Tuesday, December 2, 2003

The Great Debate (Part 2) Part 2: Each debater was given 2 minutes to rebut the first round comments. What to watch for: William Bennett: Trying desperately to dump his debating partner, and clinging to his one-statistic argument. Gary Johnson: Bats around Bennett's statistic, and gives a human interest story on mandatory sentencing. Charlie Rangel: Still thinks he's debating education policy, and then, apparently to his view, sarcastically suggests growing drugs in America. Kurt Schmoke: Continues to push harm reduction and uses tobacco to show how ridiculous prohibition is. - Read the rest - 10:34:03 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Fear of toilet flushing trumps citizen rights yet again. Supreme Court rules in favor of police barging in. The court ruled 9-0 that if police had waited any longer than 20 seconds, a drug suspect could be flushing evidence down the toilet... Justice David H. Souter, writing for the court, said that because police believed there were drugs in his apartment, officers had more reason to rush. "Police seeking a stolen piano may be able to spend more time to make sure they really need the battering ram,'' Souter wrote. 9-0. Because of potential toilet flushing. So instead, we'll probably get more of this. 10:27:25 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

The Great Debate (Part 1) On Thursday, I told you about a debate that was scheduled on C-Span. It ended up getting pushed back due to coverage of a Thanksgiving Dinner, so I missed it when it aired, but the full audio is available at Drug Sense (RealAudio file) and I finally got a chance to listen to it. I planned to just give a report, but it was really quite interesting, so I ended up transcribing large sections of it for you. The event: The Debate of the 21st Century on "The Future of American Drug Policy" (held in New York City in October). The participants: Republican Activist William Bennett and Democratic Congressman Charles Rangel vs. Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and Former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke (moderated by drug war cheerleader Joseph Califano). Each participant started with 6 minutes to make their presentation, followed by 2 minutes of rebuttal and then questions from the audience. Today, I'll just give you the first section (the 6-minute presentations). What to look for: - Read the Rest of the Story - 1:33:21 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Mushrooms worse than Murder Via Random Act of Kindness, comes this story. In Kansas, Stephen Fletcher tried to grow some psychedelic mushrooms in his apartment. Also in Kansas, Tremain V. Scott shot a man 18 times at close range, killing him. Both men are in their 20's with little or no criminal conviction record. Scott is facing 4-6 years. Fletcher is facing at least 11 1/2 years. Yep, that's the criminal justice system. 12:54:35 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []