Jonthan Caulkins has a post up at Cato Unbound today responding to the essay on responsible psychoactive use I noted yesterday. It’s a defense of the status quo around drug law, but it’s quite thoughtful. Even so, I don’t think Caulkins is making a sincere effort to consider the alternatives to prohibition. He notes that […]
READ MOREPeople v. Timms: CA 2d on Voluntary Intoxication
California Penal Code section 22, which “sets forth the general principle in this state that a criminal act is not rendered less criminal because a person commits the act in a state of voluntary intoxication,” does not violate a criminal defendant’s right to due process, the California Second District Court of Appeal held Monday in […]
READ MOREOf Alcohol Inhalers and Strong Marijuana
What do “alcohol inhalers” – devices that allow individuals to inhale alcohol vapor, and thereby get drunk without experiencing any hangover – have to do with the much touted increasing strength of marijuana ? Just this: that our society has been able to draw a distinction between the legal and responsible use of alcohol, which […]
READ MOREEyeing a Permanent Beach Alcohol Ban in San Diego
I’ve got two reasons for being interested in the possibility that San Diego voters will make permanent a one-year beach alcohol ban in this year’s election. The personal reason is that I’m originally from San Diego and still go down to the beach there all the time to surf. It’s been interesting to listen to […]
READ MOREOn the Broader Implications of Eschenbach, and the relevance of Lawrence v. Texas to Medical Marijuana
To expand a little on yesterday’s post about Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach, the rationale articulated by the DC Circuit in upholding a right to access non-FDA approved could have broader implications that would be relevant for the argument on medical marijuana, but ultimately the relevance depends on the way the due process balancing analysis would […]
READ MOREAbigail Alliance Letter in Washington Post
The president of the Abigail Alliance — the group that was the petitioner in that recent DC Circuit case on access to lifesaving drugs that have not yet received full-blown FDA approval — has a letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post. The last graph says: We are confident that access to these drugs […]
READ MOREElectronic Monitoring Can Be Expensive for Defendant
Electronic monitoring involves a defendant being required to wear an ankle bracelet so his or her movements can be monitored. The use of electronic monitoring has increased dramatically in recent years. From 2000 through 2014, there was a 32 percent rise in the use of electronic monitoring. One article from International Business Times reported that […]
READ MOREScience Magazine on Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach
Science Magazine Editor in Chief Donald Kennedy published an editorial Friday taking aim at the DC Circuit’s recent decision in Abigail Alliance v. Eschenbach. In Abigail Alliance, the court said that mentally competent, terminally ill individuals have a due process right to access medication that is safe enough for testing on human subjects. Kennedy says […]
READ MOREACLU’s Operation Meth Merchant Case Hits a Snag
Two of the witnesses who were supposed to testify about racial profiling in Georgia’s notorious Operation Meth Merchant sting campaign have decided instead to invoke their Fifth Amendment privilege to remain silent, leaving the ACLU without much evidence in its legal challenge to Meth Merchant arrests. A third witness who apparently also has knowledge of racial profiling […]
READ MOREPeople v. Cabonce on Intoxication and the Insanity Defense
It was not error for a court to instruct a jury that an insanity defense “might not” be established when a defendant’s insanity was due “primarily” to the use of , the First District Court of Appeal held 1/9/09 in People v. Cabonce(A117286). (Above: Jack Daniel’s Wildberry Whiskey, a drug that was involved in People […]
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