"Undercover police officers in West Valley, Utah, shot and killed a relapsed heroin user in the parking lot of an apartment building last Friday afternoon. Police have yet to confirm that it was a drug investigation, but all signs point to it. Danielle Misha Willard, 21, becomes the 56th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year." Continue reading →
"In Canada's westernmost province, which has been a hotbed of marijuana cultivation and culture for several decades now, only 14% of those polled believe possession of a joint should lead to a criminal record, down six points from last year, and 74% would be comfortable living in a society where adult cannabis consumption was taxed and legally regulated under a public health framework, an increase of four percentage points from last year. Strikingly, support for full legalization was higher than support for the half-measure of decriminalization. While 75% supported legalization, only 62% wanted decriminalization." Continue reading →
"Drug prohibition is a subset of slavery – in both its philosophical premise (the denial of individual self-ownership) and its role in creating a huge and growing population of people in chains. A hundred years from now, assuming that Jesus tarries and Americans rediscover rational thinking, drug enforcement officers will be seen for what they genuinely are: The heirs and successors to 19th Century slave-catchers." Continue reading →
"The youth wing of Canada’s third-ranked Liberal Party said in a statement the result of the referendums in Tuesday’s US presidential election 'is an important first step and inspiration to activists in Canada who want to see Canada embrace a smart drug policy.' 'The citizens of Washington and Colorado are sending a clear message to the world today: prohibition isn’t working,' the group’s spokesman David Valentin said in a statement. Valentin and others argued that Canada was losing billions of dollars in potential revenue from taxing marijuana sales while 'wasting' money on enforcement of drug laws." Continue reading →
"Taliban insurgents told re-elected President Barack Obama to admit that the United States has lost the war in Afghanistan and pull its troops out now. 'Obama must by now know that they have lost the war in Afghanistan,' spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said on the Islamists’ website. 'So, without further lying and delays, they should leave our sacred land and focus on their own country instead.' Accusing Americans of committing war crimes, he added: 'The American administration should stop acting like police in the world and focus on solving their own people’s problems, and don’t make the world hate Americans even more.'" Continue reading →
"Not even a full day had passed before newly reelected President Obama ordered another drone strike in Yemen. 'A U.S. drone strike targeted a group of al-Qaida militants on the outskirts of the Yemeni capital Sanaa on Wednesday night, killing at least three terrorists, government officials said.' The drone war violates both domestic and international law, and the Obama administration’s vehement disdain for transparency in government is the only thing keeping it from public and legal scrutiny. Beyond the law, it’s terrorism." Continue reading →
"Despite the passage of ballot initiatives in Washington and Colorado legalizing recreational marijuana, 'the Drug Enforcement Administration’s enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged,' a DEA spokesperson told Reason this morning. 'In enacting the Controlled Substances Act, Congress determined that marijuana is a Schedule I controlled substance. The Department of Justice is reviewing the ballot initiatives and we have no additional comment at this time.'" Continue reading →
"Barack Obama may consider introducing a tax on carbon emissions to help cut the U.S. budget deficit after winning a second term as president, according to HSBC Holdings Plc. A tax starting at $20 a metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent and rising at about 6 percent a year could raise $154 billion by 2021, Nick Robins, an analyst at the bank in London, said today in an e-mailed research note, citing Congressional Research Service estimates. In China, the world’s biggest emitter, greenhouse gases from fuel use rose more than 9 percent in 2011." Continue reading →
"For the first time, a majority of Puerto Rican voters expressed support for changing their homeland’s status from a U.S. commonwealth to full statehood Tuesday night. According to CNN, the non-binding referendum on the issue was split into two questions. Residents voted against remaining a territory by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent in the first part of the referendum, while 61 percent supported statehood in the second part. President Barack Obama expressed support for the referendum. Puerto Rican Secretary of State Kenneth McClintock said economic factors weighed heavily in statehood winning majority support." Continue reading →
"The Pew Center on the States has a great new illustration of how dependent states have become on federal dollars since the recession. States now count on the federal government for $1 out of every $3 in revenue, according the 2010 Census, which offers the most recent finalized data. That’s your stimulus money at work. And $1 out of every $3 is just the national average: In Arizona, 46.9 percent of state revenue came from federal grants; in Louisiana, 48 percent; and in Mississippi, a whopping 49.6 percent." Continue reading →