Federal Bill introduced to decriminalize marijuana

Citing John Stuart Mill, Barney Frank has introduced a bill to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and use of marijuana in public:

Frank has filed a bill that would eliminate federal penalties for personal possession of less than 100 grams of marijuana. It would also make the penalty for using marijuana in public just $100.

This bill would make sense for many reasons including these. Or listen to the reasons of this conservative judge. Or consider these reasons.

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U.S. Supreme Court: no federal right to review DNA evidence

Here's the context: 240 convicted felons have now been proven to be totally innocent thanks to analysis of DNA evidence. Many states have enacted laws giving prisoners the opportunity to obtain DNA analysis of critical evidence used at their trials in years past. The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled, however, that there is no federal constitutional right to DNA evidence that could exculpate a convict.

The Supreme Court said Thursday that a convicted rapist has no constitutional right to test biological evidence used at his trial in Alaska years earlier, leaving it to the states to decide when prisoners get access to genetic evidence that might prove their innocence . . .

Dissenting liberal justices and advocates for prisoners who seek genetic testing complained that the court is penalizing a small group of inmates who lack access to a simple test that would conclusively show their innocence, or reaffirm their guilt.

Here is the full opinion, District Attorney's Office v. Osborne. Justice John Roberts (supported by the Court's conservatives) wrote the majority opinion, concluding both of the following:

A) "DNA testing has an unparalleled ability both to exonerate the wrongly convicted and to identify the guilty." and

B) If you were convicted in one of the handful of states that aren't willing to analyze the DNA evidence of your case, you're screwed. Case over. Too bad for you. Why? Because it would mean more work for the federal judiciary.

Way to go, Justice Roberts. You are compiling quite a track record of refusing to look out for the oppressed and powerless. And see here and here. For more information, visit Project Innocent.

Continue ReadingU.S. Supreme Court: no federal right to review DNA evidence

Steal this anti-addiction drug!

The April 10, 2009 edition of Science (available online only to subscribers) reports that Naltrexone (a drug used for treating addictions) has been dramatically successful in treating compulsive shoplifting. The relevant study was published in the April 2009 edition of Biological Psychiatry. Sounds like yet more evidence that doing what's "right" is not simply a matter of morality? God, meet Naltrexone . . . This is not to excuse all shop-lifters, but it should make the law-and-order crowd stop to think more seriously about their simplistic views of how to deal with "criminals." Makes me wonder how many other sorts of "criminals" are normal folks struggling with low-level biological issues . . . Here are more examples of low-level processes that drive behavior. At TED, cognitive researcher Nancy Etcoff spells out (starting about 14:00 mark) three lower level systems that underlie reproduction: Lust (sex hormone driven), romantic attraction (dopamine driven) and attachment (oxytocin driven). Etcoff also cites psychologist John Gottman for a good strategy for a happy marriage: make sure that the spouses say at least five positive things for each negative thing. That's how powerful and socially dysfunctional it is to utter negative things.

Continue ReadingSteal this anti-addiction drug!

Frank Schaeffer lays, and takes, the blame for murder –

I found this an interesting response to George Tiller's murder. Frank Schaeffer, a reformed evangelical, argues that the hate speech continually spewed by the religious right regarding abortion set the stage for George Tiller's murder, and other abortionists before him. He still expresses disgust at late-term abortion, and while I am more likely to agree with that, I do believe there are situations in which that choice is the only one that makes sense. Painful, horribly so, but sometimes the only choice is.

Continue ReadingFrank Schaeffer lays, and takes, the blame for murder –

Darfur, lest we forget –

Bob Herbert, in the NY Times, wrote this week of a new report on the continuing human catastrophe in Darfur. In describing why he reported on what, to some, is old news, he reminded us "about the dangers inherent in indifference to the suffering of others. Stories of atrocities on the scale of those coming out of Darfur cannot be told too often."

Continue ReadingDarfur, lest we forget –