Sunday, December 10, 2006

The Drug Czar running the war in Afghanistan? Winning the hearts and minds of the people of Afghanistan. KABUL, Afghanistan: The top U.S. anti-drug official said Saturday that Afghan poppies would be sprayed with herbicide to combat an opium trade that produced a record heroin haul this year, a measure likely to anger farmers and scare Afghans unfamiliar with weed killers. I guess we've screwed up Afghanistan so badly already that the administration has decided we might was well turn the whole show over to John Walters to finish destroying the country, and ending hopes of protecting our interests in the region. The Afghan government has not publicly said it will spray, and President Hamid Karzai has said in the past that herbicides pose too big a risk, contaminating water and killing the produce that grows alongside poppies. But Walters said Karzai and other officials have agreed to ground spraying. "I think the president has said yes, and I think some of the ministers have repeated yes," Walters said without specifying when spraying would start. "The particulars of the application have not been decided yet, but yes, the goal is to carry out ground spraying." Who's in charge of this lunatic asylum? [Thanks, Allan] 9:41:09 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Learning the Wrong Lessons Via Blame the Drug War, comes the story of a drug suspect in Canada who shot two policemen (a third was shot by friendly fire) during a drug raid when he thought the people busting in were home invaders. So the head of the police union realizes that a change is in order. Not re-evaluating when home invasion is used in drug investigations (which would make sense), but rather... WINNIPEG needs a full-time, heavily armed SWAT team to respond to drug busts and other potentially dangerous searches, says the boss of the local police union. Loren Schinkel noted every other major Canadian city has a tactical team dedicated to that kind of situation, while Winnipeg is taking a big gamble by calling out its Emergency Response Unit on a case-by-case basis. "The reality is, with 80 per cent of the warrants executed in Winnipeg by the drug unit, weapons are located," he said. "We're really rolling the dice." Idiot. Using a full-time, heavily armed SWAT team for routine drug busts is not going to make them safer. But then again, he probably just wants to play with the cool toys. How many will die because he's a moron? 9:27:45 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

1000 words Radley Balko has the story. 9:09:53 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Getting your priorities straight With the tragic and unnecessary death of Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta and the serious questions regarding criminal misconduct by the police, bad policies, insufficient judicial oversight, and damage to relations in the African American community, naturally, it would make sense to see the political leaders stepping up and asking for investigations and changes. Well, Senator Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) is going to do something: Despite a failed attempt this year to ban candy made to taste like marijuana, the Georgia state Senate's chief proponent of the law said he will "definitely" bring the issue back up in January. "Will do. No doubt about it," said Sen. Vincent Fort, D Atlanta. Perhaps Senator Fort's constituents should suggest to him that he remove his head from his ass. [h/t Da Bronx News] Note: To be fair, Senator Fort was involved in organizing a community meeting about the Kathryn Johnston tragedy (although I've not found any public statements by him about the shooting), but still -- for marijuana flavored candy to be his legislative focus is just... idiotic. 1:40:53 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []