This may be the best piece Dave Wiegel has ever written. I know I’ve ranted about this before, but Marcus and Brooks are just echoing the same bullshit kids my age heard about pot when they were growing up from D.A.R.E., which may have been the most ineffective organization ever. As I have said before, …
The War on Your Neighbor, aka the War on Drugs
About Damned Time
Good– now there are thousands others who deserve the same thing.
The Pusher Takes Your Body and He Leaves Your Mind a Screen
Thirty-plus percent does sound a bit excessive: If a Colorado ballot initiative passes, marijuana buyers will have to pay a 15 percent excise tax, as well as up to an addition 15 percent sales tax. Similarly, a Denver city ballot issue would tack on a 3.5 percent tax on marijuana and give the city government the …
The Pusher Takes Your Body and He Leaves Your Mind a ScreenPost + Comments (46)
Dragnet
A “confidential” program comes to light due to a public records request: Hemisphere covers every call that passes through an AT&T switch — not just those made by AT&T customers — and includes calls dating back 26 years, according to Hemisphere training slides bearing the logo of the White House Office of National Drug Control …
Open Thread: SWAT Teams Against Drugs Okra
As wise observers pointed out post-9/11, if you give every local police force military toys, some proportion — the least suitable — will find the use of their new toys irresistable. Here’s Mr. Charles P. Pierce, on the worst HOA-enabling Small Gubmint supremacists ever: … Speaking of the harmless behavior of a small group of …
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The Arc-Lamp of History, Bending
Just so nobody misses it, I want to highlight Mr. Pierce’s argument for historical memory when it comes to the “unintended consequences” of The War on (Some People, with regard to Some) Drugs: … You will hear, often, of the explosion in the United States prison populations “since 1980.” That date is not accidental. We …
This Should Be Interesting: Sidestepping Mandatory Minimum Sentencing
Charlie Savage, in the NYTimes: In a major shift in criminal justice policy, the Obama administration will move on Monday to ease overcrowding in federal prisons by ordering prosecutors to omit listing quantities of illegal substances in indictments for low-level drug cases, sidestepping federal laws that impose strict mandatory minimum sentences for drug-related offenses. Attorney …
This Should Be Interesting: Sidestepping Mandatory Minimum SentencingPost + Comments (83)