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Al Giordano at Narco News - The Narco News Bulletin names President Jorge Batlle "Hero of the Year" for 2000: Uraguay's president has called for the legalization of drugs. No mainstream American press mentioned the story. [grabbe]
"If this powder was worth only ten cents, there would not be organizations dedicated to make a billion dollars to fund armies in Colombia," said Batlle, speaking about cocaine policy on November 20th at the 10th Latin American Summit of Heads of State in Panama City.Batlle (pronounced baht-yuh) said other countries must confront the question of legalization. "How do you create the money that sustains all of this? Do you believe that while this substance has this fantastic market value that there is any mechanism that can impede its trafficking? How do you make this product lose value so that nobody is interested anymore in this business?"
Jeremy Sapienza at LewRockwell.com - Marker Control: In Dade County, you have to be 18 to buy spray paint or a permanent marker. Jeremy's friend got carded at the Goodwill store. Really. [lew]
It's amazing how much bureaucratic stupidity you can come across in the course of one day, in this supposedly "most-free" country on earth. Soon black cars will be outlawed because they are hard to see at night. Women will have to turn to the black market to find high heels because of the risk of tripping. They'll have to smuggle in bug spray because of its high toxicity.