Blogosphere Parasites
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:50 AM

Something amazing has happened over at Crescat Sententia: it has been hijacked. I don't understand it, but you can learn more (starting here) at Crescat's new home.

As for Vice Squad, it just seems as if we have been hijacked. What we have been is in all-but-complete hibernation, which will continue, alas, at least through the rest of 2006.

Labels: Crescat

 
Vice Governor
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:23 PM

Sam's Wine and Spirits is a very large seller of alcoholic beverages with two locations in the Chicago area, and it comes highly recommended from Crescateer Will Baude. In recent months it has been facing a slew of allegations about illegal practices from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission. Don't be too worried, Sam's has a lawyer, and just hired a second one: former Illinois governor James R. Thompson. Where is the case against Sam's being argued? At the James R. Thompson Center in downtown Chicago, of course.

It is amazing that the former Governor could spare some time for Sam's, given his involvement with tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris. His name even comes up when casinos are mentioned.

Labels: alcohol, Chicago, Crescat, Illinois, tobacco

 
Vice is Elsewhere -- More-or-Less Permanently
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:38 PM

Our final class meeting in the 2005 version of the Regulation of Vice course at the University of Chicago took place last week, and the exam is scheduled for Tuesday. With the summer ahead and a semi-sabbatical in store for next year, I will try to devote myself to finishing up the book I have been composing (decomposing?) on vice policy. Ryan has elected to graduate on Saturday, instead of hanging around as my research assistant -- there's no understanding the priorities of youth. And so, for me at least, it seems to be a propitious moment to step aside from blogging. Yes, to the delight of dozens, Vice Squad as we have come to know it will cease to exist. For your vice policy fixes, please visit the links on the sidebar. Pete at Drug WarRant will be particularly worth checking out as the implications of today's Supreme Court decision filter down.

If I may, let me take a second to mention how enjoyable this blogging gig has been for me. I feel close to many people whom I have never met, thanks to their e-mails or their blog posts. My co-bloggers, Nikkie, Mike, Ryan, and the taciturn Bernard have been wonderful and supportive. Many readers wrote in with suggestions and criticisms -- I am much obliged. Will Baude, despite his own stubbornness in graduating last year, deserves thanks for showing me the blogging ropes and leading by example. In this case, I will ignore Hamlet and use a man after his desert: thanks Will.

The end of Vice Squad as we know it does not mean the end of Vice Squad categorically. I hope to continue to post occasionally, and welcome the co-bloggers to continue to post whenever they are so moved. But I think that we will do a better job of backing away from blogging than Andrew Sullivan appears to have done, though not as well as Jacob Levy has managed. Will Baude and Jacob Levy, incidentally, are jointly responsible (via blog posts) for my current reading of Czeslaw Milosz's The Captive Mind -- more evidence of the beneficial influences of blogospheric activity. I hope that somewhere along the line, Vice Squad has had some positive influence, too.

Labels: Crescat, Drug WarRant, solipsism, Supreme Court

 
Supremes Happy to Add to the Misery of Deathly-Ill People...
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:55 AM

...by denying them access to medical marijuana. Will Baude has the initial word, and links to the opinions.

I'm disappointed but not really surprised or even angry at the Supreme Court. It isn't the Supreme Court's fault that our drug laws grossly violate the most elementary standard of justice, that one shouldn't be punished unless one has done something wrong.

Here's the opening to Justice Thomas's dissent:

Respondents' Diane Monson and Angel Raich use marijuana that has never been bought or sold, that has never crossed state lines, and that has no demonstrable effect on the national market for marijuana. If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything -- and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers.

Labels: Crescat, marijuana, Supreme Court

 
Why Gambling is Vicious
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:45 PM

Over at Crescat, Waddling Thunder describes his visit to an illegal poker den, and his observations of the influence on his friends' behavior of the addictive qualities of gambling. Waddling Thunder and Vice Squad agree that poker should be legal, though perhaps regulated; as in many vice areas, I find it hard to be entirely comfortable even with the 'optimal' regulatory scheme towards gambling.

