The Supreme Court ruled in Rodriguez v. United States (2015) that K9s cannot be used in traffic stops (without cause) if it delays the driver. Period. Previously, the law of the land was that the driver couldn’t be delayed too much. But it wasn’t clear how much was too much. Waiting for a K9 unit…
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This isn’t exactly news, but now it’s official… because it’s in the papers: “Study Finds Mexican Troops Did Not Stem Drug-War Killings“
I’m generally quick to point out that there aren’t too many people doing long time for small scale drug possession. (Usually this in the context of pointing out that drug decriminalization will not empty our prisons.) But it does happen. And it shouldn’t happen. Ever. How is anyone in prison for 13 years for possessing…
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This comes from the The Netherlands Embassy in Washington, D.C.: Initiative 71 became law today, legalizing marijuana in Washington, D.C. under certain circumstances. Mayor Muriel Bowser said this week that the District will not become “like Amsterdam,” as though being “like Amsterdam” would be a bad thing. City Hall even refers to Amsterdam in their…
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Being in NYC, I miss a lot of what happens west of the Mississippi (and sometimes even west of the Hudson). So I haven’t really been following California’s Proposition 47. Recently I posted about a minor increase in property crime in LA, which was both news to me and made intuitive sense. Sure, it sounds…
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It’s amazing there are any drug kingpins left since we’ve gotten so many of them. It seems there was one last to get: “La Tuta.” Now he’s history. (I’m a bit disappointed in the monicker. “The teacher” is a pretty lame nickname by drug lord standards, I have to say. We may not be running…
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From LA, where Proposition 47 reclassified many crimes as misdemeanors. Drug arrests are down by about one-third. Property crimes are up nearly 10 percent. The problem seems to be this: “The new law specifies that the financial savings on the incarceration side be reinvested in truancy, drug treatment and mental health programs. But that provision…
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The other day my wife and I visited a friend from way back who now works in a coffee shop. Actually a famous one, the Bulldog, which is soon to celebrate it’s 40th anniversary. Mostly I just love how a legal and regulated drug trade becomes, well, boring. There actually is a worker on duty…
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So a few months ago in Amsterdam, a couple British tourists died from a drug overdose. The Brits are kind of like the canaries in a coal mine of tourists. Brits are usually the first to somehow kill themselves, if given the opportunity. (It has to do with alcohol.) Anyway, they did die. It turned…
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marijuana I wonder if an end-the-drug war voter is just an law-and-order conservative whose backyard okra garden was raided by local cops after being spotted from a helicopter funded by the Drug Enforcement Agency Domestic Cannabis Eradication/Suppression Program? Barstow County, Georgia, resident Dwayne Perry may be a recent convert: “I do the right thing and…
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