With Halloween just around the corner, it’s time for scary news reports that begin, “With Halloween just around the corner…” This genre of yellow journalism often features warnings about tainted trick-or-treat candy, a mythical menace that in recent years has gained credibility thanks to the popularity of  marijuana edibles in states where such products are legal.

Last year police in Denver, where state-licensed marijuana merchants had recently begun serving recreational consumers, told parents to be on the lookout for THC-tainted treats in their children’s candy bags. As usual, no actual cases of such surreptitious dosing were identified.

From Denver PD

But fear of strangers with candy springs eternal. The fact that this threat so far has proven imaginary is not deterring reporters and law enforcement officials around the country from warning parents that harmless-looking treats might contain a mind-altering substance other than sugar—if not marijuana, then MDMA.

Often the pretext for such reports is a drug seizure that occurs within a month or so of Halloween, even if there’s no evidence of a connection to the holiday. Last month KTRK, the ABC station in Houston, reported that “a recent pot bust has authorities issuing a warning for parents, as Halloween approaches,” because local drug agents had “learned that marijuana made into candy was being shipped across state lines.” A few days later, after Orangeburg County, South Carolina, deputies found “several bags of marijuana-infused candy” in a local motel room, Sheriff Leroy Ravenell said “we need to pay close attention to the candy our children are in contact with and are consuming.” Summarizing that report (which appeared on WLTX, the CBS station in Columbia), USA Today added the lead, “Just in time for Halloween…”

Atlantic Beach Police DepartmentSimilarly, The Florida Times Union warned on October 14 that “Atlantic Beach parents may have another thing to worry about as Halloween trick-or-treating looms—candy infused with marijuana, as discovered following the recent arrest of a 33-year-old man with bags of it.” Last week, after students at Miller High School in Miller, Missouri, were caught with THC-treated Skittles, Superintendent Dustin Storm also thought of Halloween, telling parents, “With Halloween coming up, it’s very important to be observant.”

In other cases, warnings about marijuana-infused Halloween candy are not tied to any particular event; they are just part of the standard advice issued to parents in October.  On October 15, citing the Arizona Poison and Drug Information Center, the Arizona Daily Star said parents of treat-or-treaters should “be on the lookout for any edible marijuana treats.” Last week several Nebraska newspapers regurgitated a warning from the Nebraska Poison Control Center saying marijuana edibles that “resemble traditional candies” are “another good reason to check all your children’s candy when they get home.” Similarly, WITN, the NBC station in Greenville, North Carolina, warned viewers that “tricky packaging could land marijuana edibles in the hands of trick-or-treaters this Halloween.” KTHV, the ABC station in Little Rock, Arkansas, reported that “police want parents to pay extra attention to the Halloween candy their kids collect this year, now that marijuana edibles are in circulation.”

Reporters in Colorado have been a bit more cautious, presumably because they remember last year’s false alarm about edibles sold by marijuana merchants in that state. Last Friday The Denver Post noted that “the initial concern last year over marijuana edibles ending up in Halloween candy never came to pass.” KOAA, the NBC station in Colorado Springs, likewise conceded that authorities “have not seen a spike of accidental [marijuana] ingestion at Halloween.” Still, you never know. “One of the big things with cannabis-containing candies, it does have a distinct smell,” a local doctor told the station, saying parents should be “making sure you’re looking at everything and making sure the packaging looks legitimate.”

Almost all of these stories make a leap from the observation that cannabis candy exists to the completely unsubstantiated fear that someone might slip it into your kid’s trick-or-treat bag. That scenario is highly implausible, since it is hard to see what the payoff would be for replacing cheap Halloween treats with expensive marijuana edibles. Given the delay between eating cannabis candy and feeling its effects, the hypothetical prankster could not even hope to witness the consequences of his trick. Furthermore, it seems that nothing like this has ever happened—or if it did, it somehow escaped the attention of the yellow journalists who keep warning us about the possibility. The story is kept alive by the gullibility of the same parents who anxiously examine their kid’s Halloween candy for needles and shards of glass.

