Two weeks ago we that South Dakota medical marijuana patient Valerie Hanna had sued state attorney general Larry Long over a misleading (dishonest?) ballot summary of the state's upcoming initiative, charging the attorney general had violated state law. Yesterday Judge Max Gors opined in favor of Hanna -- and the rule of law -- according to the Associated Press:

"The whole impression leads one to believe that the attorney general wants voters to reject the initiative. The attorney general should confine his politicking to the stump and leave his bias out of the ballot statement that is supposed to be objective," Gors wrote.

The state is not appealing the decision because doing so would prevent them from meeting their ballot printing deadline of September 1. The AP story can be read for free on the web site of the Yankton Press & Dakotan, though you have to register first to get through. Score for our side! We told them so...

There was a story in the Santa Fe New Mexican this morning titled "Seized Poppies Perplex Officials" in which police raiding a marijuana plantation discoverd a tub full of poppies in the middle of the pot field. Despite a lack of clarity about whether the poppies in question were actually opium poppies (papaver somniferum), the cops consulted by the newspaper were ready to declare that the end times are upon us.

Immediately after Labor Day in September 1986, the leadership of the U.S. House of Representatives brought to the floor the hastily conceived and written Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. At the top of the national political agenda was the war on drugs. Catastrophic concepts like mandatory minimum sentences were forced back into the federal justice system. Certification of other nations as meeting U.S. anti-drug standards was required, poisoning America's image and relations with peoples around the world. The voices of reason were largely silenced by the echo chamber of anti-drug hysteria.