Archive for the ‘Cannabis’ tag
Columbia police change policy following SWAT drug raid
Image by OregonDOT via Flickr
Regular readers of this blog know I’ve been following the disastrous Missouri raid that was videotaped by police, went viral, and resulted in an enormous public backlash. The Columbia police have now responded to the negative publicity by tailoring SWAT procedure.
Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton says under the department’s new protocol, police will keep target locations under surveillance before sending in SWAT teams. Also, police will do their best to conduct searches within eight hours of receiving a warrant. Drug search warrants must now be approved by higher-ranking police captains rather than drug officers or SWAT commanders. Police will also take the presence of children into consideration.
It’s sweet of them to take child safety into consideration, considering Jonathan Whitworth, the target of the raid, was charged with child endangerment when the cops found a bit of weed in his home. Meanwhile, the cops, who stormed into Whitworth’s home, guns blazing, were probably congratulated on a job well done when they returned to the station.
Confusing details emerge about Missouri SWAT team warrant
Image by OregonDOT via Flickr
A follow-up to the Missouri SWAT team story. Unsurprisingly, the Missouri police chief has gone on the defensive and started accusing the internets of being comprised of a bunch of liars.
Pete Guither makes an interesting point about the timing of the warrant. The whole reason given for the night raid was that the suspect is a big, bad drug dealer, and the bust had to be a surprise because otherwise he’d transport his mountains of pot he definitely possessed out of the house through — as Pete hypothesizes — complex underground tunnels…or something.
The warrant authorizing investigators to enter Whitworth’s home at 1501 Kinloch Court was executed eight days after Boone County Associate Circuit Judge Leslie Schneider approved it. [Police chief Ken] Burton said the state allows police 10 days to execute a signed warrant, and he thinks Columbia officers should have done so immediately.
Okay, so Tony Soprano Jonathon Whitworth is a criminal mastermind sitting on top of a heap of marijuana, he poses a grave threat to the very fabric of society, and he must! be taken down…next week.
Honestly discussing Mexico's drug violence and the failed War on Drugs
Image via Wikipedia
I witnessed one of the more pointless conversations on Morning Joe this morning when the crew chatted about Mexican drug cartel violence.
The panel charged with discussing this serious issue was particularly abysmal. There was Kathleen Parker, glowing from the recent announcement that she will be receiving a Pulitzer Prize to commemorate her brave decision to turn against the self-destructing Republican Party seven years after the start of the Iraq occupation, and a couple years after stating that President Obama is not a full-blooded American.
Beside Kathleen sat Thomas “Suck. On. This” Friedman, who is also a Pulitzer winner (they spent about a minute congratulating Parker for entering the exclusive “Really??Club,”) and also — why not? — Pat Buchanan. Because I know when I want to have a nuanced discussion about foreign policy and relations with Mexico, I call the guy who told Iraq citizens to suck on his dick and the lunatic who wants to station armed soldiers on the US-Mexican border, respectively.
Government adviser fired for saying alcohol is more dangerous than drugs
Professor David Nutt (Photo from Daily Mail)
The Guardian reports that Professor David Nutt, the British government’s chief drug adviser, has been fired after claiming that ecstasy and LSD are less dangerous than alcohol.
So continues the journey to failure first instigated by the British and United States government four decades ago when the two governments implemented their long and pointless “Wars on Drugs.”
If you’re one of the 34 percent of admirably plucky and stubborn Americans who don’t think the War on Drugs is failing, perhaps examining the idiotic way in which the British government handles drugs will inspire you to see the flaws in supporting laws that arbitrarily dictate what substances human beings can and cannot ingest.
Putting Lipstick On Our Strung-Out Pig
Great news, patriots! The Obama administration’s new drugs czar says he wants to banish the War on Drugs! Pack your bong! Hug a crackhead! Tell Central America to come out of hiding!
Well, maybe not just yet. The War on Drugs is still with us, but it’s probably going to have a fancy new name, sort of like how the War on Terror is now the Overseas Contingency Operation. Maybe we can call it the Columbia Reconfiguration Hug Squad, or US-Central American Care Package.
Gil Kerlikowske wants to rebrand the idea that the United States is fighting a war on drugs because fighting a war against drugs would be idiotic and a total waste of time, money, and lives. The US would probably lose a war against an irrepressible, intangible idea like terror, or freedom in the case of drugs — freedom for individuals to escape their fucked-up existences. In fact, the U.S. has lost these wars, just as it will lose any war where its strategy is to swing wildly in the dark, while throwing handfuls of cash at nothing.
When Kerlikowske and Obama rebrand the War on Drugs, their goal should be to pick a new name that will take our minds off the fact that the government has spent $18 billion on the War on Drugs Columbia Reconfiguration Hug Squad this year alone, and counting. And that doesn’t include money spent at the state and local levels. No one seems to have a clear idea of how much the entire program has cost US taxpayers, except a lone conference of mayors that once estimated the price tag at around $40 billion a year. Now, multiply that figure by about 30 years. Yikes.
