Wine Wars by Professor Zywicki
- posted by Jim @ 6:55 PM

Two weeks ago I mentioned that Professor Todd Zywicki was blogging about the coming Supreme Court case concerning direct interstate shipment of wine to consumers. Last week, Mike mentioned more of Professor Zywicki's connected posts, these on the pre-Prohibition attempts to preclude alcohol production in wet states from undermining the dry laws of neighboring states.

The Wine Wars series now comprises some eleven posts, plus unnumbered posts. Here's number eleven, the most recent, which argues that a 2000 amendment to federal alcohol law was still premised on the notion that, while states could choose their own alcohol policies, they could not discriminate between in-state and out-of-state producers and distributors. There's an unexpected connection to anti-terrorism activity, too.

Professor Zywicki's Wine War series presents a pretty comprehensive brief for the notion that it is unconstitutional for states like Michigan and New York to forbid direct shipment of wine to households from out-of-state wineries, while permitting it for in-state wineries. It is worth reading in full. I want to make only two observations here. First, the difficulty that the Webb-Kenyon Act of 1913 was designed to address -- the undermining of state alcohol controls through legal "imports" for personal use -- is precisely the problem that troubles Northern Europe today. Second, the major problem that Zywicki identifies with national alcohol Prohibition, and a problem noted by many repeal supporters at the time, is also a major problem with current drug prohibition: "federal meddling in state and local affairs," or "federal overreaching into local police power matters," to quote from part 8 of Wine Wars. (For one aspect of the current overreaching, see Pete at Drug WarRant's discussion of the defeated Hinchey amendment.)

 
Ohio Tobacco Festival
- posted by Jim @ 3:48 PM

Major tobacco companies used to sponsor the event, but that had to end following the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. Nevertheless, the four-day Ohio Tobacco Festival got underway yesterday in Ripley, Ohio. There's a contest to crown this year's tobacco queen, a cornhole tournament (I have no idea), and the always popular tobacco spitting competition.

 
The Descent of Man
- posted by Jim @ 3:18 PM

Two animals engage in a large amount of illicit beer consumption. One is trapped. The second is a given a significant monetary reward. Which is the primate? (Thanks to The Misspent Life and Overlawyered for the pointers.)

 
US-Based Porn Websites Face New Record-Keeping Requirement
- posted by Jim @ 7:02 PM

Porn movie and magazine producers in the US are required to maintain records proving that all performers are of legal age. A new rule from the Department of Justice intends to extend that requirement to secondary porn producers, such as websites that re-publish pornographic photos. It appears as if the real rationale for the move is not to protect the underage, but to impose a burden on porn websites -- or rather, porn sites based in the US. As with other attempts by the government to regulate online porn, the existence of foreign websites calls into question of the efficacy of this new rule. Wired News has the story.

 
Rubin v. Coors (1995)
- posted by Jim @ 10:44 AM

The loyal Vice Squad reader writes, "Jim, just as we support vicarious and collective punishments in vice policy, so too, do we revel in vicarious and collective pleasure: please slake our thirst by revealing those vice policy-related documents that constituted your early morning reading." To such blandishments even one more steadfast than I could not remain unmoved. Forthwith: A couple weeks ago I mentioned a Supreme Court case, Rubin v. Coors Brewing, that invalidated a federal rule prohibiting beer producers from advertising or labeling the alcohol content of their beer (unless state law requires the provision of alcohol content information). Today I read the case. Though it is a little hard to discern, it seems that, strictly speaking, it was only the labeling ban that was really at stake.

Rubin v. Coors looks like a standard modern commercial speech case. The guidelines of Central Hudson are applied. Central Hudson allows regulation of non-misleading commercial speech for legal goods if (1) the government has a substantial interest served by the regulation, (2) the regulation directly advances that interest, and (3) the regulation is not more extensive than is necessary to serve that interest. In Rubin v. Coors, the Supreme Court found that the government's interest in preventing "strength wars" among brewers was indeed substantial. But it was on the next prong, that of directly serving the government interest, that the alcohol content labeling ban faltered. The Court's reasoning is that the overall federal alcohol regulatory structure is incoherent. Most states had not affirmatively prohibited the advertising of alcohol content, so by the terms of the federal rule, in much of the country, strength wars were permissible in advertising, though not in labeling. Given the advertising "loophole," the labeling ban would be unlikely to prevent a strength war. This conclusion is buttressed by the fact that a beer producer could still signal strength by naming its product a "malt liquor," and by the fact that wine and spirits producers were not similarly constrained.

