Judge Gray's drug war heroism

Here in a video from London's Telegraph, is Judge James P. Gray of Orange County (and someone I'm proud to call a friend), explaining why he decided after years in the judicial and law enforcement system to oppose the war on drugs. I would almost defy anyone to listen to him and then defend drug prohibition. Almost no drug warrior will stand up and debate him.

Not much audacity from Obama

I blogged a little more for the Register on Barack Obama's speech yesterday, repeating some of what I said here but adding that it would have been nice to see him say something about the drug war. There is probably no federal policy that does more damage to African-Americans than the drug war, and Barack I am sure knows this. It should be virtually impossible to discuss race in America without mentioning the drug war, but Barack managed it. It reinforces the impression that for all his speechifying and talk about change, when the rubber meets the road and it's time to be genuinely unconventional, he's pretty much a standard-issue left-liberal, too timid to touch the drug war issue. Too bad.

Venezuela and Colombia on the brink

Here's a link to the Register's editorial on the trouble brewing between Venezuela and Colombia, following a raid by Colombian forces into Ecuadoran territory to bomb a FARC guerrilla camp. What there wasn't space to discuss was the extent to which troubles in Colombia are exacerbated by the drug war. The 40-year civil war/insurrection/whatever was relatively quiescent until the drug war was ramped up following "success" in drug suppression in Peru and Bolivia, which shifted more coca production to Colombia. Both the FARC and the right-wing paramilitaries found they could finance their activities by protecting narcotraffickers and growers and taking a cut of the huge prohibition premiums.