So 80 years after the U.S. declares reefer illegal teenagers in Athens, Ga. can still score 2 oz. ? Sounds like a complete failure of a policy to me. If this fool can get it anyone can. A Gangster Disciple with a gun in a FANNY PACK! So lame. Glad this idiot is off the street.

Pittsburgh Gang? This is Athens, at least have some originality and civic pride, naming your gang after another city is weak. Kids these days, sheesh.

He should have done time for the robbery. If you are on probation and cannot be out and about then smoking some weed and listening to music is probably much better for your brain than hours of mind numbing cable TV.

Every now and then I ponder the existence of God - maybe there is an invisible man in the sky who runs everything? Then a tornado tares through an elementary school full of teachers and innocent children praying for their lives and my choice to be an atheist is confirmed again. Either the Bible is wrong - God is not the master of the universe, or the Bible is right and the deity capable of parting the Red Sea chooses to let a tornado plow through a school full of Christian children praying for their lives. It is one or the other but not both.

Chief Keef was arrested in Chicago at 16. While on house arrest at his Grandmama's he made a series of videos and mixtapes that he uploaded to the internet. Rappers these days make nothing from record sales - mixtapes (low budget rap albums) are downloaded for free, but he makes big money from playing shows. Chief Keef is to Rap what Punk was to Rock and Roll in the 1970's - childishly simple, purists and everyone over 20 hate it but kids love it. He scares the hell out of parents the way Rock stars used to in the old days, before Ozzy became a bumbling old man on TV and Ice T turned into a cop.
I've heard his music- it ain't for me but it wasn't made for me either.

@biffis50: I was just pointing out that membership in street gangs has nothing to do with national or even local politics. Your average Westside Gangster Disciple cannot name the vice president, much less have any grasp of conservative or liberal policies. Not everything is about politics, you are grasping at straws to try to make it so.

@biffis50: Your assumption that I am a liberal based on what I wrote is laughable. I never "joined" a gang, but when I was younger I spent plenty of time around gang members. I know what I am talking about.

@biffis50: Do you really think there were no divorces or gangs before the Obama administration? You need a history lesson, as do many on this thread. Gangs have lttle to do with whether or not both parents are in the home. Hispanic gangs are huge in this country - most members of these gangs were raised in very conservative, Catholic, 2 parent homes, as were most members of he Cosa Nostra.
Working class kids join gangs for the same reasons middle and upper class kids join fraternities - 1. a sense of power being part of a group, 2. parties and girls, chicks dig bad boys.
I'm not saying we don't need to nip this in the bud and lock some of these people up, but please don't act like this is anything new.

Kris Kross were a joke to real hip hop fans from the start. 3 articles about this has been but not one in this paper about the death of Jeff Hanneman, founding member of the mighty Slayer! Shame. Slayer actually has fans in this town.
Rappers are called "thugs" for behavior that gets a free pass in country and rock and roll. George "no show" Jones was the greatest country singer of all time. He also did more cocaine than most rappers have ever even seen. No one called him a thug for missing MANY concerts in his career. But Gucci Mane misses a show at Bad Manner and it's "Why are they doing business with that THUG?"

Two articles about a guy in terrible pre fab pop rap group but nothing in this paper about the death of guitar legend Jeff Hanneman, co founder of the mighty SLAYER?!! Weak.
Slayer has many fans in Athens, not even the Hip Hop heads care about Kris Kross.

I knew Mackee 8 years ago - he was a polite young man and a good student, it is a shame he didn't make better choices. He went for the fast bucks instead of the hard work that comes with getting an education.

@ silentspring - its not a matter of "believing all that rap crap" - rap is an art form that comes from the same culture Mackee does, don't like it, don't listen to it, but the people who make rap music have every right to express themselves as they see fit. People were selling drugs, and singing about drugs, long before anyone made a rap record.

@harrumph: Don't just blame rap - ever listen to old blues and country? Both full of murder and violence - Howlin Wolf wore his .44 so long it made his shoulder sore. Secular music in America has always celebrated blowing all your money on a Saturday night in pursuit of cheap thrills - take Little Richard, "Saturday night and I just got paid, fool about my money don't ever try to save." Anyone want to crank up a tune stressing personal responsibility and hard work? Not on Saturday night.
Sure Matt, plenty of music since the jazz age was made by laundering dirty money - Roulette Records was a mafia front, and they had plenty of hits, what you speak of is in no way limited to Rap. Think Frank Sinatra never benefited from hanging out with "gangstas"?
--------If you want music untainted by drug use and celebrations of ballin' just throw away all your albums and tune in to your local Christian music station.

Eating weed can be a bad experience. When you smoke it the effect hits very quickly, so when you've had enough you put out the joint and enjoy your evening. When you eat it it can be harder to control the dosage so people often take too much. Unlike someone taking too much alcohol though, the one who eats too much weed will wake up just fine the next morning.
Why isn't "the Party of less government and more freedom" pushing legalization? Looks like Colorado and Washington are poised to make millions being the weed basket of America. The safest intoxicant known to man - legalize it.