Jackson Metro Police Department

Jackson Metro Police DepartmentThis year saw the birth of a new variation on this theme: Instead of cannabis in your kids’ candy, maybe there’s MDMA. Snopes.com, the online catalog of urban legends, traces the scare to a September 25 post by a Facebook user named Thomas Chizzo Bagwell featuring a photo of colorful Molly tablets. “If your kids get these for halloween,” Bagwell wrote, “it’s not candy.” Last week the Jackson, Mississippi, police department posted the same photo, accompanied by this warning:

If your kids get these for Halloween candy, they ARE NOT CANDY!!! They are the new shapes of “Ecstasy” and can kill kids through overdoses!!! So, check your kid’s candy and “When in doubt, Throw it out!!!” Be safe and always keep the shiny side up!!!

That burst of fact-free fear, which was later removed from the police department’s Facebook page, transformed idle speculation into “an alert” issued by “police nationwide,” as WILX, the NBC station in Lansing, Michigan, put it. WOIO, the CBS station in Cleveland, claimed “Ecstasy masked to look like candy” is “popping up all over the country, and police want to warn you.” If a child were to eat one of those tablets, according to Westlake, Ohio, Police Capt. Guy Turner, “they would be in the emergency room without a doubt.”

Why does Turner think that scenario is plausible? “Look at the colors,” he told WOIO. “They’re very similar to, like, Sweet Tarts or Sprees or Smarties. These people, they just piggyback off legitimate stuff.”

Snopes.com writer Kim LaCapria notes that candy-colored MDMA tablets have been around for years. “As is often the case with such rumors,” she writes, “the public seemed to conflate the existence of a drug that looked child-friendly…with deliberate manufacture of those substances with an intent to attract children. Prior to its September 2015 circulation on social media as a cautionary tale, the photograph of Ecstasy used here appeared primarily on blogs discussing (presumably adult) recreational drug use.”

One widely carried TV report, credited to NBC, said “just one of those candy pills would cost about $10,” which suggests “it’s rare that it would pop up in your child’s trick-or-treat bag.” Still, “police do want you to be aware.” In other words, there is no evidence that anyone has ever contemplated giving trick-or-treaters MDMA tablets, let alone actually done it, but you should worry about it anyway.

Child poisoners disguised as friendly neighbors seem to be the adult equivalent of witches, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and zombies. As one randomly selected mother told WOIO, “It’s really scary that there are people out there who want to hurt kids on Halloween.” And who doesn’t love a good scare this time of year?

From Reason.com

The Ulbricht Family

by Virgil Vaduva

“We are all at the mercy of tyrants but sometimes beauty shines through all their tyranny and we can find joy in small things” – those were my words forwarded to Ross in prison by his mom Lyn

Lyn Ulbricht is mostly soft spoken, and you would never know about her heartache and passion unless you ask about Ross Ulbricht, her son. Every time I see her she gives me a big hug, smiles brightly and first asks me about the family and the kids. She usually looks tired but determined to continue to get justice for Ross, who was sentenced to life in prison for running The Silk Road. She is a heart-broken mother who’s life has been turned upside down by a failed justice system, manufactured charges, corrupt FBI agents, DEA lies and an out of control judge.

Now information made public within the last 24 hours seems to actually prove virtually everything Lyn has been saying about the investigation into Silk Road, with all the plot twists and turns of a foreign spy film, everything from hackers, blackmail and even kidnapping, torture and perhaps murder.

The original Silk Road developer and architect going by the name of Variety Jones has been in hiding since the Silk Road arrests were made public, but he has suddenly come out of hiding with an incredible story about a corrupt FBI agent who has been attempting to hunt him down and force him to give him access to a bitcoin wallet worth 300,000 bitcoins or roughly about $75 million.

