Below The Beltway

Stephen Littau has a truly great piece up at The Liberty Papers about the 9th Circuit’s recent decision that leaves a woman with terminal brain cancer with the choice of dying in pain or going to prison.

Sonny Bono, circa 1970:

It was 73 years ago today that America’s thirteen year history with alcohol prohibition came to a merciful end.
Unfortunately, it appears that we’re still far away from the day when we’ll be able to celebrate even the first anniversary of the end of America’s other insane war on (some) drugs.
H/T: Outside The Beltway and [...]

Police in Arizona have arrested a Grandmother who was hauling marijuana to help finance her Bingo habit:
SIERRA VISTA - A grandmother found with a trunkful of marijuana was convicted of drug running in what prosecutors said was an attempt to earn cash for a bingo habit.
State troopers found 10 bundles of pot totaling 214 pounds [...]

As controversy continues to swell around the death of an elderly woman in Atlanta during an apparently mistaken drug raid, things may have gotten alot worse for the Atlanta police:
Three officers were wounded when they entered Kathryn Johnston’s home looking for cocaine based on tips from an informant, according to the search warrant released Monday [...]

Last night, a 92 year-old woman was killed in a shootout with police sent to raid her home in an apparent case of mistaken identity:
ATLANTA — The niece of a 92-year-old woman shot to death by police said her aunt likely had reason to shoot three narcotics investigators as they stormed her house.
Police insisted the [...]

They’re apparently hiding drugs inside plumbing material now:
(CNN) — Large quantities of drugs were found inside merchandise from at least two Home Depot stores in Massachusetts, and authorities are investigating, police said Wednesday.
A contractor late last week discovered two 50-pound “bricks” of marijuana wrapped in plastic bags inside a bathroom vanity he had purchased at [...]

From today’s Washington Post comes this story about the latest developments in the war on cold medicine.
Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) signed an executive order Thursday restricting how drug retailers and pharmacies can sell over-the-counter cold and allergy medications, which are sometimes used to make methamphetamines.
The regulations, which will go into effect by Oct. 1, [...]

In a move destined infuriate cold and allergy sufferers and enrich doctors and pharmacists, residents of Oregon will now be required to get a prescription for certain everyday cold and allergy medications. The justification for this insanity, of course, is the War on Drugs:
Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed legislation Tuesday that will make Oregon the first [...]

Thanks to a new law signed by President Bush, states will be setting up databases monitoring what prescription drugs you take.
As always, the law is justified as part of the “war on drugs.” Since the government will soon be able to find out what prescription you, or I, happen to be taking at any given [...]