Labels: Crescat, poker

 
Will Lawrence v. Texas Help Obscenity Defendants? [Updated Twice]
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:14 PM

A couple of porn purveyors from California are currently on trial in Pittsburgh for violating federal obscenity laws. The defendants run Extreme Associates, which markets hardcore pornography -- as their ads say, "The Hardest Hard Core on the Web." They could be jailed for 50 years each if they are convicted. That's right, 50 years for mailing some nasty videos to western Pennsylvania. This AP article at the Miami Herald.com has an update on trial developments:

When the indictment was announced, U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan said the lack of enforcement of obscenity laws during the mid- to late-1990s "led to a proliferation of obscenity throughout the United States."

Time to crackdown upon it, then. Reminiscent of Angelo in Measure For Measure, no?: "Those many had not dar'd to do that evil/If the first that did th'edict infringe/Had answer'd for his deed."

The defense attorney has asked for the case to be dismissed. He argues that Lawrence v. Texas indicates a right to view pornography in the privacy of your home; the right to view must extend to the right to distribute, as otherwise the right to view would be nugatory. The lawyer also noted that "community standards," part of the test for whether something is obscene, has changed its meaning in the age of the internet -- what is the relevant community?

Here's an interesting tidbit from the AP story: "Extreme Associates is still doing business and offers the movies at issue for sale as a package deal with money going to its defense fund."

We've been loosely tracking the Extreme Associates trial, beginning with a guest post last November and most recently with a brief item in April. I previously have expressed skepticism about Lawrence's applicability to another commercial sex case.

Update: Pete Guither of Drug WarRant also has looked at the implications of Lawrence for currently illegal drugs, and points to Professor Randy Barnett's analysis of Lawrence (22 page pdf).

Second Update: Will Baude of Crescat writes in. Will wonders if the defendants' lawyer really believes his own Lawrence-based argument. Quoting Mr. Baude (whom I wish would hurry up and finish law school in case I need a lawyer): "Stanley v
Georgia recognized the first amendment right to view pornography in your
home, but the court has repeatedly rejected any view that it would entail
a right to distribute it."

Labels: Crescat, Drug WarRant, obscenity, pornography, Supreme Court

 
Nude Dancing and Lawrence
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 8:30 PM

Friend of Vice Squad Will Baude at Crescat Sententia notes a potential conflict between the Supreme Court decisions in Barnes v. Glen Theatre and Lawrence v. Texas. Will asks, "does the government's ability to regulate purely consensual adult nudity in private places survive Lawrence?" Well, the moral rationale to control nude dancing, as Will notes, will have a tough time being sufficient, post-Lawrence, to justify controls. But I imagine that controls on the nude Hoosierdome gathering, or on strip clubs, can (and sometimes will) still be upheld, based on the "secondary effects" analysis that Justice Souter pointed to in Barnes and that Justice O'Connor employed in upholding restrictions on nude dancing in the (year) 2000 case of Erie v. Pap's A.M. That is, Justice O'Connor based her analysis on negative externalities, such as crime and "other secondary effects", that could follow from unregulated nude dancing. Does requiring that a dancer not be entirely nude actually reduce these negative externalities? Justice Scalia didn't think so, in a parenthetical comment in his opinion concurring with the judgment in Erie: "(I am highly skeptical, to tell the truth, that the addition of pasties and g-strings will at all reduce the tendency of establishments such as Kandyland to attract crime and prostitution, and hence to foster sexually transmitted disease.)"

Here's a previous Vice Squad post on the Erie case.

Labels: Crescat, dancing, Supreme Court

 
Crescat Happenings
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:29 PM

Just wanted to alert folks to a couple of posts that were generated for my guest stint at Crescat Sententia. This one is on the toleration of public marijuana consumption at the Euro 2004 soccer tournament. And this one, not exactly a vice-related post, concerns the police policy of demanding identification from public transit riders.

Labels: Crescat, marijuana

 
Vice is Elsewhere
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:48 PM

Sorry for the light blogging lately; one factor, though not really a particularly relevant one so far, is that I am guest blogging at Crescat Sententia this week -- and, rather dangerously, I have even veered off of vice.

But I will try not to neglect the loyal Vice Squad reader. For instance, you might want to check out this post at FuturePundit that ties US obesity to trade restrictions. (Many other countries are getting more obese, too, though they are lagging behind the good ol' USA.)

