https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/19/oregon-addiction-spending

Washington county, located west of Portland, got a $1.5m deflection budget approved last year. Nearly $700,000 of it was allocated to salaries for new law enforcement positions: $283,487 for a high-level deputy district attorney; $116,664 for a legal specialist in the district attorney’s office; and $257,335 for a sheriff’s lieutenant. It also included $40,000 for overtime for the sheriff’s office.

The county, meanwhile, allotted $360,000 total for community peer mentor services meant to directly help people get services and treatment.

An American friend told me this morning that the #meth lab across the road from his house burned down last night, this isn’t in downtown Baltimore, but a well heeled area of Little Rock. The #WarOnDrugs was, and remains, an expensive, tragic, failure, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Worth noting that Austin City Council has ordered our police to deprioritize cannabis arrests, a policy which I don't believe would be directly affected by this court decision overturning the decriminalization ordinance.

Texas court blocks #Austin marijuana law | KUT Radio, Austin's NPR Station
https://www.kut.org/crime-justice/2025-04-24/austin-tx-weed-pot-marijuana-law-15th-court-of-appeals-ken-paxton

“I want bad actors removed from this space, but you don’t clean up a room by setting it on fire.”

A hemp industry worth as much as $4B is in the line if #Texas moves forward with its planned ban on THC products ...
https://www.texasobserver.org/advocates-speak-against-lege-thc-hemp-restrictions/

“We’re trying to straddle a recreational use versus a medicinal use. Drawing the lines will be difficult, because we’ve been doing this for almost three hours, and I’m still not sure what we’re talking about.” https://www.texasobserver.org/advocates-speak-against-lege-thc-hemp-restrictions/

“I want bad actors removed from this space, but you don’t clean up a room by setting it on fire.”

New: The #Texas Legislature is struggling with whether to regulate, or ban, currently legal products containing THC, under pressure from the lieutenant governor.
https://www.texasobserver.org/advocates-speak-against-lege-thc-hemp-restrictions/

Gilead is a complete fuck up, the Laws on that land seem to be applied at the whim of whomever has power.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/31/oregon-new-drug-law-arrests

In #books: In the early 20th century, new federal drug prohibition laws were reshaping the societal and penal landscape. Against this backdrop, Texans took a central role in the attempt to balance punishment with treatment for the growing percentage of the U.S. population addicted to drugs. https://www.texasobserver.org/inside-fort-worths-narcotic-farm-experiment/

In #books: New federal drug prohibition laws were reshaping the societal and penal landscape. It’s against this backdrop that Texans took a central role in the attempt to balance punishment with treatment for the growing percentage of the U.S. population addicted to drugs.
https://www.texasobserver.org/inside-fort-worths-narcotic-farm-experiment/

These comics from the Real Cost of Prisons Project were a real eye-opener for me about the deep perversion of the American "judicial" system

https://therealcostofprisonsproject.wordpress.com/rccp-comics/

Previously: “Many, many of the people involved in influencing policy in Washington D.C. are not registered as lobbyists. The most important people tend not to be registered as lobbyists.” https://www.texasobserver.org/dea-derek-maltz-border-911-penlink/

Featured story: “The closet is a very dangerous place for people who use drugs. It’s where stadiums full of people die every year.” https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-war-on-drug-users-austin-overdose-disaster/

From our magazine: Holly M Karibo's new book traces #Texas' historic role in the origins of the war on drugs and shifting attitudes towards addiction. A review from Staff Writer Michelle Pitcher ...
https://www.texasobserver.org/inside-fort-worths-narcotic-farm-experiment/

#books #bookstodon #WarOnDrugs #drugs #health #history #politics #USpol #MentalHealth @bookstodon

Earlier: Derek Maltz formerly worked at PenLink, a Nebraska-based tech firm that has sold software that can track phone locations without a warrant to agencies like #ICE and Texas DPS.
https://www.texasobserver.org/dea-derek-maltz-border-911-penlink/

“Many, many of the people involved in influencing policy in Washington D.C. are not registered as lobbyists. The most important people tend not to be registered as lobbyists.” https://www.texasobserver.org/dea-derek-maltz-border-911-penlink/

Recap: The deadly cost of banning fenantyl test strips. Propaganda maker at the border. Trump's favorite Texas oligrachs. One of Cecile Richards' final interviews. And more in our January/February 2024 issue. https://www.texasobserver.org/issues/january-february-2025/

Featured story: Over 72 hours, Austin police reported more than 70 overdose calls. Records from Travis County, which includes most of Austin, and neighboring Williamson County indicate that as many as 12 may have died. The culprit: a bad batch of crack cocaine. https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-war-on-drug-users-austin-overdose-disaster/

“Many, many of the people involved in influencing policy in Washington D.C. are not registered as lobbyists. The most important people tend not to be registered as lobbyists.”
https://www.texasobserver.org/dea-derek-maltz-border-911-penlink/