tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post8164439818490720722..comments2024-03-25T20:06:39.794-05:00Comments on Grits for Breakfast: Texas' natural experiment on marijuana shows decriminalization brings relief to an over-strained systemGritsforbreakfasthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-84240843792269880852020-01-17T10:35:02.430-06:002020-01-17T10:35:02.430-06:00Untuk kenyamanan dalam memancing, Joker123 selalu ...Untuk kenyamanan dalam memancing, Joker123 selalu update alamat memancing alternatif <a href="http://loginpencetjudi.net/" rel="nofollow">loginpencetjudi</a> sehingga pengguna dapat log in dan membuat taruhan atau membuat taruhan, seperti biasa. jackpcapciphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07168771085829608861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-84081842772868770052020-01-13T05:43:56.179-06:002020-01-13T05:43:56.179-06:00Ada banyak jenis game yang dapat dimainkan dengan ...<br /><br />Ada banyak jenis game yang dapat dimainkan dengan mudah dan ekonomis untuk <a href="http://vipjoker123.com/" rel="nofollow">vipjoker123</a> memenangkan permainan slot terakhir. Jika tujuan Anda adalah untuk mengisi kekosongan atau hanya untuk bersenang-senang, <a href="https://www.deviantart.com/judijokerr" rel="nofollow">https://www.deviantart.com/judijokerr</a><br />disarankan untuk bermain dalam jumlah yang sangat kecil. Jadi, merasakan ritme permainan <a href="https://getsatisfaction.com/people/judijokerr" rel="nofollow">https://getsatisfaction.com/people/judijokerr</a>Anda bermain akan sangat berguna.<br /><br />Tetapi jika Anda masih merasa penasaran dan ingin mencoba lagi, disarankan untuk mencari <a href="https://about.me/judijokerr/" rel="nofollow">https://about.me/judijokerr/</a> mesin slot terbaru atau mesin slot lainnya. Tidak selalu bergantung pada bermain mobil dan harapan untuk kemenangan di sana. Hal ini akan meningkatkan pengalaman Anda dalam mempelajari trik <a href="https://angel.co/judi-jokerr" rel="nofollow">https://angel.co/judi-jokerr</a> dan tips tentang cara untuk menang mesin slot bermain dengan uang sungguhan.<br />jackpcapciphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07168771085829608861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-43336189364332478522020-01-09T13:19:05.399-06:002020-01-09T13:19:05.399-06:00"But Grits doesn't anticipate Texas' ..."But Grits doesn't anticipate Texas' statewide leadership in 2021 will be ready to go that far."<br /><br />I concur, to a point. It isn't ALL the leadership. The biggest hold up to cannabis reform in Texas is Dan Patrick. Dan Patrick wouldn't allow it. He would kill any bill that proposes decriminalization, and probably even medical MJ beyond CBD. Recreational/adult use would be out of the question completely. As long as Patrick remains as Lieutenant Governor, and therefore the "President of the Senate" and gatekeeper of what gets through and into the hands of the senators for committee referral and vote... I can about guarantee you that leadership won't get that far, period. Patrick isn't up for re-election until 2022 when the next gubernatorial election takes place. Considering that Abbott is in his second term, and will likely run for a third, I don't see anything changing in 2023, either, if Abbott is re-elected. Next election after that is in 2026, and the first Legislative session after the election would be in spring of 2027.Shellie Swanknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-21841044680829534462020-01-09T03:03:43.439-06:002020-01-09T03:03:43.439-06:00Amber Vazquez, most police agencies in Texas have ...Amber Vazquez, most police agencies in Texas have a direct filing system for charges other than a few large counties which have set up a DA intake to filter the quality of such charges. Despite some occasional friction such as that between HPD and Harris County's current DA office, none of the police unions have spent any real political capital trying to move back to direct filing in those large counties. I suspect you are correct that some oppose legalization more out of a desire to retain the legal ability to search for drugs than out of any specific opposition to drugs themselves. As long as pot is illegal, related searches are allowed even if the county or agency is not going to pursue charges for the drug.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-82314707207592209592020-01-07T12:44:38.114-06:002020-01-07T12:44:38.114-06:00The DPS inconsistency may be due, in part, to loca...The DPS inconsistency may be due, in part, to local Sheriffs. In Brewster County (Alpine), for example, DPS does cite and release because the Sheriff will not allow marijuana detainees to be booked into the local jail. DPS has no other option but to cite and release. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-31507377714653932232020-01-05T08:24:31.497-06:002020-01-05T08:24:31.497-06:00Hearing one cop tell his partner, "Be sure to...Hearing one cop tell his partner, "Be sure to get consent!",<br />as they searched a vehicle in which I was a backseat passenger, belonging to a couple that I befriended back in 2007. The couple was biracial, but I don't think that anything to do with the stop, other than the fact that the description of the couple they were actually looking for vaguely matched the description of my friends. <br />They were mistaken for a couple who had been part of, and also were assumed to occasionally be the leader of, an organized retail theft ring. <br />The officer told me personally afterwards, why the female, who was the one driving what was her car, was being arrested for a suspended license, and no liability insurance or proof of financial responsibility. <br />I was not detained nor was I questioned, so I asked the fairly young, [early 30's (about my age at the time)], HPD officer why he was arresting my friend, since: <br />A. He and his partner didn't find the stolen merchandise (in my friends possession, or at all!) they were lookong for,<br />And,<br />B. Her license was only suspended after expiration, due to her status as a Katrina Evacuee. (Note: it is 2007 here, so fail to mentioin her profound laziness and irresponsibility, I can not)<br /><br />My approximation of his response to my query is as follows:<br /><br />"Well, we needed to search the vehicle, so if we ask for consent, and you say yes, and subsequently, we are closing in on a sensitive area to you, in the vehicle, and you don't like it, or you remember something is there you aren't supposed to have that you forgot about, or whatever, and you say 'Stop, don't search/touch that!', Then we have to stop and wait for a search warrant, or just forgo searching that part of your vehicle/belongings. So, since we arrested the driver, ad it's her car, we now have [full, (irrevocable)] consent. (The officer did not use the two preceding words in parentheses, neither the polysyllabic word, nor the monosyllabic word immediately preceding it), to search the vehicle.