One of my favorite guilty pleasures is the Dateline DEA newsletter, the Drug Enforcement Agency's a "bi-weekly email informant." The DD is drug war news you can use. This week's edition is especially juicy. We learn that the DEA helped arrest 750 alleged members of the Sinaloa drug cartel after 21-m...

Virginia prosecutor Tom McKenna and I never seem to agree on anything (except maybe guns) and my previous post in response to a police officer's complaint about the verdict in the Ryan Frederick case is no exception: A blogging police officer complains of a manslaughter conviction for a dope dealer ...

And for those of you who think I am being too hard on the libertarians, let me point you to this righteous rant (the issue is also mentioned here at Reason): This is what happens when you declare “war” on American citizens. You dehumanize them. And you instill an ends-justifies-the-means...

Some good stuff from recent days, in no particular order. If you follow my FriendFeed or StumbleUpon profiles, you may have seen some of these already, but several things will be new. And as usual, there’s a ton of good stuff over at Our Bodies Our Blog. Renee of Womanist Musings at Global Com...

You have to be kidding me: Now it appears the case has expanded beyond Phelps’ activities. The party took place in November at a house on Blossom Street near Five Points. It was at that house where someone snapped the photo of Phelps taking a hit on a marijuana pipe called a bong. Lott says th...

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott has arrested eight people in connection with the Michael Phelps bong caper, according to a WIS News 10 story: Lott says the picture indicated a law was being broken in his jurisdiction. He said he couldn't ignore the violation just because Phelps is rich and famous....

"We're not having the right debate and we're certainly not covering it enough."Dan Rather reporting from Afghanistan Like thousands of others, I have become a constant viewer of the Rachel Maddow show. Ms. Maddow's depth of policy understanding, wry sense of humor, and ability to get any guest she w...

The Michael-Phelps-smokes-pot non-story I blogged earlier has taken a depressing turn and brought back a familiar character, according to an AP story by Meg Kinnard: Olympic superstar Michael Phelps could face criminal charges as part of the fallout from a photo that surfaced showing the swimme...

Radley Balko on a tear: Here’s a crazy thought: If I can smoke a little dope and go on to win 14 Olympic gold medals, maybe pot smokers aren’t doomed to lives of couch surfing and video games, as our moronic government would have us believe. In fact, the list of successful pot smokers includes n...

For its cover story this week, the Washington Post Sunday Magazine ran a terrific feature on the case of Cheye Calvo, the Berwyn Heights, Maryland mayor who’s home was raided and two black labs were slaughtered by Prince George’s County police during a botched drug raid last summer. Calv...