A new episode of Five Minutes Five Issues posted on Saturday. You can listen to it, and read a transcript, below. You can also find previous episodes of the show at Stitcher, iTunes, YouTube, and SoundCloud.
Listen to the new episode here:
Read a transcript of the new episode, including links to further information regarding the topics discussed, here:
The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity welcomes you to Five Minutes Five Issues.
Starting in five four three two one.
Hello, I am Adam Dick, a Ron Paul Institute senior fellow.
Let’s start.
Issue one.
Adam Drury reported Friday at High Times that, with state and local governments in America having liberalized marijuana laws in recent years, some police departments have phased out training of drug-sniffing dogs to recognize and alert upon the smelling of marijuana and have stopped using dogs that have received such training.
This is good news. It is none of cops’ business if people have marijuana.
Neither is it any of cops’ business if people have any other illegal drugs. Hopefully, we will soon see state and local governments, and even the United States government, opting out of the entire war on drugs and police departments across America ending the use of drug-sniffing dogs altogether.
Issue two.
The National Constitution Center describes itself as “the first and only institution in America established by Congress to ‘disseminate information about the United States Constitution on a non-partisan basis in order to increase the awareness and understanding of the Constitution among the American people.’”
Given Congress’ propensity to misname legislation, such as the unpatriotic USA PATRIOT Act and the anti-freedom USA FREEDOM Act, it is little surprise that the National Constitution Center, established by Congress, is not promoting constitutional government.
On Monday, the center’s Chairman Joe Biden — yes, the former United States vice president — presented the National Constitution Center’s annual award of the Liberty Medal to this year’s recipient — US Senator John McCain (R-AZ).
Political writer James Bovard quipped at Twitter that McCain received the award in recognition of his “unceasing advocacy for bombing hell out of foreigners in the name of freedom.”
Issue three.
It looks like New Zealand voters will decide sometime in the next three years whether the New Zealand government will legalize recreational marijuana. The holding of the legalization referendum was required by the New Zealand Green Party as a condition of it helping create a new majority coalition in the nation’s parliamentary system of government.
While countrywide legalization has moved forward via legislation in countries such as Uruguay and Canada, New Zealand may become the first place where countrywide legalization is approved via a popular vote.
Issue four.
While many local governments are competing to entice Amazon to locate its second headquarters in their jurisdictions, San Antonio, Texas is backing out of participation in the selection process. In a letter last week to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, the mayor of San Antonio and the county judge of the surrounding Bexar County stated their belief that the process was “creating a bidding war amongst states and cities” and said that “blindly giving away the farm isn’t our style.”
Issue five.
In the January 21 episode of Five Minutes Five Issues, I talked about improper activities in a Massachusetts crime lab that had resulted in many individuals being wrongfully punished for drug crimes.
Now comes news that there has been major wrongful action in the Massachusetts State Police crime lab related to drunk driving convictions as well. Aimee Ortiz and Maria Cramer reported Tuesday at the Boston Globe that state government investigators found that staff at the lab “withheld exculpatory evidence from defense lawyers in thousands of drunken-driving cases since 2011.”
>—–
That’s a wrap.
Transcripts of Five Minutes Five Issues episodes, including links to related information, are at the Ron Paul Institute blog.
Five four three two one.
Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity.