Thank you, emmadogs. I'm used to my important, relevant issues going uncommented-on. It's the story of my life. People actually tend to blame me for bringing them up.

One thing that I like about PDD is that I know that public figures, like the mayor and the police chief, read it. That way, when I'm being ignored, I at least know that it's a conscious effort on the part of those ignoring me. Nobody can claim to be unaware.

Isn't it astonishing that the police can walk into a place, confiscate all the cash and computers and keep them forever without filing charges?

TDOB Index, Dec. 28, 2011: 98

Day 100. Who would have thought we'd ever see it? 

The Duluth Police Department has confiscated thousands of dollars in cash, computer hardware and personal property from a citizen and held it for 100 days, without filing charges.

The Duluth News Tribune seems indifferent.

TDOB Index, Dec. 30, 2011: 100

I have been chatting with people who say that one reason they don't support Jim Carlson is because he's making so much money off the sale of incense. There's no doubt that he is. He mentions the money in every newspaper article.

But this is not new money, only a new recipient. All of these people coming out of the woodwork to spend their money at the Last Place On Earth were spending that same money on drugs, principally marijuana, beforehand. They were just more secretive and surreptitious about it, because marijuana is illegal.

I would guess that Jim Carlson's newfound wealth has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in the number of people driving slowly down alleys in the middle of the night, looking for this person or that person, running in here, running in there, making whispered phone calls, tossing pebbles at windows and generally participating in the underground economy. 

The Duluth police have been holding Jim Carlson's property for 102 days. Charges have not been filed. Perhaps they enjoy the way the property catches the evening sun and brightens up the evidence room.

TDOB Index, Jan. 1, 2012: 102

In Duluth, a daily observation is over the top.

TDOB Index, Jan. 2, 2012: 103

If Jim Carlson makes $6 million a year selling incense, that's $60,000 in sales tax that goes directly to the city's general fund. 

In other words, incense paid for the salary and benefits of at least one of the cops raiding the store.

TDOB Index, Jan. 3, 2012: 104

I should note that the horror stories mentioned above, with the exception of the sandwich story, were unsourced.

A Clemson University scientist created many of the chemicals [in incense] for research purposes in 1990s. They were never tested on humans.

Civilian deaths have been reported and emergency crews have responded to calls of "hyper-excited" people doing things like tearing off their clothes and running down the street naked.

So, like, civilian deaths been reported where? People have been tearing off their clothes where? According to whom? What were the circumstances? 

Thus does the media spread hysteria. The AP reporter, for all we know, could have plucked these stories out of thin air. The crack News Tribune staff, of course, did no fact-checking of their own, but simply ran the stories verbatim.

And then they complain about the journalistic integrity of bloggers.

The Duluth police have now been holding Jim Carlson's cash, computers and personal items for 106 days without filing charges. That's a fact. You can check it out.

TDOB Index, Jan. 5, 2012: 106

So the cops can just go into a place, take all the cash, and keep it for 107 days, whether or not a crime has been committed? It boggles the mind.

TDOB Index, Jan. 6, 2012: 107

The Duluth police department is in the process of moving to a new, larger headquarters on Rice Lake Road. In a recent news conference, a spokesman touted the advantages of the new building.

"There are a lot of people in Duluth who haven't committed crimes," he stated. "With the new facility, we'll have ample room to store all of their stuff that we seize."

TDOB Index, Jan. 8, 2012: 109

Whenever I see an article about a pot bust, my first thought is, "What a waste." It's a waste of law enforcement resources (inevitably, half a dozen agencies are involved), a waste of a small farmer's life (off to jail with you for growing a relatively benign vegetative substance! And we'll take your house, too! And your car! And all your money!), a waste of good weed and a waste of common sense.

How is it that people easily accept any sort of drug cocktail prescribed by a doctor, for virtually any condition, but are adamantly opposed to marijuana, a cheap, easily-obtained treatment for depression, pain and alcoholism? It has to be something psychological, because such rabid opposition has no grounds in reality.

It's this psychology that has allowed the Duluth police to hold onto Jim Carlson's property, for no reason, for 111 days.

TDOB Index, Jan. 10, 2012: 111

Convicted murderers don't lose their houses--but pot farmers do. Armed robbers don't have their cars taken away--but pot farmers do. Rapists and kidnappers don't have their bank accounts confiscated--but pot farmers do. Apparently, America really, really hates pot farmers.

In other news, the Duluth police have been hanging onto Jim Carlson's cash and property, without any cause, for 112 days.

TDOB Index, Jan. 11, 2012: 112

According to the paper, fourteen new police officers were sworn in. A picture shows one of their superiors showing them how to confiscate property from people who haven't committed crimes.

TDOB Index, Jan. 13, 2012: 114

As I continue with this thread, bravely adding one or more segment each day, I begin to feel more and more like I am descending into an abyss. It's not a bad feeling. It's nice and quiet down here at the end of the thread. Nice and dark and peaceful. A few glowing creatures drift by. They don't seem harmful. I think I will enjoy myself.

Wait! Is that Jim Carlson's property I see, flashing in the depths?

Alas, no. That is only an electrified spongiform.

Jim Carlson's property has been held by the Duluth police department, without cause, for 116 days.

TDOB Index, Jan. 15, 2012: 116

One thing that works to the advantage of injustice is time. If things are a certain way for long enough, people start not to care very much. In Duluth, "long enough" means about three weeks. 

The Duluth police have been holding Jim Carlson's cash, computers and personal property for 118 days without cause. How is that possible?

TDOB Index, Jan. 17, 2012: 118

A sad news story today about a drunk driver killing a woman in a head-on collision in Woodland. The social and personal costs of alcohol are so much greater than the social and personal costs of marijuana as to make the comparison ludicrous. Which one do you think is legal?

The Duluth police have been holding Jim Carlson's guns and cash for 121 days for no reason. That pisses me off.

TDOB Index, Jan. 20, 2012: 121

Do you remember how, when the Last Place on Earth was raided, the cops told Jim Carlson that they would be back the instant he dared to restock his shelves with incense? He restocked his shelves the next day. The cops never showed. They must have forgotten.

Now they've been holding his stuff for 123 days, without cause. With every day that goes by, the situation gets more ridiculous. I would really like somebody to justify it, but I guess if you can just do whatever you want, you don't have to justify anything.

TDOB Index, Jan. 22, 2012: 123

Our review of the evidence room supports the conclusion that many items were taken by Strike Force employees. When the inventory of evidence at the Strike Force offices was complete, we found many items that were listed as being in the Strike Force evidence room that we could not locate. There is no record of these items being destroyed or sent to auction. They are simply missing. We designated these items as 'unidentified' evidence. Some of these items were found in officers' desks, lockers and other locations in the Strike Force offices.

From the Report of the Metro Gang Task Force Review Panel (p.17)

The Duluth police have been holding onto Jim Carlson's cash and property for 125 days without cause. Isn't that messed up?

TDOB Index, Jan. 24, 2012: 125

An interesting headline in today's Duluth News Tribune: "At least a dozen guns went missing from Pine County Sheriff's Office from 2008-11." 

Prompted by citizen complaints that firearms were not being returned to their owners [Pine County] Sheriff Robin K. Cole ordered an internal audit shortly after taking office a year ago, according to a news release from the sheriff's office.

The audit "found that access control and book keeping measures in place since 2001 were not in compliance with state mandated standards," the release said. "It was further determined that during the period from 2008 to early 2011, twelve firearms documented to be in the custody of the PCSO are missing."

The office has taken measures to improve the accountability of all property and Cole "will make every effort to contact the rightful owners of the missing firearms and make right these wrongs," the release said. 

The ongoing firearms investigation is one of 11 internal investigations involving 15 sheriff's office employees conducted over the past year. The investigations included complaints of domestic violence, sexual harassment, excessive force, abuse of authority, failure to follow policies and order and failure to perform assigned duties. The investigations produced disciplinary actions ranging from oral reprimands to termination.

Cole will discuss the issue at a Monday news conference.

What is it with cops and evidence rooms? Why can't they keep their hands to themselves?

The Duluth police have been "holding" Jim Carlson's property for 127 days. Or so they say.

TDOB Index, Jan. 26, 2012: 127

They still do.

TDOB Index, Jan. 29, 2012: 130

If the system works by allowing the cops to walk into a business and confiscate cash and computers and hang onto them for 131 days without filing charges, then I guess I'm not a big fan of the system.

TDOB Index, Jan. 30, 2012: 131

Duluth police officers celebrated the first day of February by dancing around the evidence room and showering themselves with Jim Carlson's cash.

TDOB Index, Feb. 1, 2012: 133

On the day after Groundhog Day, a squirrel popped out of a tree near City Hall and saw his shadow, which means the Duluth police will hold onto Jim Carlson's cash and property for another six weeks without filing charges.

On this thread only, February 3rd will henceforth be known as Squirrel Day. Hopefully we never have to celebrate another one.

TDOB Index, Feb. 3, 2012: 135

If the TDOB Index didn't exist, the issue would go dormant until something happened that caused the newspaper to run an article. Then people would say, "Oh, yes. It seems like the cops had that property for a long time," but nobody would have any feel for how long it really was. The TDOB Index makes it real.

Just think if somebody took all your stuff and kept it for 136 days for no reason. Wouldn't that suck?

TDOB Index, Feb. 4, 2012: 136

Another day, another $164 in sales tax paid by the Last Place on Earth to the city.

Meanwhile, the police continue to hold Carlson's computers and property without cause.

TDOB Index, Feb. 6, 2012: 138

Employees, including sworn officers, repeatedly took property obtained during searches for their own personal use. These items included, among other things, flat screen and large screen televisions, laptops and other computer equipment, electronics, jewelry and recreational items [...] 

On a number of occasions, officers or their family members were permitted to purchase, at low prices, items from the evidence room, including flat screen and large screen televisions, jet skis, a trailer and other items.

Report of the Metro Gang Strike Force Review Panel (p.4) 

The Duluth police have now been holding Jim Carlson's property for 140 days, without filing a single charge. No big deal, right? It's not your property. 

TDOB Index, Feb. 8, 2012: 140

In the news today, Superior Police Officer Kirk Babic pleaded no contest to embezzling more than $5,000 from an account intended for a law enforcement fitness center. If he had only come across the bridge and grabbed some cash out of the Duluth evidence room, there wouldn't have been a problem. 

TDOB Index, Feb. 10, 2012: 142

TDOB Index, Feb. 12, 2012: 144

Police Chief Ramsay celebrated Valentine's Day by laying a single red rose on Jim Carlson's computer drives.

"We'll be together forever," he whispered.

TDOB Index, Feb. 14, 2012: 146

The Duluth police have been holding Jim Carlson's cash and property for 148 days for no reason whatsoever. I find it odd that the News Tribune doesn't consider this a story. If I wasn't keeping the issue alive, it would be like it never happened. 

TDOB Index, Feb. 16, 2012: 148

Duluth police officers celebrated the 150th day of confiscation by putting their arms around Jim Carlson's computer drives and humping them madly.

TDOB Index, Feb. 18,2012: 150

Just chillin', with $80,000 locked up in the vault. I hope they gave somebody a receipt for that. Something like: "Taken: $80,000. Thank you. The police."

In one way, the judge's ruling is actually good for the community, because it means that the TDOB Index will be around forever now. The police will never give the property back, and they will never file charges. The TDOB Index is good for the community.

I cheerfully carry on. Thank you for asking.

TDOB Index, Feb. 19, 2012: 151

Actually, it is, though. Nobody interferes when somebody creates a TDOB Index, as could happen in some places. Nobody may care, either, but that's another issue.

$80,000 in cash and 28 guns held by the police, to say nothing of Carlson's computer drives, awaiting the discovery of a single drop of illegal substance to warrant their permanent, legal seizure. So what's the holdup?

The TDOB Index will end when either (1) charges are filed or (2) the property is returned. It is the position of the TDOB Index that the Duluth police should just give the property back without a lot of fuss, acknowledge their mistake, and move on. But the TDOB Index knows the homeboys don't play like that.

TDOB Index, Feb. 22, 2012: 154

The problem is that they are operating legally. Because "drugs" are supposedly involved, the law says the police can confiscate Jim Carlson's cash, guns and computer drives and hold them for 155 days without charging him with any crime. Theoretically, they could hold onto the stuff forever. The law specifies no maximum time period that property may be held.

TDOB Index, Feb. 23, 2012: 155

The DA, the cops. Whoever is supposed to do the charging, that is who I'm waiting for to do it.

Don't you think $80,000 in lockup presents quite a temptation to your average cop?

