Free Republic

I have been intermittently reporting on the NYPD for half a century—sometimes admiringly, as when I spent several weeks with a homicide squad on the Lower East Side, learning how (in contrast to the CIA's current methods) confessions that will hold up in court can be obtained by detectives without laying a hand on the suspect. And I've also written critically about the police, as well as various commissioners. But I have never seen such systematic dishonesty and contempt for the law as those documented in the 102-page report, "Marijuana Arrest Crusade: Racial Bias and Police Policy in New York...

A landmark study by the Mental Health Council of Australia, "Where There's Smoke," shows that even casual marijuana use increases the risk of psychosis and worsens almost any mental illness, especially depression and bipolar disorder. As reported by Australian television over the weekend, cannabis use is associated with other adverse outcomes, including poor employment and education outcomes. The study adds new importance to a recent Minneapolis Star-Tribune article on a U.S. government survey that found illegal drug use, notably marijuana, by Americans in their 50s rose a stunning 63 percent from 2002-05. (Over the same period, it fell by 15...