Labels: Crescat, obesity, solipsism

 
Sin City
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 10:01 AM

"Las Vegas is the most efficient machine ever devised to relieve the willing or the weak of their earthly fortunes, whether that weakness is gambling, sex, drink, spectacle or consumption." -- this according to a recent New York Times story on our desert playground. The article focuses on the close connection between local government and the gaming industry:

Government has long been the willing handmaiden of that which drives the Nevada economy, looking the other way when necessary, providing a helping hand when possible. It is no accident that Oscar Goodman, who made his name and his fortune representing mobsters and hit men, is the mayor of Las Vegas. Among his current proposals are legalizing prostitution in the city and building a "mob museum" to enshrine the city's criminal heritage.

Hey, certain Vice Squad members want to legalize prostitution, too - why do I suspect that I won't be elected mayor anytime soon? [Thanks to Will Baude at Crescat Sententia for letting Vice Squad in on the new New York Times article permalinks for blogs. This wonderful innovation by the Times does not quite make up for the fact that my copy was not delivered today -- in its place, a Chicago Tribune. They are not perfect substitutes.]

Labels: Crescat, Las Vegas, prostitution

 
Nude Dancing!
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:50 PM

My slow blogging lately -- apologies to the loyal Vice Squad reader, but I have been busy missing other deadlines -- means that I am late to point readers to the law and nude dancing discussion involving Will and Kazakhstan-bound Amanda at Crescat. I hope more later on this from Vice Squad, but the Crescat discussion is certainly worth a look in any event.

Labels: Crescat, dancing

 
Blogger Contending With Alcoholism
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 11:59 PM

Will Baude at Crescat points us to this sad but hopeful tale of a blogosphere denizen who is struggling against his alcoholism. Here is his wife's post, seeking assistance, at the time that he bottomed out.

Update: The link to the blogger's wife's post has been corrected. Also, Will brings our attention to this interesting post from the recovering blogger concerning Rational Recovery, an alternative to Alcoholics Anonymous. (Alas, this link had to be corrected, too.)

Labels: alcohol, Crescat, treatment

 
Technology to Bolster Gamblers' Self-Control?
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 5:40 PM

A theme of Vice Squad is that the criminal law should not be the main tool used to regulate vice behavior among adults; consumption of vice in and of itself should not be punished, though potentially strict regulations can be adopted to control vice consumption and to channel it into forms with minimal social costs. Regulations that can be helpful to those with self-control problems, while not imposing much of a burden upon rational vice consumers, are especially welcome. (I was delighted recently to see procrastinating Will Baude of Crescat Sententia endorse this paper ("Libertarian Paternalism Is Not An Oxymoron") by Cass R. Sunstein and Richard H. Thaler, which presents an analysis that is consonant, I think, with this view.)

It is all the better if such self-control methods can be made available by private actors. In the case of gambling, many self-control devices, both public and private, have been adopted. For instance, credit cards might not be accepted for wagers, or states (or casinos) can maintain lists where problem gamblers voluntarily sign up to bar their entry. This column in Information Week suggests that technological advances are providing some more variations upon this theme. Here's a sample:

"Recent technological innovations include the ability for gamblers to establish gambling limits on themselves before going to the casino. It's always better to decide how much you can lose before you go. Recent software allows for purchase of credits before gambling and coincides with casino operators moving to a coinless payout system.

Just like credit-card fraud detection, a good system for detecting the problem gambler must be able to monitor the behavior in order to detect the problem. It must be able to limit a gambler's ability to overspend by placing dollar limits and determining how often a user can play within a certain time frame. Better yet, these decisions could be made before a customer is in the casino, while he or she is still thinking rationally. Recent technology allows implementation of these types of safeguards and controls to help people avoid gambling problems before they get serious. Just like many customer-interaction systems, newer gambling-safeguard systems incorporate interactive messaging, activity reports, and behavioral analysis to aid in controlling and, possibly, modifying gambling behavior."

Labels: Crescat, gambling, robustness

 
Recent Vice News From the Blogosphere
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:16 PM

Adopting, yea, even perfecting the lazy person's guide to vice blogging, let me pass along some pointers to vice policy activity at better blogs:

(1) Mark Kleiman notes the suspension of the Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (ADAM) program, source of much of our information about heavy drug use in the United States. Reasons for the suspension of ADAM remain murky, but Kleiman does mention that our nation's President found time in the State of the Union address to propose more funds for high schools that would like to administer drug tests to their students. (Remember South Carolina Senator Ernest Hollings's response when a challenger for his senate seat asked Hollings if he would take a drug test? It was along the lines of: "I'll take a drug test if he takes an IQ test.")