While I said that the Court based its reasoning on overall policy "incoherence", the Court itself used the stronger (and, to be honest, I think inappropriate) term "irrationality".

The Court also noted that even if the labeling ban were able to advance the government's interest, it would still be unconstitutional, for failing to be narrowly tailored. There are options, including the direct limitation of alcohol content, that would serve the same ends as the labeling restrictions, without having the same effect on suppressing speech.

I am troubled by the Court's reasoning, which is quite similar to that used in a later case concerning casino advertising. Policy incoherence alone has been granted Constitutional significance via the Central Hudson standard: if various policies with respect to advertising are partly inconsistent, then the one that tends to be more restrictive can't do a good job of directly advancing the government interest, because the other policies allow methods of avoiding the restriction. Therefore, so the Court argues, the restrictive policy is an unconstitutional restraint upon commercial speech. The problem with this approach is that it forces all-or-nothing-style policies. Either all channels of commercial speech are restricted to serve the compelling interest, or none can be. And of course, one all-or-nothing-style policy that is generally allowed for vice control is to ban the vice entirely -- then, the activity is illegal, and its advertising receives no First Amendment protection at all. My own view is that the policy world is quite complex, and that a web of partly inconsistent policies is not necessarily "irrational." Along these lines, let me note one specific objection to the Court's opinion. The opinion states: "If combating strength wars were the goal, we would assume that Congress would regulate disclosure of alcohol content for the strongest beverages as well as for the weakest ones." Why make this assumption? At the time of Rubin v. Coors, a voluntary policy of no hard liquor TV advertising was in place. Many (all?) states had different licensing requirements for beer and wine versus hard liquor, so in many places where beer was sold, hard liquor wasn't even available. And so on. Incoherence does not imply irrationality.

 
More Alcohol Control Technology
- posted by Jim @ 7:52 PM

Vice Squad has sung the praises in the past of the alcohol monitoring ankle bracelet that sounds like a pretty effective deterrent against drinking for those who have court-ordered restraints upon their alcohol consumption. (Enthusiasm for the bracelet seems to be spreading.) A second technological advance is a machine that can reliably detect a fake ID. The device is the main plank in a new drive against underage drinking in the US. Here's an excerpt from this press release:

America's Partners to Prevent Underage Drinking (AP), a campaign of the International Institute for Alcohol Awareness (IIAA), will introduce the newest, most effective weapon in the battle to save lives by preventing underage drinking at the U.S. Justice Department's underage drinking prevention conference entitled "Recognizing Our Collective Responsibility: Kicking Things Up a Notch" from Aug. 25-28, 2004 in San Diego.

The national coalition has launched a campaign and push in Congress for legislation aimed at combating the crisis of underage drinking. The centerpiece of this campaign involves installing life-saving electronic age-verification technology in retail stores, bars, restaurants and other points of sale to prevent underage individuals from obtaining alcohol illegally by using fake identification.

Sounds like the machine won't be able to detect if you are using your older brother's license, however. I am all in favor of keeping underage people from purchasing alcohol, though I think that the US minimum drinking age of 21 is too high.

 
On the Limits to Recreation in Rural Latvia
- posted by Jim @ 4:43 PM

Well, one could always enjoy a drink, perhaps.

 
Vicewire, 8/24/2004
- posted by Ryan @ 10:53 AM

Blogger trouble prevented this post from being completed on time:

1) Just for fun, here is a link to a story about the new hippie dictionary that incorporates plenty of new lingo for some standard vice engagements, (such as the tern "swacked").

2) A large ringleader in Mexican-U.S. drug trafficking has been arrested.

3) Here's another case of a naughty policeman, who allegedly agreed to supply 2 ounces of cocaine to an inmate.

4) A man rode his wheelchair 3,000 miles from Moscow to Madrid to protest illicit drug use. [Update: Link corrected -- JL]

5) And finally, a new Califronia undercover operation led to 184 drug arrests and plenty of amphetamines and marijuana.

 
One Vice Forfeiture Case
- posted by Jim @ 11:11 PM

Sorry for being away from Vice Squad in recent days, and thanks to my co-bloggers for stepping up. I returned to Chicago today, so I hope that I can also return to that elusive regular blogging schedule. (My aspirations are lofty, no?)

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in passing a Supreme Court case involving the forfeiture of an automobile for a prostitution-related conviction. The forfeiture was not one of the "civil" kinds, taken "in rem," against the property directly -- such forfeitures do not require any sort of criminal charges being filed. Rather, this one is against the owners of the property, and is taken pursuant to a criminal conviction. Here's the story of Bennis v. Michigan (1996), adapted from the Supreme Court opinions...

John Bennis was uncharacteristically late coming home from work one night. His wife, Tina Bennis, called Missing Persons. But it soon emerged that instead of driving straight home, John had visited a prostitute and engaged in some extra-marital activity in the car -- and he managed to get arrested for his public infidelity. The state of Michigan, home of the Bennises, doesn't think too highly of prostitution, having adopted a statute that empowered the state to seize and sell the car that was the site of the assignation. So John and Tina's car was indeed seized.

It was the "Tina's" part that caused the Bennises's case to go to the Supreme Court of the United States in 1995. The car was jointly owned, that is, Tina had a half interest in the car. She hadn't done anything wrong, and yet the state of Michigan was taking away that ownership interest, without compensation. Doesn't such a taking violate the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, or the takings clause of the Fifth Amendment, or just general fairness? The US Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, said that there was no constitutional problem with the uncompensated auto forfeiture, so Tina was out her half of the car. The Court didn't resolve (though it did note, actually) the fairness question.

Justice Stevens penned a dissent, joined by Justices Souter and Breyer, that looks at the historical rationale for various types of forfeitures, arguing that the Bennis case falls outside of the tradition of legitimate forfeitures. Justice Stevens directly addressed the fairness issue: "Fundamental fairness prohibits the punishment of innocent people." He would hold the forfeiture to be invalid for being in contravention of the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment -- a position reached, on slightly different reasoning, by Justice Kennedy, too.

The Bennis case does fall squarely within one longstanding US legal tradition, one that has only a couple of notable exceptions. That tradition is that in forfeiture cases involving vice crimes, the forfeitures are upheld. Perhaps soon I will note some other cases in this tradition, as well as the leading exceptions.

 
Vicewire, 8/22/2004
- posted by Ryan @ 8:49 PM

1) A man is being charged with murder after a fire that started with wires and lamps used to grow his marijuana plants killed two firefighters.

2) Governor Schwarzenegger has given his okay for thousands more slot machines to open across the state of California. 25% of the profits will go to the state government, an estimated $200 million a year.

3) And the indictment for the University of Colorado has been handed down for those accused of using prostitutes to lure potential football players.

 
A discussion of the Webb-Kenyon Act on Volokh Conspiracy
- posted by Michael @ 9:14 PM

There is a rather detailed discussion of the substance and history of the Webb-Kenyon Act on Volokh Concpiracy here and here. The Act was passed in 1913 to permit the dry states prohibit importation of alcohol for personal use. Prior to the Act, the states could impose prohibition on the sale of alcohol produced either within or outside the state, but could not prohibit its import for personal consumption.

 
Alcohol inhaling machine is here
- posted by Michael @ 9:04 PM

The Bloomington paper (registration required) printed an AP report that an alcohol inhaling machine went on display at the Trust bar in Manhattan on Friday, August 20. It’s called Alcohol Without Liquid (AWOL?) vaporizer. It mixes alcohol with pressurized oxygen to get you high. According to its makers, it takes about 20 minutes to breathe in one shot. The article says that it is “giving drinkers the effect of alcohol without the drunkenness, or hangover.” Now, I understand why somebody wouldn’t want to have hangover. I can even understand the desire to drink good wine or cognac and not get drunk. But why would I want to inhale alcohol if I don’t get tipsy? More generally, what is “the effect of alcohol without the drunkenness, or hangover”, i.e., what is left? That issue aside, the machine has provoked strong negative reaction from the Democratic state Sen. Carl Kruger who is planning to introduce legislation to ban the machine, calling it a “new form of pipe smoking” and claiming that it could encourage underage drinking and drunk driving. (It’s unclear to me how somebody could engage in drunk driving if the inhaling is supposed not to result in “drunkenness.”) This is the familiar to economists story about how making a dangerous activity somewhat less dangerous creates incentives to engage in the activity more, and might even increase the total amount of danger. (See Sam Peltzman, 1975, “The Effects of Automobile Safety Regulation,” Journal of Political Economy, v. 83, no. 4: 677-725; see also an earlier Vice Squad post related to light cigarettes.)
[Update: Vice Squad has been tracking the diffusion of the alcohol inhaler. -- JL]

