Blogger roundup

I'm late because I've been lost in politics on my other blogs. I'm telling you it's a good thing I have no life anyway because I don't have time for one. In any event, I'm going to start by making some overdue rounds of the daily reads to see what we've missed.

Drug War Rant has a must read on Drug Czar: We don't care about problems, just numbers. He also has a couple of great op-eds. Just keep scrolling.

At D'Alliance, don't miss UK Nixes National Student Drug(s) Testing Plan and Andean Strategy Failing, Bush & Congress Still Wasting Money.

Grits for Breakfast has a the usual bunch of great posts. Don't miss DEA snitch data lost, cops who handcuff unwilling sex partners and Overcrowding in Texas prisons.

Mark August 13 on your calendar. Loretta Nall has the details on the 2 Million March, a grassroots gathering in DC to protest the treatment of the 2 million incarcerated in the US gulag - the largest prison system in the world. This is likely to be the largest gathering of activists in the history of policy reform. Sponsors are pledging from across the country. I hope to be able to go myself.

Loretta has a bunch of other stuff up as well. Always worth a scroll and don't miss the unsurprising news that Drug firms spend the most on lobbying.

And The Agitator has his usual assortment of hot links including, the war on pain patients in Lousiana, a link to a letter from 30 state attorneys general sent to the DEA regarding their absurd war on doctors and "meth" as the new heroin. Like Radley says, that would a good thing if it transferred their focus from marijuana prosecutions but I won't be holding my breath waiting.

I won't give up hope either though, since Scott Burns, the White House deputy drug czar, while in Portland, declared methamphetamine the nation's most insidious drug problem and blamed it for destroying about 1.5 million lives. A public statement in direct contradiction to the ONDCP party line. Burns also said his agency's drug policies may be shifting.

I'll believe it when I see it, but it would be a step in the right direction.