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Drug War

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Guatemala Times

We have a better suggestion: take the money away from Mexico and Colombia, have the narcos return to their countries of origin. Make an air bridge and import the drugs legally into the US. Mexico prospers, Colombia prospers, the US takes care of their problem and we are out of this idiotic war on drugs.

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RawStory.com

A proposed plan to solve California’s budget crisis would reduce the state’s prison population by 27,000, it was reported Tuesday, as opposition to the new fiscal deal mounted.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the budget deal, announced by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and bipartisan lawmakers on Monday, would involve the early release of thousands of inmates.

The Times said the reduction would be achieved through a combination of measures including allowing prisoners to finish their sentences on home detention and creating incentives for completion of drug rehabilitation plans.

 

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San Francisco Weekly

Mail-in voting closes Tuesday on Measure F, a new ordinance in Oakland which would impose a special tax on sales of medical marijuana in the city's dispensaries. The measure would make Oakland the first city in the United States to have a business tax category for marijuana merchants.

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Washington Post

Federal authorities are investigating whether a group of Washington area police officers took money to protect a high-stakes gambling ring frequented by some of the region's most powerful drug dealers over the past two years, according to internal police documents and law enforcement sources.

The officers include five veterans in Prince George's County, a District police official and a former D.C. Housing Authority officer. Two under investigation have been spotted on police surveillance outside gambling sites, including one providing security in tactical gear. Witnesses have alleged that others wore police uniforms and drove marked cruisers to gatherings. One was arrested in a police raid outside a game with a handgun.

 

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Examiner

[Tax & regulate] will keep the state's drug warriors giddy with power and tax-subsidized weaponry as they continue to kick in doors and beat in heads of those participating in the officially illegal marijuana trade.

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Drug War Chronical

Judge John Delaney didn't throw the book at him -- he was sentenced to one year in jail, with all but 45 days suspended -- but threw him a curveball instead. While under the court's supervision for the next year, Newland must not exercise his First Amendment right to advocate for marijuana law reform in South Dakota.

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AP

A pro-marijuana group is launching another television bid to legalize pot in California — this time with the pitch that legalizing and taxing the drug could help solve the state's massive budget deficit.

The 30-second spot, airing Wednesday and paid for by the Marijuana Policy Project, features a retired 58-year-old state worker who says state leaders "are ignoring millions of Californians who want to pay taxes."

 

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Examiner

The statistics are frightening. Seven of the top ten drugs being abused by teenagers today are legal prescriptions or over-the-counter medications. The intentional abuse of prescription drugs has been identified by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy as the second most abused substance by teenagers. Marijuana still ranks first but it is quickly followed by painkillers, tranquilizers, stimulants and sedatives.

News Link • Global Reported By Anonymous Watchman
Article Image CONNECTING THE DOTS

“After 40 years of such publicity stunts and bravado from cops and prosecutors, the citizens know a circus show when they see it.  When parents were young, they could buy pot, LSD, qualudes, etc., with 1-2 phone calls.  Today their teen offspring can buy pot, heroin or X with 1-2 phone calls—at cheaper prices and much stronger purity. 

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Washington Post

Mexican prosecutors announced Sunday they have put 93 police officers and investigators under house arrest on suspicion of aiding the Zetas, a feared gang of hit men tied to the Gulf drug cartel.

Corruption scandals have long plagued Mexican law enforcement, but the detentions represented one of the biggest single roundups of suspected officers in recent years. It came as investigators have been increasingly reporting finds of apparent payroll lists of police officers in the possession of drug traffickers.

 

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Liberty for All

Mr. Kubby and his team of scientists are developing more effective ways to produce and commercialize the production of whole plant cannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products.  His new company, Cannabis Science Inc. (NASD OTCBB: CBIS), brings an opportunity to the libertarian community which has rarely, if ever, been offered before.

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Raw Story

“[British] papers gave varying accounts of the exact technique used by police, with the Times saying that officers poured water on a cloth and placed it over a suspect’s face to simulate the experience of drowning,” reported the Associated Press. “The Daily Mail said police officers repeatedly dunked the suspects’ heads in buckets of water. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.”

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arclein

It is unsurprising that folks who are immersed in economic thinking agree that the drug war cannot work. I admit that that was the road taken to my personal position and no other issues have actually been able to give me room for modification of that position. Plainly human actions have economic consequences and governmental actions have direct influence on those consequences. It follows as night follows day that successfully modifying human outcomes must first come from effective government action.

News Link • Global Reported By robert klein
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McClatchy News

Some pilots have been sent to Afghanistan under duress or as punishment for bucking their superiors.

Such complaints, so far mostly arising from the DEA's Aviation Division, could complicate the Obama administration's efforts to send dozens of additional DEA agents to Afghanistan as part of a civilian and military personnel "surge" that aims to stabilize the country.

 

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The Vancouver Sun

[The 1995 WHO Cocaine Project] sought the advice of experts from around the world, assessed cocaine use from Australia to Zimbabwe, and is the largest global study on cocaine ever conducted.

But a brief look at some of the study's conclusions and recommendations reveals why it has been buried for the past 14 years.

 

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arclein

This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won. “We’ve spent a trillion dollars prosecuting the war on drugs,” Norm Stamper, a former police chief of Seattle, told me. “What do we have to show for it? Drugs are more readily available, at lower prices and higher levels of potency. It’s a dismal failure.”

News Link • Global Reported By robert klein
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by Ron Paul.  Last week, another bill was passed and signed into law that takes more of our freedoms and violates the Constitution of the United States.  It was, of course, done for the sake of the children, and in the name of the health of the citizenry.  It’s always the case that when your liberty is seized, it is seized for your own good.  Such is the condescension of Washington. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will give sweeping new powers over tobacco to the FDA.  It will require everyone engaged in manufacturing, preparing, compounding, or processing tobacco to

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AP

When undercover detectives busted Jose and Maximo Colon last year for selling cocaine at a seedy club in Queens, there was a glaring problem: The brothers hadn't done anything wrong.

But proclaiming innocence wasn't going to be good enough. The Dominican immigrants needed proof.

"I sat in the jail and thought ... how could I prove this? What could I do?" Jose, 24, recalled

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Time magazine

Why, then, is tobacco giant Philip Morris, unlike its industry brethren, celebrating the unprecedented oversight?
 
With 50% of the U.S. tobacco market already safely in the company's pocket — and more than 50% of 18- to 25-year-old smokers loyal to its top brand, Marlboro — restrictive legislation will effectively lock in its market dominance, preventing any competitors from taking a bite out of Philip Morris' very lucrative business.

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Washington Post

Landmark legislation approved by the Senate yesterday will give the federal government sweeping new powers to oversee tobacco products, allowing regulators to control factors including the amount of addictive nicotine in a cigarette and how that cigarette is packaged and marketed.

midfest.info