Open Thread

Lots of good reading today
“bullet” Marijuana’s Manhattan Project — fascinating five-page article about a couple of medical marijuana entrepreneurs who, at some risk, are developing lab testing protocols for medical marijuana to improve growing safety and to provide better information to patients about the pot they’re purchasing.
“bullet” Tranform’s Danny Kushlick really lays into the UNODC and the Commission on Narcotic Drugs:

Every state that signs up to the Political Declaration at this Commission recommits the UN to complicity in fighting a catastrophic war on drugs. It is a tragic irony that the UN, so often renowned for peacekeeping, is being used to fight a war that brings untold misery to some of the most marginalised people on earth. 8000 deaths in Mexico in recent years, the destabilisation of Colombia and Afghanistan, continued corruption and instability in the Caribbean and West Africa are testament to the catastrophic impact of a drug control system based upon global prohibition.
It is no surprise that the Declaration is unlikely even to mention harm reduction, as it runs counter to the primary impact of the prevailing drug control system which, as the past ten years demonstrate, increases harm.

“bullet” Great rant in a student newspaper. All The Cool Kids Forfeit Their 4th Amendment Rights…. and why you shouldn’t

Always refuse searches.æ You have nothing to gain and everything to lose when you allow an officer to search your belongings.æ Why people routinely waive their fourth amendment rights is completely beyond me.æ I don’t know what kind of marijuana students at KSU smoke, but I’m guessing it must be pretty strong to make them forget a 222-year-old document that they learned about in third grade.

“bullet” I have a message for John Walters. We had to listen to you for 8 years, now shut the fuck up. You have nothing valid to add to any conversation. Note: Jacob Sullum actually goes to the effort to fisk this nonsense. He’s a more patient man than I.
“bullet” Via Kaptinemo in comments comes this heartbreaking story:

In July 2007, Teresa Ortega stood solemnly in a field of wilting corn and pineapple crops as tears streamed down her cheeks. She had taken it upon herself to start a farm with 100 widows – women who lost their husbands and children to Colombia’s war and were fighting against poverty. Together they had purchased this small farm and worked it on the weekends to make ends meet. Now – after a plane sprayed chemicals over their farm – all was lost.
To bureaucrats in Washington, Teresa and her friends are simply additional collateral damage at ground zero of Washington’s drug war in South America.

“bullet” Libby Brooks in the Guardian: Never mind the evidence – a drug-free world is nigh

The harm caused by prohibition is staggering, yet still politicians cling to the blinkered ambition of a global ‘war on drugs’

“bullet” LEAP’s Howard Wooldridge visits the Conservative Policital Action Conference and finds people agreeing with him.
“bullet” Via Grits for Breakfast: Texas legislators are impressed by “compelling” evidence of the need to outlaw salvia: a YouTube video about driving while on Salvia. They missed, however, that this was a comedy video made by a guy who also made videos called “Gardening on Salvia and Writing A Letter To Congress on Salvia.
“bullet” Point-Counterpoint: DUST-UP
Medical marijuana in California: a history Have the state’s efforts to legalize and regulate medical marijuana been successful? Scott Imler and Stephen Gutwillig debate.
“bullet” DrugSense Weekly
“bullet” “drcnet”