A Must-See Tear-Jerker, Four Stars
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:01 PM

Watch the short promo film from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Moving pictures worth a thousand academic articles.

Labels: drugs, Prohibition

 
Hope Remains for an Anti-Porn Campaign
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:31 AM

About one year ago, a trial judge engaged in some connect-the-dots reasoning to throw out federal obsenity charges against the proprieters of the hardcore pornographic film distributor Extreme Associates. Last month, a three-judge appeals court panel unanimously overturned the ruling. Their reasoning? It isn't the balliwick of mere judges to engage in connect-the-dots reasoning. Only the justices of the Supreme Court can overturn precedent. Here's the Adult Video News (not work safe) story. Will Baude predicted this turn of events, incidentally, and provided the controlling case that the appeals panel cited. Next stop is a possible en banc review, but I suspect that the appeals court ruling will survive any scrutiny at that level.

Labels: obscenity, pornography

 
British Drug Developments
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:35 AM

2006 has been a busy year for drug developments, at least in the pages of the Guardian. January 1 brought into the legal code some tough new measures -- now why hadn't anyone thought of that before? If the government thinks you might be one of those drug-swallowing mules, they can now hold you for 192 hours, just to see what might pass through your system. (What sort of half-hearted crackdown is this, anyway? The 192 hours in closely-supervised detention should be mandatory for all travellers arriving in Britain. It's a small price to pay for the children.)

The government says the tougher measures are part of a clampdown on those selling illegal drugs on the streets of Britain. "The damage caused to individuals and families by drugs can be devastating," said Paul Goggins, the Home Office minister responsible for drugs policy.

"Drug misuse can ruin lives and we're determined to tackle this by putting more drug dealers behind bars and getting more addicts into treatment..."

That should take care of it then.

More sound drug policy reform is on its way, as the Home Secretary continues to position himself to raise the classification of cannabis. The previous Home Secretary allowed cannabis to become a Class C drug, where possessors could only be imprisoned for two years and sellers for 14 years. This sort of leniency towards consensual adult behavior cannot be tolerated, of course.

These hopeful developments come on the heels of the tremendous success last summer of closing the loophole that allowed psilocybin mushroom buyers and sellers to avoid jail. Oddly, though, people seem to be finding other means by which to become high. Well, at least that provides some space for future crackdowns. Everyone likes a good crackdown.

Labels: Britain, drugs, mushrooms