TDOB Index, Feb. 25, 2012: 157

Judge Shaun Floerke celebrated the 160th day of confiscation by peeking into the evidence room and winking at Jim Carlson's .50-caliber elephant gun where it lay in a corner. 

"Hubba hubba," he whispered. 

The .50-cal shivered and tried to cover itself. The judge smiled and gently closed the door.

TDOB Index, Feb. 28, 2012: 160

To celebrate Leap Day, Jim Carlson's cash and property held a melancholy party in the evidence room to keep up their spirits.

TDOB Index, Feb. 29, 2012: 161

Check out the TDOB Index today. The higher it goes, the worse things are.

TDOB Index, March 1, 2012: 162

Don't you think that if everybody adopted a live-and-let-live attitude toward drug use, rather than piling on ever-harsher penalties, that there might be a ruckus for a little while, but soon everything would reach some kind of equilibrium and everyone would get used to the new reality and deal with it in their own ways, and life would go on? As has happened, long since, with alcohol?

I mean, seriously, how can the cops confiscate $80,000 from a business and keep it for 164 days without filing charges? Is the fight to stamp out drugs so important that property rights must be obliterated on even the mere suspicion of drug activity? If somebody gets a "gut feeling" about their neighbor and reports them as possible drug dealers, it is possible that the neighbor can have everything confiscated—even if no drugs are found and the neighbor is totally innocent.

It can happen. Try it out on your neighbor and you'll see what I mean. You can put a stop to all the loud partying that normally goes on over there.

TDOB Index, March 3, 2012: 164

Hell Day is when the TDOB Index reaches the number of the beast: 666. Hell Day is 500 days from today. I shudder to think of ever reaching it.

The last time I checked, the police still had Jim Carlson's cash, guns and computer drives locked up somewhere. It's understandable. If you can just take a person's stuff, why not take it, you know?

TDOB Index, March 5, 2012: 166

When I drove by the Last Place on Earth yesterday afternoon, the line of people was out the door and down the block. If the city got into selling incense, we could take care of our budget deficit in no time.

TDOB Index, March 8, 2012: 169

What is so horrible about marijuana that causes us to stamp out civil liberties and imprison large chunks of the population in the name of fighting it? At its worst, marijuana is harmless; at its best, it can be very, very helpful. I don't understand why people hate it so much.

TDOB Index, March 10, 2012: 171

As in.dog.neato's article indicates, a big incentive to keep the drug war going is financial, on the part of law enforcement, who rely on fighting marijuana to get grants from the government. Nevertheless, I cannot lay all the blame at the feet of law enforcement.

The real problem is that Americans are willing to overlook any abuse as long as somebody claims it's happening in the name of the drug war. They don't have to really fight drugs; they just have to say they are. That is reason enough for the sheeplike, do-nothing citizenry to look the other way and forget all about it. You go, po-po. Fight that shit.

When pointing the finger of blame, I always go back to the people. A country as rich and powerful as ours should have solved its problems long ago. Instead, most Americans use their vast leisure time to fret about frivolous matters and build up more enemies in their minds.

The cultural zeitgeist of America craves enemies, especially within our own ranks. The drug war is an enemy mill, churning out enemies by the hundreds of thousands each year. In the enemy business, as in the drug business, supply meets demand.

So the Duluth police can stroll into a place, grab $80,000 and keep it indefinitely, even if no crime has occurred. The people have said it should be so.

TDOB Index, March 12, 2012: 173

C

When I leave my computer unattended, the one-year-old likes to weigh in.

emmadogs, don't hold your breath waiting for the mayor and city council to respond. As politicians, they are well aware that the vast majority of Duluthians either approve of what's happening to Carlson or don't care. Nobody is going to bother standing up for principle. They could lose votes.

The Duluth police swiped $80,000 from a citizen 174 days ago and have yet to file charges. None of our leaders gives a rat's ass.

TDOB Index, March 13, 2012: 174

Even if our leaders don't know about this thread (which I believe they do), they certainly know that police raided the Last Place on Earth, confiscated a bunch of cash and property and never filed charges. That should be information enough for anyone to realize that an injustice is taking place. I shouldn't have to walk everybody through everything step by step on a blog thread.

Our leaders don't care. It's that simple. I'm not sure I should even be calling them our "leaders" any more. Perhaps "myopic rubberstampers" would be more accurate.

To those few of you I've managed to rope into caring about this issue, you can now experience the joy that comes from being totally ignored by your government. 

It reminds me of the council meeting where Councilor Gardner asked for more information on the Community Investment Trust Fund. As I had done quite a bit of research and writing on the subject, I emailed Councilor Gardner links to articles I had written that answered all her questions.

Her response? "I'm too busy to read blogs." No shit. 

I think I'll speak about the Last Place on Earth at the next council meeting. I haven't been down there in a while. Maybe I'll speak on it at every council meeting from now on. I refuse to be politically invisible.

TDOB Index, March 14, 2012: 175

And then Councilor Julsrud deletes me as spam...

It has now been 177 days since police raided the Last Place on Earth and carried away 28 guns, $80,000 in cash and all the computers. No charges have yet been filed. Prosecutors must be working really hard on the case. I'll expect a magnum opus when they get to court.

TDOB Index, March 16, 2012: 177

According to the Drug Enforcement Agency's website,

(1) "High doses [of methamphetamine]  may result in death from stroke, heart attack, or multiple organ problems caused by overheating."

(2) "Overdose effects [of morphine] include: cold, clammy skin, lowered blood pressure, sleepiness, slowed breathing, slow pulse rate, coma, and possible death."

(3) "Overdose effects [of cocaine] include agitation, increased body temperature, hallucinations, convulsions and possible death."

(4) "No death from overdose of marijuana has been reported."

Question: Of the four drugs listed above, which does the DEA consider the most dangerous?

Answer: Why, #4, of course.

TDOB Index, March 18, 2012: 179

I noted earlier how when drug busts are made, inevitably a half-dozen law enforcement agencies are involved. Why is that? Couldn't one or two agencies handle it on their own? 

The reason is that when the cash has been seized and the house and cars and weapons and TVs and jewelry and guns have been sold, everybody involved in the raid gets to split up the money. Who wouldn't want to be in on something like that?

TDOB Index, March 19, 2012: 180

Today is the six-month anniversary of the raid on the Last Place on Earth. Six months. One half of one year. Obviously, there's no active investigation going on. The cops are just sitting on Jim Carlson's stuff because they don't like his long hair. All that is required to make such harassment legal is when the judge asks, "Are you investigating?" the police answer yes. 

In another six months, when the judge asks them again, the police can answer yes again. They can just keep doing this forever. For some reason, the judge (who is presumably an intelligent adult) will never think to ask, "How long does it take to test a substance, anyway?"

I mean, come on. Everybody involved here--cops, prosecutors, judge--knows perfectly well that the only reason they're keeping Jim Carlson's stuff is for harassment purposes. They just can't come right out and say it like that, because that would be illegal.

If Carlson's $80,000 had been invested instead of confiscated, and earned a modest 5 percent annual return, today it would be $82,000. And who's to say the cops haven't done that? Since they don't have to return the money, and they're not held accountable for it, they can treat it as their own. All that interest income from evidence room cash would make a nice little addition to their usual bribes and graft.

If you have something, cops, let's see some formal charges. Otherwise, give the stuff back. This is hardly an unreasonable request. In any other context, it would be simple common sense.

TDOB Index, March 21, 2012: 182

It's nice to take a day off once in a while. I didn't realize this was going to turn into a lifetime project. But that's where common sense will get you.

TDOB Index, March 24, 2012: 185

Have you heard of that movie  Super Size Me, where the guy eats only at McDonald's for a month? It's not very good, at least by my standards. Much better is Super High Me, where the guy smokes weed for 30 days.

I don't recall ever watching a movie that celebrates crack or heroin, but movies celebrating weed are everywhere. The only thing more common than movies celebrating weed are laws against it.

TDOB Index, March 27, 2012: 188

Lt. Steve Stracek, commander of the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force, celebrated the 190th day of confiscation by peeking into the evidence room and checking that Jim Carlson's guns and computers were still there. They were.

"Whew," said Lt. Stracek, mopping his brow and closing the door. "That's enough investigation for one day."

TDOB Index, March 29, 2012: 190

It's over. At long last, it's over.

At approximately 11:00 Sunday morning, with no fanfare (and apparently without notifying the local media) three Duluth police officers pulled up to the Last Place on Earth in a departmental van and returned Jim Carlson's property to him.

In a telephone conversation, Carlson confirmed that everything was brought back--almost. 

"There are two hunting rifles still missing," he said, "but they said they would bring those back later this afternoon, as soon as some paperwork is filled out. All the money is here. All the computers are here."

Naturally, I'm taking all the credit. The TDOB Index worked, man! Average citizens can make a difference, even in Duluth.

And now I am going to take a well-deserved nap.

I should have known better than to include the part about average citizens being able to make a difference.

TDOB Index, April 2, 2012: 194

A typically incomplete story in the News Tribune today reports that the Minnesota Senate passed a bill making the sale of synthetic drugs a felony. What goes unreported is the other part of the bill (S.F. 2319) which greatly expands the types of drugs that will be considered illegal. Under the new law, entire "chemical categories" will be classified as felonies, regardless of what actual molecules are in them. This is an attempt to solve the problem of chemists getting around the law by "tweaking" a molecule or two every time a specific substance is listed as illegal. 

"There's no need to prove that it's pharmacologically active," Dr. Cody Wiberg, executive director of the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy, testified at a committee hearing on the bill on March 14, 2012.

That is, under the new law, you could theoretically serve years of hard prison time for selling a substance that doesn't even get you high.

Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay, representing all the police chiefs in Minnesota, also testified at the meeting.

Gordon Ramsay: Duluth has kind of become ground zero in this issue. We have a business there downtown that made about $6 million last year on the sale of this substance. It's had an impact on our emergency rooms and our police calls. It's had a tremendous negative effect on the businesses surrounding this business downtown. He sells it for about $5.99 a gram. Marijuana right now is selling between $15 and $50 a gram. We've actually seen some of our downtown panhandlers who used to panhandle for the 60-ounce malt liquor, now are panhandling for this synthetic drug. We've seen an increase in police calls, as well as just the overall quality of life downtown. We have a lot more, um, sorry for my crudeness, but we're seeing vomit, we're seeing other bodily fluids from people that are using this drug. It makes them sick. The long-term effects, now—so it's been used up in Duluth for a good year and a half—we've seen a lot of habitual users, we're seeing that the behavior is paranoia, depression, and the ERs and the folks in the hospitals are begging us to do more. Unfortunately, you know, our hands are kind of tied, given the current law.

Wait a minute. If your hands are tied under current law, then why do you still have Jim Carlson's cash, computers and guns? A few weeks ago, you told a judge that you needed to hold onto the stuff because the investigation was ongoing. Now you're telling the Senate that your hands are tied. What is this, the "just say whatever it takes to harass Carlson, because everybody hates him" strategy?

Obviously, that's exactly what it is. Duluth's own Senator Roger Reinert, a co-author of the new bill, sat there and listened to this crap, solemnly nodding his head. He knows perfectly well that the Duluth police have been holding Carlson's stuff for 195 days without filing even a simple misdemeanor charge against Carlson, and you know what? He approves. Nice fucking leadership.

The audio of the committee meeting may be found here.
 Ramsay's testimony begins at the 19:41 mark. The whole meeting is a classic example of the hypocrisy and double standards that accompany every aspect of the war on drugs. 

TDOB Index, April 3, 2012: 195

If the police chief is paying $175 for an eighth of weed, he needs to find a new dealer.

Given my stance on certain issues, people might be surprised to know that I am a law-and-order person, but it's true. I am extremely concerned with the abuse of power in every form.  Crimes against people and property are abuses of power by criminals over their victims. I oppose that. When the abuses are carried out by uniformed police officers, ratified by judges, and enthusiastically supported by the community, I vehemently oppose it. 

I know most people hate Jim Carlson, and believe that he deserves everything he gets, legal or not, but just think about it for a minute. What would it be like to know that you have no protection under the law? To know that the police can come into your business and take the money right out of your pockets whenever they want to, without having to provide a reason or justification? To know that they can hold your property forever without charging you with any crime, simply because people don't like you?

Jim Carlson may be a bad person, but he has more balls than most people in this chump-change town could dream of having. Is he profiting off misery? Perhaps. But it's not illegal. Until it is, I say he deserves every penny he can get.

TDOB Index, April 5, 2012: 197

Man, I can't wait till my novel comes out.

Adam, you have inspired me. Here's the News Tribune story in its entirety, with the necessary corrections made in bold.

"DULUTH COP, DOC DESCRIBE HURDLES IN WAR ON SYNTHETIC DRUGS"

Sgt. Andy Mickus reached into a grocery bag and pulled out what looked like a Dr. Pepper can.

Then he unscrewed the can, revealing a hiding place for illicit drugs (or money, or insurance papers, or prescriptions, or bankbooks, or keys, or anything else a person might want to hide.)

Police find drugs hidden in what appear to be water bottles, pop cans, and Duracell batteries, said Mickus, a Duluth police officer who is supervisor of the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force. They've found drug scales disguised as CD cases. (Gasp!)

"You can get them on the Internet," Mickus told an audience Thursday evening at the Morgan Park Good Fellowship (for non-synthetic drug users) Building. "Head shops sell it. You can get this stuff all over the place. Please call Senator Reinert and have him pass a law against fake Dr. Pepper cans immediately."
 
Mickus was part of a four-person panel who spoke to about 40 people on "Trends and Local Perspectives on Synthetic Drugs in Duluth." The event was sponsored by Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota.

Clever hiding places are only part of the challenge police face in dealing with today's drug problem, Mickus said, but it's a huge one. Another is the difficulty in keeping up with the ever-growing number of synthetic drugs.

"You get one banned and they release three more," Mickus said. "We were never going to catch up."

Legislation passed in Minnesota last year made sale of a few specific synthetic drugs or analogs — compounds meant to mimic the effects of actual drugs — illegal. But it didn't go far enough, Mickus said, because it made it only a gross misdemeanor to sell the banned substances, and Duluth police weren't even able to charge Jim Carlson with that. "It was important enough to pass this legislation, but it wasn't important enough to give it any teeth. Thus, we were forced to go in and take Carlson's stuff without filing any charges against him at all. Nobody likes to do that."

The Legislature made up for that this year, he said, with stiffer legislation that will take effect Aug. 1. It will make selling vast categories of as-yet-nonexistent substances a felony and give the State Board of Pharmacy (led by devout Christian Cody Wiberg) increased ability to add to the list of banned substances.

"Making things that don't exist a felony is the ultimate in preemptive policing," Mickus added, to widespread applause.

The law so far has been largely ignored followed by sellers such as Jim Carlson, who owns the Last Place on Earth in downtown Duluth. He has challenged is challenging the law as being too vague and claims the compounds he sells can't be identified as analogs.

Panelist Dr. Elisabeth Bilden, a medical toxicologist for Essentia Health who is also associate medical director for Hennepin Regional Poison Control, spoke about what she sees in patients who have had a bad reaction to synthetic drugs.

"These people are revved up," Bilden said. "They're agitated. They are paranoid. ... They're kicking, screaming. Before synthetic drugs were available, we never saw any patients do that. Certainly not patients on alcohol."

All of the speakers said part of the difficulty with the synthetic substances is that they aren't regulated. "Nobody knows where it's coming from, and none of it is ever the same," Mickus said.

The quest for money to buy synthetic drugs has led to an increase in property crimes, Mickus said, without providing any support for this statement. "It certainly couldn't be due to anything else." 

Wide-eyed reporters hastily scribbled down Mickus's comments verbatim. 

"Shouldn't we verify some of this?" asked one young journalist sitting in the back. He was quickly shushed by the veteran reporters in the room.

Panelist Dennis Cummings, director of the Bethel Outpatient Center and noted violent-crime expert, said it's also tied to an increase in violent crimes.

"Some of these high-profile acts of violence you've seen in the papers these last few months, people are flying high (that's a medical term) on bath salts," Cummings said. "Like that ex-cop in Hibbing who shot all those people, he was on bath salts. Oh, wait. He was drunk. But all the other ones were on bath salts. I'm sure of it."

"Can't we check on that?" the annoying cub reporter whispered to his colleagues. Irritated, they sent him from the room and ordered him to work on the Community Calendar.

Deb Holman, an outreach worker for CHUM, said she came to the event because she has seen synthetic drug use among her clientele in recent months.

"I'm seeing it on the streets," Holman said. "People are smoking it right in front of us. We need to get them back behind closed doors, where they used to be. Then all will be right with the world."

TDOB Index, April 6, 2012: 198

From time to time I feel the need to explain my exact positions on things, both for myself and for others.

There may be those who read the TDOB Index and assume that I am an apologist for synthetic drugs. I am not. I am as concerned as anyone about the lack of regulation of these chemicals, because, truly, there is no way of knowing what you're getting from day to day. On the other hand, I am extremely skeptical of the horror stories that the vast majority of people seem to accept as gospel truth. 

In the two years that synthetic drugs have been with us, I have seen few stories in the media that purvey anything other than rumor, anecdote and fear-mongering. When you read a story in the newspaper that says, for example, "Synthetic drugs have been implicated in violent crime," what they actually mean is, "While writing this story, the reporter did a search of other newspapers and found a story somewhere in the country that said 'Synthetic drugs have been implicated in violent crime' and decided to pass that along verbatim." Then, when that reporter's story is published, future reporters will look it up and parrot the same information again. Thus do one or two inflammatory sentences replicate themselves over and over, like amoebas, until it seems as if the world is engulfed in horror. But, in reality, it's still only one or two, generally unverifiable, cases.

Nobody actually takes the time to check anything out. Certainly nobody in Duluth does. "Kids are dying," the News Tribune editorial board declared on April 5. This is not true. There has been one death linked to synthetic drugs in Minnesota—a 19-year-old man in Blaine who overdosed on bath salts. How do you get from the death of one adult to the sentence "Kids are dying"? It's easy, if you're a journalist.

And who (besides me) will call them on it? Nobody, of course. The horror stories fit everyone's preconceived notions. It's a lot easier to support felony prison terms for your fellow citizens than to bother proving anything.

I do not doubt that emergency room physicians have seen paranoid, violent patients who were under the influence of synthetic drugs. I also do not doubt that they have seen many, many more paranoid, violent patients who were under the influence of alcohol. If you took every violent-crime story in the media where alcohol was implicated and replaced the word "alcohol" with the words "synthetic drugs," you would see an uproar that would put the Salem witch trials to shame. In reality, nothing would actually be different in the world; but the masses would feel like things have gotten much, much worse.

But all of this is beside the point when it comes to the TDOB Index. The TDOB Index is not concerned with drugs at all, but the abuse of governmental power. The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (which has its roots in the Magna Carta, referenced earlier) states that "No person shall...be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law." Yet that is exactly what's happening at the Last Place on Earth: Jim Carlson has been deprived of his property without due process of law. 

Nobody seems to care about this too much. Our leaders certainly don't. Modern-day Americans seem to have inserted a mental clause to the Fifth Amendment that reads ... "except in cases involving drugs." For some reason, my mind doesn't work this way. My problem may be that I am too consistent.

Happy Easter, everybody!

TDOB Index, April 8, 2012: 200

There was a kid in Pennsylvania who smoked some synthetic marijuana out of a Pez dispenser and got chemical burns on his lungs that were so bad he had to get a double lung transplant. He later died from complications. 

According to doctors, the chemical burns came from the burning plastic of the Pez dispenser. Guess what his parents, the media and the Pennsylvania Legislature blamed?

TDOB Index, April 10, 2012: 202

In March of 2011, in Cranford, New Jersey, 22-year-old William Parisio murdered his girlfriend, 22-year-old Pamela Schmidt, by striking her with a 12-pound dumbbell and strangling her. Parisio's mother told the media that he had been smoking bath salts at the time. The story swept the East Coast. The New Jersey Legislature sprang into action and passed "Pamela's Law" within weeks, banning synthetic drugs from the state.

Six months later, at the trial, toxicology reports showed that Parisio had had no bath salts in his system. The story appeared briefly in one or two places. Nobody suggested repealing Pamela's Law.

TDOB Index, April 11, 2012: 203

Thanks for the pic, Jeremiah Brown and Paul. If that sign was true, Duluth really would be heaven.

April 8, 2012

From: [email protected]
To: @Duluth-News-Letters to the Editor
Subject: Synthetic Drugs

To the editor:

In your editorial of April 5, you supported the Legislature's latest effort to crack down on synthetic drugs because, you said, "kids are dying." After searching the Internet for most of the day, I have been unable to turn up any reports of kids dying from synthetic drugs. As responsible journalists, I know you would never dream of pulling your facts out of thin air. Please provide your readers with the names and circumstances of all the kids who have died. Thank you.
__________

April 9, 2012

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]

Examples are numerous of young people who've used synthetic products and then died after making impaired choices to drive or engage in other risky behaviors. In one high-profile incident a young person, after smoking incense, drove a car the wrong way on the freeway and crashed 100 mph head-on into an oncoming car. I don't see how we can publish your letter. You're suggesting kids aren't dying as a result of using these products. That's not accurate.

My regrets,

Chuck
__________

April 9, 2012

To: [email protected] 
From: [email protected]

Chuck,

You publish letters that aren't accurate all the time. That's why they're called "letters." But you still haven't proven to me that my letter is inaccurate. You say that examples of kids dying from synthetic drugs are numerous, yet you still have not provided me with a single concrete example (names, dates, locations, etc). Like, where was this high-profile case? The only instance that I can find of anybody smoking incense and driving their car 100 miles per hour and crashing is that of a 19-year-old adult in North Aurora, Illinois, who drove off the road and hit a house. An adult is not a "kid."

I repeat: I have been unable to find a single example of a kid dying from synthetic drugs. Since you used the plural in your inflammatory editorial, please provide me with at least two examples of kids dying. If you cannot do this, I do not accept that my letter was inaccurate.

JR
__________

April 9, 2012

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]

John:

We do not knowingly publish letters that are inaccurate. So teenagers still living with their parents and still in high school aren't "kids"? The editorial intentionally didn't use the word "juvenile," which carries a stricter definition, according to age. College kids can still be "kids," especially if engaging in unsafe premature activities. But fine, if you say no one younger than 18 has ever died after using synthetic drugs I'll take you at your word. I can't afford the time to find other examples. I do recall publishing a column from a mother who provided me a picture from her son's high school graduation party. He died soon afterward. I will require we change one sentence, however: From, "I have been unable to turn up any reports of kids dying from synthetic drugs," to, " I have been unable to turn up any reports of kids younger than 18 dying from synthetic drugs." We'll be in touch for verification.

Chuck

__________

April 9, 2012

To: [email protected] 
From: [email protected]

Chuck:

Excellent. But I would ask that the disputed sentence read: "I have been unable to turn up any reports of people younger than 19 dying from synthetic drugs." I haven't found any 18-year-olds who have died.

JR
__________

April 9, 2012

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]

John:

Fine.

Chuck
__________

April 13, 2012

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]
Subject: Fake pot death - 13 year old

A colleague found this one after reading your letter to the editor. Youngest I was able to find was 18, which I did consider a "kid," even if not technically a juvenile. Do with this what you will, if anything. Have a good weekend....

Chuck

http://on.msnbc.com/IDSFLP
__________

April 13, 2012

To: [email protected] 
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Fake pot death -- 13 year old

Thank you, sir. I already knew about that story, and I was appalled at the way it swept through the media and the Pennsylvania Legislature. You passing this along to me without checking anything underscores the way such hysteria spreads.

The only doctor interviewed in the case, Dr. J. Douglas Bricker, dean of Duquesne University's Mylan School of Pharmacy, blamed the chemical burns on the burning plastic of the PEZ dispenser. In a news story, Dr. Bricker "said that although he doesn't underestimate the danger of the ingredients in the man-made designer drug, smoking synthetic marijuana in a plastic PEZ dispenser would have been a 'significant factor' in Brandon's death.

"'It's (the drug) fairly potent, but nothing in the literature has been shown to cause any lung toxicity,' he said. But Bricker said plastic -- such as that found in the candy dispenser -- heated at high temperatures will release highly toxic cyanide gas and carbon monoxide."

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/westmoreland/s_764280.html

Next!

JR
__________

April 13, 2012

To: [email protected]
From: [email protected]

Dear lord, Mr. Ramos, you have GOT to be kidding! Of course I knew that. But this 13-year-old kid died after smoking synthetic marijuana! That's a fact. The dangers of smoking this stuff absolutely have to do with the unsafe way in which some choose to smoke as much as the products  themselves. Impaired judgment? Yeah, I think so. I can't help but wonder why you're fighting so hard to publicly defend synthetic drugs and their use? Do you own stock in "Bliss" or "Bay Spice" or something?
__________

April 13, 2012

To: [email protected] 
From: [email protected]

If this stuff is so bad that it can cause chemical burns on somebody's lungs, why has only one person in the country suffered chemical burns on their lungs? The doctor clearly said that the burning plastic was to blame for the kid's actual injuries, not the drug. The kid could have been smoking tobacco out of a Pez dispenser, and the end result would have been the same. There's a reason pipes aren't made of plastic.

