It’s out. You can download the 115 page PDF here. I haven’t read it yet. I’d be happy to hear any comments from those have about what in it is relevant/important/surprising.
If only our cities were more like Amsterdam!
This comes from the The Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.: Initiative 71 became law today, legalizing marijuana in Washington, D.C. under certain circumstances. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week that the District will not become “like Amsterdam,” as though being “like Amsterdam” would be a bad thing. City Hall even refers to Amsterdam in their official Q&A. To give the…
Policing in California, post Prop. 47
Being in NYC, I miss a lot of what happens west of the Mississippi (and sometimes even west of the Hudson). So I haven’t really been following California’s Proposition 47. Recently I posted about a minor increase in property crime in LA, which was both news to me and made intuitive sense. Sure, it sounds logical to focus law enforcement…
We Got Another Kingpin! (15)
It’s amazing there are any drug kingpins left since we’ve gotten so many of them. It seems there was one last to get: “La Tuta.” Now he’s history. (I’m a bit disappointed in the monicker. “The teacher” is a pretty lame nickname by drug lord standards, I have to say. We may not be running out of kingpins, but they…
Fight Police Brutality
No point here. I just like old pictures. From Shorpy.com. Caption: Washington, D.C., circa 1925. “Protesters” is all it says on the caption card for this National Photo glass negative showing what seems to be a meeting of the “Communist Party Young Communist League.”
Body Cams and the mean streats of Basingstoke
The BBC has a short (2 min) and surprisingly informative clip on body cameras. But the real reason I’m posting this is because this attack on a police officer took place in Basingstoke, England. Now you may know Basingstoke for its roundabouts (traffic circles)… actually you probably have never heard of Basingstoke. And that’s OK. But I know Basingstoke because…
Prop. 47’s effect on jail time
From LA, where Proposition 47 reclassified many crimes as misdemeanors. Drug arrests are down by about one-third. Property crimes are up nearly 10 percent. The problem seems to be this: “The new law specifies that the financial savings on the incarceration side be reinvested in truancy, drug treatment and mental health programs. But that provision does not take effect until…
“If you don’t like the politics here, then leave”
Ron Smith ain’t your average police union president.
This is what rational drug policy looks like
The other day my wife and I visited a friend from way back who now works in a coffee shop. Actually a famous one, the Bulldog, which is soon to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary. Mostly I just love how a legal and regulated drug trade becomes, well, boring. There actually is a worker on duty who is registered by the…
Don’t snort the white heroin!
So a few months ago in Amsterdam, a couple British tourists died from a drug overdose. The Brits are kind of like the canaries in a coal mine of tourists. Brits are usually the first to somehow kill themselves, if given the opportunity. (It has to do with alcohol.) Anyway, they did die. It turned out that some guy on…