A report from the California Board of Equalization estimating that the state could take in $1.4 billion a year by legalizing and taxing marijuana is only adding to the mounting pressure for legalization in the Golden State, which is saddled with a $26 billion budget deficit.
Ryan Grim has produced an entertaining, enlightening, and absorbing social history of drug use in America. We have checked it out, and we think you should too.
As part of the Merida Initiative to provide Mexico with more than a billion dollars in anti-drug aid, Congress imposed human rights conditions on Mexico. Now, Human Rights Watch is urging the Obama administration to withhold some of that aid until Mexico deals with human rights abuses by its military.
Hawaii's Republican Gov. Linda Lingle vetoed a bill that would have created a task force to study problems and issues with the state's medical marijuana program. Now, the legislature has overridden that veto.
Eleven years after DC voters overwhelmingly approved a medical marijuana initiative, Congress is finally butting out. The House yesterday approved the annual District appropriations bill without the Barr amendment, which had barred the District from implementing that vote.
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"Ethan Nadelmann Challenges NAACP to Oppose the Drug War," "The Mexican Drug War is Losing Public Support," "Man Tries to Swallow Drugs, Gets Choked to Death by Police," "Congress Slashes Funding for Anti-Drug Propaganda," "Pablo Escobar's Pet Hippos Are Still Alive (And Causing Big Problems)," "How to Win a Marijuana Debate on Television," "'The Potent Smell of Marijuana Legalization is In the Air'," "No One Takes the Drug Czar's Office Seriously (Not Even the President)," "An Epidemic of Botched Drug Raids in Maryland," "I Was Turned Away Again Trying to Visit Medical Marijuana POW Will Foster in Jail Last Night," "I Visited Imprisoned Medical Marijuana Patient Will Foster in Jail Last Night," "New Hampshire Governor Vetoes Medical Marijuana Bill, A Handful of Additional Votes Needed to Override," "Big News: House Subcommittee Approves Legislation Eliminating the Needle Exchange Funding Ban."
It's a fascinating speech and I would have liked to see the audience's reaction for myself. It's an unfortunate reality that the case for drug policy reform has yet to be widely embraced in the African-American community and Ethan faced the unique challenge of presenting our argument to NAACP leaders in only 7 minutes.
Bonus: Here's some subsequent discussion from the same event, in which an audience member asks the panelists what they think about marijuana legalization.
In a report on the latest massacre of federal police in Mexico, the Los Angeles Times points out that the Mexican people seem to be losing faith in President Calderon's escalated campaign against the cartels:
"We cannot, we should not, we will not take one step backward in this matter," Calderon said Tuesday.
Mexicans seem skeptical. In a new poll, more than half of respondents said they believe the government is losing the war. Only 28% said it is winning, according to the survey, published Tuesday in the daily Milenio newspaper.
That frustration is becoming a big problem for Calderon:
MEXICO CITY - President Felipe Calderon suffered a setback in midterm elections yesterday when the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party unseated his party as the largest force in Mexicoâs fractured Congress in a vote that turned on the global economic crisis and the governmentâs crackdown on drug traffickers. [Boston Globe]
And it's only going to get worse. Calderon's crackdown has produced the opposite of its intended effect, which is exactly what one should always expect from aggressive tactics in the war on drugs. Violence and corruption will only continue to escalate and Calderon will inevitably be fighting for re-election amidst daily episodes of horrific street violence brought about by his own policies.
Calderon's predecessor Vicente Fox is now advocating discussion about legalizing drugs and it's probably just a matter of time before that debate becomes the central question in Mexican politics.
Just remember, the drug war is here to protect potential drug users from danger:
The poor man died on the scene with a broken bone in his throat and according to Chief Deputy Ard of the Livingston Parish Sheriff's Office, "there's no regret" about what happened. Check out Ryan Grim's chilling interview at the Huffington Post, in which Ard rambles in defense of using these sorts of tactics in the war on drugs.
Inevitably, when police are done investigating their own actions, it will be determined that everyone followed procedure. And that may very well be the case, because police are generally encouraged to choke the hell out of anyone who they suspect of attempting to swallow drug evidence.
The larger question -- and the one no police investigation would dare attempt to address â is whether a rational and humane drug policy would produce outcomes like this. How many among us can watch police literally squeeze the life out of this frightened man and say that justice has been served? How many among us would call that a fair sentence for the crime of possessing and attempting to conceal a small bag of drugs?
The police say they released this footage because they believe it vindicates the officers involved. Yet, in the process, they've indicted the very foundations of the war on drugs itself. Once again, we may watch with our own eyes as our drug laws destroy everything they were supposed to protect.