A New Hampshire official is charged with selling drugs:
Police said 53-year-old Ron Giordano, chairman of the zoning board of adjustment, was arrested on Friday after a monthlong investigation.
Giordano, a former state representative, is accused of selling oxycodone and other drugs. He was charged with three counts of sale of a controlled drug and one count of conspiracy to violate drug laws.
And no doubt he will serve less time that some black dude charged with selling pot.
Yeah, I can’t figure this out either:
Gary Johnson wants to give Ron Paul a boost.
Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, has dropped out of the Republican race and instead is seeking the Libertarian Party’s presidential nomination.
As a result, he said in a statement, he wants his Iowa supporters to cast ballots for a certain Texas congressman in tomorrow’s caucuses.
“While Ron Paul and I are both libertarians, we don’t necessarily agree on every single issue. However, on the overriding issues of restoring our economy by cutting out-of-control spending and the need to get back to constitutional principles in our government, Ron Paul and I are in lock-step,” Johnson said. “Indeed, I proudly endorsed Ron Paul for president in 2008.
Tell you what. I am going to run as a libertarian. But in a break with tradition, I will stand up for the entire Libertarian platform, and not endorse any Republicans. How does that sound? And I sure as Hell won’t base my campaign on hate speech, either.
From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s fight to get his name on Virginia’s March 6 primary ballot will resume at a hearing in federal court in Richmond on Jan. 13.
In an emergency motion filed Wednesday, Perry asked that the State Board of Elections and Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Pat Mullins be barred from enforcing the state residency requirement for people who collect signatures for ballot access.
Good, it does my heart good to hear how main stream party members are hoisted up on the stringent ballot access rules that affect third party candidates. Serves ‘em right. Of course, it sucks to be a Perry supporter in Virginia right now. But then, it sucks to be a third-party candidate or a supporter, too.
From Fox Nation, this entry from John Stossel:
Street vending has been a path out of poverty for Americans. And like other such paths (say, driving a taxi), this one is increasingly difficult to navigate. Why? Because entrenched interests don’t like competition. So they lobby their powerful friends to erect high hurdles to upstarts. It’s an old story.
Now, growing local governments are crushing street vendors. The city of Atlanta, for example, has turned all street vending over to a monopoly contractor. In feudalist fashion, all existing vendors were told they must work for the monopoly or not vend at all.
“Vendors who used to paying $250 a year for their vending site must now hand over $500 to $1,600 every month for the privilege of working for the monopoly,” wrote Bob Ewing in The Freeman. Ewing works for the Institute for Justice, the libertarian public-interest law firm that defends victims of anti-competitive regulation.
From Courthouse News Service:
Three Bay Area medical marijuana dispensaries, a landlord and a patient can’t stop the federal government from prosecuting them, a federal judge ruled. Citing federal laws and precedent, the judge said the plaintiffs face an “insurmountable challenge” in showing that patients will be harmed by the federal crackdown.
The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, MediThrive and The Divinity Tree sought a temporary restraining order to prevent federal authorities from prosecuting marijuana growers and providers.
In a 27-page order on Monday, U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong noted the “tension that exists between federal and California laws governing marijuana use.”
The California Compassionate Use Act allows state residents to use medical marijuana, but the plant is a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
From the Chicago Tribune:
A pair of U.S. governors appealed to the Drug Enforcement Administration on Wednesday to reclassify marijuana as a drug with accepted medical uses, saying current federal law makes it difficult for states that have legalized medical marijuana to safely regulate it.
The petition filed by Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington and Gov. Lincoln Chafeeof Rhode Island asks the government to change marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II under the Controlled Substances Act. Schedule I drugs are those determined to have no accepted medical use in the United States. Schedule II drugs are those that have some accepted use and can be prescribed, administered or dispensed with controls, according to Gregoire’s office.
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia currently allow the use of marijuana for medical purposes; 10 more states are considering doing the same.
From Popsci:
Any attempt to segue into this post with a clever lead is likely to fall flat, so in the interest of skipping the cliches: a new study out of University of Colorado Denver and Montana State University shows that legalizing medical marijuana sales in various states over the past two decades has led to anearly 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities. What the study really shows–by way of causal chain–is a five percent drop in beer sales, and that has in turn led to fewer fatalities on the road. Put that in your pipe and smoke it (couldn’t resist just one).
This is the kind of study that’s going to be attacked from all sides, by those with agendas and those who will simply point out that establishing that causal link between legalized pot and the decrease in alcohol sales (and in turn the reduced traffic deaths) is difficult with all the variables out there. But it is an interesting study for no other reason than it actually attempts to measure the effects of legalizing pot by linking it to some kind of hard data rather than some hard-to-quantify metric.
From Illinois Review:
It’s no longer a crime to be caught smoking pot in Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago. Monday night the city council unanimously decriminalized cannabis possession. Now if caught with small amounts of pot, offenders will only get fined, similar to speeding offenses.
If a person is found in possession of 10 grams or less of marijuana, police can fine him or her $50 to $500. Before, if a person possessed between 2.5 and 10 grams, one would face six months in jail and/or up to a $1,500 fine. Evanston’s mayor said decriminalizes pot will increase employment in the area.
From Politico:
Libertarian officials are still hoping Ron Paul will reconsider and seek their nomination at the Las Vegas convention in May. Barring that, they confirmed, they’re pursuing the interest Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has expressed to them about coming back into the arena to run on their line.
But Johnson’s hoping to convince them that he’s the one, and has made clear to Libertarian Party chairman Mark Hinkle that he’s committed.
From The Province:
Imagine an extremely expensive government policy proven to be completely ineffective at achieving its stated objectives. Consider also that whenever this policy is subjected to any kind of impact assessment, the government’s own data clearly show that the policy has been ineffective, expensive and fuelled the growth of organized crime. Finally, imagine this remark-able set of circumstances persisting for decades – at great cost to taxpayers and community safety – and yet elected officials say and do nothing to address the status quo.
Does this sound like something most conservative-minded voters would support? Sadly, you don’t have to imagine. This policy is marijuana prohibition and it is an unfortunate legacy for conservatives that we have consistently elected right-ward leaning politicians who have been among the strongest defenders of our failed anti-marijuana laws.
It seems to me there are two types of conservatives. The first kind is deeply concerned about the growth of government and intrusion into our private lives. The second is, well, Mrs. Grundy. This conservative person is deeply afraid that someone, somewhere is having fun. THIS is the conservative who insists on anti-marijuana laws. This is the conservative who insisted for years that alcohol must be banned, for the exact same reasons that pot must be banned.
The fact that pot use continues unabated makes no difference. Pot smoking leads to bad things, therefore the law must ban pot smoking. The fact that the ban does not stop people from smoking pot does not matter, and the fact that it puts money into the hands of crime cartels at home and abroad does not matter. They are right, dammit, and they will not change their minds.
There are those within the Democratic Party who see things differently. But still a majority want to keep it illegal, if for no other reason they don’t want to give conservatives an issue with which to beat them at the polls. These votes will change when the wind blows a different direction, and nothing changes that.
But I have hope that within the conservative movement, the former school of thought will soon overrule the latter.
