Thursday, January 26, 2006

Colonel Klink stumbles into escape tunnel. Hogan moves the gang into tunnel B Feds smoke out largest drug tunnel yet It runs from Tijuana, Mexico, to Otay Mesa, California. [...] Officials said the tunnel is about seven-tenths of a mile (1,148 meters) or more than 1,200 yards long. Initial reports said it is 5 feet high and 3.5 feet wide. [...] Made of concrete, the passageway had lighting, electricity, ventilation and a pump to remove water, said Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.[...] An investigation is under way to determine who built the passageway. Sergant Schultz was interviewed by authorities but knew nothing. 5:46:39 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Students about to give Department of Education a Lesson That's right. A student group is suing the Department of Education, because, well, the Department of Education is apparently made up of a bunch of morons. Students for Sensible Drug Policy is an incredible activist group that has been working tirelessly to overturn the stupid and counter-productive Higher Education Act provision that denies financial aid to those who get any kind of drug conviction. This law they're fighting is the garbage created by sado-moralist Mark Souder and his ilk. In order to pursue the next step in their effort, SSDP filed a Freedom Of Information request to find out state by state how many students had been denied financial aid because of this law. The Department of Education is happy to provide the information, and when requested to provide information that is in the public interest, it is standard procedure to waive the very large processing fee (about $4,000 in this case). However, the tic-tac-toe playing, single-digit-composite-ACT-scoring, can't-divide-by-10-in-their-head apparatchiks in the Department of Education decided (after looking at the website of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and concluding that these students were in favor of drug legalization) that providing the requested information would not serve the public interest, but rather the commercial interests of those who might profit from the legalization of drugs. I kid you not. Students for Sensible Drug Policy Public Citizen lawsuit press release Text of the Lawsuit (pdf) DARE Generation Diary Jacob Sullum's nice takedown at Hit and Run 3:16:27 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Marijuana and Psychosis With all the hysterical media in Britain going on and on about how marijuana makes everyone go psychotic, I've been surprised that I haven't heard more of that Reefer Madness style reporting in the U.S. -- in fact, there's been little in the press here about the connection. Well, the Boston Globe tackled the subject in Studies Link Psychosis, Teenage Marijuana Use by Carey Goldberg. And it's a remarkably well-balanced job of reporting. (Even the headline uses the word "link" instead of indicating causality.) While showing the potential concern over the subject, the article makes clear that causality has not been determined, that even if marijuana does provide some cause for concern, it's only for a small percent of the population, only for those pre-disposed toward psychosis, and only for those who start smoking as children. And the reporter got reactions from NORML as well. Other than missing the opportunity to mention self-medication, the reporter did a good job. As this story gets more play in the states, it seems to me that there's two things we need to continue to emphasize. The lack of strict causality evidence, and the fact that there are other reasonable explanations for the links The fact that marijuana legalization models include regulating the abuse of marijuana by children, something that prohibition does not. If we want to seriously think about reducing abuse at young ages, we need to look at legalization and age regulation. 2:47:24 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []