“Absolutley correct. Healthcare workers here in IL are mandatory reporters for a number of other incidents (possible child abuse, gunshot wounds, dog bites, etc.). Possible injuries that occur in custody should be added to the list for sure.”

No, absolutely incorrect. I’m a mandated reporter in IL and the system is a nightmare. It’d be great if there was some kind of channel for doctors to report suspected abuse of arrestees (provided the person in question gives consent) but mandated reporting is a terrible idea. At best mandated reports are going to cause more paperwork for health care workers, reduce the likelihood that an arrestee will be taken to the hospital, and either devour cash on more government workers to “investigate” reports or lead to no reports being investigated at all because of the sheer volume. Because of mandated reporting laws here DCFS has told me on several occasions (off the record) that they are only investigating current cases of sexual abuse or cases in which there is an immediate and well documented threat to life. On the rare occasions that they do take the case they almost always miss their 12 hour emergency window, generally don’t show up within 24 hours, and about a third of the time take 72 hours to bother making a contact.

What mandated reporting means is that you are forcing doctors, under penalty of law, to report suspected government abuse to the government. How on earth do you think increasing executive power is going to lead to better self-regulation? You’re going to end up with prisoners having treatment withheld, retaliation on the part of police who have already demonstrated a willingness to abuse suspects, and states getting to brush the whole issue under the rug by making it look like they’re doing something. In exchange patient privacy and autonomy will be further gutted and the government will get yet more influence over the way doctors treat patients.

“I prefer one or the other. Not at the same time. To me one counter acts the other.”

When I was young and full of vim and vigor, and had lots less to lose, :) the combination of the two usually ended up with me drinking less beer than I would have otherwise. They are both depressants and when combined take less of each to make you just pass out.

Nowadays, I just drink beer while sitting on the bank of a river while waiting on a fish to bite. :) Then my neighbor drives me home.

Expectation is the root of disappointment.

I suppose the question is whether expectation is reasonable in a given circumstance.

In the political realm, expectation from the peonage is insane.

At least I hope we do.

After the Oregon Trail emulator, that is.
http://classicgaming.gamespy.com/View.php?view=GameMuseum.Detail&id=266

Absolutley correct. Healthcare workers here in IL are mandatory reporters for a number of other incidents (possible child abuse, gunshot wounds, dog bites, etc.). Possible injuries that occur in custody should be added to the list for sure.

Ms. Lithwick rejects Mr. Cheney’s comment that those prisoners still left at Guantanamo Bay represent “the hard-core.” In so doing, she relies upon a 2002 CIA report and ignores the fact that the crowd at Guantanamo Bay is quite different from the one there in 2002. Prisoners have come and prisoners have gone. A more current study would be necessary to support her view.

Finally, Ms. Lithwick demonstrates a stunning lack of understanding of the theory of the Unitary Executive. That theory merely holds that whatever executive power exists is ultimately controllable by the president. Possibly in connection with her misunderstanding of the Unitary Executive theory, she seems to be criticizing Mr. Cheney’s comments about the authority of the president to launch a defensive nuclear attack without authorization from Congress. The president’s authority to do so is well settled in law. See The Prize Cases 67 U.S. 235 (U.S. 1862).

To the Keynesians in the DC those are not benefits. To them, reducing the jailing industry costs jobs and increases the labor supply. The concept that reducing government spending might help the economy is not even in their playbook.

That said, there definitely should be established processes by which medical personnel can report the instances they do see. Perhaps there should even be a legal requirement that they do so.

If it were legalized, the price would probably be less than $1/ounce. However, it could be taxed at a higher rate. Nobody’s going to fund their state off sales taxes from mj transactions, but a separate mj tax can be quite high and still have the product be cheaper than the current street price, but with most of the money going to the state governments.

The real money maker here isn’t the revenue generated, but rather the revenue *saved* by not jailing hundreds of thousands of people (at $30K/year/inmate) and the bonus to society when we have more workers available. Remember that the $30K/year/inmate is the direct cost to house them, that doesn’t count the corresponding (and statistically equal) hit to the GDP when we remove a producer from the economy. I’m not even counting the other bonuses, such as fewer broken families, fathers being around for their kids instead of in jail, cops having to actually work instead of chasing pot smokers, fewer cops due to the lowered workload, etc.

Even if we didn’t tax mj at all, the savings would be many billions of dollars to the country.