Drug Law Blog

This blawg "concentrates on evolving areas of law related to the policing and regulation of drugs and cases that deal with civil liability around drug safety. In particular, this blog explores the boundary between the criminal law and the civil/administrative structure of drug regulation, and argues that regulatory mechanisms may offer solutions to some of the most troubling consequences of America's war on drugs."

Author: Alex Coolman is a San Francisco-based attorney.

Blawg Related Categories: Administrative Law • Criminal Justice • Criminal Procedure • Legal Theory • 9th Circuit Court • States • California

Recent Posts from Drug Law Blog

Bush Threatens Veto of Bill That Would Allow FDA Regulation of Tobacco
From the July 23, 2008 issue of The New York Times: In its sharpest criticism yet of the tobacco legislation pending in Congress, the Bush administration has said it “strongly” opposes the effort to give…
People v. Moseley on Maintaining a Place for Sale or Use of Controlled Substances and CALCRIM No. 2440
At what point can we say that an apartment used by a person who sells drugs is being being used to sell drugs? Or, to put it another way, what makes a "meth house" a…
People v. Turk on Voluntary Intoxication
A trial court did not err in failing to instruct sua sponte on voluntary intoxication as a defense to involuntary manslaughter, the Fourth District Court of Appeal held 7/17/08 in People v. Turk, D049923. The…
DEA Accepts Petition To Consider Removing Marijuana From Schedule I
Carl Olsen in Iowa notes that the DEA has accepted his petition to consider reclassifying marijuana and taking it off of Schedule I. The Iowa Board of Pharmacy is also holding a meeting on July…
New Yorker on Medical Marijuana: Crappy Hackington Meets Eustace Tilley
The New Yorker has a very long piece on medical marijuana in California. For all that length, there's very little in the article that hasn't been done before by dozens of other journalists. There is…
NYT on the American Approach to Evidence Suppression
Adam Liptak of the New York Times has an interesting piece today comparing the American approach to evidence suppression to that of other countries. He writes: The United States is the only country to take…
Friday Music
Epic. Young Duece, from Ohio, with their magnum opus "Dear Slushie." Anybody who is simultaneously singing about slushies and using the phrase "on a regular basis" is a goofball after my own heart. Also, this…
San Louis Obispo Sheriff Sued for Inviting Feds to Raid Medical Marijuana Dispensary
An Atascadero woman has filed a pro per lawsuit against San Louis Obispo County Sheriff Pat Hedges, alleging that he violated the California Constitution when he invited federal law enforcement officials to raid a medical…
Dangerous and Targeted at Youth? Sounds Like Legal, Non-FDA Regulated Tobacco!
New reports indicate that tobacco companies manipulated the level of menthol in cigarettes specifically to hook young users. Scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health scoured thousands of pages of industry documents from the…
Addressing Drug Policing and Racial Disparities: An Interview with Ryan King of The Sentencing Project
A recent report by The Sentencing Project documents, in considerable detail, something that many Americans uneasily suspect about the way the war the drug war is policed: namely, that it affects African American communities vastly…