I'm not defending synthetic drugs. I'm attacking the ridiculous hysteria that accompanies every aspect of their portrayal in the media and the draconian penalties that legislators feel is necessary to fight them. So far, in the course of my research, I have come up with less than a dozen confirmed deaths in the country related to synthetic drugs. Three of these, including the one in Blaine, were bath salt overdoses. Not one was an overdose on synthetic marijuana. Several were accidents that occurred after someone had smoked something.

Seeing that synthetic drugs have been widely available to people of all ages, including children, for several years, the truly astonishing thing, to me, is not that there are so many deaths, but that there are so few. Compare that to the hundreds of deaths from alcohol poisoning that occur each year. If you want to go your route and include every accidental and traffic death that's related to alcohol as well, the number rises into the thousands. Yet I don't see anybody agitating for felony prison terms for people who sell alcohol.

You think I'm kidding? I've backed up everything I've said. You, on the other hand, go on and on about "kids dying" and make snotty remarks about my research. If you want me to, I'll call the medical examiners in every case you send me and tell you what they said. I'm a journalist, and I've learned my job the hard way. If you could see past your internal biases, you'd recognize the quality of my work.

You wonder why I'm fighting so hard? Well, let's see...in Duluth, about four people are interested in the facts about synthetic drugs and about 86,000 just want to throw everybody in prison. When you're bucking those kinds of odds, you have to fight a little harder.

TA-DAAAAH!

JR
__________

TDOB Index, April 13, 2012: 205

As I dutifully carry on with my research, googling through tales of mayhem and destruction for several hours each day, I am increasingly convinced that, just as I make a clear distinction between real marijuana (good) and real methamphetamine (bad), a similar distinction can be made between fake marijuana and fake methamphetamine.

Fake marijuana, or incense, has not been confirmed in any overdose death that I can find. Fake methamphetamine, or bath salts, has. So far, I have found seven confirmed cases of bath salt overdoses in the country. The symptoms typically include an extremely elevated body temperature (105 degrees, 107 degrees), erratic, often violent behavior prior to death, and multiple heart attacks one after the other. The victims in these cases tend to be hard-core drug users in their late twenties and early thirties, often with lengthy criminal records, who have been bingeing on bath salts for days.

In Duluth, the vast majority of people purchasing synthetic drugs at the Last Place on Earth are there for synthetic marijuana. Law enforcement, legislators and the media, judging by their comments, like to equate all synthetic drugs with bath salts. The public, hungry for titillating horror stories and always eager to think poorly of their neighbors, is more than happy to go along with this.

The police have now been holding Jim Carlson's cash, guns and computers for 207 days without filing a single charge against him--not a littering ticket or parking citation have we seen. They just took the stuff and kept it, you see. And how many stories do you think the News Tribune has done on the obvious Fifth Amendment violations taking place right under their noses?

Oh, never mind. You know the answer as well as I do.

TDOB Index, April 15, 2012: 207

My wife worries that people reading the TDOB Index will think I'm a total stoner, constantly smoking weed and other drugs. To which I initially said, "Good! Then they'll have to reconcile that belief with my obvious wit, intelligence and clarity of thought. I would be like a living argument in favor of smoking weed! And besides, who cares what people think?"

Well, it turns out that my wife does. So I guess I'll just have to come out and make a boring statement: To those of you who think I'm stoned all the time, let me assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. This is me clean and sober. I'm constantly running around researching things and writing about things and cleaning the house. I wish I could relax a little, actually. But at this point in my life, that's not going to happen. No drugs, not even alcohol or tobacco, crosses these saintly lips any more. 

(Obviously, the two or three pots of coffee I drink each day don't count, because caffeine isn't a drug.)

My wife doesn't realize that most people already think poorly of me, regardless of my personal habits, because the force of my thought and contrariness of my outlook frightens them. But I guess she'll figure that out in time. As for me, I've said what I needed to say--opening a window into my personal life that people really have no business looking through--and everybody's happy now. Right?  Okay? Good. Now I'm off to dust my halo.

I swear, it's like I'm married to Kristi Stokes sometimes.

What?

TDOB Index, April 16, 2012: 208

What's amazing to me is that I still haven't found a single overdose death that can be attributed to synthetic marijuana. When I started this project, I certainly expected to find some. There are always people who, by accident or intention, will use too much of whatever drugs are out there.

I'm not saying there haven't been any overdose deaths, just that I haven't found any. But I'm not searching lightly. I've conducted this project from the point of view of a prohibitionist. In the absence of definite confirmation of a case one way or the other, I ask myself, "What would a prohibitionist do?" Of course, a prohibitionist would blame synthetic drugs for everything. And so, for the purposes of this project, have I.

Even by that standard, I haven't found one——not ONE——synthetic marijuana overdose death in the country. There have been a handful of suicides, and a handful of traffic accidents, and a handful of cases where people fall down and bump their heads, but no overdoses.

So why on earth does the Minnesota Legislature want to make it a felony to sell the stuff? How can Police Chief Ramsay sit in front of the state Senate and say, with a straight face, that synthetic marijuana is more like meth than marijuana? And how can Senator Reinert repeat the same assertion, as if he actually has some kind of proof, to reporters with the News Tribune?

Obviously, they're talking out of their asses. When it comes to drugs, that's how public policy is made. 

TDOB Index, April 17, 2012: 209

The public's concern is always valid. I just don't think that the public's concern, in this case, is quite worth throwing someone into prison for five years. The solution, to me, would make society worse overall than the problem it was meant to solve. It discourages me that people are so into punishment.

Is selling one gram of a substance that has never been shown to kill anyone a crime on par with racking up three drunk-driving convictions? In my opinion, the answer is no.

As I have said elsewhere on this thread, I agree that the unregulated nature of synthetic drugs makes them potentially dangerous. My own answer would be to regulate them.

Okay, I found one.

On September 30, 2011, 19-year-old Lamar Jack, a basketball player at Anderson University in South Carolina, collapsed on the court during a practice. He was rushed to the hospital with a temperature of 103 degrees, where he lapsed in and out of unconsciousness for four days before he died. The autopsy showed that Jack had a "blood clot and lung blockage" that led to "cardiac arrest," as well as the presence in his bloodstream of JWH-018, the chemical found in some brands of synthetic marijuana. The death was ruled accidental, resulting from "acute drug toxicity that led to multiple organ failure." 

Here is my running tally, and some other interesting numbers.

Fatal synthetic marijuana overdose (2011-12): 1

Fatal bath salt overdose (2011-12): 7

Fatal alcohol overdose (1998): 300

Fatal illegal drug overdose (2008): 16,406

Fatal prescription drug overdose (2008): 20,044

Fatal marijuana overdose (beginning of time to present): 0

TDOB Index, April 19, 2012: 211

The Duluth Police Department celebrated the seven-month anniversary of their raid on the Last Place on Earth by sleeping.

TDOB Index, April 21, 2012: 213

The media is fond of describing every new drug that comes along as an "epidemic." Remember the CAT epidemic of the early Nineties, when a few methcathinone labs in Michigan's Upper Peninsula were poised to destroy the nation with their evil products? Well, that one never quite panned out, though the media did get several months of hysterical coverage out of it. 

The latest generation of synthetics is no different. Media reports about incense and bath salts are dense with phrases like "the new epidemic," "the next epidemic," "the impending epidemic," and so on. A dispassionate observer might wonder how a nation that has a new epidemic every five or six years could survive, but fortunately for the media, there are few dispassionate observers around. Most people just open their mouths as wide as possible and gulp the stories down whole.

One group of drugs that has seen actual skyrocketing deaths—as opposed to hysterical media tales of skyrocketing deaths—are prescription painkillers. According to a report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, accidental deaths from prescription painkillers tripled in just eight years--from 2,901 deaths in 1999 to 11,499 in 2007.

Imagine if incense were responsible for these kinds of numbers. The Constitution would be jettisoned without a backward glance and martial law would descend upon the nation. One reason that prescription painkillers aren't perceived as a massive, existential threat is the lack of hysterical media coverage. Also, people aren't lining up outside of the Last Place on Earth to buy them. 

That line of people, more than anything else, is what mainstream Duluth hates. No punishment is too severe, no scaremongering too extreme, if only they will make that awful line of people go away.

TDOB Index, April 22, 2012: 214

It has now been 215 days since police strolled into the Last Place on Earth and walked out with $80,000 in cash, 28 guns and all the computers. They haven't charged anybody with anything, but they still have the stuff. 

Nobody at the News Tribune has bothered to cover this yet. Journalism itself depends on the Bill of Rights for its protections, so you would think that somebody down there would care about the Bill of Rights a little.

Oh, wait. I forgot. Drugs are involved. Writing stories about the Bill of Rights would force them to take time out from running around in hysterical figure-eights.

I wonder how they're coming on that list of dead kids I asked them to compile?

TDOB Index, April 23, 2012: 215

Under normal circumstances, police investigations begin when a crime has been committed. In this case, investigators don't have a crime, but they're doing their best to find one. With Carlson's computers in their clutches, they can comb through his personal records at their leisure, secure in the knowledge that the legal system (or at least Judge Floerke) will never require them to return the computers. If they don't find anything illegal, well, at least they'll have files full of personal information on Jim Carlson to amuse themselves with. And Carlson will get punished without anybody having to go through the time and expense of a trial. So it's basically a win-win for the cops.

It really is nice for them to be able to take people's stuff on a whim. All they have to do is say, "Nobody likes this guy. We want to go in and take all of his things and see if he's involved in anything. Okay?" 

And the judge says, "Sure, boys. Go right ahead. I'm sure he's involved in something. Have you seen how long his hair is?"

Maybe you heard about this one.

Four months ago, Stacey Knutson, a waitress at the Fryn' Pan Restaurant in Moorhead, Minnesota, discovered that one of her customers had left a takeout box at her table when she left. Knutson followed the woman into the parking lot and offered her the box. The woman said, "I'm good, thanks," and drove away. When Knutson opened the box, she found $12,000 inside.

Ever the responsible citizen, Knutson contacted the Moorhead police to report the money. The police took the money away and told Knutson that if nobody claimed it within 60 days, it was hers to keep.

After 60 days passed, the police changed it to 90 days. After 90 days passed, they still hadn't turned the money over. They now told Knutson that they were keeping the money because—get this—the bills had a "strong odor of marijuana" and were therefore part of a drug investigation and subject to civil forfeiture under Minnesota law. They told Knutson she would get a $1,000 reward for turning it over.

When Knutson filed a lawsuit against the police, the case made national headlines. Four days later, the police announced they were giving her the money back.

Question #1: If Knutson hadn't filed a lawsuit, would the cops have returned the money?

Answer: Ha ha!

Question #2: How about if the story hadn't received any publicity? Would they have returned the money then?

Answer: Ha ha! That's great!

Question #3: If your car smelled of marijuana, but no marijuana was present, could the cops seize your car?

Answer: Of course.

Question #4: And never give it back?

Answer: Well, obviously. That's what civil forfeiture means.

Question #5: How about your house?

Answer: What is with these questions? Are you a drug addict or something?

Question #6: What if a cop just said they smelled marijuana?
 
Answer: Just a minute. We need to run a background check on you. 

Question #7: Aren't drug laws just a big steaming load of you-know-what?

Answer: Do I smell marijuana?

TDOB Index, April 26, 2012: 218

I'm YouTubing out today.

If Chief Ramsay needs a break from counting Jim Carlson's cash, he might consider cracking down on Canal Park skateboarders the way this cop in Baltimore does.

The Duluth Police Department celebrated the first day of Homegrown by confiscating everybody's cars.

"That name kind of sounds like marijuana," Lt. Steve Stracek explained to reporters.

TDOB Index, April 29, 2012: 221

One of the most ridiculous aspects of the War on Drugs, to me, is the fact that marijuana is illegal--particularly in light of the much more harmful substances, such as alcohol and prescription opiates, that are not illegal. It is hard for me to believe that police officers, who are in a position to observe the effects of all of these things, actually believe that marijuana is harmful. My guess is that they don't believe it, or most of them don't. I suspect that the reasons they don't say anything are twofold: (1) They have a financial incentive not to, because of the way civil forfeiture laws are set up; and (2) they simply like to have things be illegal.

