« A Personal Note and a Statement | Main | A Personal Perspective »
August 02, 2008
A Belated Explanation and an Example
In a happy coincidence, this week’s issue of the drug drug policy newsletter I once edited carries two articles that, when taken together, reveal both the absurd judicial arrogance that gave rise to American drug policy almost a century ago, and provide a striking example of the bureaucratic thuggery the policy enables.In the more significant, a SF Chronicle item parsing state appellate decision turning down the bid by two counties to cancel the initiative, reveals the decision is no victory; instead,it makes things worse by endorsing the “logic” by which state and federal jurists can now excuse their failure to deal with the glaring injustice both courts should have addressed from the beginning: patients and physicians who attempt to follow the law have been subjected to outrageously unfair treatment by both federal and state law enforcement agencies.
In other words, Harrison and the MTA are finally joined by the same arcane judicial logic: whether the accused's drug use is considered to be “addiction” or “recreation,” doesn't matter any more; untrained law enforcement agents and prosecutors are now free to use their own judgment in how miscreants should be treated, even if it should require a capricious jurisdictional change.
For those who might have missed it, Costa is now serving a fifteen year term in a federal penitentiary in Texas...
Doctor Tom
Posted by tjeffo at August 2, 2008 08:31 PM