A shame more lives are ruined over a non toxic herb that more and more Americans are producing and consuming all the time. Most Americans will not run and call the cops when they see or smell a neighbor toking on the porch, because cannabis use is more socially accepted now than ever - and legal in two states (you might as well count Oregon and California too). It's the height of hypocracy when someone is criminalized because they prefer marijuana to alcohol.
Wonder how our county council would feel about a local referendum decriminalizing simple possession? Other communities have done it. The government is WAY behind the way people feel about canabis these days - maybe because prohibition = jobs and money in fines. But then it costs money to jail people too, I can't figure it out. My friends in California tell me it's the growers who are the most against full legalization, for obvious reasons.
This bust will do nothing to effect supply or demand in the big picture- it's just too easy to grow and the market and profits are too big.

@pumpkie: What if those living with him include an elderly grandmother and young children? - They should be put out into the streets? Why not just throw him in jail and leave his family alone. Maybe no one in your family has ever done drugs, can't say that about most American families - presidential ones included.

[quote][b]matt1141a[/b] - Nothing changes other than the local cops will no longer mess with simple possession.[/quote]

That changes everything - its local police that make the vast majority of the marijuana arrests in America, as soon as the local cops stop arresting adults for having marijuana- its over. The feds simply cannot police all of Washington and Colorado. The government has lost the public opinion battle because too many Americans have tried it, enjoyed it, and know that it is safer than alcohol.

As for your 99% - you have no idea what you are talking about. That may have been true 25 years ago but trust me, most smokers I know have been puffing high potency indoor grown AMERICAN weed for 10 years now. I know exactly where my smoke comes from and it ain't from a murderous cartel south of the border. Mexican weed is grown outdoors in large fields and it is cheap, brown, and seedy. I have not even seen it in years.
I look forward to the day when I am longer called a criminal for lighting up a non toxic herb in my own home while I listen to jazz records on Friday night after a long work week. Ah yes - the weekend is here.

@webbty80: Ben & Jerry's could just call that one "Daryl Strawberry"

@WhatAJoke: He does not need to "improve his lifestyle" - any time you have something of value you run the risk of being robbed. They probably thought he had more than an ounce. I hope I have a good stash at 70, maybe the government will wise up and it will be legal by then. Much safer and less taxing on the body and mind than alcohol.

White Tiger on Boulevard - best BBQ in Athens since Jot Em Down closed.

Manufacturing sounds more sinister than "growing" I guess. Another small business in Holland made a few bucks off a customer from the "Land of the Free". I had a great time there when I visited 15 years ago - the canals, the Van Goeh museum, and the best weed in the world cheap and abundant.
Both the most liberal and most conservative people I know support legalization of cannabis; it is only a matter of time. The only demographic where most people support keeping weed illegal are those over 65. Unfortunately for the rest of us this demographic has plenty of political clout. The makers of Prozac, Budweiser and Bacardi also have lots of money to lobby toward keeping marijuana illegal- no explanation needed as to why.
Again - watch what happens with the full legalization votes coming in Colorado and Oregon. Only the growers seem interested in keeping it illegal.

There is no stopping this - too many know how safe it is, too many enjoy it, the market and the profits are too big.

This is sad - a man killed just doing his job to protect all of us. Also sad that after all this, cocaine and cannabis are both being bought and consumed in Athens this very weekend. Cocaine must be grown in tropical highlands thousands of miles away and yet 100 years after its prohibition it is still for sale in Georgia. Heroin seems to be coming back and it comes from the other side of the world. Marijuana can be grown anywhere and requires no special processing - there is no stopping it. Cocaine and Heroin should be illegal but our approach to fighting the drugs is not working. Marijuana is non toxic and perhaps the safest intoxicant in the world - it should be legal, I should be able to grow it in my garden or buy an ounce at the liquor store. What will happen when Colorado votes to legalize in November and other states see the benefit and follow? The feds will be overwhelmed- the can't do the job of the local police and once the cops in Colorado stop arresting people that's it.
People who want drugs will find them as long as profits are to be made selling them. Cocaine could be for sale at the corner store but I'm not interested so I would never buy it. The fact that it is illegal is not what stops me, the desire to do it is not there.

Yes - a little investigative journalism would be nice.

@Ben Had: For the money we wasted on a useless war in Iraq we could have all kinds of benefits.

If Saddam were still alive today his own people would be rising up - like the Tunisians, Egyptians, Libyans, and Syrians. We could have saved countless blood and treasure.

"The oil will pay for the war" = remember that one?

When (R)-Money was in Israel he commented on the fact the in the US we pay about 18% of our GDP in healthcare while Israel pays only 8%, as do most modern, industrialized countries, the ones we compete with on the world market. All the other modern first world countries SAVE money by having national healthcare. We have a system that costs citizens the max - and the insurance companies would not have it any other way.
A responsible person who has paid off their home and has a debilitating stroke in retirement will loose their home and everything else - before being put on Medicaid. A person in Canada in the same situation would still be able to pass their home and wealth down to their children if they choose.

So Ryan wants to cut Medicaid and Medicare because we don't have the money but he wants to keep giving 40 billion in government subsides to oil companies?

Someone please explain why that makes sense.

@Abbesays: The dumba$$ probably thought they were Muslims. The first revenge attack from 9/11 - on 9/15/2001 some idiot killed a Sikh gas station owner, thinking he was Muslim.

This animal should have been taken out by one of the Sikhs. Sikhs are known to be fierce fighters, Indian special forces are full of them.

We produce so many "sickos" because for better or worse, part of our national character is that the needs and rights of the individual are always more important than the needs of the group. It comes from our pioneer heritage I guess. This is what makes us great, and this is also what makes people solve problems with guns and ride off into the sunset.