Asset Forfeiture Gone Wild

So you own a building.  You rent office space to businesses.

One of those businesses makes a $37 pot sale to an undercover state trooper.

And the DEA decides to seize your building.

Tar and feather were invented for such moments.

DUI With Zero Evidence

How would you like to be found guilty of driving under the influence even if there is no proof that you were in fact driving under the influence.  Perhaps you were under the influence at some point in the past few days...or perhaps weeks.  Perhaps you were under the influence in a time and place where it was legal for you to be in that condition.

Then you get pulled over days...or perhaps weeks....later while you are quite sober.  And based on residual chemicals in your blood stream due to past events, you end up convicted of a DUI.

And the courts endorse this conviction due to the twisted idea that actually conducting an accurate test for whether or not you are under the influence would "unduly restrict law enforcement."

That's right.  Our right to a trial based on fact is less important that the convenience of law enforcement.

Where The Killing Is

In all the hubbub over guns and deaths, there is a lot of number fiddling that goes on.  Take for example this piece that accurately points out that 62 school aged children were killed by guns in Chicago this year.  It also accurately points out that 442 school aged children were shot this year in Chicago.

The underlying point that this piece makes is that Chicago is some of the most draconian anti-gun laws in the country.  And still, these kids are dying by the wagon load.

Here is the deception.  While the vast majority of those kids were certainly "school aged", my bet is that they were not in school.  My bet is that the vast majority of those kids were killed willfully taking part in drug deals when they were shot and/or killed.

Which brings to mind a salient point that if we really wanted to cut the number of deaths due to guns in the U.S., we would legalize drugs immediately.  It would have the salutatory effect of also cutting other rates of crime as well.

Of course, none of this has anything to do with the tragedy in Connecticut last month.

The underlying point that kids are dying in Chicago under some of the most onerous anti-gun laws in the country is a fact.  Adopting those kinds of laws on a national level will do nothing to cut gun deaths in the U.S.  We will instead become a nation of unarmed victims amidst armed brigands.

Establishing public policy based on unusual circumstances seems to be counterproductive to me.  The dominant problem causing gun deaths in America is our failed War on Drugs.  The dominant problem causing mass shootings is people with untreated mental health issues.  Addressing both of those problems would be of far greater service to progress than making life easier for the criminals that walk in our midst.

An Errant Tweet Is All It Took?

Perhaps Snoop Dogg would be better off keeping certain comments to himself.

• “Snoop Dogg to W.H.: Legalize pot,” the Politico today, in a post time-stamped 6:34 AM EST, and highlighted by Matt Drudge.

• “Drug dog busts Snoop Dogg’s bus,” CNN today, in a post time-stamped 3:42 PM EST.

Most Lethal Drug - Alcohol

Courtesy of the WaPo comes word of a study of the impact of various drugs on our society.  The most dangerous substance?

Alcohol.

Yet we know that alcohol prohibition was an abysmal failure.  We should know that prohibition of other drugs has been a failure.

Why exactly are we conducting a War on Drugs?