While the California prison guards helped defeat Prop. 5, stoners nationwide are lighting up splifs in celebration of their marijuana victories: Michigan became the first state in the Midwest to pass a medical marijuana measure. More significantly, Massachusetts passed a referendum decriminalizing possession of less than a ounce of marijuana. Possession will be a civil fine of $100. That’s good…
Tag: war on drugs
Prop. 5 and the Prison Guards’ Union
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) is the union for prison guards. I’m all for unions for prison guards. They have a tough job, horrible working conditions (uh, prison), and I certain would not want their job. I believe their union should have a loud and robust voice on such things as pay, working conditions, health-care benefits, and retirement…
Budget cutting? Take a hatchet to the war on drugs
Joe Conason has a good piece in Salon about the war on drugs. Want to cut waste and abuse? How about starting with the $50 billion we spend every year on the war on drugs. And why aren’t either McCain or Obama talking it?
Another Isolated Incident
“It’s not that SWAT tactics are always wrong. It’s that they’re frighteningly too often the first resort with the police departments that have them.” That’s from The Agitator. It’s worth reading.
War on Drugs in Mexico
Drug Killings Haunt Mexican Schoolchildren See the New York Times for the whole terrible story.
Are drugs evil?
This is taken from the comments of a previous post. Your comparison of a drug dealer to anyone who sells cigarettes and booze is interesting. I believe that even with the huge tobacco lobby at work, most tobacco products will be illegal within twenty years, and rightfully so. Booze is a different story because it is well tolerated by many…
Victory is Near!
The Agitator has a good post looking at how failure doesn’t stop our drug warriors from claiming success. The news is always good in the Bizarro World of prohibitionists.
Your consitutional rights
I have advocated that all drug defendants demand jury trials. It’s a constitutional right. It would end the war on drugs. That is kind of sort happening on a small scale. Here’s the story in the Sun. Our system of justice is broken.
Mexico’s war on drugs
When we last visited Mexico, tens of thousands were protesting violence resulting from drug prohibition. Now Mexican President Felipe Calderón has proposed decriminalized possession of small quantities of cocaine, marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine to those who agree to undergo drug treatment. This is similar to a bill he proposed two years ago. But that bill died after intense pressure (ie:…
Drugs in Afghanistan
Seems like the brother of Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai is a heroin kingpin operating under U.S.-tolerated immunity. I’m shocked. Shocked.