The more things that are illegal, the more probable cause cops have to search vehicles and houses without warrants--and searching vehicles and houses without warrants is something that cops absolutely love. If a vocal group of Americans suddenly decided that they hated carrots, I suspect that cops would be at the forefront of the move to make carrots illegal. That way, they would have probable cause to search virtually everybody.

Anyway, the Duluth police have now been holding hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, property, inventory, jewelry and computer hardware belonging to Jim Carlson for 223 days, and they still haven't filed any charges against him. None of our leaders, and no members of the media, have questioned this. Maybe they're too busy stage-diving.

In case you forgot, TDOB stands for Total Days Of Bullshit. The name gets more apt all the time.

TDOB Index, May 1, 2012: 223

Two hundred and twenty-five days ago, the Duluth police stormed into a local business and took away all the cash and valuables they could carry. They haven't filed charges against anybody yet. Duluth's leaders, Duluth's media, and 99.8 percent of Duluth's population don't care, so why should I?

TDOB Inex, May 3, 2012: 225

While it is true that I drape my questions with attitude, the questions themselves are journalistic. The only reason I can think of why the News Tribune isn't asking them is that the News Tribune, like the cops and the community, would prefer to drive the Last Place on Earth out of business.

Civil asset forfeiture is a big deal, both nationally and in Minnesota, and it's getting bigger all the time. In criminal cases, a person is innocent until proven guilty. With civil forfeiture, by contrast, a person's property is presumed guilty until the owner can prove its innocence. Many people do not have the time or resources to do this--especially when they know they'll be fighting a justice system that's stacked against them from the beginning. So they don't do anything, and the money slides into the pocket of law enforcement. It's just that easy.

According to Policing For Profit, a 2010 report issued by the Institute for Justice, the federal Assets Forfeiture Fund received $1.2 billion in forfeited cash and $62 million in forfeited property in 2008 alone. In 2003, law enforcement agencies in Minnesota made $4.6 million in drug-related asset forfeitures. The federal government paid an additional $1.1 million to Minnesota law enforcement out of the Assets Forfeiture Fund.

These are not small numbers, and they grow every year. But all the News Tribune wants to do is make sure that $80,000 from the Last Place on Earth gets added to them. And if no charges are ever filed against Jim Carlson, well, that's life. It's certainly not the basis for a story.

What are we at now—226 days? I can only shake my head.

TDOB Index, May 4, 2012: 226

If Michel de Montaigne were alive today, he would be right here with me. I just know it.

Yep. Good to know. I wish he strongly opposed the city's police force violating the Fifth Amendment, but that's the way it goes.

Baci: Self-aggrandizement? Really? I don't think I've talked about how great I am all that much. Certainly not as much as I could have. Actually, I'm quite proud of the self-restraint I've shown in that regard. I mean, I've been really, really modest throughout this entire thread. I can't believe how fantastically humble I've been. If modesty were nickels, I'd be a millionaire. If I were in the Modesty Olympics, I'd take gold, silver and bronze without even trying. I mean, I'm just so MODEST! So I don't know where you get off making a criticism that.

I will be happy to stop griping. All that needs to happen is for the police to either (1) charge Jim Carlson with a crime, or (2) return his property. I can hardly think of a request more logical and straightforward than that. I'm not even being a Carlson apologist—I'll point out again that charging Carlson with a crime would satisfy the requirements of the TDOB Index. But to have nothing happen—other than the cops taking Carlson's stuff and keeping it—that's intolerable. The fact that this has been permitted to drag on for so long shows just how out-of-whack with simple common sense our laws really are.

Terry G, I emailed the police chief for you. I already know what kind of answer I'll get. Long experience has taught me how little I can expect from the people in charge, and how little actually changes when you depend on them. The TDOB Index is where the action is. If you haven't learned a lot by reading it, you haven't been reading it. 

Two hundred and thirty-nine days ago, a dozen police officers skipped into the Last Place on Earth empty-handed and pranced out with $80,000 in cash, 28 firearms, Jim Carlson's jewelry, and all his computers. They haven't found evidence of a crime, but they have no intention of returning the property. Why? Because they don't feel like it. 

The mayor, walking like an Egyptian in his office, doesn't realize that anything has happened.

TDOB Index, May 17, 2012: 239

A moral panic is an incident of widespread social fear that appears seemingly out of nowhere and that grows in the space of a few months or years, then fades to nothing: the CAT scare of the early 1990s is a perfect example. As expressed by Stuart Hall and his colleagues, "When the official reaction to a person, groups of persons or series of events is out of all proportion to the actual threat offered, when 'experts,' in the form of police chiefs, the judiciary, politicians and editors perceive the threat in all but identical terms, and appear to talk 'with one voice' of rates, diagnoses, prognoses and solutions, when the media representations universally stress 'sudden and dramatic' increases (in numbers involved or events) and 'novelty,' above and beyond that which a sober, realistic appraisal could sustain, then we believe it is appropriate to speak of the beginnings of a moral panic."

Synthetic Panics, by Philip Jenkins (1999)

TDOB Index, May 18, 2012: 240

Now that the city is losing the casino money it's counted on for so long, I'll bet our city leaders wish they hadn't been so hasty in pushing to criminalize synthetic drugs. Just think if Duluth promoted synthetics instead of trying to stamp them out. We're already a regional synthetic drug center, with only one store selling them. If the city opened half a dozen more stores, sales tax revenue would go through the roof. Our streets would get fixed, our water system upgraded, shiny new skywalks would spring up everywhere, and a spirit of optimism and hope would fill the air, replacing everyone's usual crabbiness. Wouldn't that be nice? 

Of course it would. But it's too late now. The harsh new medieval-style laws against synthetics are scheduled to take effect on August 1, and everybody will go back to smoking weed. There's no tax money in weed.

I wonder if Carlson will get his stuff back then?

TDOB Index, May 20, 2012: 242

Does 244 days seem like a long time to hold somebody's $80,000 when that person hasn't been charged with a crime? It does to me. How many of Duluth's nine city councilors do you think feel the same way? 

Stay tuned! The answer will be revealed right here in three short days.

TDOB Index, May 22, 2012: 244

As the above story illustrates, one of the most outrageous aspects of civil forfeiture is the use of canine sniff tests to justify seizing someone's cash. The owner of the cash is often not charged with anything; the cash, however—a pile of paper and ink—is presumed guilty of a crime. If the dog says that the money was in the vicinity of drugs at some point in the past, that is all the reason police need to seize the money and keep it for themselves. That's all it takes!

A few thoughts come to mind immediately.

For one thing, who are these dogs? They're well-trained, so the police claim, but who's to say they're foolproof? Humans aren't, so why should a dog be? The truth is, we have no idea what a police dog might alert to. Maybe another dog peed on a dollar and the police dog wants to hump it. Maybe somebody set their hamburger on the money and the dog smells that. Maybe the dog smells drugs on his handler's shoe from a previous bust. Maybe there are traces of drugs on the floor underneath the money. Maybe the dog is alerting to a legal drug that has similar properties to an illegal drug. Maybe the dog is having a bad day and wants to screw somebody over. At the very least, police should be required to run chemical tests on the money to verify the dog's wild accusations. But they're not, and they don't.

Second, how do we know that the dog alerted to anything? In most cases, there is only the handler's word for that, and the handler has a direct financial incentive to say the dog smelled drugs. As soon as he or she says that, the money is whisked away and deposited into a police bank account. By the time the case gets to court, if it ever does, the actual money is long gone. How do we know the dog hasn't been trained to alert to the sight of a hundred-dollar bill, with or without drugs on it? How do we know the handler doesn't have some kind of signal that tells the dog to go into alert mode, whether or not drugs are present?

Third, if money can be guilty, shouldn't it be locked in a cell somewhere, so that it can't do any more harm to the community? How can it be put to work for the police? It's illegal for human inmates to be put to work for the police. Why isn't the guilty money sentenced to community service or probation instead?

Fourth, what if a police dog sniffed you and alerted to drugs, even though you had no drugs on you? Could the police grab you and make you paint their headquarters?

These days, I'm not so sure the answer would be no.

TDOB Index, May 24, 2012: 246

All right, so three hours after I post the above comment, Councilor Larson responds to my email of eight days ago.

Councilor Emily Larson: "Hi John, Thanks for your email. I've copied David Montgomery, our Chief Administration Officer for the City of Duluth, in case he wishes to weigh in on where we are at in terms of investigation. Thanks much."

And I'll bet you there's not a single one of those lefties who doesn't firmly believe that, if they had been alive during Duluth's infamous lynchings, they would have been one of the brave few trying to save the lives of the circus workers. However, seeing that these same lefties can't even take a stand to protect Jim Carlson, whose harassment is serious, but less serious than lynching, I doubt they would have made the slightest effort at all to save the circus workers. To do so, they would have had to defy the will of the community, the vast majority of whom believed the lynching was the right thing to do. I see no evidence that any of our current crop of lefties would dream of defying the community on anything. Many of them, I suspect, would have quietly made themselves scarce until the lynching was done.

It's easy to point fingers at the past and preach about how unenlightened everybody was back then. It's a lot harder to apply the same principles of justice to real problems of the here and now. Sellers of synthetic drugs, it seems, occupy the same reviled position in Duluth today that black circus workers accused of rape occupied eighty years ago. Standing up for their rights is not supposed to make you feel warm and fuzzy. It's supposed to be difficult. It's supposed to put you at odds with your neighbors. You may not even like the people you're standing up for. That's what makes standing up all the more important. If we claim to believe in these things called constitutional principles at all, somebody has to stand up for those who are hated.

The parallels between the two cases are not perfect, of course. But they're parallel enough. Modern people may be enlightened when it comes to issues that are decades old, but they're gutless and self-absorbed when it comes to issues of today. Our politicians are bureaucrats and pencil-pushers, not people who have any interest in unfashionable subjects like citizens' rights. Especially not when drugs are involved. Jim Carlson is so hated that people don't care how serious the violations being perpetrated against him are.

Well, that's enough for today. There's no need to rush things. The TDOB Index is going to be around for a long, long time.

TDOB Index, May 26, 2012: 248

Mayor Ness celebrated Memorial Day by thanking area veterans for fighting to protect American freedoms.

"We don't really bother with them much any more," Ness said, "but it's cool that you went to the trouble."

He concluded his remarks with a little impromptu air guitar.

TDOB Index, May 28, 2012: 250

A story about the Last Place on Earth in the current issue of Zenith City Weekly has some interesting tidbits, including a quote from Deputy Police Chief Robin Roeser saying that the police "fully intend to charge [Jim Carlson] at some point in time."

Well, that's good to know. Then I guess the TDOB Index will end at some point in time, too. The question is when? How long will it take the police to test the synthetic drugs they seized for illegal compounds?

The answer, as of right now, is 252 days. They must really be doing a thorough investigation. The entire police force must be crouched over electron microscopes twenty-four hours a day, going over every particle and flake of the seized drugs. I wonder if they'll be done soon?

"Depends on how you define 'soon,'" says Roeser.

I define it like the dictionary does. Here's what my Scribner's says:

soon adv  1 in a short time; shortly;  2  in the near or immediate future; 3 quickly; promptly.

I hope that helps.

TDOB Index, May 30, 2012: 252

Another ridiculous aspect of the war on drugs is the widespread practice of drug testing people for employment at menial jobs. As if the lives of the poor weren't tough enough, now society is telling them that if they choose to smoke a little weed on their own time, they're not allowed to stock shelves at Home Depot. It's like the turn of the century, when prospective employers snooped around your home and interrogated your neighbors to make sure you had good character.

Members of Congress and CEOs of corporations don't get drug tested, but the people who make their beds and serve them steaks do. The people who open doors for them do. The people who fight their wars do. I'm pretty sure—no, I'm absolutely certain—that if you could get the powerful to piss into cups, the percentage of them testing positive for drugs would be the same as that of the help. But the help aren't the ones who make the laws, so the hypocrisy rolls on, blanketing the country like smog.

TDOB Index, June 1, 2012: 254

Even if the police have some intention of returning Jim Carlson's property at some point in time, I doubt that it will happen before August 1. On that day, the new, tougher laws against synthetics take effect, and all of the seized drugs sitting in the evidence room really will become illegal. The police don't want Carlson to make any money off those, not if they can help it, no no no.

It's all pure harassment at this point, anyway, so why not drag it out for another couple of months and take another $50,000 out of Carlson's pocket? It's a nice way to punish somebody without charging him with a crime. All the police have to do is say they're still investigating, even if everybody knows that's nonsense.

