#james higdon

[thcscout]

Report: Marijuana on track to be legalized by the end of the year

Report: Marijuana on track to be legalized by the end of the year

The Democratic takeover of Congress could mean marijuana could be legalized by the end of the year. James Higdon, who wrote about the likelihood of federal legislation of marijuana for Politico, joins CBSN to discuss.

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[conjuringjustice]

Source from Inside ECSO Speaks Again!

Source from Inside ECSO Speaks Again!

The most recent headline creates the Illusion that Sheriff Morgan has rid the ECSO of another rogue employee. The story has all the popular buzz words that would cause the reader to believe a dangerous “drug trafficker” has been removed from society. This criminal will not enjoy any benefit for being an employee of the ECSO and will suffer every penalty allowed by law. Sheriff Morgan has exposed…

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[therumpus]

The stories I wrote as a reporter for the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper from small-town Kentucky were often features about quiet and friendly places and the young people who outgrew them, finding success on television shows like America’s Next Top Model and America’s Got Talent. In his book The Cornbread Mafia, James Higdon describes a different rural Kentucky scene, one that bred a long line of close-lipped, close-knit and tough-skinned outlaws.

Katya Cengel reviews The Cornbread Mafia by James Higdon.

[therumpus]

Marion County has a habit of doing things its own way, a habit that neither began nor ended with Prohibition-era bootleggers. Higdon traces the stories of the county’s more dashing and daring lawbreakers and the populace that in many ways supported them. There are entertaining little vignettes about nuns who end up with thousands of dollars’ worth of stolen air conditioners, wild truck drivers crashing into buildings and kids finding cash stashed in a barn.... Much of what he chronicles would be funny if death and violence were not often the result. There are some Robin Hood-like hoodlums in the tale, but also some hardcore crazy killers. They tend to get mixed up together.

Katya Cengel reviews The Cornbread Mafia by James Higdon

[chloeannriley]

Celebrate America: Grow Some Pot in your Backyard

(This July Fourth-er is celebrating with carrot juice, but if Barack has anything to say about it, pretty soon he may be able to legally kick back with some Mary Jane)

Happy July Fourth America. According to James Higdon of The Daily Beast, Barack's FY13 budget request is in and, if the Prez gets his way, funding will be cut in half for the U.S. Counterdrug program that cracks down on domestic production of marijuana. If his budget is approved, this shift in U.S. drug policy could be the foot in the door to reverse years of marijuana-related prison sentences handed down from the Nixon, Regan, and Clinton eras.

Michelle Alexander's book, The New Jim Crow (2010), doesn't waste any time revealing some pretty disturbing statistics regarding U.S. incarceration. For instance, did you know the United States has the highest rate of incarceration in the world? Higher than repressive countries like China, Russia, and Iran? As Alexander points out:

In Germany, 93 people are in prison for every 100,000 adults and children. In the United States, the rate is roughly eight times that, or 750 per 100,000.

But how can this be, when I don't personally know anyone in jail? Why with rates that high, I would expect my next door neighbors, their eight children, and family dog to be serving 10 to 20 in Cook County. Surely these numbers must be some kind of Chinese propaganda.

Oh wait, that's right. I don't know anyone who's gone to jail because I'm a white girl living on the North Side of Chicago. And, as Alexander's book will attest, the people who are responsible for the huge surge of caged bodies (In 1972, there were 350,000 people in prisons compared to more than 2 million today) are men of color who typically come from impoverished areas. No other country on planet earth locks up so many of its minorities:

The United States imprisons a larger percentage of its black population than South Africa did at the height of apartheid. In Washington, D.C., our nation's capitol, it is estimated that three out of four young black men (and nearly all those in the poorest neighborhoods) can expect to serve time in prison. Similar rates of incarceration can be found in black communities across America.

U.S. crime rates are below the international norm. Yet our incarceration rate is six to ten times greater than that of any other industrialized nation. Alexander says we got into this mess by allowing the government to impose harsh penalties for first time drug users, and for setting up a system where the police are reduced to using racial profiling to determine how "likely" someone is to be carrying or dealing drugs.

A final thought from Alexander:

Beginning in the 1970s, researchers found that racial attitudes--not crime rates or likelihood of victimization--are an important determinant of white support for "get tough on crime" and antiwelfare measures. Among whites, those expressing the highest degree of concern about crime tend to also tend to oppose racial reform, and their punitive attitudes toward crime are largely unrelated to their likelihood of victimization.

In non-lawyer speak? Just take a look at this Twitter post by Janie Johnson, a self-described common sense conservative and author of the book Obama 2012 Slogans Rewritten:

Easy there Janie. It sounds like a hit of pot would do you worlds of good. Just don't get caught or you'll find out just how hard crime can be.