Timely matters

The story of the unfortunate RCMP officers death continues to generate news and opinion pieces. Cooler heads are beginning to prevail in the rhetoric around this case and this piece notes well that to act rashly in grief and anger to ratchet up criminal penalties will do nothing to alleviate the dangers of grow-ops run by organized crime. We discussed all this, nonetheless, I'm posting a link to this one because there's a poll on the side bar asking whether legalization would help eliminate organized crime from the cannabis market.

It's winning but vote anyway. It's on the left hand side bar near the top.

In other news, I received an email from Ricardo Cortes, author of the children's book, "It's Just a Plant" that has been generating some controversy lately. Barring a last minute cancellation, Ricardo is due to debate Bill O'Reilly on Fox News tonight at 8:00ish towards the bottom of O'Reilly's show.

For more on this book that tells the story of a child who catches her parents smoking pot and the resulting backlash see this by Jamie Pietras in the Village Voice.