Monday, June 18, 2007

So many things There's a whole lot going on in the world, so bear with me as I list a bunch of really interesting and/or important links. Radley Balko has a compelling video interview with Regina Kelly, one of the 27 black residents of Hearne, Texas arrested in a horrible travesty of justice. Fortunately she survived the ordeal and is talking about what happened. Phillip Smith covers Creepy Science -- an effort to develop tests to determine whether someone used drugs up to four months previous. And he rightly calls "bulls*it" on their claim that it's to help identify potential drug addicts earlier. The U.S. Supreme Court today unanimously ruled that a passenger in a car that has been pulled over is considered "seized" (as the Justices properly noted, he's certainly not under the impression that he can walk away), so that if the original stop was potentially questionable, the passenger could challenge it under the Fourth Amendment. Yes, a Fourth Amendment drug case where the Supreme Court ruled to protect the Fourth Amendment! Wow! The Sixth Circuit Court ruled today that email has Constitutional privacy protection, similar to phone calls. The ruling may not stand, however, based on some of the talk around the legal blogs. The strange case of What Ted Stevens, Bolivian cocaine and Halliburton have in common over at Salon. This story will make you sick regarding the utterly corrupt way contracting is done in the federal government. (It also makes you realize how logic and common sense has very little impact in the political world.) John Ross' The Annexation of Mexico is scary -- the notion of our even attempting to turn Mexico into another Colombia is frightening. But that's exactly what our government wants to do. A blast from the past: Short video of Ron Paul back in 1988 on the Morton Downey show responding to a drug war cheerleader audience member. Nails it. More stupidity in government. Canada telling doctors how much marijuana they can prescribe -- limiting it to five grams a day. "We don't need no stinking doctors to advise us on dosage. We're the government." The Bush administration is concerned that we don't have enough people in jail for long enough in this country, so they're pushing for more mandatory sentences as part of a Republican crime legislation package as a campaign issue for 2008. So expect a bunch of tough on drugs/crime rhetoric in the campaign, with the Republicans calling for more outrageous sentences and the Democrats whimpering "Me, too." 11:27:04 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Incarcerex 12:41:52 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Chicago's Vigil for Lost Promise The DEA is at it again. Tonight, they are sponsoring the Chicago Vigil for Lost Promise at Navy Pier (with information at chicagovigil.org). Naturally, I am countering with Chicago Vigil for Lost Promise (with info at chicagovigil.com). What we have here (and with the original Vigil for Lost Promise, and with the DEA Museum exhibits, etc.) is a blatant effort on the part of the DEA to help their own image through using the tragedy of people who have died. What makes it worse is that the DEA itself is, directly or indirectly, a cause of those deaths. It is the drug war, and the enforcement tactics used by the DEA, that increases violence and the dangers of drugs, that keeps young people from seeking help -- that shortens the promise of all those lives. I understand the pain of those who have lost loved ones. But for them to turn to the agency that contributed to their deaths for some kind of macabre celebration of the lethal drug war... is a sickness born of ignorance and despair. The fact that this vigil in Chicago tonight will be held at the obscene DEA-glorifying exhibit Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause at Navy Pier, just makes it worse. Of course, left out of this vigil will be the true victims. There will be no discussion of the lost promise of 14-year-old Ashley Villareal, who was killed by the DEA. Or those who have committed suicide since the DEA took away the medication they needed to live. Or all the broken families brought about from imprisoning non-violent drug offenders. The vigil is a sham. A publicity stunt for the DEA, dancing on the bodies of the dead. And, of course, all the usual suspects will be dancing -- including NBC5/Telemundo and the Chicago Sun-Times, Motorola; McDonald's; the Cebrin Goodman Center; the Richard Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust; Bensinger & DuPont Associates, Inc.; Families Changing America; TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communites); Prevention First; and the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, each of which will receive an "award" for dancing on dead people. "A Vigil for Lost Promise" is open to the public and will take place on Monday, June 18th at 6:30 p.m. in the Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier. By the way, if you type "Vigil for Lost Promise" into google, the first site you get is mine. Hopefully, some will arrive there by accident and learn something. 12:32:03 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []