a report from Agence France-Presse (AFP), she has become the first person to receive a criminal conviction for CBD since Hong Kong officially banned it earlier this year. Now it’s illegal to possess, consume, or sell CBD products, and is categorized the same as substances like heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine.

The woman carried two CBD products when going through customs on March 29 when she was traveling from the U.S. to Hong Kong. According to the report, she also carried 2.2 grams of ketamine and 10 “syringes,” although it was not specified if they were empty or contained a specific substance.

On July 7, the woman was sentenced to two months in prison for two counts of drug possession and one count for the syringes. A Hong Kong customs official stated that her conviction “reflects the seriousness of the offence and serves as a clear warning to the general public.”

Hong Kong’s current law states that offenders caught with CBD can receive up to seven years in prison, with fines up to HK$1 million (approximately US$128,000). Those who are caught importing, exporting, or manufacturing CBD receive harsher punishments. One of the main reasons that authorities say led to the ban was because CBD can potentially be converted to THC.

China banned CBD in topical or cosmetic products back in 2021, and Hong Kong followed suit earlier this year in February. “Starting from February 1, cannabidiol, aka CBD, will be regarded as a dangerous drug and will be supervised and managed by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance,” a customs intelligence officer stated. “As of then, transporting CBD for sale, including import and export, as well as producing, possessing and consuming CBD, will be illegal.”

Chan Kai-ho, a divisional commander with the department’s Airport Command, added in a statement that they plan to do whatever it takes to enforce the law. “We will tackle all kinds of dangerous drugs from all angles and all ends, and the intelligence-led enforcement action is our major goal,” Chan said.

Since then, officials have stated that within the first three months of its CBD ban they had already arrested six people, although up until now no one has gone to prison for a CBD conviction. Officials also stated that they had seized 852 CBD products within that time frame, which were described with a value of around $16,600 and were all taken from people entering Hong Kong.

Back in September 2020, Hong Kong first CBD café, called Found, opened and offered a wide variety of CBD-based products, such as CBD oil, powders to be used in food, butters, pet products, infused beer, and coffee. However, it announced in August 2022 that it would be closing down due to the incoming ban. “Sadly, in spite of the demonstrable positive impact, it has now become apparent that the Hong Kong government intends to adopt new legislation to prohibit the sale and possession of CBD,” Found wrote on its Instagram page. “While we do not know exactly when it will take effect, it is expected to happen sometime around the end of 2022 or early 2023. With this, we have had to make the difficult decision to close the Found café at the end of September.”

In May, a large amount of cocaine and cannabis, valued at HK$650 million (US$83 million), was seized by Hong Kong police. Labeled as the biggest seizure of the year, “The cannabis flower buds seized this time were stored among frozen fish,” explained Chief Inspector Charm Yiu-kwong. “We believe the drug cartel used this method … in an attempt to cover up the odor of marijuana with the frozen fish’s pungent smell.” According to Hong Kong law, a maximum sentence for drug trafficking can lead to life in prison.

The post Woman Becomes First Person To Be Imprisoned for CBD in Hong Kong appeared first on High Times.

The post Woman Becomes First Person To Be Imprisoned for CBD in Hong Kong appeared first on Paradise Found.

Consuming alcohol is a well-known cause of liver damage, but the opposite may hold true for smoking pot.

That is the takeaway of new research published late last month in PLOS One. 

After examining a “nationally representative” sample of Americans, the researchers said that they found that “current marijuana use is inversely associated with steatosis,” or a condition that arises from too much fat in the liver. 

“The pathophysiology is unclear and needs further study. No significant association was established between marijuana use and liver fibrosis, irrespective of past or current use,” they wrote.

The study, conducted by a group of Chinese researchers, “aimed to assess the association between marijuana use and liver steatosis and fibrosis in the general United States population utilizing data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).” 

“This cross-sectional study was performed with data from the 2017–2018 cycle of NHANES. The target population comprised adults in the NHANES database with reliable vibration controlled transient elastography (VCTE) results,” the authors of the study wrote in their explanation of the methods. “The median values of the controlled attenuation parameter (CAP) and liver stiffness measurement (LSM) were used to evaluate liver steatosis and fibrosis, respectively. After adjusting for relevant confounders, a logistic regression analysis was used to assess the association between marijuana use and liver steatosis and fibrosis.”

The researchers analyzed a pool of 2,622 participants.

“The proportions of never marijuana users, past users, and current users were 45.9%, 35.0%, and 19.1%, respectively. Compared to never marijuana users, past and current users had a lower prevalence of liver steatosis (P = 0.184 and P = 0.048, respectively),” they wrote. “In the alcohol intake-adjusted model, current marijuana use was an independent predictor of a low prevalence of liver steatosis in people with non-heavy alcohol intake. The association between marijuana use and liver fibrosis was not significant in univariate and multivariate regression.”

Also known as “fatty liver disease,” steatosis “affects one in three adults and one in 10 children in the United States,” according to the Cleveland Clinic. 

“There’s no medication specifically for fatty liver disease. Instead, doctors focus on helping you manage factors that contribute to the condition. They also recommend making lifestyle changes that can significantly improve your health,” the Cleveland Clinic says.

Despite the intriguing findings of the study, the Chinese researchers urged caution.

“Nevertheless, the present study has several limitations. First, this was an observational study; no causal inference can be made, and correlations should be interpreted as associations. Second, marijuana use was based on self-reporting, and the skewness of the distribution of the number of marijuana use may be subject to misclassification, limiting the power of our secondary analysis with the days of cannabis usage,” they wrote. 

“Such inaccurate reports may introduce a bias towards the null hypothesis for the result. Third, physical activity and diet were not included in the analyses. Furthermore, due to the limitation of the NHANES database, we could not rule out biliary cirrhosis and primary liver diseases such as Wilson’s disease and the use of steatogenic medication. Also, we could not evaluate the type of marijuana and the dose-response correlation between marijuana use vs. the prevalence of liver steatosis and fibrosis.”

They added: “In conclusion, we found that current marijuana use is inversely associated with liver steatosis. Further studies are required to confirm these results longitudinally, and investigations into marijuana compounds and their biological effects are promising for treating and preventing fatty liver disease.” 

The post Study: Pot Use Linked With Lower Risk of Liver Disease appeared first on High Times.

The post Study: Pot Use Linked With Lower Risk of Liver Disease appeared first on Paradise Found.

Hong Kong police seized HK$650 million worth of cocaine and cannabis in the biggest haul uncovered this year, South China Morning Post reports. Authorities arrested four men aged 25 to 32 on suspicion of drug trafficking. 

Confiscated in a three-day-long operation, which concluded last Friday, the Hong Kong narcotics bureau seized a whopping 592kg of suspected cocaine and 91.2 kilograms of cannabis buds, worth the equivalent of $82.97 million U.S. dollars. 

There are dozens of lists online of the wackiest places people smuggle drugs, everything from breast implants to sharks. This haul included a relative of the latter. Much of the substances were hidden in boxes of frozen fish to avoid detection, as the odor could help mask that of the cannabis buds (obviously, it didn’t work). 

“The cannabis flower buds seized this time were stored among frozen fish,” Chief Inspector Charm Yiu-kwong said in a press briefing. “We believe the drug cartel used this method … in an attempt to cover up the odor of marijuana with the frozen fish’s pungent smell.”

According to Senior Inspector Law Kai-yin, the bureau ran an ambush against a drug syndicate on Wednesday at two industrial buildings in Kwun Tong, on How Ming Street and Wai Yip Street. They stopped a 32-year-old man, a construction worker with the last name So, leaving the industrial unit on How Ming Street. They discovered 120 packs of cocaine, each weighing 1kg, and arrested him for alleged drug trafficking, Law shared. 

The maximum sentence for drug trafficking in Hong Kong is life imprisonment. 