Variety Jones’ real name or identity is ultimately irrelevant. La Moustache has done extensive work on tracking him down and identifying him, and all the signs point to Variety Jones being a Canadian going by the name of Thomas Clark who currently lives in Thailand. He has been active on various online forums for years, especially forums discussing the cultivating of Marijuana.

The lengthy post made by Clark on the forum MyPlanetGanja.com outlines in detail the exploits of what he believes to be an FBI agent (using the monicker Diamond) forcefully attempting to gain access to tens of millions of dollars worth of stolen Silk Road bitcoin. The FBI agent spent the previous couple of years attempting to befriend Clark in order to gain access to Ross Ulbricht’s bitcoin wallet, and ultimately, when Clark turned him down, the agent went mental:

“He went fucking mental, and started going on about his backup plan. He would kidnap Ross Ulbrichts sister, or mother, or ideally both. Get a video capable phone in front of Ross Ulbricht, and he’d give up that fucking pass phrase, and Diamond would have them tortured until he did…”

Personally knowing Lyn Ulbricht and what kind of person she is brings me to feeling quite enraged about these new revelations. It is difficult to imagine what kind of psychopath would take to even think up such a scenario, nonetheless, here it is, the wide open mind of a dangerous, mentally ill man with access to virtually unlimited resources, LEO capabilities, funds and technical infrastructure capable of sustained cyber-terrorism.

Clark’s PGP signature and history of posting activity on MyPlanetGanja confirm his identity. While I guess the story itself could be manufactured, that is a very remote possibility as he has provided copies of signed PGP messages to the FBI.

Clark’s efforts to unmask the real identity of Diamond were not successful. He eventually gave up the hunt and decided to contact Serrin Turner, the Silk Road investigator responsible for the work behind the Silk Road trial and research. This was back in March. Turner has not yet responded, and the signed PGP messages confirm the communication is legit; at least the signed messages check out. VICE also confirms that they verified through back channels that Clark is legit and he is who he claims to be.

After months without reply from the FBI, Clark finally went public with his story, outlining in painful detail the conversations, exchanges and plans the criminal FBI agent had for the Ulbricht family, including torture and perhaps even murder.

Clark made it clear that he is not turning in because he is afraid of the FBI, rather he is turning himself in to protect Lyn and her daughter from what appears to be a well-funded, violent and psychopathic FBI agent who is ready to go to any length in order to gain access to a large stash of bitcoin.

And to make matters even more interesting, earlier today the FBI confirmed they are investigating Clark’s allegations. In a comment made to VICE, an FBI spokesman said,

“We are aware of the allegations made by Variety Jones and have forwarded them to the appropriate office for review. The FBI takes claims of employee misconduct seriously as we are an agency with the mission of upholding the law.”

I’m really not sure how seriously the FBI is taking claims of employee misconduct, especially considering the fact that they were notified about Diamond’s threats of kidnapping and torturing months ago.

And one thing is certain, the idea of kidnapping and torturing a woman, especially someone who is a family friend, is prompting some very strong feelings of anger towards Diamond and the incompetence of the FBI to root out serious corruption in their midst. It’s repulsive and inhuman. Nothing justifies this kind of behavior.

Note: Lyn was unable to comment on this article and on the recent developments related to Variety Jones as her attorneys advised her to avoid public statements.

Virgil Vaduva is a Libertarian security professional, journalist, photographer and overall liberty freak. He spent most of his life in Communist Romania and participated in the 1989 street protests which led to the collapse of the Ceausescu regime. He can be reached at vvaduva at truthvoice.com.

The Business of Marijuana

A sweet new bill with bipartisan support is seeking to cut off all funding for the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) generated through asset seizures.

According to Forbes, The “Stop Civil Asset Forfeiture Funding for Marijuana Suppression Act” was introduced mid-September by (D) California Representative Ted Lieu, and (R) Michigan Representative Justin Amash. The DEA’s new legislative nemesis would work like this; the bill would preclude the DEA from utilizing any and all federal forfeiture resources to further its domestic campaign of terror, a.k.a. the Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program.

