Open Thread

Lots of stuff going on and some great stuff to read.
I usually include the Drug War Chronicle in my Friday Open Threads, but I want to make sure you don’t skip over it this week.
The feature article: DEA Rejects Yet Another Rescheduling Petition, But the End Game Lies Far Down the Road is an excellent view of the current efforts to reschedule marijuana, with the recent, but expected rejection by the DEA of Carl Olsen’s petition.
Also don’t miss the open rebellion by Chess players regarding the stupid drug testing rules.
“bullet” Why Head Shop Raids Are Unfair and Unjust at Alternet.

An enlightened mayor might have called the chamber of commerce or invited a community discussion to discuss alternatives. The mayor might have used code enforcement and local ordinances to mandate zoning changes. Instead, he called and asked the feds to do what her own city cops were not allowed to do.

“bullet” Taking the fun out of pot

The lower rate of pot smoking in the Netherlands would certainly seem to indicate that the way to solve our drug problem is to legalize drugs. Soon, even prohibitionists will have to admit this is the case. It is a concept that certainly warrants further consideration.

“bullet” Editorial: Confidence Must Be Restored In Drug Forfeiture Process

While the actions of the local DTF and prosecutor’s office were particularly egregious, the origins of the situation can be traced to the state and the Indiana General Assembly. Legislation governing the handling of confiscated drug-related funds and property is vague, and officials in most counties are unsure exactly how the money is to be handled. With few guidelines, they have for the most part created their own procedures. The fact no money apparently has ever been sent to the designated state education fund is particularly telling.

“bullet” Editorial: No deaths, this time

But Procedures That Make It Hard To Identify Police At The Door Should Be Reviewed […]
Pardon us if we doubt the officers waited even two or three minutes for residents to pull on clothes ( if necessary ), come to the door, ascertain who was there and ask to read the officers’ warrant.
For that matter, wouldn’t the chance of violence have been reduced — in a home where police should have known young children were present – — if someone had simply telephoned the home, explaining police were approaching the door with a warrant … preferably during daylight hours?
Some will say such a procedure would be naive — drug dealers could use the time to flush their product down the toilet.
But no cocaine was found — and a dealer who can eliminate all his product in one toilet flush isn’t really very big-time, is he? […]
The drug war has taught us to accept as “normal” police procedures — even in the case of a man alleged to have dealt quantities of drugs worth only a few hundred dollars — which increase the risk of violence and death in our neighborhoods.
Just as in cases where some jurisdictions have found overall fatalities could be reduced by having ambulances obey stoplights, it is those “standard” procedures that are in need of a serious new review.

“bullet” Commenter Steve Clay thoroughly fisks the latest Ask the White House session by the drug czar (where some of our commenters managed to submit questions)
“bullet” Don’t forget to make sure you’ve voted at Change.org (Marijuana legalization is currently #1 and End the drug war is currently #3) and also at Change.gov’s Open for Questions (where drug policy questions appear to be #2,4,5,6,9 in Additional Issues and 1, 5, 6 in National Security)
“bullet” “drcnet”