Additionally, the police stopped a pair of men, one 25-year-old with the surname Chan and another 31-year-old named Leung. They led them to 91.2kg of cannabis at the Wai Yip Street warehouse. The two men, one a kitchen worker and the other in construction, were also arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking. After searching different warehouses nearby, assumed to be controlled by the same group, the detectives seized 472 packs of cocaine, each weighing 1kg. 

The fourth man arrested is 32-year-old Chong, who is currently unemployed. Authorities snatched him as he tried to flee Hong Kong. Allegedly, at least some of the four men are associated with a triad drug trafficking group and are scheduled to appear at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts on Saturday. 

Hong Kong authorities are trying to establish a connection between another case, two weeks ago, which involved 227kg of cocaine and led to the arrests of 10 suspects. On Thursday, Hong Kong customs officials arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of trafficking after finding about 3kg of suspected cocaine and 26g of alleged crack cocaine at an apartment in Tai Koo, estimated at HK$3.3 million.

As the bureau’s Senior Superintendent Chan Kong-ming said, Hong Kong is currently turning up the heat in efforts to crack down on drug arrests, with particular attention to cocaine. “Recently, the production of coca leaves in South American countries has continued to increase, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the cost of manufacturing cocaine,” he said, South China Morning Post reports. “The narcotics bureau has stepped up intelligence gathering on the risk of more cocaine flowing into Hong Kong due to the fallen prices.” 

However, with the air of a publicist, Chan continues that drug smuggling and use in Hong Kong was “by and large under control” and did not expect an upwards trend locally.

Back in 2020, the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong with what has been called “devastating consequences for human rights.”

The post Hong Kong Police Seize $83M of Cocaine, Cannabis appeared first on High Times.

The post Hong Kong Police Seize $83M of Cocaine, Cannabis appeared first on Paradise Found.

The use of Apple’s location-tracking device appears to be the first time a federal law enforcement agency has used an AirTag as a surveillance tool, according to technology industry insiders familiar with the case.

The investigation began in May 2022 when U.S. border security agents intercepted a package from Shanghai, China that they deemed suspicious. One package contained a pill press—a tool for compacting powders into oral tablets—while the other was a shipment of pill dyes. Believing that the package might have been sent to illegal drug manufacturers, the border agents notified the DEA of their discovery, according to a search warrant obtained by Forbes.

After DEA investigators inspected the flagged shipments, they hid an Apple AirTag inside the pill press and then allowed the packages to continue to their intended destination. DEA agents then used location data sent by the Bluetooth-enabled device to track the movements of the pill press to its intended address and after it was delivered.

The DEA did not reveal why it chose to use an Apple AirTag instead of other surveillance technology available to the agency, which has vast federal resources at its disposal to conduct domestic and international illegal narcotics investigations. But in court documents, a federal agent noted that the “precise location information for the [pill press] will allow investigators to obtain evidence about where such individuals store drugs and/or drug proceeds, where they obtain controlled substances, and where else they distribute them,” according to the search warrant obtained by Forbes.

Brady Wilkins, a recently retired detective with the attorney general’s office in Arizona, told Forbes that the DEA may have been testing the AirTag due to previous failures in other types of tracking technology currently available to law enforcement agencies, including GPS devices, which “sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t.”

An AirTag “can be hidden easier and is less likely to be found by suspects,” Wilkins told Forbes. “Suspects are getting better at countersurveillance techniques,” he added, noting that subjects have discovered GPS trackers larger than Apple AirTags used in previous investigations. AirTags also appear to have more reliable connectivity than other tracking devices.

Apple debuted the AirTag in April 2021, marketing the quarter-sized location tracker as a way for consumers to find lost bags, devices or other personal property. The affordable technology, which can be purchased online for less than $30, has resulted in many consumers sharing success stories of found items or the ability to track property including luggage as they travel to their destinations. But the devices have also been used for other, sometimes criminal purposes, including by stalkers who have surreptitiously placed an AirTag with their victim’s personal belongings, enabling the target’s movements to be tracked from afar.

