Drug WarRantThis blog looks at the front lines of the drug war, with news, analysis, and the occasional rant.Pandering to Economists- July 14, 2008 Economics professor N. Gregory Mankiw has an OpEd in the New York Times What If the Candidates Pandered to Economists It's a light piece about how the campaign might be different if McCain and Obama were trying to court the votes of economists, and it includes: Liberalize Drug Policy Many economists marry their support of economic freedom with a similar support of personal freedom. Drug policy is a case in point. A 2006 poll of professional economists asked whether the United States should.http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/14.html#a2928 Odds and Ends- July 14, 2008 Grits for Breakfast reports on a police officer's approach to conducting his job Investigators found that the sergeant had used drug evidence with the wrong cases, disposed of narcotics evidence and improperly stored evidence envelopes in his desk. The probe also revealed that Leal could not account for drugs allegedly purchased by a confidential informant and used by Leal as the basis for five search warrants. During a subsequent polygraph test, Leal admitted that for at least two of...http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/13.html#a2927 Open Thread- July 11, 2008 Graham Boyd continues his reports from Vienna conference on drug policy, including some intriguing stuff regarding attempts from the ONDCP office to sabotage their efforts. Day Two and Day Three U of Central Florida column by Ben Badio: Legalizing Marijuana Will Ruin A Great Culture Imagine a world where pot becomes the cultural equivalent of smoking cigarettes, something that is done, or not done, but cultureless either way. Imagine how humorless, dramaless and boring the TV show Weeds.http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/11.html#a2925 Shameless Plug- July 10, 2008 My show opens in Chicago tomorrow evening. "Unsex Me Here" - a Living Canvas production - running July 11 through August 16, Fridays and Saturdays at 11 pm at National Pastime Theater, 4139 N. Broadway in Chicago. Powerful movement, mesmerizing imagery, a meaty rib taken from the side of the Scottish play, unexpected humor, and naked people on scaffolding... doing Shakespeare. The show runs an hour and is followed by an optional Q&A with the cast and... me. Tickets are $15 each, but readers..http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/10.html#a2924 Another bad drug bust -- this time with attitude- July 9, 2008 Radley Balko has the story of another drug raid gone wrong, this one in Troy, New York, terrifying a young single mother -- no guns, no drugs. Apparently it was based on a bad tip, with no follow-up buys or confirmation (and also apparently four houses were raided that morning and all turned up nothing). But check out the interview with Troy Police Sergeant David Dean: Sgt. Dean: "We did not hit the wrong house, we hit the house that the search warrant directed us to hit." ... Anya: "Do you.http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/09.html#a2923 A human rights-based global drug policy- July 8, 2008 The ACLU is presenting this week at the Beyond 2008 Forum in Vienna, as part of the input toward the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 10 year evaluation of world drug policy. Remember, 10 years ago, the UN proclaimed "A Drug Free World - We Can Do It" and they set goals of "eliminating or significantly reducing the illicit cultivation of coca bush, the cannabis plant and the opium poppy by the year 2008." Obviously, that failed spectacularly, not that any of the players will be rushing.http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/08.html#a2922 Open Thread- July 8, 2008 The New York Times editorial that I mentioned last week has generated some Letters to the Editor. Califano's letter is so... Califano -- he just can't stop himself from making up bizarre statistics. Clarence Page phones in a column about the drug war Don't forget the war next door. Come on, Clarence -- what a waste of prime newspaper real estate! You could be a voice on the drug war, if you'd only grow a pair. On the other hand, Josh Strawn hits one out of the park with War on Drugs..http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2008/07/08.html#a2921 |