 
Amphetamine bust at Moscow State
- posted by Michael @ 4:55 PM

Recently, the Russian anti-drug agency has discovered (the source is in Russian) an underground amphetamine lab and a small network of dealers who distributed the stuff mostly at night clubs. That would not have been particularly newsworthy except that the drug was produced by a recent graduate with distinction of Moscow University’s Department of Chemistry. (How come they didn't seem to make the stuff there when I was a Moscow U student?) Both before and after graduation, the young scientist was working at the Department’s lab of petrochemical synthesis and apparently was making the stuff right there in the lab, using the chemicals that were officially purchased by the lab for research and educational purposes. The distribution was also done by students or recent grads of Moscow colleges. The investigators said that the high quality of the drug helped them solve the case although it took them six months to do that. According to the officials, the dealers advertised their product as “locally made by chemists with college diplomas” using modern chemical facilities and, therefore, the “purity” and “freshness” of the drug were guaranteed. (BTW, the officials confirmed that the quality was indeed top notch. I wonder whether they determined this by a little taste test or using some more sophisticated means.) As far as I know, this is a rather unconventional mechanism by which the illegal nature of the market may drive down the quality of the available product.

 
China Making the Internet Safe for Children
- posted by Jim @ 2:12 PM

Chinese government officials have discovered to their horror that pornographic images are available on the internet. They intend to fully cleanse the web by their National Day, October 1. Besides the requisite hundreds of arrests, measures taken so far have been to close 16,000 internet cafes and to stop issuing licenses for new cafes. Hail to the visionary leadership of the People's Republic of China! Thanks to them, China now has a glorious future...and it always will.

 
Adult Male Consensual Homosexual Sodomy = Murder
- posted by Jim @ 1:56 PM

That's the word out of mathematically-challenged Zanzibar, which has now adopted a penalty for such sodomy identical to the penalty for murder: 25 years in prison. Adult female consensual homosexual sex equals only 7/25'ths of murder.

I am out of town until late Tuesday, so blogging will ...I was going to say "suffer," but "slow down" is perhaps more appropriate. Apologies to the loyal Vice Squad reader.

 
Vicewire, 8/20/2004
- posted by Ryan @ 10:56 PM

1) A recent study shows that teenage girls that associate with older boys are more likely to smoke, drink, and do drugs.

2) In a survey on the connections between drugs and other vice topics, findings show "teens who say at least half their friends are having sex are more likely to report having tried marijuana, alcohol and cigarettes." Only 10% said that engaging in these activites was seen as "cool".

3) The first of five major air bases to prevent drug running both ways across the Canadian border was dedicated today. Unfortunately for this effort, and perhaps aware of the impending inability to completely police the border, only 8 hours a day will be spent patrolling. The greatest asset of the base? "They don't know when we're going to be operating." Oops, bad Vicewire. Bad!

4) Another pyrrhic victory: 52 arrested and $500,000 worth of cocaine in a bust in Tampa.

5) And a man's insurance does not cover a girl who died in 1998 from overdosing on heroin he gave to her, according to a Pennsylvania court, since it was by his own careless actions. This quote from a judge is slightly disheartening: "If the explicit criminalization of use or possession or sale of drugs that have a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in the United States, and lack of accepted safety for use under medical supervision does not manifest convincing proof of public interest, what would?"

 
Lazy (er, I mean, wide-ranging) Link-Based Post
- posted by Jim @ 5:51 PM

(1) Nicotine cocktails to circumvent bar smoking bans. (Hat tip: D'Alliance.)

(2) Massachusetts class-action law suit against light cigarette manufacturers, from Point of Law (via Overlawyered). Here's an earlier Vice Squad post on the similar Illinois case.

(3) On the benefits of pornography. From Joe Gandelman via University of Chicago colleague Daniel Drezner via the Volokh Conspiracy, if that makes sense.

 
The Prohibition Party
- posted by Jim @ 5:10 PM

In 1892, the Prohibition Party's US presidential candidate received 270,710 votes. In 2000, the Prohibition Party's presidential candidate received just 208 votes. The recent poor performance of the party has contributed to a schism, with two nominees emerging from PP "conventions" this year: the August 23 New Yorker tells the story of the old, but let's face it, decrepit, party. (The article is in the "Talk of the Town" section, so it is brief.)

It might be thought that the Prohibition Party was a major force leading up to national alcohol Prohibition in 1920, but by and large that was not the case. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and (especially) the Anti-Saloon League (ASL) proved to be much more politically influential. Rather than promote its agenda through a third party, the ASL supported candidates from either major party who were most sympathetic to its dry stance. Will Baude has suggested a similar approach for libertarians today (see question 9 in the link).