I've never understood why police officers seem to dislike the U.S. Constitution so much. You'd think they would support it, right? The law of the land? The foundation of our freedom? But in practice, they do everything they can to restrict and ignore it. It's baffling.

TDOB Index, June 2, 2012: 255

Taking a cue from their brethren in Wisconsin, Texas, Minnesota and Michigan, law enforcement agencies in Georgia have embraced the wonderful world of civil forfeiture with open arms. In 2012, the number of civil forfeitures in Georgia have already surpassed those in any of the previous four years, according to a recent story in the Augusta Chronicle.

Such a case was filed May 15 and stems from a McDuffie County traffic stop Oct. 19 on Interstate 20. According to the complaint, two sheriff's deputies smelled marijuana coming from the car, and the driver, William Ewell Jr., said he'd been arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession "back in the day." A search of the car found a duffel bag that contained "a strong odor of raw marijuana" and a book bag with marijuana flakes, but no drugs.

Deputies seized $15,252 in bundles of cash from the car that night, which Ewell said was a payment to his Florence, S.C., business, Grind Brothas. The next night, the same rental car was stopped and again the odor of burnt marijuana was coming from the car, according to the complaint. A passenger, Brittney Williams, was arrested on a charge of misdemeanor possession of marijuana. Deputies seized $3,297 in cash that night, for a combined claim of $18,549.

Now, that is one expensive misdemeanor.

The take-home lesson? In Georgia, the smell of weed is illegal. Based on the twitching of their nostrils alone, police can take all your cash.

TDOB Index, June 4, 2012: 257

A story in the paper today describes a sting operation by the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force that resulted in 22 people being arrested on heroin-related charges. The article doesn't mention whether the suspects are users or dealers, or both (the police department press release must not have specified) but it does say that the investigation took about six months. The investigation into Jim Carlson is now approaching its nine-month anniversary. Does the Guinness Book of World Records have a category for "Longest Investigation Without Charges Being Filed"? I hope so.

TDOB Index, June 7, 2012: 260

If the police dare to charge Carlson with selling illegal drugs that were legal when he sold them, eleven months earlier, I will go ballistic. Terrible though our drug laws are, I can't believe they're that warped and debased. A perversion like that would not end the TDOB Index. It might make me start a new one.

TDOB Index, June 8, 2012: 261

Today in the paper, a column by nationally syndicated columnist Mitch Albom discusses synthetic marijuana in the usual manner.

Reports of psychotic behavior, violence and hallucinations should make every potential buyer beware. Side effects linked to seizures and anxiety attacks should, too.

And the fact that synthetic compounds are being used to make this stuff, changed and switched as if part of a mad scientist chemistry lab, should leave any potential customer running for the hills.

Albom, like most of America, seems totally freaked out by the fact that these drugs are "synthetic." He even brings up the mad scientist, which says a lot about the cartoonish view mainstream America has of synthetic drugs. But all synthetic means is that they're not derived from a purely natural source, like a plant. Most legal drugs are synthetic, too.

If you asked Mitch Albom to cite a specific case of psychotic behavior caused by synthetic marijuana, do you think he could do it? I'll answer that: No, he couldn't. He's just parroting the same old lines that have been parroted by the media for every drug scare since the marijuana panic of the 1930s. Research is unnecessary, because everybody already knows the lines—journalists, commentators, citizens, cops, prosecutors, politicians, everybody. If Albom did more than a one-page Google search on the subject, I'll eat my hat. I doubt he even did that.

Unlike Albom, I have done quite a bit of research on this subject. I have found very few news stories about psychosis, violence or hallucinations definitively linked to synthetic marijuana. Such stories aren't completely absent, but they're rare. Undoubtedly, Albom is thinking of bath salts, synthetic compounds that mimic methamphetamine, which have, in some cases, caused the sorts of effects he's shuddering about. Lumping everything together is a common feature of drug panics.

TDOB Index, June 11, 2012: 264

And then there's Putnam County, Indiana, where police seized $17,500 from a guy for making an unsafe lane change. According to an article by Radley Balko in Slate magazine,

Early on a morning in January 2009, [Anthony] Smelley, who is 22, was pulled over while driving along I-70 in Putnam County, Indiana. Months earlier, he'd been in a car accident and won a $50,000 settlement. He states in court documents that he had taken around $17,500 with him that January day en route from his home in Detroit to St. Louis, to buy a new car for his aunt.

Smelley was pulled over for making an unsafe lane change and driving with an obscured license plate. He was also driving with an expired driver's license. His traffic stop should have ended with citations for those infractions. Instead, the police officer asked Smelley to get out of the car and patted him down, finding the cash. The officer then called in a K-9 unit for a sniff search of Smelley's car for drugs. The dog alerted twice. Smelley and two passengers were arrested, and the police seized Smelley's money. 

A subsequent hand search of Smelley's car turned up no illicit drugs, and no criminal charges were ever filed against Smelley or his passengers. Smelley produced a letter from a Detroit law firm confirming he had been awarded the $50,000 from the accident. That didn't matter. Putnam County has since held Smelley's money for more than a year.

Notice how the police dogs alerted to drugs twice, but no drugs were present. Dogs are not foolproof. Yet police dog sniffs alone, without any other evidence, are often used to justify seizing people's cash and property.

Unlike many other cases, Smelley did eventually get his money back, thirteen months after it was seized. He was not paid interest on the money, nor was he reimbursed for his court costs.

"It shows just what a rigged game the forfeiture racket is that it took 13 months, two judges, and a hell of a lot of hassle for Smelley to reach the same outcome he should have been granted the moment the police failed to find any contraband in his car," Balko wrote.

I hear you, brother. Too bad more people don't.

TDOB Index, June 13, 2012: 266

And so we find ourselves living in a world where objects are capable of crimes and a dog sniffing you establishes your guilt. Similar superstitions held sway in the medieval world. They were big on witch-hunting back then, too.

According to the main witch-hunting manual of the time, the Malleus Malificarum (translated as "Hammer of the Witch") there are different types of sentences that should be carried out against suspected witches, depending on whether the suspicions against them are light, strong or grave.

A person who is under grave suspicion of being a witch, for example, may "be sent to the squalor of prison for a year, and be tortured, and be examined very often, especially on the more Holy Days" until she confesses, at which point the judge will "condemn her to the fire." If she doesn't confess, "a multitude of witnesses" accusing her of witchcraft will serve the same purpose.

A person is considered to be under light suspicion when

the accused is not taken in heresy, nor is convicted by her own confession or by the evidence of the facts or by the legitimate production of witnesses, and there are no other strong or vehement indications of heresy against her; but only a small and light indications of such a sort as, in the opinion of the Court, to engender a light suspicion against her.

Today, the lightly suspected person wouldn't be arrested or convicted of anything. The cops would just take all her money.

TDOB Index, June 15, 2012: 268

More from the Malleus Maleficarum:

And what, then, is to be thought of those witches who in this way sometimes collect male organs in great numbers, as many as twenty or thirty members together, and put them in a bird's nest, or shut them up in a box, where they move themselves like living members, and eat oats and corn, as has been seen by many and is a matter of common report? It is to be said that it is all done by devil's work and illusion, for the senses of those who see them are deluded in the way we have said. For a certain man tells that, when he had lost his member, he approached a known witch to ask her to restore it to him. She told the afflicted man to climb a certain tree, and that he might take which he liked out of the nest in which there were several members. And when he tried to take a big one, the witch said: You must not take that one; adding, because it belongs to a parish priest.

Does this have anything to do with the war on drugs? No, not at all. It's just something you should know.

TDOB Index, June 17, 2012: 270

As has been noted elsewhere on Perfect Duluth Day, Jim Carlson is running for president. He was recruited by the Grassroots Party. According to their Wikipedia page, the platform of the Grassroots Party is the Bill of Rights and the legalization of marijuana. Their headquarters is a post office box, and one of their slogans is "Lower Taxes, Higher Taxpayers."

Personally, I think this is awesome. In your face, Duluth! 

TDOB Index, June 19, 2012: 272

Nine months ago today, Duluth police raided the Last Place on Earth and carried away everything. They spent the day drying out wet $100 bills on a clothesline strung across the evidence room.

TDOB Index, June 21, 2012: 274

Maybe when Jim Carlson is elected president, he'll make the police give his stuff back.

TDOB Index, June 23, 2012: 276

The DEA remains committed to the view that marijuana is a dangerous drug that should not be legalized, a position that they describe in a 2011 manual entitled The DEA Position on Marijuana. One reason that marijuana should not be legalized, according to the manual, is that smoking it impairs a person's ability to drive. To support this point, the DEA provides ten examples, conveniently bullet-pointed, of people who were involved in car accidents after smoking marijuana. 

A former nurse's aide was convicted in 2003 of murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison for hitting a homeless man with her car and driving home with his mangled body "lodged in the windshield." The incident happened after a night of drinking and taking drugs, including marijuana. After arriving home, the woman parked her car, with the man still lodged in the windshield, and left him there until he died.

This story is undeniably gruesome and tragic. Unfortunately for the DEA, it doesn't make much of a case against marijuana. The "drinking" part of the story is what I would focus on. For every one of the DEA's examples, a thousand other accidents could be found where alcohol was the main contributing factor. 

The fact that the DEA has to use an eight-year-old story to make its point only adds to my skepticism. Surely a drug as horrible, dangerous and widely-used as marijuana should provide its critics with a steady supply of fresh horror stories to use against it. Of the DEA's ten examples, however, only one occurred within the previous year. One occurred in 1999, fully twelve years before the report was published. Of the remaining eight horror stories, three occurred in 2003, one in 2005, two in 2006, one in 2007 and one in 2008. If you looked at death and destruction caused by alcohol during the same years, the death toll would be in the hundreds of thousands.

This is what $2 billion a year gets us: Lame propaganda. Couldn't we find a better use for that money?

TDOB Index, June 25, 2012: 278

So the incident occurred in 2001, a CSI episode based on the incident ran in 2002, and the woman was convicted in 2003. The DEA's citation is a news story from 2003.

Reading through the more-detailed Wikipedia entry provided by Adam's first link shows how ridiculous it is to single out marijuana as the main contributing factor of the tragedy. The problem was with people, not drugs. If the DEA has to go to such asinine lengths to concoct marijuana horror stories, they must really be struggling to find anything that supports the evil marijuana worldview.

I sure am glad we're paying them $2 billion a year.

TDOB Index, June 26, 2012: 279

The DEA really, really hates the idea of medical marijuana. They believe that the medical marijuana argument is "trickery" used by marijuana activists to achieve the goal of full legalization.

I'm with the DEA's reasoning on this one. As a person who favors full legalization, I've never cared for the medical marijuana argument as anything but a stepping stone to full legalization. I would prefer to skip the medical marijuana step altogether. When the goal is to legalize something that isn't harmful, that makes people feel good, and that is a choice of personal behavior, it feels a little disingenuous to claim to support legalization because of the supposed medical benefits. I don't really care about those, though I believe they're probably real. I just think weed should be legal because there aren't any good reasons for it not to be.

TDOB Index, June 27, 2012: 280

For the sake of argument, let us imagine that the DEA's foolish, misguided opinion is right. Let us suppose that

Legalization of marijuana, no matter how it begins, will come at the expense of our children and public safety. It will create dependency and treatment issues, and open the door to the use of other drugs, impaired health, delinquent behavior, and drugged drivers.

Okay. Fine. Let us imagine that legalization will do all of those things. My question is: How will that be any different from what it's doing now? Whatever effect marijuana has on culture, good or bad, it's already happening. It's been happening for years. By the DEA's own admission, marijuana is more readily available, and of a higher potency, than ever before. The billions of dollars spent on the war on drugs has done nothing to curb its use.

Given this, the very worst thing that could happen with legalization is that we would be left with the same social problems, but we would save a huge amount of money. That's the worst. The DEA's deepest, darkest nightmare would result in saving money.

That's not so bad, is it?

TDOB Index, July 1, 2012: 284

Prior to the city's fireworks display, Duluth police held a press conference to unveil a newly discovered version of the Declaration of Independence, which Police Chief Ramsay said he had found hidden behind a loose brick in his basement. In the new Declaration, only the first sentence of the second paragraph is changed. It reads as follows:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men except Jim Carlson are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of non-Synthetic-Drugge-Derived Happiness.

"This is great news," Ramsay told reporters. "We always felt justified in our treatment of Mr. Carlson, and now that course has been vindicated by the founding document of the nation. I'm really glad I decided to clean out my basement today."

