Watch this.

This one of those items you want keep on hand when you need to convince someone of the absolute idiocy of the drug war. The reporter did a terrific job of exposing the way Florida’s drug laws nab the most unlikely of suspects, and put harmless, hurting people in horrible predicaments.

I can’t decide if the story made me more want to weep, or to punch a hole in the wall.

Many of these laws, incidentally, came about after the Orlando Sentinel’s infamous series on “accidental” OxyContin addicts. The series sparked national outrage, hearings, and a flury of ill-considered legislation. Unfortunately, when the newspaper retracted the series, posted an apology, and fired the reporter who wrote it, lawmakers found it difficult to reverse their outrage. So the laws stayed on the books.

Thanks to Linda Paey for sending the story. Her husband Richard is still in prison. Florida has a gubernatorial election coming up. Worth thinking about.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 12:05 am by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.