Author Archives: Pete

Great and terrible power, exercised with some lenience, is still great and terrible power.

Ken White at Popehat has an excellent post that’s extremely helpful for those who would like to understand the Holder memo and federal sentencing: The Eric Holder Memorandum on Mandatory Minimum Sentences, Explained He concludes: I’m not happy that the … Continue reading

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A Question for Michael Mukasey

One interesting reaction to Holder’s comments today came from a certain former Attorney General… Former AG Mukasey: Holder Has Wrong Approach on Mandatory Sentences “Mandatory minimums impose a certain rigidity in sentencing that’s not appropriate in the individual case,” Mukasey … Continue reading

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Odds and Ends

Should Marijuana Be Rescheduled? — Kevin Sabet, sounding really desparate to remain relevant given everything going on. What does Holder’s speech really mean? Who knows? It certainly had some attractive rhetoric, but at that level, you can afford good speechwriters, … Continue reading

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Open Thread

So much to talk about. – Sanjay Gupta on CNN – Attorney General vows to end the war on drugs, or do something about sentencing, or something. – DEA in the crossfire – Kevin Sabet apparently lies – Plan Mexico … Continue reading

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Intelligence laundering

That’s the phrase coined by Hanni Fakhoury that’s used in this Salon article about the DEA’s use of NSA data and subsequent fabrication of evidence trails. It’s an apt analogy, although the phrase sounds vaguely oxymoronic when referring to the … Continue reading

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Oh, to be drug czar

With Gil Kerlikowske scheduled to move to customs and borders, CelebStoner asked Tommy Chong about the drug czar position, ’cause face it – Tommy’s way more entertaining than Gil. Tommy Chong: If I Were Drug Czar The first thing I … Continue reading

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It’s the Sanjay Gupta show!

For those of you who have been asleep the past couple of days, one of the big pieces of news is that television doctor Sanjay Gupta has publicly apologized for his previous position on marijuana (video below) and now has … Continue reading

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The impulse to ban

This is just a little observation regarding how quick we are to rush to the assumption that a government ban is an appropriate solution to any problem. I was reading a non-drug-war-related piece over at The Reality-Based Community (about cell … Continue reading

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The war on drugs keeps us from helping people

Marijuana stops child’s severe seizures Wow. Powerful story. And this part really hit home: “I literally see Charlotte’s brain making connections that haven’t been made in years,” Matt said. “My thought now is, why were we the ones that had … Continue reading

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The drug war is abuse of the rule of law

It’s good to see the DEA/NSA story getting some traction. It’ll help some more people wake up to the systemic abuse of the law that is going on regularly in the name of the drug war. The notion of “parallel … Continue reading

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