Reporters responded by shouting, "Huzzah!" and throwing their three-cornered hats into the air.

TDOB Index, July 4, 2012: 287

The Case of the Elusive Police Chief

An email mystery

May 16, 2012

From: John Ramos ([email protected])
To: Gordon Ramsay ([email protected])

Police Chief Ramsay, 

It has been 238 days since you raided the Last Place on Earth. You have not yet filed charges against anyone, nor have you returned any of the seized property. I was wondering if one of these two things will happen, and if so, when?

Thanks,

John Ramos


May 17, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

Hi John,

I just returned from being out of town for work, so I apologize for the delayed response.  It is obvious you have some strong feelings on the seizure issue involving Last Place.  Just so you know, the courts are involved in this case and have ruled the seized items will remain in our custody as we continue our investigation. 

If you would like, I would be happy to meet with you anytime to explain the legalities of seizure involving drug cases. We won't be able to discuss any specific details on the Last Place case as it is still an active investigation. Please know though, several comments in your emails [he means comments on the TDOB thread. --JR] are incorrect. The rules associated with forfeiture are complicated and we work diligently with legal staff and prosecutors to ensure we are handling things correctly. 

If you are interested in accepting my invitation to meet and discuss your concerns let me know.  

Respectfully,

Gordon Ramsay
Chief of Police


May 18, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Chief Ramsay,

Thanks for responding. I am certainly interested in talking with you. Are there any times outside of normal business hours that would work for you? I am generally tied up during the work week watching two toddlers. If I have to, I'll find somebody to babysit, but I'd rather not. Let me know what's feasible.

JR


May 18, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

Hi John,
 
Please call me Gordon.  I certainly can meet with you at times other than 9-5.  I would probably ask our drug task force commander to be there as well as he knows the rules inside out and as you probably know they are pretty complicated.  Throw some times and days out there and let's see what we can figure out.
 
Thanks,

Gordon


May 20, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Sure, the more the merrier. I have some questions for Lt. Stracek, anyway. The following dates and times would work for me:

Thursday, May 24: 6 pm
Friday, May 25: 6 pm
Saturday, May 26: Anytime between 10 am and 4 pm
Tuesday, May 29: Anytime between 10 am and 2 pm
Thursday, May 31: 6 pm
Saturday, June 2: Anytime between 10 am and 4 pm

Let me know.

JR


May 25, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

Hi John,
 
Sorry about not getting back to you sooner--this is not going to be as easy as I thought given all our schedules.  The next few weekends are not going to work for me.  I have to meet with the council on June 7 so after that I could meet.  Or maybe it would just be easier to talk on the phone?  Do you want to send me your questions and I can make sure I have the answers for them?
 
Let me know.  

Thanks,
 
Gordon


May 25, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Gordon,

I'd rather meet in person. I'd like to have at least an hour.

I intend to ask you and Stracek questions about how search warrants are executed and what is required to be listed on a search warrant; how many other investigations you have going on that have lasted for longer than eight months; if, and how, property is returned to a person if an investigation turns up nothing; general questions about booking procedures for suspects; general questions about evidence room procedure and how the chain of custody is maintained; questions about how the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force is funded; questions about the Duluth police department's use of civil forfeiture; questions about the Violent Crime Coordinating Council; and other questions which I haven't written down yet.

If you're meeting with the city council on June 7, maybe we could meet at City Hall before or after your meeting with them. If not, I will provide you with a new list of times that I'm available after June 7.

JR


June 1, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

As my schedule is probably more flexible than yours, maybe it would work better if you provided me with a list of times that you know you're available, and I will see if I can make one of them work. During the weekday and normal business hours is fine. I can make arrangements to have my kids watched.

JR


June 2, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

Hey John,

That would be great.  I will get you some dates and times Monday.  

Thanks,

Gordon  


June 10, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Cool.

JR


June 11, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

Hi John,
 
I have not confirmed with Lt. Stracek, but would Friday morning work, say 9?
 
Gordon


June 11, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Friday at 9 AM would work for me.

JR

June 13, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

John--

I will not be able to meet Friday due to a family matter.  I am sorry and will also try calling as I am concerned you hired a babysitter.  

Gordon  

June 13, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Sigh. I'm at my computer. Okay.

June 13, 2012

From: Gordon Ramsay
To: John Ramos

I am sorry.... Thanks for understanding. How about Tues at 11?


June 14, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

11 doesn't work for me on any weekday. 9, 10, 1,2, and 3 are better, if I can give the babysitter a few days' notice. After 6 pm and Saturdays are always good, too.

Richard Thomas, a reporter with Zenith City Weekly, will be coming to the interview with me. I'm not sure what he wants to talk about. I think he just wants to take advantage of an opportunity to talk with two high-ranking people in the law enforcement community. To an extent, the same holds true for me. While the Last Place on Earth and drug policy are my main concerns, I also like to get as much general information as possible whenever I can. Thomas and I conducted a free-floating interview like this with City Finance Director Genie Stark once, and we learned a lot.

June 27, 2012

From: John Ramos
To: Gordon Ramsay

Gordon,

I eagerly look forward to our meeting. Whenever it may be.

JR


TDOB Index, July 6, 2012: 289

Just to remind everybody, if the cops do not file charges against Jim Carlson, then the only reason they are holding Carlson's cash and property is because people don't like him. Because the crime of not being liked is not against the law, the police are justifying their actions under the pretext that the investigation into Carlson is ongoing. There is no time limit as to how long they can continue this fiction. Theoretically, they could investigate him forever, and keep his property forever, and never file charges. Carlson is unable to appeal this situation, because a judge has ruled that Carlson can't appeal unless he is charged with something.

Did you get that? The cops can take all your stuff, and as long as they don't charge you with anything, they don't have to give it back. Talk about a Catch-22!

Thus, although the crime of not being liked is not against the law, it is punishable. That is one of many things I am proving here.

TDOB Index, July 8, 2012: 291

Yes, I read those articles back when I was scouring the Internet for synthetic drug horror stories. My favorite story from the Star Tribune collection was published on Sept. 9, 2011, under the very calm and reasonable headline "New Drugs Fuel Wave of Violence and Death."

As proof of the "wave," reporter Pam Louwagie cited six cases from around the country, which resulted in a total of nine deaths, then summed up by saying that "more than 20 deaths have been linked to" synthetic drugs.

This is a perfect example of the media acting hysterical. I don't mean to be callous, but even without knowing a single detail about any of the circumstances, I would have to say that if twenty deaths constitutes a wave, then the violence and death fueled by alcohol every year is a tsunami. But you don't see too many headlines like that.

As part of my research, I tracked down all the horror stories cited in the article. The deaths attributed to synthetic drugs were rarely cases that would lead a reasonable person to conclude that synthetic drugs were the only contributing factor. A kid in Iowa, for example, smoked synthetic marijuana and then shot himself. His parents claimed that he was an entirely normal and stable kid who had never been suicidal, and they went on a crusade to pass harsh laws against synthetic drugs in Iowa. But another report indicated that the kid had talked openly about suicide, many times, with one of his friend's mothers, to whom he was close.

Now, without knowing more information, can we really chalk that up as a synthetic drug casualty? If so, then we'll have to define every suicide in the country where the person consumed alcohol prior to killing themselves as an alcohol death.

The deaths that directly resulted from synthetic drug overdoses (including the one in Blaine, Minnesota) were caused, in all cases, by "bad batches" of the drugs. To me, this is most concerning aspect about synthetic drugs. They are unregulated. To solve the problem, I would not immediately start passing draconian laws against my neighbors. I would regulate the drugs.

This, however, is not America's way.

TDOB Index, July 9, 2012: 292

I agree with your points, TomK, except the one about all the discussion on this thread missing the point. Regular readers of the TDOB Index know that I, and others, have repeatedly made the point that the best way to curb the use of synthetics would be to legalize marijuana. We have also criticized the war on drugs as contributing to the problem rather than solving it.

Beyond that, the TDOB Index was created to talk about the Last Place on Earth, so any such discussion, whether or not it involves the legalization of marijuana, is completely on point.

And then there's Monterey, Tennessee, where police officer Larry Bates seized $22,000 from a New Jersey insurance adjustor because, according to the police report, the insurance adjustor's vehicle was "very messy" and he "showed signs of being overly nervous."

"Why didn't you arrest him?" a Nashville TV news reporter asked Officer Bates in a story on the seizure.

"Because he hadn't committed a criminal law," the officer answered.

Bates said the amount of money and the way it was packed gave him reason to be suspicious.

"The safest place to put your money if it's legitimate is in a bank account," he explained. "He stated he had two. I would put it in a bank account. It draws interest and it's safer."

"But it's not illegal to carry cash," we noted.

"No, it's not illegal to carry cash," Bates said. "Again, it's what the cash is being used for to facilitate or what it is being utilized for."

NewsChannel 5 Investigates noted, "But you had no proof that money was being used for drug trafficking, correct? No proof?"

"And he couldn't prove it was legitimate," Bates insisted.

Bates is part of a system that, NewsChannel 5 Investigates has discovered, gives Tennessee police agencies the incentive to take cash off of out-of-state drivers. If they don't come back to fight for their money, the agency gets to keep it all.

Hum. Well. I guess all I can say is watch your ass in Tennessee. Or go around.

TDOB Index, July 10, 2012: 293

It doesn't help matters to know that the mayor constantly monitors PDD, but he can't find anything to say on this issue, either. What would it do, knock his popularity rating down to 97 percent?

And just to be clear, for all the politicians out there: It is possible to be against synthetic drugs and be against constitutional violations of citizens' rights. 

Oh, man. How embarrassing. I must really be grasping at straws, to try to reason with politicians.

TDOB Index, July 15, 2012: 298

While synthetic drugs are hated and reviled by mainstream Duluthians, alcohol is welcomed and celebrated. Mayor Ness himself can often be seen tipping a glass of suds at his favorite watering hole or kickball game, and our previous mayor, Herb Bergson, advocated for the Beer Hall of Fame to locate in Duluth. Duluthians want to make felons of people who sell synthetic drugs, but people who manufacture and sell alcohol are held up as some of the city's finest entrepreneurs. Sometimes it seems as if every other new business in town is a microbrewery. 

The Duluth viewpoint, in short, is that synthetic drugs lead to nightmarish hell, but alcohol leads to camaraderie, friendship, prosperity and fun.

To celebrate the 300th day of confiscation, I won't go into a long lecture about the double standard inherent in such a view. Instead, I will share a clip of one man's mission to find a bit more of the particular mood-altering substance that Duluthians love.




TDOB Index, July 17, 2012: 300

Carlton County Attorney Thom Pertler was arrested Tuesday for drunk driving. He wasn't just slightly buzzed or a little over the limit. He was smashed—.234 blood alcohol content, swerving all over the road, unaware of where he was (he thought he was between Cloquet and Hermantown, when he was really between Two Harbors and Duluth). This is a habit that has been growing for a long, long time.

I always get a kick out of law enforcers who get caught breaking the law. As Carlton County Attorney for the past seven years, you know Pertler used his position on dozens and dozens of occasions to badmouth and smear drunk drivers. You know he made mincemeat out of defendants who tried to hide their bottles from the cops—and he tried to hide his bottle from the cops. How do you think he treated defendants who refused to submit to sobriety tests? And now here he is, refusing to submit to a sobriety test. Ha ha!

I hope they throw the book at him, but I'm not sure they will. According to the story in the News Tribune, Pertler was charged with seven counts: "refusal to submit to a chemical test, fourth-degree driving while impaired, speeding, driving over the center line, failure to signal, possession of an open bottle and no proof of insurance." 

Fourth-degree driving while impaired? That's only a misdemeanor. With a BAC of .234? According to "An Overview of Minnesota's DWI Laws," an information brief put out by the House of Representatives, fourth-degree DWIs are issued "for the person's first impaired driving violation within ten years without test refusal or any aggravating factors." Well, Pertler refused the test, so that should bump him up a level. He also had an aggravating factor: "an alcohol concentration of .20 or more upon arrest."

Already, you can see the kid gloves being put on for Pertler, just because of who he is. It's such a crock.

And, incidentally, Pertler would have to do this three more times for the state to consider his crimes to be as serious as the crime of selling one gram of synthetic marijuana. Speaking of crocks.

TDOB Index, July 19, 2012: 302

The Duluth police department celebrated the ten-month anniversary of the raid on the Last Place on Earth by crowding around Chief Ramsay's desk and offering him advice on what to put in his email to John Ramos.