In 1979, Hawaii and California were the first states to feel the sting of the feds new tool used in the War on Drugs. Shortly thereafter, the Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Act had spread like a disease throughout all 50 states in the US. Since it’s unfortunate introduction, the program has been responsible for widespread misery from coast-to-coast; in 2014 alone there were 6,310 arrests, $27.3 million seized, and more than 4.3 million plants destroyed. Currently, the asset-freezing program collects approximately $18 million annually in federal funding, largely from accused marijuana cultivators and their distributors.

What has people concerned over this money-grab of a program is the bulk of its asset seizures are anything but criminal. Rather most of these transgressions are civil in nature. In the real world, an individual must be convicted of a crime for criminal forfeiture to occur. Unfortunately, civil forfeiture lacks the requirement of any conviction or criminal charge for the federal government to grab your personal assets, cash, or other items of monetary value.

The ugliest and most simplistic explanation of civil forfeiture is this, the police aren’t required to demonstrate you’re guilty of anything to seize your property … However, you will need to prove your lack of guilt to get it back.

This newest bill is similar to another defensive piece of legislation passed last year, an amendment authored by (D) California Rep. Sam Farr and (R) California Rep. Dana Rohrbacher. Their anti-seizure legislation was added to the 2014 and 2015 Omnibus Appropriations Spending Bill. Working towards the same goal, their amendment banned the use of any federally seized assets from being utilized for raids in states that have reformed their marijuana laws.

The most notable change in the newly offered Bill, is the new program would provide a permanent fix to problem of overzealous federal government illegally grabbing cash from those legally operating a marijuana business in states that are sanctioned their operations. Rather than having to renew each year by vote the Omnibus Appropriations Spending Bill.

*Not one to miss an opportunity to shine the light of irony of our legal system, John Oliver rips into the unjust nature of civil forfeiture in the below video.

A man walks past a burning police vehicle, Monday, April 27, 2015, during unrest following the funeral of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray died from spinal injuries about a week after he was arrested and transported in a Baltimore Police Department van. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

The aftermath of Freddie Gray’s scattered and seemingly piece-less death in police custody has been complex for Baltimore City – bringing tense relations among police, city officials, activists, and neighboring residents. What was originally seen as a mysterious in-custody death turned into national coverage and eventual rioting of the city’s police and businesses. Maryland’s guardsmen were then deployed through the city, curfews were enforced, and what went from protesting to rioting was now mostly silence, and the eerie control of military and police. In the proceeding days of Baltimore’s eruption, it was the primary task of many to ensure peace; gangs were even associating their organizations – helping enforce curfew and cleaning up.

Once what was like a show was finally over, the media pundits and participating class went back to daily life. The riot though, which has been the center of attention, respectfully so, for its chaos and disorder, is a microcosm of what is taking place in many other cities and states. Influence and distrust in state police has grown to its bloom stage, and now the response is being made by anti-police factions of all sorts – whether libertarian or progressive. Baltimore is not an exclusive city to the occurring dissent; as we have seen in the Tamir Rice and Eric Garner cases. In fact, this year over 700 have been killed so far by police, according to The Guardian’s statistics tracker. It’s reasonable to expect some rejection of authority.

What is being missed severely though by almost every corner of the room is the Drug War, and the Drug War’s affect on even Freddie Gray. Alone, in Gray’s life, he was stopped, detained and arrested 18 different times by city police. You could make Gray out to be the next Capone with that sort of count; what is interesting, is not the count of arrests, but the similarity and theme in records comparative to Gray’s. According to an ACLU report, African-Americans are nearly 6 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession than white folks in Baltimore City. And as ‘CommonDreams’ notes, “56.4 percent of Baltimore students graduate from high school.  The national rate is about 80 percent.” A very grim scene for youth, like Gray, in the city.