After news of unintended uses of AirTags made news, Apple added measures to help prevent their clandestine use. The tech giant released an update for iPhones that allow them to notify the user if an unknown AirTag is detected on their person. AirTags also sound an alert when they are not in the proximity of their owner for an extended period of time.

The measures taken by Apple to make AirTags difficult to use secretly make them an unlikely surveillance tool for law enforcement agencies eager to remain undetected while conducting investigations. But Jerome Greco, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society, said that if a surveillance or investigative tactic is technologically feasible, “we should always assume that the police are going to take advantage of it.”

“AirTags and competing products continue to raise concern because of the ease of their ability to be abused and the potential significant consequences of those abuses,” Greco told Forbes. “The DEA investigation is another extension of AirTags being used for purposes that were presumably unintended by Apple.”

It is not clear how valuable the AirTag was to the DEA’s investigation. The search warrant allowed the agency to track the package containing the pill press for 45 days throughout the District of Massachusetts, the intended destination of the package, and through any other state in the U.S. Court records show that the recipient of the package was not charged with any crime in federal court. The Department of Justice confirmed to Forbes that the suspect has been charged in state court.

The DEA and Apple did not respond to requests for more information about the investigation.

The post DEA Uses Apple AirTag as a Surveillance Device appeared first on High Times.

The post DEA Uses Apple AirTag as a Surveillance Device appeared first on Paradise Found.

Forget the hounds. Police in China are releasing the squirrels. 

Law enforcement in the city of Chongqing reportedly announced that it is training a team of drug-sniffing squirrels to help locate illicit substances and contraband. 

Insider reports that the police dog brigade in the city, located in southwestern China, “now has a team of six red squirrels to help them sniff out drugs in the nooks and crannies of warehouses and storage units.”

According to Insider, “Chongqing police told the state-linked media outlet The Paper that these squirrels are small and agile, and able to search through tiny spaces in warehouses and storage units that dogs cannot reach,” and that the “squirrels have been trained to use their claws to scratch boxes in order to alert their handlers if they detect drugs, the police said.”

“Squirrels have a very good sense of smell. However, it’s less mature for us to train rodents for drug search in the past in terms of the technology,” said Yin Jin, a handler with the police dog brigade of the Hechuan Public Security Bureau in Chongqing, as quoted by the Chinese state-affiliated English newspaper Global Times.

“Our self-developed training system can be applied to the training of various animals,” Yin added.

The newspaper noted that in contrast to drug dogs, “squirrels are small and agile, which makes them good at searching high places for drugs.”

According to Insider, “China’s drug-sniffing squirrels may well be the first of their kind,” although “animals and insects other than dogs have also been used to detect dangerous substances like explosives.”

“In 2002, the Pentagon backed a project to use bees to detect bombs. Meanwhile, Cambodia has deployed trained rats to help bomb-disposal squads trawl minefields for buried explosives,” Insider reported. “It is unclear if the Chongqing police intends to expand its force of drug-sniffing squirrels. It is also unclear how often the squirrel squad will be deployed.”

China is known for its strict and punitive anti-drug laws. 

According to the publication Health and Human Rights Journal, “drug use [in China] is an administrative and not criminal offense; however, individuals detained by public security authorities are subject to coercive or compulsory ‘treatment.’”

The journal explains: “This approach has been subject to widespread condemnation, including repeated calls over the past decade by United Nations (UN) agencies, UN human rights experts, and human rights organizations for the country to close compulsory drug detention centers and increase voluntary, community-based alternatives. Nonetheless, between 2012 and 2018, the number of people in compulsory drug detention centers in China remained virtually unchanged, and the number enrolled in compulsory community-based treatment rose sharply.”

