Quick hits

It's amazing how far behind I can get in a few days. I have at least 50 good articles backed up in my email. No way will I ever catch up but here's a few of the more recent ones you might have missed.

The irrepressible and oft published reformer Kirk Muse has a great LTE published in The Fall River Herald.

I'm late in getting to this one but Flex Your Rights has a good analysis of the 4th Amendment victory in the Supreme Court. Despite John Roberts convoluted dissent and perhaps because Alito wasn't allowed to vote, the court ruled 5-3 that a legal search could not be conducted on the consent of only one occupant of a household.

The Punjab Government in India will be selling bhang, a narcotic drug prepared from the leaves and flowers of the hemp plant also known as cannabis. Vending licenses are due to be awarded shortly.

The WaPo posts about a new report from the the Justice Policy Institute that rips into school zone laws. The report analyzes the disproportionate effect it has on black and Latino citizens living in the inner cities and notes, as we often have here, it hasn't resulted in the intended effect of keeping school children safe from drug dealers.

More reasons to be wary of Ritalin.

And an excellent article in Slate examing how random drug testing in schools not only doesn't reduce teenage drug use but in some cases apparently increases the use among 12th graders.