Another example of under reported stories of the costs of the drug war, from Reason.

James was pulled over for speeding in 2006 in Vero Beach, Florida while driving back to his home in Jacksonville after a concert. The officer who pulled him over said the car smelled like marijuana, and asked to conduct a search. James agreed, because neither he nor his passenger had been using drugs. When his passenger was found to be in possession of a pipe and several screens (but no marijuana), the officer searched James. His pockets were empty save for a single Oxycontin pill. James told the officer he received the pill from a friend at the concert, but that he had never tried Oxycontin, and intended to give it away.

A second officer was called to the scene. James’ passenger was arrested for possession of paraphernalia, and James was arrested for illegal possession of a prescription narcotic.

The next morning, James’ mother drove to Indian River County to plead for a lightening of her son’s bond. She told the judge that James, then 24, was both a full-time graduate student at the University of North Florida and a full-time stock broker with Merrill Lynch. James’ lawyer advised him to plead no-contest, saying he would likely get probation and then have his record expunged.

“After being assured that the penalty would be light,” James told Reason in an email, “it turned into a bigger ordeal than I could ever imagine.”

The judge who heard James’ case accepted the no-contest plea. Then he began stacking on penalties.

Despite having no criminal record and never having taken Oxycontin, James was required to attend two Narcotics Anonymous meetings a week for an entire year, and 15 weekend-long state-run drug classes (the latter he was required to pay for). Despite the fact that he was going to school at night for his MBA, James was given a curfew, and had to be inside his own home between the hours of 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. every day of the week, for the entire year. As a final punishment, the judge instructed James to immediately report his arrest to his employer, and to let his probation officer know when he had done so.

As you can imagine, this hasn’t worked out so well for James.  Feel safer?  Are your children safer after James’ punishment?

You can vote for someone who will really change this in November.  (Hint:  it isn’t Obama or Romney).

Will you?  Or do you think this is OK?

Via Q and O comes this example of another drug war disaster.

Commandeered by one of his drivers, who was secretly working with federal agents, the truck had been hauling marijuana from the border as part of an undercover operation. And without Patty’s knowledge, the Drug Enforcement Administration was paying his driver, Lawrence Chapa, to use the truck to bust traffickers.

At least 17 hours before that early morning phone call, Chapa was shot dead in front of more than a dozen law enforcement officers – all of them taken by surprise by hijackers trying to steal the red Kenworth T600 truck and its load of pot.

In the confusion of the attack in northwest Harris County, compounded by officers in the operation not all knowing each other, a Houston policeman shot and wounded a Harris County sheriff’s deputy.

How many people need to die?  Is this really worth it?

Oh, and the truck, and the poor guy who owned it?  Well, sorry about that, bud.

“When you start a new business, there are obvious pitfalls you go through, a learning curve,” said Patty, who before buying his two trucks worked in the pharmaceutical industry. “But who would ever be ready to deal with this?

“How am I — a small businessman, father of three, American Joe from Texas — supposed to make a claim against a federal agency that has conveniently shrouded itself behind a red, white and blue cloak of confidentiality and secrecy?”

Copies of letters and emails from Patty’s insurance company state that it won’t pay for repairs because the truck was part of a law-enforcement operation. Patty drew from his 401K retirement fund to repair the truck, which was out of operation for 100 days.

“I was not part of this,” he said. “I had absolutely no knowledge of any of it until after it happened.”

For its part, the DEA has not admitted that it was using Chapa as a spy because its official policy is not to comment on whether someone was an informant.

You have the power to stop this madness.  Your responsibility lies in your action in November.  A vote for either of the two major party candidates is a vote to continue this.  Know that.  The blood is on YOUR hands if you keep electing these people.

So which country has the most political prisoners?  Why, the good old US of A!

(Drug users are political prisoners.  Drug policy is political, not based on any violation of anothers’ rights, property or otherwise).

Makes you proud, doesn’t it?