<br />So, we have to arrest her, otherwise she could come back and say she never gave us consent to search the vehicle."<br /><br />I told him, she won't ever do that, because they didn't find anything in the car, so what does she care?<br /><br />The young, White, (quite kind in conversation and demeanor), HPD officer, informed me , (in wording that I have done my best to reconstruct, I simply can not recall them exactly only 13 years later), that since they used her arrest for consent, they had to take her in. She would probably be out in a day or two.<br /><br />That kind of crap happens all the time to minorities, and I had never witnessed, such a thing occurring... Not could I even imagine such after the early 1970's (1990's in Texas, 2000's in South Louisiana, and 2015-present in North Louisiana)<br />M. D. Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18080794337093925647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-53987307879223444432020-01-05T07:37:47.773-06:002020-01-05T07:37:47.773-06:00Excellent point! That would be extremely interesti...Excellent point! That would be extremely interesting! It would be also quite amusing, given the vast number of counties in this state! Such an assessment would give me data to pore over for days!M. D. Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18080794337093925647noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-43887531430651682532020-01-04T11:53:21.251-06:002020-01-04T11:53:21.251-06:00One day Texas lawmakers will act according to thei...One day Texas lawmakers will act according to their belief in freedom and finally legalize pot. Until then we taxpayers will be saddled with the unnecessary burden of subsidizing prosecution of this moralistic criminalization of private behavior. Once we more fully enter this century, we can follow the example of the State of Illinois.....and spend scarce resources on behavior that actually harms others or their property...........https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/12/31/1908762/-Illinois-governor-pardons-11-017-marijuana-convictions-day-before-new-law-legalizes-recreational-use?detail=emaildkreWolfhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11267236716106849385noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-22595847533378643082020-01-04T10:09:50.732-06:002020-01-04T10:09:50.732-06:00In Austin, police are still arresting for pot, mai...In Austin, police are still arresting for pot, mainly because they use the “odor or marijuana” to search without a warrant and circumvent the 4th Amendment. Even though the prosecutors are not even filing most of the pot cases and/or dismissing them. This is also a result of allowing police agencies to direct file cases without a lawyer reviewing it, which has been the unfortunate practice here in Austin for years. It seems that the push from law enforcement has a lot more to do with the access to searches (mainly of people of color) that marijuana provides, as opposed to generally being anti-marijuana. Amber Vazquezhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03115706650619527572noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-14765069609384960522020-01-04T09:45:30.230-06:002020-01-04T09:45:30.230-06:00From Unfiltered Minds Of Independent Thinkers of t...From Unfiltered Minds Of Independent Thinkers of the 3rd Grade Dropout Section:<br /><br />When reviewing DAs pattern of prosecuting low-level drug offenses, it would be an interesting assessment of those DAs that receive contributions from police unions compared to those that doesn't accept similar contributions. <br />Just Saying!!!Gunny Thompsonnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-4754097525167100552020-01-04T09:39:47.489-06:002020-01-04T09:39:47.489-06:00@9:24, upon seeing your comment, I revisited the u...@9:24, upon seeing your comment, I revisited the underlying number and realized I'd conflated two data points, misinterpreting a couple of lines from the linked story. I've corrected it in the text and will add a clarification at the end of the post explaining the change. That DNA cases take "years" to process was correct, but 3.5 is not. I made an error reading the data. Thanks for calling me on it.Gritsforbreakfasthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10152152869466958902noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-30918653226222600112020-01-04T09:24:51.414-06:002020-01-04T09:24:51.414-06:00>In drug cases, it can take nearly 2.5 years fo...>In drug cases, it can take nearly 2.5 years for lab technicians to get around to testing the evidence. For DNA cases, which are more likely to involve violent crimes, fwiw, it takes on average 3.5 years to test the evidence.<br /><br />Upon reading this my mind screamed out that this must be an error. 3.5 years on average to test DNA evidence? My reaction is that this just can't possibly be true. I know that the system is broken, but really this bad? And the drug war fanatics are so ideologically invested in their crusade that they're willing to put aside investigating real crimes in order to prosecute our fellow Texans for possession of an illegal flower? <br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-60121285084576828362020-01-04T09:06:11.377-06:002020-01-04T09:06:11.377-06:00The Montgomery County DA still prosecutes all mari...The Montgomery County DA still prosecutes all marijuana cases, though the wait for test results has added at least 3-4 months to the timeline. Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14761410649152390287noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-10325467691915278412020-01-04T05:35:48.664-06:002020-01-04T05:35:48.664-06:00Pot, like booze, should be left to the discretion ...Pot, like booze, should be left to the discretion of the user, and the only thing that ought to be punished is bad behavior while under the influence. I don't smoke it nor do I get drunk, but if someone else wants to chemically alter his or her brain, by all means let them. It their brain.Steven Michael Seyshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07809935502307219692noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8597101.post-45039816086900004412020-01-03T09:40:36.978-06:002020-01-03T09:40:36.978-06:00From the field, I can tell you that the Cooke Coun...From the field, I can tell you that the Cooke County Attorney this summer said he'd remain hard-nosed on pot cases.Gadflyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13075757287807731373noreply@blogger.com