Over at Crescat, Peter Northrup makes a less than half-hearted, second-best argument that maybe losing the data on heavy users isn't so bad: "If all drug policy officials looked at--all they could look at--were the data on casual users, maybe we'd have a drug policy that was merely bad, rather than inexcusable."

(2) At Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok joins the Free Tommy Chong forces. While at Marginal Revolution, check out Tyler Cowen's post on how smokers who cut down partially offset the reduction in cigarettes by smoking more intensely. For more on this topic, and evidence that the offset (in this case, brought on by increased excise taxes that induce a shift to higher tar and nicotine cigarettes) is more than complete for young smokers, see William N. Evans and Matthew C. Farrelly, “The Compensating Behavior of Smokers: Taxes, Tar, and Nicotine,” Rand Journal of Economics 29: 578-595, Autumn 1998.

(3) Ken Lammers at Crimlaw documents the most recent (and most outrageous?) inroad into Fourth Amendment rights, in the service of ensuring that factually-guilty defendants will not walk. Naturally, the case involves (in part) drugs.

Labels: Crescat, Kleiman, search, testing, tobacco

 
Russia Does Not Believe in Reducing Harms
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:36 PM

Back in his halcyon early-November days as a guest blogger at Crescat Sententia, Vice Squad noted the negative reaction of members of the Moscow City Duma to US-sponsored harm-reduction measures that promoted the use of condoms to combat AIDS. The Moscow legislators thought that the condom information and distribution promoted prostitution along with condoms. Now it looks as if hostility towards harm reduction in Russia has taken another step forward, according to this RFE/RL report (scroll down to the third article for January 8) sent along by friend of Vice Squad Bridget Bukevich. This time, it is needle-exchange programs that have earned the ire of Russia policymakers, and it looks like participants in such programs who do not cease and desist could face jail. Here's a paragraph from the RFE/RL (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty) report:

"Aleksandr Mikhailov, deputy chair of State Narcotics Control, sent a letter dated 19 November 2003 to the chiefs of his agency's territorial offices, expressing concern about various organizations "actively imposing on public opinion the idea of implementing so-called 'harm-reduction' programs," involving distribution of disposable needles for drug addicts to combat AIDS infection through the practice of sharing needles, asi.org.ru reported on 16 December 2003. "The leadership of State Narcotics Control views this idea as nothing other than the open propaganda of drugs," wrote Mikhailov. He added that passing out fresh syringes or cleansing packets would be construed legally as providing the means for the use of drugs under 1998 Supreme Court Resolution No. 9 on narcotics, banning "any deliberate actions aimed at causing another person to wish to use drugs (persuasion, offering, provision of advice, and so on)." Under other drug laws, only narcotics prescribed by a doctor may be legally used, and appliances such as syringes can be confiscated."

...and later in the same report: "With the official number of HIV cases registered at 235,000, and estimates ranging from 700,000-1.5 million, and diagnoses almost doubling annually since 1998 according to UNAIDS, there is an urgent need to try anything that might stem the infection, which unlike other parts of the world, mainly comes from drug injection." But, to repeat my uncharitable encapsulation from the previous Russian harm-reduction post, the authorities apparently believe that deterring the use of drugs is so important that they must threaten drug injectors with the death penalty (via AIDS), even though that approach has not been very effective so far -- and those who disagree and attempt to distribute needles (or perhaps even to inform addicts of the importance of using clean needles and not sharing) must face prison for their impudence.

Labels: Crescat, harm reduction, HIV, Russia, sex

 
Poker Boom
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 6:05 PM

Will Baude over at Crescat Sententia tried to bait me into action on Indiana alcohol laws. I evaded the hook, only to be ensnared in a frequent Baude topic: poker. (Will seems to prefer Texas Hold 'Em, if my memory overcomes my complete ignorance of card games.) The world suddenly seems to be awash in poker -- OK, maybe it wasn't so sudden, but the on-line version, at least, is relatively recent. An article in today's Scotsman.com tells of a recent report by the British betting firm Ladbrokes; here's an excerpt from the Scotsman.com article: "the amount gambled on poker websites around the world increased from [pounds] 6 million a day in January last year to [pounds] 38 million in December.

