Author Archives: Pete

The Commission on Narcotic Drugs (UNODC) is now in its 59th session (through March 22). This session is partly in preparation for the major UNGASS 2016 (United Nations General Assembly Special Session) next month that will be focusing on international … Continue reading →

So, President Obama announced his nominee for the Supreme Court this morning. As many have noted, it’s likely that a lot of the decision as to who was nominated was political, to shame the Republicans who refuse to even hold … Continue reading →

I know this was already mentioned in comments, but feel it’s worth highlighting. Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism What does this rule change mean for you? In … Continue reading →

Just got back from a week in New York as tour guide for a wonderful group of students, and saw some great shows, including Smokefall, Nice Fish, Fun Home, Hamilton, and Eclipsed. Beautiful weather and we saw a lot of … Continue reading →

Christopher Ingraham in the Washington Post: Legal marijuana is finally doing what the drug war couldn’t The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in … Continue reading →

The site had a bit of a meltdown for awhile today as several plug-ins suddenly stopped working correctly. Plug-ins are third-party additions to WordPress that allow additional functionality in the blog, and we use a number of them. Sometimes you … Continue reading →

Via 420Intel, the Drug Policy Alliance has developed a set of stock photos that’s available for use for free. Media outlets continue to use stereotypical “stoner” images for otherwise serious news stories about marijuana. The Drug Policy Alliance is offering … Continue reading →

The recent explosion of comic-book-sourced movies and television shows have had the luxury of creating entire classes of bad guys – meta-humans, aliens, super villains, etc., and there’s no need for writers to actually know anything about the science, economics, … Continue reading →

Powerful essay in Spiegel by Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations: Lift the Ban! Kofi Annan on Why It’s Time To Legalize Drugs Prohibition has had little impact on the supply of or demand for drugs. When … Continue reading →

Over the years here, we’ve talked a lot about economics and the drug war, and how obvious it is that the drug war cheerleaders are clueless (sometimes intentionally) about the basics of economics. NPR did a piece about Tom Wainwright, … Continue reading →