You'd have to live in a cave not to know that if you're driving and get stopped by a cop, he or she can ask you to take a breath or blood test, and if you refuse, you lose your license for a while. But you also expect that if you choose the blood test, the cops will take you to a hospital or other place where a medical professional draws your blood.

That's changing. Utah now allows cops to needle you themselves, right at the site of the traffic stop. The reason seems to be it saves the state money. Other states plan on following suit. Can this be constitutional? I don't think so. DUI blog provides these thoughts.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has outlined the Justice Department's priorities. Public Enemy Number One: Obscenity.

Other priorities:

• Ending Senate blocking of judicial nominees, a "broken process that must be fixed" before there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

• Renewing provisions of the USA Patriot Act that are set to expire at the end of the year, saying the law has been an important tool in preventing terror attacks in the United States.

• Amending the Constitution to give crime victims the right to participate in prosecutions and sentencings.

I think Gonzales is out of line. All three of those are up to Congress, the legislative branch, not the Justice Department or the executive branch. Gonzales should focus on enforcing the law, not creating it.

Demand for medical marijuana has increased substantially in San Francisco since the Health Department began issuing ID cards four years ago. The San Francisco Examiner reports that the city, wanting a piece of the action, may begin regulating pot clubs.

The City has seen "an explosion of new medical marijuana clubs," according to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, a Green Party member who plans a public hearing on an estimated 34 clubs. Health Department records show that from 2003 to 2004, the number of patients requesting medical marijuana ID cards doubled to more than 7,000.

"After seeing the rise of this cottage industry in San Francisco, questions abound as to what The City might do to benefit from this commerce," Mirkarimi said. "I'm not looking in order to infringe on their business, but I want to bring them into the sunshine."

Not surprisingly, the capture of recently released sex offender and accused Denver rapist Brent J. Brents is sparking protests over the release of sex offenders. But those who are claiming sex offenders can't be treated are wrong. Treatment while in prison dramatically reduces the risk of recidivism.

A 2003 Corrections Department report evaluating the treatment of sex offenders.... found three of every four sex offenders who received no therapy reoffended, compared with one in every six for those who completed the first phase of treatment. The rate improved to one in 10 for those who finished the second phase in a minimum-security facility for sex offenders. The study examined the records of 3,338 sex offenders.

The report also states that "current Parole Board members are extremely reluctant to release sex offenders who refuse to participate in treatment."

So hold the cries for longer sentences and instead demand that sex offenders be given treatment while in prison. For those that refuse treatment, parole boards likely will keep them in jail. Many states allow for civil commitment of sex offenders after their prison terms are up.

Treatment works. States should make it mandatory. With more and more states, including Colorado, setting life in prison as the top end of the sentencing range for sex offenders, parole boards have the option of keeping the most dangerous offenders in prison while allowing those who have become rehabilitated to re-enter society.

The FDA has given the green light for soldiers suffering combat stress after serving in Iraq and Afganistan to receive Ecstasy. [link via Majikthise and Daou Report.]

Scientists behind the trial in South Carolina think the feelings of emotional closeness reported by those taking the drug could help the soldiers talk about their experiences to therapists. Several victims of rape and sexual abuse with post-traumatic stress disorder, for whom existing treatments are ineffective, have been given MDMA since the research began last year.

Crim Prof Blog reports that Bush's budget cuts money from the war on drugs:

Many state and local drug enforcement officials are upset with President Bush's proposed budget. It would cut federal grants for state and local efforts in the war on drugs, ending most of the support for hundreds of anti-drug task forces in more than 40 states across the country." Listen to detailed NPR report by Greg Allen.

We couldn't be happier.

80 people have died after stun guns were used on them. The country's largest police organization shortly will announce an investigation into stun gun usage and safety.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Justice Department will also study more than 80 deaths to assess the risks in using the weapons, the group said Tuesday. The actions come as civil rights groups and some police agencies question the use of stun guns, which emit electrical charges to temporarily incapacitate suspects. It's the first time a national law enforcement association has called for a review of stun guns.

In additon,

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an interfaith activist group based in Atlanta, has also asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to declare a moratorium on the weapon.

And Indiana police say civilians shouldn't be using stun guns.