Alcohol prohibition is not a thing of the past in the US, of course: many counties and municipalities remain dry. Chicago has a system that may be unique -- at least I haven't heard of its use elsewhere. An electoral precinct can vote itself, or a portion of itself, dry. Many have done so. Currently the electoral option is being considered in a dispute involving a loud, popular nightclub and some neighbors who moved into a newly-constructed nearby building. The club has reportedly spent more than $200,000 to muffle its noise, but with little effect. But one neighbor's comment, as reported in this Chicago Tribune article, has not done much to elicit Vice Squad's sympathy: 'Our granite counter tops are shaking.'

 
Crackdown on Ads for Internet Gambling Challenged on First Amendment Grounds
- posted by Jim @ 6:37 PM

The Department of Justice has been pressuring websites and broadcasters to not accept advertisements for internet gambling operations, and has even confiscated gambling ad revenue paid to the Travel Network. Now Casino City, a company that operates web portals providing information on online gambling and that receives some of its revenues from online gambling ads, is fighting back. Casino City has filed a challenge in federal court, seeking "a declaration as to its constitutional rights to engage in lawful commercial speech." (Here's the court filing, a 7-page pdf document.) This issue could also be connected to the ongoing WTO dispute about web-based gambling.

 
Detroit Casinos Face Higher Taxes
- posted by Jim @ 6:16 PM

On Tuesday, the governor of Michigan signed into law a bill that raises the tax on Detroit's casinos by one-third. The old tax on "net win" was 18 percent, and has now been raised to 24 percent. One of the three directly affected casinos, the Greektown, unsuccessfully tried what appeared to be a bit of political arm-twisting. Shortly before the bill was signed, the Greektown announced a slew of layoffs -- and also said that the layoffs would be revoked if the tax was not raised.

When Detroit casinos recently celebrated their 5-year anniversary, we noted that the original plan [Vice Squad permalink use!] called for the current, "temporary" casinos to be replaced by permanent, fancy structures with hotels and other amenities. That plan is well behind schedule, but to give it a boost, the tax bill also provides for still higher taxes to be applied in 2009 and beyond if the permanent casinos are not operating.

 
Permalinks are Back...
- posted by Jim @ 6:00 PM

...after a 24-hour hiatus, and I feel fine. Please link to individual posts with abandon. Let no post go unlinked. E-mail your friends with urls of your favorite posts. And so on.

 
The Myriad Uses of Vice Crimes
- posted by Jim @ 5:03 PM

In particular, their frequently "victimless" status gives them a real advantage in setting up folks who are troubling to the powers that be. Make possession of a plant a crime, and it becomes relatively easy for that troublesome person to suddenly possess the prohibited plant.

In an unrelated story, Hong Kong democracy advocate Ho Wai-to was recently arrested in mainland China for soliciting a prostitute. The wheels of justice turn quickly in some venues, and voila', Ho was found guilty and sentenced to serve six months -- despite his candidacy in legislative elections scheduled for next month. Sure, most people convicted of such a "crime" in China are only fined, but no doubt there were extenuating circumstances in this case. And certainly his wife's charges are absurd. Could anyone believe for a minute her claim, as reported by the Chicago Tribune, that "Chinese authorities brought a prostitute to Ho's hotel room in Guangdong's Dongguan region, beat him and denied him food and water until he signed a confession"?

 
The return of Vicewire, 8/17/2004
- posted by Ryan @ 11:16 PM

Vicewire has returned after an extended vacation, now 3 times a week!

1) Here's a story about the top party schools being announced this week, with rankings taking into account the amount of marijuana consumed and the amount of hard liquor and beer drunken.

2) Atlantic City casinos have been expanding their activities into "beach bars" and other activities to lure potential profits from gamblers.

3) A new study shows that rats can be addicted to cocaine, much the same way humans can be. This could be useful in analyzing addiction and discovering effective treatments.

4) Here's more on the difficult fight against opium production in Afghanistan, which is expected to reach a record high this year.

5) And a judge in Nevada has reanimated the battle to legalize up to one ounce of marijuana by declaring requirements to get on the ballot unconstiutional. A lawyer is quoted as saying there is a "decent liklihood" of qualifying the potential amendment to the Nevada constitution, though it would not take effect until at least 2006.

