Author Archives: Pete

USA Today came out with an editorial opposing civil asset forfeiture. When police play bounty hunter: Our view Civil asset forfeiture is government at its absolute worst — intimidating helpless citizens for its own benefit. It needs to go away. … Continue reading →

Disturbing article from the excellent new The Marshall Project: Right and Left Unite on Drug Sentencing. What Could Possibly Go Wrong? There’s a big bi-partisan push for sentencing reform. What could go wrong is that Senator Charles Grassley will now … Continue reading →

This has been out for a bit (and even had some discussion in comments here), but I really wanted to put it front and center, because this kind of thing really demonstrates the kinds of outrages that exist in the … Continue reading →

SNL Mocks NYC’s New Weed Policy: You Can Have It, But You Can’t Smoke It In Public Nicely done humor piece. Via Maia Szalavitz, an example of the complete lack of professionalism (and facts) in so much drug science reporting. … Continue reading →

Ethan Nadelmann has a pretty powerful Ted talk: What has the war on drugs done to the world, which includes this apt description of our drug war exports: “international projection of a domestic psychosis.” Personally, I’m a 7-day-a-week legalizer, but … Continue reading →

Los Angeles Times once again doing its best Daily Mail impression: Regular pot smokers have shrunken brains, study says Of course, if you actually read the article, you discover that the researchers discovered several minor differences between smokers and non-smokers … Continue reading →

One of the things I find that absolutely stuns people when I give talks about drug policy reform is the totally corrupt system of civil asset forfeiture in this country, that allows the seizure of assets (from cash to cars … Continue reading →

Marijuana Overdoses Kill 46 In Oregon During First Week Of Legalization Only four days after Measure 91 passed, Oregon is reconsidering it’s decision to legalize recreational marijuana. According to a report in the The Oregonion, 46 people were killed across … Continue reading →

Jacob Sullum really nails it in this piece: Fear of Cannabis Commerce Didn’t, Won’t, and Shouldn’t Stop Legalization, where he takes on both Kevin Sabet and his “Big Marijuana” mantra, and Mark Kleiman’s kinder, gentler non-profit-based prohibition lite. Sabet warns … Continue reading →

Tuesday was definitely a great day for drug policy reform. With cannabis outperforming most of the candidates, it may even start to sink in with more politicians that opposing drug policy reform is bad politics and not worth the “contributions” … Continue reading →