“In addition to these approaches, the government enters all people detained by public security authorities for drug use in China into a system called the Drug User Internet Dynamic Control and Early Warning System, or Dynamic Control System (DCS),” the journal continues. “This is a reporting and monitoring system launched by the Ministry of Public Security in 2006. Individuals are entered into the system regardless of whether they are dependent on drugs or subject to criminal or administrative detention; some individuals who may be stopped by public security but not formally detained may also be enrolled in the DCS”

The Dynamic Control System “acts as an extension of China’s drug control efforts by monitoring the movement of people in the system and alerting police when individuals, for example, use their identity documents when registering at a hotel, conducting business at a government office or bank, registering a mobile phone, applying for tertiary education, or traveling,” according to the journal.

The post Chinese Police Enlist Drug-Sniffing Squirrels appeared first on High Times.

The post Chinese Police Enlist Drug-Sniffing Squirrels appeared first on Paradise Found.

In a starkly different approach from the U.S. and many other places around the world, Hong Kong moved to ban CBD and categorize it as a dangerous drug last October, and the ban begins on Wednesday.

Time reports that beginning on Wednesday, harsh penalties and huge fines—typically associated with hard narcotics—will be applied to people in Hong Kong caught in the possession, production, or smuggling of CBD.

Following in the footsteps of measures laid out in mainland China, Hong Kong’s CBD ban was announced last year, when government officials cited the difficulty of distinguishing pure CBD from THC, and the possibility of contamination during the production process. They also cited the way CBD can be converted to THC—typically in the production of delta-8 THC and other cannabinoids.

According to the Hong Kong Free Press, a Hong Kong Legislative Council Panel on Security announced in June that it would pursue a ban on CBD. Then in August, Hong Kong officials began cracking down on CBD businesses. Residents were given three months from Oct. 27 to dispose of their CBD products in special boxes set up around the city.

The full ban on CBD in the semi-autonomous administrative region begins within days.

“Starting from February 1, cannabidiol, aka CBD, will be regarded as a dangerous drug and will be supervised and managed by the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance,” customs intelligence officer Au-Yeung Ka-lun said at a press briefing.

“As of then, transporting CBD for sale, including import and export, as well as producing, possessing and consuming CBD, will be illegal,” Au-Yeung said.

People caught importing, exporting, or producing CBD can face up to life in prison and Hong Kong $5 million ($638,000) in fines. People caught in possession of CBD can face a sentence of up to seven years imprisonment and Hong Kong $1 million ($128,000) in fines.

“We will tackle all kinds of dangerous drugs from all angles and all ends, and the intelligence-led enforcement action is our major goal,” Chan Kai-ho, a divisional commander with the department’s Airport Command, told reporters Friday.

Chan said authorities would enforce the law on a case-by-case basis and “seek legal advice from our Department of Justice to determine what the further actions will be.”

South China Morning Post reports that since 2019, the department said it has seized over 4,100 CBD items that were found to contain traces of THC. Between January 2018 and December 2022, authorities arrested 38 people for their suspected connections to 68 cases where CBD products were believed to contain THC.

Hong Kong customs officials arrested nine people, seizing 25,000 CBD items worth  $14.6 million Hong Kong dollars after the products were found to contain traces of an illegal cannabinoid in January 2022.

It’s quite a change from 2020, when Hong Kong’s first CBD cafe opened, selling a full range of CBD-based cannabis products including vials of CBD oil for personal use, powders to be added to foods such as oil and butters, and other products, including products for pets who need pain relief. They also sold CBD-infused beer and coffee for those who wanted to stay awhile in the cafe. 

Nearby in Mainland China, CBD is banned in cosmetics, as well as all synthetic cannabinoids, which are typically made from CBD. But keep in mind that China is blamed as one of the world’s major sources of fentanyl precursors. Moreso in China than in other parts of the world, synthetic cannabinoids are mixed with other drugs more frequently.

Jaycee Chan, son of Hong Kong native Jackie Chan, served a six month sentence in 2014-2015 for hosting a get-together with weed in his Beijing apartment. That was during a crackdown on illegal drugs in the city.

The post Hong Kong’s ‘Dangerous Drug’ CBD Ban to Begin appeared first on High Times.

The post Hong Kong’s ‘Dangerous Drug’ CBD Ban to Begin appeared first on Paradise Found.