Friday, November 28, 2003

Odds and Ends Last One Speaks has some great stuff as usual. And thanks to Libby for her support on my little censorship problem. The Drug Sense Weekly and Drug War Chronicle newsletters are chock full of good stuff again this week. Be sure to check them out. The U.S. is continuing its boneheaded foreign drug policy by denying a visa to Bolivian coca grower leader Evo Morales, who also heads the country's second largest political party. That's right - support hard-line drug war puppets that end up with revolt, while pretending the real concerns of the Bolivian people don't exist. Via TalkLeft: Oakland, California may begin regulating pot cafes The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down 'suspicionless' school drug testing. Great news! "The theory apparently is that, even in the absence of any suspicion of drug or alcohol abuse, it is appropriate to single these students out and say, in effect: 'Choose one: your Pennsylvania constitutional right to privacy or the chess club,' " Justice Ronald D. Castille wrote in a 32-page opinion. "What lesson does a program targeting the personal privacy of some but not all students and lacking both individualized suspicion or any reasoned basis for a suspicionless search teach our young?" Castille wrote. Surrey cricketers in drug-testing farce One day last summer, testers from UK Sport arrived at the ground where Surrey were playing at 9am and asked the quartet to provide urine samples. All were found to be negative but the testers were unhappy, having been kept waiting until after 6.30pm. They tried to bring the athletes up on charges, but had failed to read the rules... One of the players claimed he had not provided a sample earlier as he could not be disturbed during "office hours" - 9am to 6:30pm for a cricketer. The rules allow an athlete to provide a sample at the end of their sporting activity and the athletes were following the rules precisely. 11:17:48 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

If we consider this a success, then it's time to be very afraid. Thailand: US Official Declares War On Drugs A Success. William J.  Snipes, the regional director of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said the war on drugs has been effective... "Temporarily, we look at it as successful," he said. I had a slightly different view in my recent post on Thailand. But I guess that the DEA feels that the death of 2,245 people without investigation is just peachy-keen in an effective war on drugs. The Thai government appeared to condone killing of drug suspects by unknown assailants as one method of fighting the drugs war," [Amnesty] said. Rights groups say most of the deaths were extrajudicial killings by police and security forces, in some cases under pressure to clear so-called blacklists of suspected drug dealers and users in their areas. Amnesty said that on February 20, Somjit Kuanyuyen learned she was on a blacklist and reported to her local police station in Ban Lam District.  After signing a paper and being told by police she was safe, Somjit returned home. "Four unidentified men in a one-tonne pickup truck with darkened windows drove up to her house and shot her seven times in front of her seven-year-old granddaughter and her seven-months pregnant daughter," Amnesty said. Hey, it saves all that pesky evidence gathering and trials and stuff. No wonder the DEA likes it. 10:53:43 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []