Monthly Archives: October 2006

Radley Balko

Congratulations to Radley Balko for his new gig as a senior editor at Reason. Sounds like a good fit to me. Radley, of course, is the author of Overkill, has done incredible research in the area of the militarization of … Continue reading

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Hooray for the Boulder Weekly

What a great editorial! After spending several paragraphs detailing the arguments of those opposed to Amendment 44 (legalizing marijuana), they respond with this: BW position: Opponents are full of bull, and a large percentage of Boulder County readers knows it. … Continue reading

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But people would never lie on an anonymous survey, would they?

Depending on data from surveys is always an iffy proposition. Even more so when it involves asking people about illegal activities. Anonymity may help people feel like they can be honest, but it also means there’s nothing preventing them from … Continue reading

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A Supreme Court that still believes in protecting the individual from potentially abusive government intrusion

Canada Judges cannot issue probation orders requiring people to provide blood or urine samples to check if they are obeying conditions to abstain from drugs or alcohol, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Friday. In dismissing a Crown appeal of … Continue reading

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War on a plant

You may have already seen this one by now, but I couldn’t resist… Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy — almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall. General Rick … Continue reading

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Open Thread

“bullet” At the Drug War Chronicle, in Pinellas County, Florida, it is now illegal to sell something that you reasonably should know would be used for consuming drugs. “bullet” Interesting article on Dutch coffee shops at AlterNet. “bullet” Ed Rosenthal … Continue reading

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Stalking the Drug Czar

At Regulate Marijuana: I showed up at the TV studio this morning and was greeted by dozens of secret service agents. The drug czar is traveling with a huge security detail, clearly spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer … Continue reading

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A couple of media mentions…

The Illinois State University Daily Vidette has quoted me two days in a row now. An article about M.A.S.H./S.S.D.P — the student group for which I am faculty advisor. (Formerly Mobilizing Activists and Students for Hemp, but transitioning into an … Continue reading

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More on the failure of the class of academic drug policy experts

I thought it would be a good idea to do a little follow-up on my earlier post today. As has been noted, I was pretty harsh about an article that was actually suggesting reducing the number of incarcerated drug offenders … Continue reading

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Incomplete, deficient, and ultimately, dishonest scholarship in academia

Via Mark Kleiman, comes this piece at Issues in Science and Technology Online: Reorienting U.S. DrugPolicy, by Jonathan P. Caulkins and Peter Reuter. The article is packed with useful and/or interesting research and conjecture as the authors conclude that “money … Continue reading

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