Quick Notes and Reading

“bullet” You may want to avoid the war zone of Conroe, Texas during the extra-special additional one-year drug war that will be conducted there from August 1, 2004 to September, 2005, particularly if you’re black. (At D’Alliance).
“bullet” Last One Speaks has info on Ann Arbor, Michigan’s attempt to legalize medial marijuana. At some point in the future, I’ll try to do a run-down of the various ballot issues that will be coming up this fall (gotta wait for some of the signatures to be validated, particularly in Nevada, where they misplaced 6,000 of them).
“bullet” Also check out Last One Speaks for the news on marijuana’s positive effect on night vision.
“bullet” Be sure to read Jim’s article Drugs Sting Put Innocent Lives at Risk at Vice Squad. This is a pretty serious investigation going on in England regarding a sting where the agents solicited drugs and had them brought in to the country in order to buy them and make mid-level arrests, despite the fact that they knew a hostage might be killed. This isn’t stopping trafficking. It’s creating new drug trade in order to increase your arrests, despite serious potential danger.
The positive part of this story is that there was a customs agent who recognized that 1. it was wrong, and 2, the press would get the story eventually, and he put his concerns in writing.
“bullet” No official news on Andrea Barthwell’s potential run for Senate. Today, the big media interest was in Coach Ditka, who made noises like he might be considering it. I’m finding myself hoping for Andrea, simply because it might develop into a political discussion on the drug war. You’ve got Barack Obama, who used pot and cocaine as a youth, along with drug warrior Barthwell who is a former addict, and Kohn who is in favor of legalization. Hmmm….