Open Thread

“bullet” Fascinating story of Dr. Stephen Richards. An ex-felon who spent 9 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute several tons of marijuana, but got his college degree and eventually his PhD and now teaches criminal justice at UW-Oshkosh (although as an ex-felon, he can’t drive a cab or work at McDonald’s).
“bullet” If you haven’t yet, you really should read this important piece in the NY Times by Jim Dwyer: On Arrests, Demographics, and Marijuana. In NYC between 1988 and 1997, police arrested 45,300 people for having a small amount of pot. However, between 1998 and 2007, they arrested 374,900!
Guess what most of them looked like.
And Scott Morgan points out one of the side notes in the article: Don’t Give Your Marijuana to the Police. Yes, they are allowed to trick you.
“bullet” Albert Hofmann, the Father of LSD, Dies at 102

He then took LSD hundreds of times, but regarded it as a powerful and potentially dangerous psychotropic drug that demanded respect. More important to him than the pleasures of the psychedelic experience was the drug‰s value as a revelatory aid for contemplating and understanding what he saw as humanity‰s oneness with nature.

It is undoubtably his repeated use of the drug that ruined his health and caused him to die at such a young age.
“bullet” Simon Jenkins in the Guardian has a blunt message in response to Gordon Brown’s expected move to re-classify cannabis back up to Class B in the UK: The only message being sent is of cowardice and stupidity
“bullet” David Guard has an update on the medical marijuana bill in Illinois. Good faith attempts are being made to get law enforcement on board, with a real dialogue and some changes to the bill. That contrasts with Minnesota, where some of the law enforcement rhetoric has been so outrageous, that Minnesotans for Compassionate Care put out an excellent point by point rebuttal.
“bullet” Does anybody get it yet? When you see stories like this: Tijuana Hospital Locked Down as Doctors Treat Drug Traffickers Hurt in Shootouts, is there any doubt that we should be looking for some solution other than a drug war?