In the 18 arrests of Gray, he was arrested in 15 due to non-violent drug offenses, e.g. a ‘crime’ that does not come with a victim – he did not impose himself on another individual – he merely had a bag. The other were trespassing, destruction of property and burglary…all crimes that come with a victim – Gray imposed himself on an individual or an individual’s property. So, in this case, with Gray being a known ‘criminal’ to the police, the image is portrayed that Gray is a daily villain among the Baltimore residents.

However, Gray is not. And this is what the Drug War has tried to do, but failed at with individuals like Gray – they have tried to force the individual to stop selling, using or making drugs. Ignoring the fact that Gray is non-violent, the legislature sees it necessary to police the personal lives of drug users; interestingly, pharmaceutical drugs fit the exception in this rule.

In all, what is being missed in the room is that prohibition has utterly failed, and that Gray who is relatively non-violent, was a victim of the Drug War. If there had not been drug laws created by legislatures in Washington and Baltimore City, both monopolists in their own territory, then the police would have never arrested or even confronted Gray 15 of those 18 times.

Of course, Freddie Gray’s last arrest ended in death – but instead of focusing on the end – the reader should also focus on the beginning. What was Freddie doing wrong? What did Freddie have that was illegal? Did Freddie hurt people or property? Surely, the police officers who felt resources were needed to transport him, process him and then cage him thought he did something wrong enough. Actually what happened before Freddie’s death is not fully known even at this time, as details have not been made public by the Baltimore City Police Dept., and there seems to be no mention in media.

What has been revealed so far, is that bicycle officers were on patrol when one officer [Lt. Brian W. Rice] made visual contact with Freddie, and at that point the officer allegedly watched Freddie run. The runner, Freddie, had done nothing criminal at that point – at least from what officers could objectively know. However, instead of allowing Freddie to run, officers engaged in a chase which ended shortly after. That is where Freddie was detained and then searched. Once opened up and around, officers found five guns, a bloody dagger and some cologne that was actually just explosive material.

Just kidding, they found a pocket-size folded knife – and apparently, according to Marilyn Mosby, the blade piece itself is not against Maryland law. Regardless of the law though, Mr. Gray was in no fashion of the word ‘violent’ before, during or after the police detainment. Law in that situation is victim-less, in the sense that it targets individuals who have not impeded on or encroached on anyone else. Essentially, by passing the law, you are requiring all public enforcement, e.g. police and military, to enforce law through barrel of a gun – which is dressed as moral guidance: drug use or carrying a knife blade in your pocket – scary. These sort of laws, which come by the thousands, are what led to Gray’s death and what is being overlooked entirely.

Advocacy for doing drugs and carrying blades wherever you go is nonexistent in this paragraph, either. But it is time to admit that drug law policies and other state edicts are creating unintended consequences with the public itself. The relationships with police are no longer about solving crime, but handing out citations and chasing drug users – possibly even shutting down a lemonade stand. This has strained trust, and has created violence. For violence to exist in drug trade itself, laws have to exist. Without the prohibition of drugs, the black market monopolies who use violence are no longer able to; and that includes street monopolies ‘gangs’.

Even with Freddie, it is an example of a failure to prohibit drugs, as he is arrested many times for possession and distribution. The failure to prohibit is inherent with any object you try to ban. So to wage a war on ‘drugs’, knowing that you cannot really eliminate the drugs is fallacious, considering at that point, you are only waging a war on the individual who is in possession of said drug. Drug laws are an iron fist in velvet, a one-size-fits-all, socialist can-of-worms that should be done away with today.

One resident who was close to Freddie explained to the Washington Post, “He always got locked up because he’d tell the cops, ‘I ain’t afraid of you.’ He wouldn’t back down. He ran because they always beat him up.” Whether Freddie was afraid or not, he knew one day to run, and it was for good reason, because after the police caught up with Mr. Gray, they decided to let him tumble in the back of a van, instead of provide medical attention, per his request.

