Justice

How many laws did you break this week?0
- June 24, 2005
If you consider yourself a “law-abiding” citizen, here is a question: How do you know?
Over the last century, not only has there been a vast increase in the number of new lawsboth state and federal, but the definition of a criminal act has drastically changed.
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Court’s logic has gone to pot 0
- June 20, 2005
If you have a little vegetable garden, be afraid. Be very afraid. Since tomatoes are bought and sold across state lines, the federal government has the right to outlaw your tomato garden, quite literally.
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Federal Drivers’s Licenses: Can Colorado Say “NO”?0
- June 8, 2005
The “Real ID Act” passed easily in the House and was attached to the Iraq War spending supplement, thus ensuring overwhelming approval in the Senate on May 10, 2005. An un-funded federal mandate with dubious security benefit, backed up by federal coercion, the act will turn the driver’s license into an internal passport and the Colorado Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV) into a branch office of the federal Department of Homeland Security. Real ID was marketed as a tool against terrorist travel, but with even the slightest scrutiny, this argument falls apart.
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Analyze This: Re-Modeling Drug Policy 0
- March 31, 2005
Among the conclusions of the new book, “An Analytical Assessment of U.S. Drug Policy, published by the free-market conservative think tank, American Enterprise Institute, is that “Long sentences for minor, non-violent drug offenders are perhaps the least defensible aspect of current drug policy.” While the book covers the entire scope of America’s war on drugs, several conclusions and recommendations relate to Colorado’s own unsustainable drug policies.
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Take the F Word Out 0
- March 25, 2005
In 2003, the Colorado Legislature took a tentative step towards sentencing reform for small time drug offenses by passing Senate Bill 03-318 (SB-318), which lowered the penalty for simple use and possession (one gram or less) of most illegal drugs to the class-6 felony sentencing range, the lowest felony class in Colorado’s presumptive sentencing structure, carrying between one to one and a half years in prison. The law ties the changes to corrections cost savings, which must be realized and transferred to a drug offender treatment fund by 2007.
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Concentrate on the Big Dealers 0
- March 16, 2005
Colorado has long depended on federal assistance in carrying out the states drug control strategy, which is mostly a supply side, interdiction and incarceration model. A significant piece of that assistance may be coming to an end, and Colorado may need to re-think its drug war priorities and tactics.
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