Duncan Kennedy writes in the BBC: Seven policemen have been killed and four injured in Mexico’s latest incident of drug-related violence. The officers were killed during a raid on a home in Culiacan, in north-west Mexico, police said. Arriving at the house to search for weapons and drugs, police were fired upon and a grenade…
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Despite obvious failure, the Mexican president has vowed to “stay the course” of drug prohibition. As if he were standing in front of a “Mission Accomplished” banner, President Calderón says the murder of Police Commissioner Millán, is a sign of government success against the drug cartel. He’s full of shit. James McKinley Jr. writes the…
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In 2007, 235 Baltimore residents overdosed. The story in the Sunis here. Interestingly (and surprisingly), 74 of those were from methadone. I don’t quite understand the point of methadone. If it’s addictive and you can die from it, why not just give junkies heroin?
You don’t see headlines like this much in America anymore. But we used to (google “Jake Leg” if you’re interested in a tragic little footnote in American history). Fewer people die when drugs are legal and regulated. Prohibitionists in India wanted to protect poor people from themselves. So, in an entirely predictable bit of failed…
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Mexican police chiefs are getting killed right and left, thanks to the war on drugs. Brendan McKanna of the Dallas Morning News reportsthat other chiefs are quitting their posts and three police chiefs have applied for political asylum in the United States out of fear for their lives. When they stand down, who’s going to…
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You probably heard about the mass of San Diego State University students arrested for drug dealing. That college students take drugs shouldn’t be a big surprise for anybody who went to college. College students drink, too. Nor, if it weren’t for the guns involved, would I see it as a big problem. The far more…
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How nice to post something that will not mention… hmmm… shall we say, oh hell, let’s not say anything at all. There’s a great short (16 minute) audio interview of me talking about crime and police and drug legalization. I get a kick how the hook of the interview is the “liberal sociologist.” By police…
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These kind of headlines, this one from the BBC, always crack me up… and make me sad. Why? Do you feel safer? This guy’s death won’t mean shit. Some other drug lord will take his place. I nominate his second-in-command. I mean, really… Does anybody think that killing some bad guy is going to win…
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I haven’t digested all this yet, but there’s an interesting little brouhaha about a recent study released by the NYCLU by Queens College Professor Harry Levine and Deborah Small. The paper is called, “Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York City, 1997-2007.” The report claims that 35,000 people a year are…
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Buying drugs doesn’t need to involve criminals, violence, and neighborhood blight. These are pictures I took a few years back of a friend buying drugs in an Amsterdam “coffee shop.” I show it to my classes at John Jay College of Criminal justice. Amsterdam is a beautiful city of canals and old buildings. I love…
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