Not to fantasize over statistics, it has been under-reported that since the federalist’s ‘war on drugs’, started by President Richard Nixon, addiction rates in the United States have remained steady. Based on the government’s expenditures, drug prohibitionists spent $2 billion in 1970 (start) and $20 billion in 2010 (current) on fighting drugs, or people really. Increase in money funds has done nothing to stop addiction rates in the United States. The researcher of the statistics, Matt Groff, notes, “Drug use and abuse exists on a spectrum and as a society we must accept that some portion of the population will be addicted to drugs even if we don’t like it,” believing State prohibition will not create better results.

Friend of Freddie, who actually filmed the infamous video of Gray being carried off like timber wood, explained to Think Progress, “I just hope that whatever happens, Freddie gets the justice that he deserves.” In the coming months, court trials will be debated, hashed over and cherry-picked, but just remember that Freddie Gray is one more victim to the Drug War, and for that, he is dead.

Written by Ezra Van Auken for TheStateWeekly.com

Most carry-on luggage is free, but one man’s may have cost him $75,000.

That’s the astounding amount of cash that was reportedly confiscated from a single suitcase while rolling through security at Virginia’s Richmond International Airport.

“If you had $75,000, is this how you’d transport it? Just asking! TSA @ #RIC spotted this traveler’s preferred method,”TSA spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein tweeted Tuesday with a photo showing the stacks of $20 bills.

Farbstein’s post may have meant to draw laughs, but it was received with public backlash instead.

“Depends on who’s more apt to steal the money: Baggage handlers or the @TSA,” snapped @AndStrats.

“Since when does the TSA publicly advertise the private contents of people’s luggage?” asked @Coyoteblog.

“Maybe you have a pic of my Kobold watch that was stole from my checked baggage at Logan…” added @Kevikev10.

“So wait. Carrying US currency is illegal now? Since when?” asked @PAntompietri.

While carrying loads of cash is not illegal, it is undoubtedly suspicious and can lead to it being confiscated for further review — especially if its handler is unable to account for it, according a TSA blog post.

“TSA officers routinely come across evidence of criminal activity at the airport checkpoint. Examples include evidence of illegal drug trafficking, money laundering, and violations of currency reporting requirements prior to international trips,” the post explains.

“When presented with a passenger carrying a large sum of money through the screening checkpoint, the TSA officer will frequently engage in dialog with the passenger to determine whether a referral to law-enforcement authorities is warranted,” it continues.

Civil asset forfeiture laws specifically allow authorities to seize cash and property from those suspected of a crime.

As evident in the outcry on Twitter, the practice has become contentious with some people never convicted or even charged with a crime.

“Forfeiture was originally presented as a way to cripple large-scale criminal enterprises by diverting their resources. But today, aided by deeply flawed federal and state laws, many police departments use forfeiture to benefit their bottom lines, making seizures motivated by profit rather than crime-fighting,” the American Civil Liberties Union claims.

A Richmond airport spokesman, reached by the Washington Post, said that this particular passenger’s luggage was seized by a federal agency, likely the Drug Enforcement Administration.

“I don’t believe the person was issued a summons or a citation,” Tony Bell told the paper. “The traveler was allowed to continue on his way.”

Written by Nina Golgowski for the New York Daily News

Right now, about 480,000 people are locked in American jails nationwide awaiting trial. Their median wait time will be 68 days, but for some, it will be much, much longer. At the notorious Riker’s Island prison in New York, for example, some 1,500 people have been imprisoned for a year or longer without trial. Another 400 have been there at least two years, and six prisoners have been waiting more than half a decade for their day in court.  The report issued by prisonstudies.org can be read here: World Pre-Trial Imprisonment Report

The world-wide numbers are sobering, but the United States is definitely in the lead with some of the highest numbers of incarcerations in the world, without a trial. The total includes some 480,000 in the United States, 255,000 in India, 195,000 in Brazil, 116,000 in Russia, 107,000 in Mexico, 70,000 in the Philippines, 66,000 in Thailand, 55,000 in Iran, 50,000 in both Indonesia and Pakistan, 48,000 in Turkey, 47,000 in Bangladesh, 44,000 in South Africa, 40,000 in Colombia, 37,000 in both Nigeria and Peru, 35,000 in Venezuela, 32,000 in Morocco and 31,000 in Argentina.

