This report from CBS News is a perfect example of how much the debate has changed. The story itself is great (a revealing look into the unimpressive origins of our marijuana laws), but it's the packaging and context that jumped out at me.

(CBS)  This story was written by Charles Cooper and Declan McCullagh as part of a new CBSNews.com special report on the evolving debate over marijuana legalization in the U.S. Click here for more of the series, Marijuana Nation: The New War Over Weed

The giant "Marijuana Nation" banner at the top of the page is emblematic of the mainstream media's sudden fascination with marijuana legalization. Unsurprisingly, the story is pulling huge web traffic thanks to Digg.com, whose visitors love stories about legalizing marijuana.

It took a long time, but the press has finally picked up on the fact that skeptical drug war reporting is extremely popular with the public. That simple concept appears to be reshaping and amplifying the drug policy debate right before our eyes.

At a White House meeting earlier today:

The new director of the Office of National Drug Policy, former Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, was on hand as well. But not even Obama's retentive mind could recall his full title.

"I just wanted you to know, as well as the new director of our office of -- I always forget the full name of this -- I call it the Drug Czar . . .

"I'm fine with that," Kerlikowske interrupted. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

The Office of National Drug Control Policy has been such a joke for so long now that it comes as no surprise that the President can't even remember what it's called. No wonder the office was downgraded from cabinet status.

What an embarrassment. Can we please just cancel ONDCP altogether and save everyone the humialtion of trying to remember what it stands for?

Radley Balko has a new piece at Reason showing that the disastrous Cheye Calvo raid is just the tip of the iceberg. His conclusion is sad, but probably correct:

Terrible as it sounds, it may well take more mistaken raids on high-status victims like Calvo to generate real debate over the wisdom of using violent, high-risk police tactics to serve warrants for nonviolent crimes.

Hopefully Calvo's lawsuit, along with the new SWAT monitoring legislation he helped pass, will bring about needed changes without any more lives having to be lost. I'd hate to think that further bloodshed is the only path to reform.