Atlanta SWAT raid update

Follow up on the poor dead granny story. Yes, they did found an amount of marijuana so small that the Chief wouldn't even say how much they found. For this a 93 year old woman is dead? The community, as you can imagine, is up in arms about this tragedy.

"Something is wrong; well we have heard people say it appears folks followed the policy," said Michael Langford, United Youth Adult Conference. "I don’t know that, the investigation will reveal that, but we know something is wrong when a 92-year-old woman loses her life as a result of this operation."

According to the Atlanta Police Department, a suspected narcotic was found inside Johnston's home.

"They did find drugs in the house and it was not a large amount. It was marijuana," said Chief Pennington.

Chief Pennington said the case was built on a drug buy by a confidential informant, who claimed he purchased drugs inside Johnston's home.

Only one conclusion can be drawn from the large number of botched service of warrants. These SWAT team raids conducted in the dark of night have got to stop. Even if the people are guilty, these are not major kingpins they're arresting. They're penny ante dealers at worst. When the enforcement of the law causes more harm than the breaking of it, it's time to change the laws.

If you need more convincing, the UK Times has a great piece on how to get tough on drugs effectively -- license them. The statistics speak for themselves.