While some of these prisoners may indeed be guilty of violent crimes, three out of four are low-level offenders, accused of nonviolent infractions like drug possession or traffic violations. In other words, most of them aren’t a danger to society; they just can’t make bail.

Washington Post reports,

A 2013 analysis by the Drug Policy Alliance, a group that advocates for changes in drug laws, found that nearly 40 percent of New Jersey’s jail population fell into this category. The Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that among felony defendants in the nation’s largest counties, 34 percent were detained before trial because they couldn’t make bail.

The idea of bail makes a lot of intuitive sense: when someone’s charged with a crime, you make them put down a deposit to ensure they show up in court for trial. If they don’t put the money down, they have to wait in jail.

Keeping half a million people jailed pre-trial costs about $17 billion annually. It can also assign life-altering consequences to relatively small mistakes, as 68 days in jail is more than enough time to default on rent or wear an employer’s patience thin. Loss of home or job, in turn, compounds taxpayers’ costs, making it far more likely that defendants, once released, will require public assistance.

Parts of this article were published on TheWeek.com by Bonnie Kristian

by Virgil Vaduva

UPDATE:  Since the publishing of this article PH1K3 posted a short note online addressing some of the questions I posted to him. Among other things he stated:

The govs will take every chance they gets to exploit US . to You that fear the gov i can say this:my code and countless others will be fighting 4 freedom of information,like i have said before we are the real coders and we are the ones who fights 4 the internet to be free.custome code will allways win against fgt gov code…..Ross Ulbricht did nothing wrong and the only crime was the one she made when she sent an programmer to jail

ORIGINAL STORY: Only a few days after I covered the fact that Reason Magazine revealed that lawyers from the Southern District of New York subpoenaed them in an effort to identify the people behind some comments posted on the reason.com website, members of Anonymous Sweden yet again posted public information about Judge Katherine Forrest, who was the sitting judge in the trial of Ross Ulbricht, the young man behind the dark net website Silk Road.

Someone using the handle PH1K3 (and @_Anonymous_swe_ on Twitter) published a ghostbin note where he posted sensitive details about Forrest, including her social security number, birth date, home address and home telephone number. Pictures of the judge’s alleged house in New York were also posted in various places online.

A picture being floated in the underground hacking community purporting to be the house of Judge Katherine Forrest

PH1K3 indirectly confirmed to me that he was indeed behind the publishing of the information about Forrest but did not answer additional follow up questions I asked about his opinions about the judge or the trial of Ross Ulbricht. The general sense throughout the underground hacktivist community is what the document published states, namely that “THE JUDGE WILL PAY FOR WHAT SHE DID.” The message “FREE ROSS ULBRICHT” also appears throughout many of the statements and documents published by members of Anonymous.

In May 2015, PH1K3 also claimed that he hacked an NSA e-mail server hosted by Quest in an interview the the website The Cryptosphere.

Virgil Vaduva is a Libertarian security professional, journalist, photographer and overall liberty freak. He spent most of his life in Communist Romania and participated in the 1989 street protests which led to the collapse of the Ceausescu regime. He can be reached at vvaduva at truthvoice.com.

by Barry Cooper

My favorite tip for never getting busted used to be, “Never carry more marijuana than you can eat.” Although this advice is still effective, my new favorite tip is, “Flee the United States as fast as you can.” Although there is currently a paradigm shift in the awareness of inhumane and unfair acts taking place in America’s criminal courts, the politicians, judges, prosecutors and police continue ramping up their efforts to cage as many Americans as they can. My experience as a drug cop, crime journalist, defendant and current drug expert witness has given me insights into why living in the United States is risky and dangerous — it’s because of the sadly laughable U.S. court system.

