Open Thread

“bullet” Missoula to enforce lowest priority measure:

Nearly a year after voters made the Garden City a little greener by asking county law enforcement to ignore adult marijuana offenses, Missoula’s top prosecutor has adopted an official policy to uphold the referendum.
“In the interest of compliance with the 2006 voter initiative on marijuana . we are asking law enforcement officers to stop arresting individuals or writing and submitting tickets ( with mandatory appearance dates ) where the offense committed is solely possession of marijuana in misdemeanor amounts or possession of drug paraphernalia intended for use of marijuana,” according to a draft of the policy by Missoula County Attorney Fred Van Valkenburg, an outspoken opponent of the measure.
Van Valkenburg’s policy also instructs deputy prosecutors to charge misdemeanor marijuana cases on a lowest-priority basis when marijuana is the sole offense

Nice to see a prosecutor who is willing to follow the law.
“bullet” A report on a government operation to demonstrate to High School students that American have no rights.

On the morning of Friday, October 12, 2007, Steinert High School in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, was flooded by police with five drug-sniffing dogs accompanied by a prosecutor and school officials. The whole student body was arrested by being detained in various classrooms and forced to wait while the search of their lockers verified that each student was innocent of drug possession. Every locker got searched. And every student was under technical arrest until cleared of drug possession, approaching unlawful imprisonment.
The school sent us a letter home with our son saying it was a “…pre-planned search of student lockers using trained narcotics detections dogs.” It continued, “As per our ongoing protocol of ensuring a safe and orderly drug-free environment…this search was a component of our program to deter illegal activity.” There was no reasonable suspicion of any drug activity. It seems that this search was itself an illegal activity because it was a warrantless dragnet, pure and simple.

Guess how much drugs they found?
I wonder how they teach the Political Science in that school? Maybe like abstinence-only sex and drug education, they teach from a heavily redacted Constitution.
“bullet” At another High School, a student who understands rights has written a short play based on a famous Supreme Court case.

‹Bong Hits 4 Jesus,Š written and directed by junior James Dennin, is a dialogue between a student and a principal over the freedom of speech, inspired by the Supreme Court case Frederick v. Morse. […] ‹The ruling raised the question of, to what extent do students have rights,Š said Dennin.

“bullet” Alex at Drug Law Blog expresses one of my pet peeves

What he’s saying is

1. A drug has the potential to harm people.
2. Therefore, the use of the drug should be against the law.

This is pretty much the standard analysis of most folks in law enforcement, not only around salvia but around all recreational drug use. But how do we get from 1 to 2?

Yes, it’s a variation on the Underpants Gnome syndrome. And it’s extremely pervasive in this country on both the right and the left.
“bullet” Nice piece by LEAP’s Jerry Cameron: Praise for Restoring a Life