There are thought to be around 150 poker rooms now operating on the Internet -- up from 30 in 2002."

Wow, the amount gambled in on-line poker rose by a factor of more than 6 in 2003! Land-based poker games also seem to be enjoying a surge in popularity. If you would like one of the best players in the world to take $10,000 (US or Aussie?) of your money, better hurry to Melbourne.

I tried to learn a little bit about poker in America by reading Andy Bellin's Poker Nation. What struck me most about it was the lack of enforcement of anti-gambling laws against regular and sizeable illegal poker games. There's also a story or two of people ruining their lives via their poker obsession. (Don't worry about Will: it's blogging that is ruining his life, apparently, not poker!)

Labels: Crescat, internet, poker

 
When I'm Away....
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 1:36 PM

...the Ninth Circuit decides that the federal prohibition
of medical marijuana is probably unconstitutional. Get
the scoop (the straight dope?) from Crescat Sententia
and Drug WarRant. Contributions to keep me abroad
can be sent to...

Labels: Crescat, Drug WarRant, marijuana

 
Vice Blogs are Elsewhere
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:37 PM

Vice Squad has successfully survived the notorious Canadian customs
officials (oops, no, sorry, it's the Ukrainian ones who are notorious)
and returned to his home in Viceville. It might take a while to catch up,
however, so let me just mention a few vice-related stories out there
in blogistan....

Mark Kleiman comments upon Rush Limbaugh's potential legal liability.

Amanda Butler at Crescat Sententia informs us that Los Angeles is
backtracking on its attempt to separate exotic dancers from their
customers. (Earlier Vice Squad post here.)

Overlawyered links to this story concerning a smoker's lawsuit in Germany.
The initial line of the story: "A German court has rejected the country's
first compensation claim by a smoker against a cigarette maker
because of a lack of evidence."

Rantfarm links to this story about how, well, the French wine
industry wants to convince motorists that they needn't completely abstain
from drinking alcohol to comply with the legal BAC limit of .05. Seems
the French government has been stepping up enforcement of drunk-driving
laws. Here's a sample: "The government says road deaths fell more than
20 percent to under 5,000 in the first ten months of 2003 from the same
period last year -- still among the highest rates in Europe relative to
population size.

Amid the tightened enforcement and government warnings, sales of wine
in restaurants have also fallen by about 15 percent in just months, wine
producers say."

Labels: alcohol, Crescat, Kleiman, litigation, smoking

 
Regulating Violent Porn
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 4:31 PM

My post a few days ago at Crescat on the federal prosecution of producers
and distributors of pornography led to this post (and a plethora of
comments) at Alas, a blog. One of the comments, from Alegna of
Anomalous Allegories, informs us that depictions of violent sexual acts are
banned in Australia. You should also check out the comment by arbitrary
aardvark, whose e-mail motivated the original post.

Will Baude at Crescat Sententia offered some reasons not to ban violent pornography.
Here's a brief excerpt: "My worry is that by forcing a speaker or picture to explain
why it's 'deserving' of free speech protection, or why we should care about free
speech in the first place, we're missing the point of free speech."

I didn't declare a position in the original post, though my loyal reader will recognize
that I am unlikely to think that it is a good idea to put consenting adult producers
of violent pornography in prison. And I find Will's arguments to be persuasive. But
as John Stuart Mill noted, trade is a public act, and the public can control it even in
the absence of harm to others. (Sale of such porn could not be banned, however,
if to do so would effectively ban its consumption -- and it would.) For this Millian,
then, a strict but not prohibitory regime governing violent porn would be acceptable.
The regime might include advertising controls or even ad bans, and perhaps a more
rigorous system of ensuring that all participants are rational, consenting adults. And
we might want to adopt policies such as requisite waiting periods for performers that will
prove helpful to those whose decisions to take part might be rash or short-sighted, from
their own long-term point of view. Though here I am on particularly shaky ground....

Labels: Crescat, Mill, pornography

 
Life is Elsewhere IV
- posted by Jim Leitzel @ 9:01 PM

My pleasant week of guest blogging at Crescat Sententia has come to an end,
so tomorrow I hope to resume what passes for normal blogging behavior
here at Vice Squad. In the meantime, feel free to check out my final
Crescat "contributions," this one on prosecuting pornographers and
this one on obesity policy.

Labels: Crescat, obesity, pornography, solipsism