"Say that you've been really busy for the past 38 days and haven't been able to write," suggested one.

"Invite him to meet with you again," said another. "Then don't!"

"Make sure to say that you're not afraid of his questions," put in a third. "Use capital letters."

Chief Ramsay frowned at his computer screen, licking his lips. People didn't realize how hard his job was, he reflected. Sometimes he wished he could just go live in the woods.

TDOB Index, July 21, 2012: 304

It is rare and uplifting to live in a town where a mayor's talk about street repair makes people want to hug him.

TDOB Index, July 22, 2012: 305

306

The "devastating impact on surrounding businesses" must be why Tycoon's opened up in a fully refurbished office building three doors down from the Last Place.

I wonder how many charges they'll file against Jim Carlson this time?

Will the TDOB Index finally come to an end? Could it really be possible?

The Duluth police, pleased with their success at nullifying the Fifth Amendment, set their sights on the Fourth. Teaming up with the federal DEA, Duluth police in body armor burst through the doors of a local business with assault rifles and ordered the customers (including small children) to the floor.

All customers were handcuffed, detained and background-checked. Two had outstanding warrants, and were arrested. The rest of the customers, having proved their non-criminality (for the moment) were released.

So, to recap: First, the police seized cash and property from a private business and kept it for ten months (and counting) without showing cause or filing charges. Now, police are detaining citizens in public places and running background checks on them—not because of anything the citizens have done, but because of where they shop.

"We will remain focused on this ever evolving nuisance until the problem has been eradicated," Police Chief Ramsay stated in a press release.

Eradicate means "destroy completely."

Local progressives approve.

TDOB Index, July 26, 2012: 309

The Last Place on Earth has a pop machine just inside the entrance that sells pop for 40 cents a can. This is by far the cheapest pop in town. There was a time when I would visit the Last Place's pop machine four or five times a week.

Today, that same visit carries the risk of police detainment and background check.

Well, I better get down there.

It is astonishing to me that neither the media nor the mayor nor any city councilor has expressed any concern about the police assault on the Last Place on Earth. Most of the people who were detained by police for no reason were, I assume, Duluthians. Is nobody looking out for them? Apparently not.

It is becoming clear to me that there are two kinds of people in Duluth: good Duluthians and bad Duluthians. People who go inside the Last Place on Earth are bad Duluthians. The mayor doesn't care about them, because they give Duluth a bad image. The media don't care about them, because the media mindlessly support the police and hate synthetic drugs. The general populace doesn't care about them, because the general populace rarely cares about anything. The police know that they can do anything to the bad people, and nobody with any influence will object.

The rest of Duluth, the good people, happily enjoy their freedoms—swimming in Lake Superior, listening to bands, playing kickball, tipping brews, arguing amongst themselves about bricks vs. blacktop or how many skywalks the tourism tax should build. They observe the constitutional abuses being systematically carried out against the Last Place on Earth and nod in approval. Soon, they tell each other cheerfully, clinking their glasses together, the bad people will be gone.

TDOB Index, July 29, 2012: 312

You are the modern incarnation of the lynch mob, Baci. I'm sorry you had to find out like this.

In today's paper, Jim Carlson said that he will continue selling incense even with the tougher laws in place. That's gutsy. He must really be confident that all of his chemicals are legal, considering the felony he can be charged with if they aren't.

Carlson also said that police confiscated all of his surveillance videos during their last visit, including all footage of the raid itself. How convenient for the police. If there's anything incriminating on the videos, they can just "lose" those ones.

Carlson also said that police officers have told his customers that the mere act of going inside the Last Place on Earth constitutes probable cause for the cops to detain them. Apparently the police are tired of trying to find laws to justify their actions and have decided to just make stuff up as they go along.

The mayor, wailing along with Queensryche in his office, remains unaware that anything has happened.

TDOB Index, August 1, 2012: 315

Unlike many Duluthians, I don't find anything horrible about the line. I remember what things were like before synthetic drugs arrived. There was no line at the Last Place on Earth, but all of those people were still buying marijuana illegally and smoking it illegally, out of sight of the general public. There was more danger associated with back-alley dealing than there is with the Last Place on Earth—a greater chance of robbery or violence happening. If the Last Place lessens these crimes, I consider that to be a net gain for Duluth.

In Duluth as elsewhere, the demand for mood-altering substances is enormous. It seems foolish and futile to try to stamp it out, even if we convince ourselves we have the right to dictate others' choices. It is more useful, in my opinion, to control and channel that demand—institute age restrictions, levy taxes, standardize the chemical formulas of the drugs, promote education. Trying to stamp out demand comes at the price of our civil liberties, and doesn't even work: one way or another, people will still get high. If nothing else is available, they'll just head to the liquor store.

I haven't seen anything that convinces me that synthetic marijuana is any worse than alcohol. If we can celebrate, commend, exalt and honor alcohol, as we do every day in Duluth, I see no reason not to accord the same respect to synthetic drugs.

TDOB Index, August 3, 2012: 317

The thing I find especially aggravating about the Metro Gang Strike Force debacle is that, although 96 victims of the Strike Force were awarded damages, not a single criminal charge was filed against any of the police officers involved. As far as I can tell, none of them were even reprimanded. When their rogue behavior came to light, the Strike Force was disbanded, and that was all. That's the way we treat our boys in blue — as if they are above the law.

After the Strike Force was disbanded, the Legislature created another unit, the Violent Crime Coordinating Council, to take its place. The VCCC, which is supposed to be more accountable and responsible than the Strike Force, is chaired by Ken Reed, assistant chief of the St. Paul Police Department. The vice chair of the VCCC is Duluth's own Gordon Ramsay. So if your toddler gets kicked in the head by a cop during an illegal raid of your home, you know who to complain to.

TDOB Index, August 5, 2012: 319

Yes, Paul, it is likely that charges will be filed soon. I saw a flock of purple elephants go by today.

TDOB Index, August 6, 2012: 320

When you think about it, Duluth police have no incentive to file charges against Jim Carlson. If they do file charges, he'll have a chance to prove his innocence. Whereas if charges are never filed, Carlson's innocence or guilt will be a moot point and he'll never get his property back. This will teach him the lesson police want him to learn: White, middle-class Duluth does not approve of his behavior.

TDOB Index, August 8, 2012: 322

I didn't read the paper today and missed this story. It's good news. After almost eleven months, the police are being asked to show that they have done something for this investigation other than harass Jim Carlson.

I see that the DNT finally decided to run a story on Jim Carlson's run for the presidency. In an extraordinary display of restraint, the newspaper didn't even say that kids would die if Carlson were elected. They might be saving that for an editorial.

TDOB Index, August 14, 2012: 328

The line at Grandma's Sports Garden during the first week of college is really obnoxious. Much more obnoxious than the line at the Last Place on Earth. You should hear some of those fucking upstarts.

The sea of people and automobiles that washes up to the DECC during hockey games is really obnoxious. It pisses me off.

You know those people who sit on the deck in front of Little Angie's during Bluesfest? The ones who are so drunk they can't see straight? Those people are a royal pain in my ass.

If nobody else minds, I would like the city to slap NUISANCE violations on each and every one of these ridiculous examples.

TDOB Index, August 16, 2012: 330

I'm trying to think of something to say about the Last Place on Earth, but for some reason I keep picturing the Thompson Hill Rest Area.

TDOB Index, August 17, 2012: 331

If Jim Carlson is having problems with crowds, he should do what a lot of bars in the area do: Hire a cop to sit on the premises.

Only in Duluth do we try to shut down a store because it has too many customers.

TDOB Index, August 18, 2012: 332

Each day, I try to think of a new comment to make on this thread, and each day my mind returns to the simple amazing fact that the police are free to take millions of dollars from a citizen for no reason at all. 

In the world that I used to think I lived in, the community would have greeted such outrageous police behavior with a massive horse laugh of disbelief and demanded that the money be returned.

In the world that I actually do live in, the vast majority of people, including politicians and the media, approve of the outrageous behavior.

I mean, wow. It just sort of knocks the spirit right out of me. The idea of freedom and individual liberty is a huge part of my identity. It's hard for me to accept that so many people consider them to be irrelevant.

TDOB Index, August 20, 2012: 334

It becomes more apparent to me every day that the distaste most people feel for the Last Place on Earth is triggered by class cues.

Oh, wait. I already said that.

Good point, Cancerboy. Duluth's biggest tourist draw, its natural beauty, is superficial. I think that people—especially people who are so coddled and middle-class that they have never had to think about their rights at all—react most strongly to superficial cues. Maybe that's just human nature. The problem comes when people try to solve superficial problems by trashing and destroying our rights and freedoms, seemingly without a second thought.

The vast majority of police calls to the Last Place are nuisance calls. To solve these nuisances, the police decided to violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (at least) of the U.S. Constitution. That's like seeing an ant crawl across your kitchen floor and going after it with a jackhammer. As far as I can tell, most Duluthians think that's just fine. The mayor and the media certainly do.

Yesterday, I spoke for more than an hour with Police Chief Gordon Ramsay and Lt. Steve Stracek, Commander of the Lake Superior Drug and Gang Task Force. I recorded the conversation. I learned a lot, which will come out in due time, as I organize my material.

One thing I can say now is that Chief Ramsay does not plan to vote for Jim Carlson for president. I asked.

TDOB Index, August 23, 2012: 337

I see that this year's Oktoberfest celebration kicks off at Fitger's Brewhouse on September 21st with Mayor Ness leading a toast of the first keg of lager. Whatever else you might think of the mayor, he is a man who knows his way around a pint glass. 

In other news, Ness plans to unveil each new synthetic drug that appears at the Last Place on Earth with a symbolic mayoral toke.

"If it messes you up, I'm there," he said in a press release. "This hugely successful business in the heart of Old Downtown deserves all the support we can give it."

TDOB Index, August 24, 2012: 338

I see that Jim Carlson has his campaign sign in the window: A clenched fist surrounded by a hemp leaf. I'm guessing we'll probably start to see a lot of these in Lakeside.

TDOB Index, August 25, 2012: 339

Jim Carlson's campaign does not yet have yard signs for supporters. I am told by the campaign that the first step of the campaign was to get on the ballot in Minnesota. They've done that. Yard signs are next. Be patient, everybody.

TDOB Index, August 27, 2012: 341

When Jim Carlson is elected president, do you think we'll have to call him "Your Highness"?

TDOB Index, August 30, 2012: 344

Lt. Steve Stracek: If you have a joint in your pocket, the way the law is written is that that joint is enough to forfeit [your] cash, as long as the value of the cash is less than $50,000, because it's in proximity to a controlled substance.

John Ramos: You used the example of one joint. With that, could you forfeit the vehicle based on that?

Stracek: No. Vehicles, you have to have a street value of $100 and a felony-level drug. So you would have to have cocaine or methamphetamine or anything that's a felony, and you have to have $100 worth of that substance. So, basically, a gram of powdered cocaine would fit that criteria.

Police Chief Gordon Ramsay: A joint is a petty misdemeanor. You don't go to jail for possession of a joint.

Ramos: But you still could confiscate the money.

Ramsay: Yes.

Stracek: Part of the purpose of that is that today we may not have the drug dealer with a lot of marijuana in his pocket, he may only have a small amount, but he's got $5,000 in currency that quite likely is proceeds from sale. But the way the law is written, it's not hinging upon us proving that he's selling. It's hinging upon that there's drugs there, in proximity to currency here, and it's just a feed into each other. Proximity is really the only criteria.

Ramos: I mean, yeah, that could be a drug dealer, and I could think of many scenarios where it wouldn't be a drug dealer. It would be a drug user. You know, a lot of people carry joints and a lot of people carry cash, and that doesn't necessarily...

Stracek: It's certainly possible. It's all part of the way the statute's written.

TDOB Index, September 4, 2012: 349

Ramos is not Bob Boone, a fact that I'm sure both of us are grateful for. 

The interview with Chief Ramsay that appeared in the Reader was conducted by Boone, specifically for use in his special issue on the Last Place on Earth. 

I interviewed the chief separately, a few days before that. The quotes that I post on PDD, and the quotes that I used in my Reader article, come from the transcript of my interview. I expect to pull quotes from this transcript frequently in the future.

TDOB Index, September 5, 2012: 350

And it is clear from the same chapter of the Canon that the testimony of men of low repute and criminals, and of servants against their masters, is admitted; for it says: So great is the plague of heresy that, in an action involving this crime, even servants are admitted as witnesses against their masters, and any criminal evildoer may give evidence against any person soever.

TDOB Index, September 9, 2012: 354