I enjoyed Cliff Hutchison’s post at the ScienceEvidence Blog (cleverly titled Don’t Bogart That Expert) about the qualifications of a marijuana defendant’s expert witness.
The case discussed involved a former criminal defense lawyer who was an opponent of the drug war, who had been qualified in 100 marijuana cases to testify as an expert…
Jordan Smith’s always excellent Weed Watch column in this week’s Austin Chronicle focuses on three topics:
Anyone reading this think they…
From the Christian Science Monitor, the title of this article says it all: “Plan Columbia: big gains, but the cocaine still flows…”
The “big gains” part consists of the assertions of the White House Drug Czar John Walters:
"There is absolutely no question we are winning …We are squeezing them. We are forcing them
…
Radley Balko over at The Agitator posts three examples about the dangers of paramilitary police raids.
Even in the last example, where the police (supposedly) had the right “target”, is this sort of military force necessary when we’re talking about $60 worth of marijuana?
Stan White writes a Letter to the Editor of the Central Kentucky Newsletter decrying a pastor’s previous letter bashing medical marijuana. I’m interested myself in looking into his claim that the kaneh-bosm mentioned in the Old Testament is actually cannabis, but for now, I’ll leave you with this quote:
Biblically, caging humans for using cannabis (kaneh
…
The El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez defends his decision to subject a 16 year old female juvenile to the threat of a 40 year sentence for attempting to smuggle cocaine across the border:
"Proceeding under (the) determinate sentencing statute in this case demonstrates that we will not tolerate these types of crimes, and should
…
The “Gateway Theory” of marijuana prohibition goes like this: marijuana use leads to “hard drug” use, such as cocaine and heroin. Since cocaine and heroin use are “bad”, we must criminalize marijuana to keep our children (and perhaps ourselves) from becoming hard core drug addicts.
The proof of the Gateway Theory is supposed to…
When you catch someone in a deliberate lie, don’t you distrust the rest of their message?
Opponents of the marijuana decriminalization movement are fond of using straw man arguments. These deliberate mischaracterizations tend to fall into two broad categories: (1) "They just want to smoke dope", and (2) "They want your children to become addicts/dope fiends".…
Posey County Prosecutor Jodi Uebelhack brags about Posey County, Illinois’ new forfeiture program in this story from WFIE Evansville Channel 14 news. I’ll leave commenting on the wisdom and ultimate fairness of seizing assets from "suspected" but not yet convicted drug dealers for another post. But check out the quote from the County prosecutor at…
The Office of National Drug Control Policy’s blog ‘Pushing Back’ posted an entry where they ask "Marijuana near schools: Harmless?"
Read the Sacramento TV News station’s story that the Drug Czar points to, and ask yourself this: Was it the marijuana that ’caused’ the gun problem? Or is the fact that marijuana is…