There's an interesting debate going on at LegalAffairs:

Sexually transmitted diseases can't be outlawed, but can the law slow their spread? In a forthcoming article in the University of Chicago Law Review, Ian Ayres and Katharine Baker propose adding the crime of "reckless sexual conduct" to the books. Citing data that shows that STDs are transmitted with disproportionate frequency the first time two people have sex, Ayres and Baker argue first-time intercourse without a condom should be punishable by putting the perpetrator in prison for three months.

Former prosecutor Cheryl Hannah argues against the laws. My view: We need to stop looking to the criminal justice system to cure every conceivable social ill. [hat tip Instapundit.]

by TChris

Like many others, Montel Williams is a criminal, but only because his government has presented him with a stark and unfair choice: continue to suffer as a result of his illness, or risk arrest by taking the only effective medicine -- a medicine that our laws make illegal. His story, presented in a letter to the Chicago Tribune, is compelling.

In "Climbing Higher," my book on living with MS, I write in detail about how I became suicidal and twice attempted to end my life. I was in severe mental and physical pain, getting little sleep and feeling completely spent. Someone suggested that I try smoking a little marijuana before going to bed, saying it might help me fall asleep. Skeptical but desperate, I tried it. It was like a miracle. Three puffs and within minutes the excruciating pain in my legs subsided.

Should Montel Williams, and the thousands like him, be branded a criminal simply because he wants to live a life that allows him to manage his pain?

It is time to take politics out of the debate. It is time for government-sanctioned research into the medicinal effects of marijuana and time to heed the research already available. It is time to change marijuana's classification so that physicians can prescribe it.

Look what's coming to a neighbor near you:

The maker of the Taser stun gun used by police and the military is planning to market a civilian model amid concerns about deaths and injuries from the device, the Chicago Tribune reported Sunday. The Tribune said that Taser International, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., plans a $1,000 model for civilians, which is about $200 less than the police version of the device.

And, in the "you just can't make this stuff up" department:

To kick off the campaign, a Minnesota firearms dealer plans to allow himself to be zapped with the device, which will be fired by a police officer, the newspaper said.

The announcement comes after Chicago decided to stop equipping its officers with stun guns following the death of one man and injury to a teenager last week.

So, they're not safe enough for cops to use, but they are fine for homeowners? I wonder if insurance companies will be concerned enough about increased liability risks to either draw up exclusions to homeowner coverage or raise premiums. Before you buy one, perhaps you ought to call your insurance company and find out if your umbrella policy covers damages you inflict on a neighbor, their pet, your daughter's boyfriend, or even an intruder.

Give us your poor, your sick and your disabled, and if they ever committed a bad act in the past, or if they didn't but we think they did, we will hunt them down and put them in jail.

Say hello to the Fugitive Felon program, now targeting retirees to take their social security and disability benefits from them.

Thousands of unsuspecting retirees could lose their Social Security (news - web sites) checks in the months ahead, some over false or unproven allegations, minor infractions or long-dormant arrest warrants.

The risk is a consequence of the Fugitive Felon Project, a little-known law-and-order measure created by Congress in 1996 to help apprehend suspects and to prevent fleeing criminals from using government benefits to elude arrest.

by TChris

Mandatory minimum sentences have many critics, ranging from Justice Kennedy on the Supreme Court to organizations like Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Even the Wall Street Journal has editorially condemned mandatory minimums. Examples of unfair mandatory sentences (including this one) abound.

Congress nonetheless continues to consider the addition of new mandatory minimums to federal sentencing law. Jack Moseley, writing for the Arkansas News Bureau, explains why Congress should focus its efforts on the creation of drug courts that divert drug users from the criminal justice system, rather than sentencing laws that promote the seemingly endless growth of our prison population:

Prison turns first-time drug offenders into hardened criminals. Drug courts return most to productive lives in society. It's just that simple. So what is it that Congress doesn't get, even when the most conservative judges tell them they are wasting taxpayer money and destroying lives while doing untold damage to respect for law and order in this nation?

It's time to stop this insanity. Bobby Kennedy was right: Yes, life sometimes is unfair; that should not keep us from trying to make it more fair. Every case should be judged on the evidence, the circumstances and other factors that any judge should have the right and obligation to consider - not by the one-size-fits-all laws enacted by uninformed and apparently blind and mindless lawmakers.