I saw a piece of an interesting show the other night that had an interview with an undercover DEA agent (frankly, the shots of him working looked more like he was a social worker than a DEA agent) who was complaining about the difference between his job in working "real" drugs (crack, heroin, cocaine, lsd) and marijuana. It was contrasted with a shot of Orin Hatch saying that marijuana was what was destroying our cities and our children.
I almost thought it was a Michael Moore interview :)
It would be nice to see a backlash to all this federal medling in the justice system; the federalization of many crimes is getting out of hand. Unfortunately, the people most in the position to do/say something about it are judges, and they pretty much don't have a voice. And the huge increase in charges of 'conspiracy' seems to be ripe for some action: many times in drug cases, they pressure someone into testifying against their spouse (which wraps up the case nicely: if your spouse testifys against you, you're going to jail) by threatening to file conspiracy charges against them. Conspiracy is one of those charges that allows circumstantial evidence to be entered, apparently, and many couples, rather than face the possibility of both parents going to jail and losing their kids opt to send dad away.
Family Values Indeed,
/jordan