NPR has a good story about law enforcement agencies seizing drug assets. It can pay for itself. The kicker is this: police prefer to come in after the drugs have been sold because it’s better for police to seize the money rather than the drugs. If police seize the drugs, the drugs are destroyed. If…
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In England, the Daily Express reports that drug dealers are getting arrested on purposeso they can make more money by selling drugs in jail. A few years ago they banned cigarettes and smoking in Rikers Island (NYC’s jail). Now a single cigarette sells for about $20. For one tobacco cigarette. More often than not, these…
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I had a thought about your book. This is not a criticism but something I was left wanting when I finished. Someone, somewhere, (and I nominate you) needs to articulate at length a pathway from the current environment towards what decriminalization/legalization would look like. If there’s one out there it’s not widely known. I think…
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Same old same old: Cops bust down door. Drug dealer wakes up and thinks he’s being attacked by criminals. Drug dealer shits his pants. Drug dealer fires off four rounds. Somebody innocent dies, this time a hard-working police officer. A sergeant pointed out this story to me. He writes: “Yea, it’s Canada, but it’s not…
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Damien Cave writes a very interesting story in the New York Times. In Florida, which is apparently the only state that keeps good track of these things, the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs is three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined. Out of 168,900 deaths statewide, legal opioids…
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Apparently, the “medicinal” marijuana thing in California is getting a little out of hand. Jesse McKinley reports in the New York Times that large-scale commercial growers are hiding behind the state’s legalization of medical marijuana in 1996. I’m all for regulating drugs. I want localities to regulate or ban as they wish. Don’t fret at…
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America’s incarceration population and rate continue to increase. At a cost of about $60 billion per year, we hold 2.3 million people behind bars. Details in the recently released Bureau of Justice Statistics Bulletins Prison Inmates at Midyear 2007 and Jail Inmates at Midyear 2007. ABC news reports: The report provides a breakdown, noting “of…
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As reported by James McKinley Jr. in the New York Times: On the night of May 17, dozens of men with assault rifles rolled into town in several trucks and shot up the place [Villa Ahumada]. They killed the police chief, two officers and three civilians. Then they carried off about 10 people, witnesses said.…
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That’s what Mexico may tell the U.S. So reports Laurence Iliff in the Dallas Morning News. Good for them. Here’s the backstory: The U.S. offers money to other countries so they can join our glorious war on drugs. To get the money–and here’s the catch–other countries had to pass a formal (now less formal) “certification”…
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In a comment, Timothy turned me on to an article by Liz Kay in the Sun, “No parking, Less Drugs.” Leaving aside the grammatical question (it should be “fewer drugs,” right?), what about the concept? They banned parking on part of the business strip of Pennsylvania Avenue to get rid of drug dealers. Apparently, it…
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