Seven years ago, as a form of penance, I used my experience as a former drug agent to produce a series of instructional videos teaching citizens how to avoid being arrested for marijuana crimes. I also I produced an Internet reality show called KopBusters, where I exposed the abusive and illegal practices of police officers.

I tricked the police into raiding a trap house rigged with hidden cameras and a fake marijuana grow room. I proved on camera that the police routinely falsified evidence and engaged in illegal activity themselves. The sting led to the release of Yolanda Madden, a mother of two serving an eight-year prison sentence after police planted drugs in her car.

Barry Cooper (born May 21, 1969) is an anti-drug-war lecturer, film maker, criminal defense expert witness and law lecturer known for his DVD series, “NeverGetBusted” and his Internet reality show, KopBusters. Cooper formerly served as one of the United States’ top drug enforcement officers

I viewed my style of activism as a clever humanitarian operation designed to protect citizens from a government holding the all time world record for the number of citizens it incarcerates. Unfortunately, my critics viewed it as a personal attack against God, children and the police.

The government began a campaign of harassment. I was S.W.A.T. raided once, arrested four times, my wife arrested three times and our autistic son taken for more than a year. All of the charges were misdemeanors stemming from the stings. The raid conducted on my home was not for marijuana but was for all of my media, videotapes, computers, cameras and journals. The American police seized these items from me, a journalist, at gunpoint.

After a year and a half of numerous, stressful and costly court appearances, the prosecution offered to drop all the charges if I would plead guilty to one charge and pay a $700 fine. It was obvious I was falsely charged but I accepted the plea offer to avoid facing a jury predisposed to convict.

In open court, the judge and prosecutor encouraged me to perjure myself by verbalizing that I had committed a crime I did not commit. To avoid jail time and spare my family further suffering, I admitted to the crime I was charged with. It was a lie. But my lie saved me from a dreadful and costly trial that could have ended in a lengthy jail term.

Plea bargains completely dispel the American myth of fair prosecutions. Under the current system, the government threatens severe punishment if the defendant chooses to go to trial and loses. However, the government loses nothing and is not punished if they lose the trial. Tens of thousands and perhaps millions of U.S. citizens would not have a conviction on their record if plea bargains were prohibited. To make the playing field level, the system of plea-bargaining must be banned.

The criminal courts are further tainted because the government’s treasure chest is usually much richer than the defendant’s who was poor at the time of their arrest and even poorer at the time of their trial. Although I often donate my craft by agreeing to work pro-bono, I normally charge an expert witness fee when hired to point out police corruption, the wrongful handling of evidence, search and seizure violations and K-9 false alerts. The majority of drug defendants do not have the resources to hire experts such as myself to counter the government’s experts.

If a jury trial were fair, the poorest defendants would have the same access to expert witnesses commonly hired by the wealthier defendants. Although the government purports to be fair by funding experts for the indigent, a government cap offers experts a fraction of what they normally charge — which usually causes the expert to pass on the offer.

Finally, criminal courts are laughable because judges enjoy absolute immunity if they deliberately make a ruling totally opposite of how the law or evidence instructs them to rule. I have witnessed judges purposely ruling against undeniable evidence and clear, established law to insure the defendant is condemned. Judges know defendants seldom have the resources to appeal their decisions. If judges were punished each time one of their decisions were reversed in appeals court, they would stop intentionally and habitually ruling against the law to unfairly convict the accused. This sadistic behavior is allowed unchecked hundreds of times each day in U.S. courts.

Does America breed more criminals than any previous or current society? Or could there be a dysfunctional flaw in the criminal justice system? Common sense says the latter. Until the criminal injustice system of the United States is totally revamped, my most valuable “NeverGetBusted” tip remains: “Flee the United States as fast as you can.” I did!

Published on The Huffington Post as part of the theatrical and on-demand release of “How To Make Money Selling Drugs,” a new documentary by Matthew Cooke that examines the drug trade from a variety of angles.