Saturday, March 4, 2006

Drug WarRant nominated for Koufax Award This blog has received a nomination for the distinguished Koufax Award in the category of Best Single Issue Blog. It's an extremely competitive category with some amazing blogs, and it's great just to be listed with them. Stop by and vote for your favorite in the comments, or by email. (Only once) Here's the info on the voting, with links to other award categories as well. 11:53:51 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Opium free in 2 months Mohammed Daoud, governor of Afghanistan's Helmand province, either knows nothing about Afghanistan, or nothing about drugs. He has vowed to destroy all the opium in his province in two months (the Helmand province is the leading producer of opium in Afghanistan.) Mark May 4 on your calendar. Let's see how he does. 10:00:44 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Drug War Reporting Idiocy Award ... for today goes to Ianthia Smith, Guardian Staff Reporter, for the article Bahamas on winning side of drug war. Ianthia actually led off the article with: The Bahamas is one step closer to winning its drug war... On step closer to winning the drug war! Wow, that is big news. Especially since nobody in the history of the world has actually won a drug war yet (to my knowledge). But then again, maybe Ianthia meant it in the way I might say that, by eating a bowl of Wheaties this morning, I moved one step closer to winning an Olympic Gold Medal. Now, here's the evidence that the Bahamas is winning its drug war: Seizures of marijuana doubled in 2005, demonstrating the success of the drug war. Seizures of cocaine decreased in 2005, demonstrating the success of the drug war in previous years Kind of hard to lose when you measure it that way. 1:37:27 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

The Prince of Pot on 60 Minutes Must see TV. Tomorrow (Sunday, March 5), CBS's 60 Minutes (7 pm ET/PT, 6 pm CT), includes a segment on Marc Emery. I don't know how the segment will turn out, but this is the kind of visibility he needs. The last place he wants to be is in jail, but Emery says if the Canadian courts allow the U.S. government to extradite him and a U.S. jury puts him away, he still sees a silver lining. "I am blessed by what the DEA has done," he tells Simon. "I would rather see marijuana legalized than me being saved from a U.S. jail. I hope that if I am incarcerated, I can influence tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of young people to take up my cause." Note: There are a couple of short preview videos at the CBS page. [Thanks, Scott] 8:44:19 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []