Category

Reviews

• Legislation, North America, Reviews, Studies, War on Drugs

  A review of “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America”

  08.06.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I’ve been reading through Cato Institute analyst Radley Balko’s new paper, “Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America“, on the ever increasing use of heavily armed SWAT teams against non-violent drug suspects.

  Now that I’ve had a more detailed read I do have one criticism, but overall I am sticking with my initial impression of Overkill, namely that

  “I agree with the thrust of what he is saying, namely that paramilitary tactics are only applicable to extraordinary, violent crimes in civil society - such as hostage-taking and bank robberies - as well as battlegrounds overseas.

  Thanks to federal funding, encouragement and support, the militarisation of drug prosecutions is not only unnecessarily endangering and adding turmoil to the lives of countless citizens but is in many cases counter-productive in its aims of preventing violence.”

  The thing that struck me the most about the paper is not just the way in which innocent lives were cruelly disrupted and trampled upon, but the cold, casual and even deliberate disregard the police in question had for their victims; it was as if they were seen as enemy soldiers on a foreign battleground. Most people instinctively apologise for bumping into someone on the street, but certain law enforcement officers couldn’t even bring themselves to offer a similar, nominal, apology - let alone a more substantial one - for inflicting on what is for some people the most traumatic moment of their lives.

• Entertainment, North America, Reviews, War on Drugs

  a/k/a Tommy Chong

  06.18.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Check out The New York Times review of the documentary about the arrest a few years ago of Thomas B. Kin Chong (a.k.a. Tommy Chong), half of the former stoner duo “Cheech and Chong”, for selling bongs. It was released in the U.S. on 14 June 2006 in New York. Here is the official movie website.

• North America, Reviews, War on Drugs

  “Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke”

  06.16.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Journalist and author Dean Kuipers has just had his book “Burning Rainbow Farm: How a Stoner Utopia Went Up in Smoke”, about the fatal standoff at a rural Michigan farm between law enforcement and two marijuana legalisation advocates, released.

  Raised only twenty miles away from where the shootings took place but now living in California, Kuipers read about the incident in the local Sunday Kalamazoo Gazette, which he still subscribed to. It occurred a week before 11 September 2001. Whatever coverage the story had gotten in the national press was soon swept away. He decided to pick up the slack.

  Rainbow farm, set up in 1996 by marijuana activists and lovers Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm, was a haven for a varied bunch of people – including stoners and militiamen – who had their own reasons for visiting but were united by an opposition to the War on Drugs. It also hosted several music festivals in which various bands and legalisation advocates appeared. While the two men prohibited the sale of marijuana on the farm, law enforcement officials say it still went on, along with smoking in the presence of children. Crosslin and Rohm also grew marijuana on their property.

• Entertainment, North America, Reviews, War on Drugs

  The Wire: Season One

  06.12.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  The nephew of drug lord Avon Barksdale, D’Angelo Barksdale, gets off a murder charge thanks to the key witness being intimidated into changing her story. A homicide cop, James McNulty, observes this from the back of the Baltimore courtroom and is soon in the chambers of the presiding judge who wants to know what the hell happened. The smart response, as the detective will over time discover, would have been to keep his disappointment to himself and move on to another case. Instead he let Judge Phelan, a more politically minded individual, know that the aforementioned drug lord has gotten away with murder several times in the past, and not in a court of law.

  This interesting snippet of info will turn out to be not such good news for McNulty’s boss, Sergeant Jay Landsman, and McNulty, as a phone call from the judge about this mysterious Avon Barksdale goes up the chain of command of the police department. Down comes a lot of fury via Major
  William Rawls as well as an order for a task force to be created to look into the activities of Avon Barksdale. It soon becomes clear that the appearance of battling the fire is more important than its actual extinguishment, with the more smoke being generated the better; the more directed towards the judge and in front of the police brass even better still.

  So begins the first series of HBO’s “The Wire”, created by writer David Simon and ex-cop Ed Burns.

• Reviews

  Drugs, Troops and Spies

  05.20.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  After recently reading Drugs and Narcotics in History I came accross the ideas of Ann Dally - somebody who you could pretty safely say is not a big fan of the War on Drugs.

  One thing that struck me about Dally’s arguments was the passion with which she argued that the War on Drugs is a manufactured event.

• Reviews

  Wendell Sailor: When Drugs Sink a Career… Maybe

  05.20.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  Wendell Sailor is one of the most talented sportsmen that Australia has produced in recent years, or at least he was until a week or so ago when he was dropped from the New South Wales Rugby Union team for a possible positive drug test for cocaine.

  Sailor was a dual international, having played for Australia in both Rugby Union and Rugby League. A talented enough player to become a regular selection for the national team in both codes, he could well have left the game in a few years leaving a very formiddable reputation as one of the country’s premier athletes.

• Reviews

  Drugs and Narcotics in History - A review

  05.20.06 | Permalink | Comment?

  For anybody who is really interested in the debate on drugs, then it is a good idea to get a handle on the history of the issue.

  A fast and enjoyable way to get up to speed is with Drugs and Narcotics in History, edited by Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich.

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