 
Smoking Ban Cramps Lobbyists' Style
- posted by Jim @ 6:23 PM

A former student writes in to bring our attention to this story from the New York Times over the weekend. It concerns the attempt by a lobbying firm to host a party including (indeed, centering upon) cigar smoking at the Carnegie Club in Manhattan during the Republican Convention. But so far, the necessary exemption from NYC's smoking ban has not been obtained -- and if the usual timeline applies, it will not be approved in time for the party. The Carnegie Club already has a history of smoking violations, it seems. Will we see civil disobedience, a' la Fibber Magees in Galway and other Irish pubs?

I tried to better Vice Squad and marred what was well. Vice Squad permalinks are not working right now, and it is probably my fault. (My technical incompetence gives the lie to the name "permalink".) I can only hope that some sort of supernatural intervention will restore the useful little critters.

 
Doctor or Informant?
- posted by Jim @ 3:12 PM

Remember that fellow in Pennsylvania who lost his driver's license after he told his doctor that he drank more than a six-pack of beer per day? (The doctor probably felt compelled to bring his case to the license authorities, given state law, though the doctor later refused a request to clear him to drive.) He claimed only to drink at home after work, without driving afterwards. Anyway, the patient went to court to get his license reinstated, and the judge yesterday fashioned a compromise. The man can get his license reinstated, but only if he installs in his car an ignition locking system that will prevent him from driving unless he passes an in-car breath test. The locking device will cost about $1,000 per year, apparently.

I do worry about laws that require doctors to become informants, especially when there is no clear and present danger of a crime about to be committed. Patients will be even more likely to lie about their alcohol use, and the extent of alcohol consumption can be an important piece of information in determining a proper diagnosis and treatment plan.

In Minneapolis, a hospital doctor refused to take a blood sample from a suspect arrested in a fatal stabbing. Police wanted a measurement of the suspect's blood-alcohol content. The doctor did not have the suspect's informed consent. The doctor also refused to take the sample following a phone call from a judge. The doctor was arrested, and the blood sample was eventually (5 hours after the initial "presentation") taken by another physician following the arrival of a signed court order. It now looks as if the arrested doctor will not suffer any further legal or administrative sanctions for his decision, which on the surface appears to have been in compliance with hospital guidelines.

 
Driving Under the Influence at Overlawyered
- posted by Jim @ 1:50 PM

Ted Frank at Overlawyered posts on two fatal traffic accidents and their surprising legal aftermaths. One crash involved a positive test for marijuana (though there is no mention in the linked articles of intoxication at the time of the accident) and the second involved considerable alcohol intoxication.

 
Should An Incarcerated Felon Be Allowed to Win the Lottery?
- posted by Jim @ 1:25 PM

A generous Vice Squad reader brings our attention to this story out of the UK last week. An offender "was jailed between 1973 and 1987 for a series of sex attacks on women. He was returned to prison in 1989 for attempting to rape a 60-year-old woman in a park." But he was allowed out on work release, and one day, he bought a lottery ticket. He beat the astronomical odds, winning 7 million pounds (more than $12 million.) Now the Home Secretary wants to make sure that such a stroke of luck does not happen again to an incarcerated individual, via legislation that "would force offenders who won the lottery or other wealthy criminals to contribute to a compensation fund for victims of crime." The generous VS reader also noted that the Home Secretary spotted injustice in this particular lottery win -- presumably, then, not in the others?

Given that the National Lottery returns to winners only about 50 pence out of every pound ticket purchased, it might be thought that requiring prisoners to purchase lottery tickets would be a better route to preclude injustice.

Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution recently looked at the practice in some US localities of charging prisoners for room and board.

 
Smoke or Swim? Supra-Immediate Gratification
- posted by Jim @ 9:56 PM

Friend of Vice Squad Dima Masterov sends along this notice of a man who had to make a quick decision when the car he had been driving was sinking into a pond with him in the driver's seat. Fortunately, he didn't panic: he decided to smoke some crack.

Now, one of the explanations of how choices concerning drug consumption might not be fully rational has to do with an excessive focus on present pleasure, but this case is fairly extreme even for the present-oriented.

For more on immediate gratification, see this paper (31 page pdf) by economists John O'Donoghue and Matthew Rabin. And speaking of immediate gratification, I am so pleased -- really, too pleased -- with the new search feature at the top of Blogger blogs! I might search Vice Squad all night long. I'll search on "the", or "and", or "snus". Oh, won't it be grand?

 
Swedish Alcohol Tax Decline Makes More Headway
- posted by Jim @ 6:54 PM

Sweden's state-owned monopoly seller of alcohol has seen a fall in sales of more than 13 percent this year. Meanwhile, alcohol consumption in Sweden has increased. The disconnect comes from the eased conditions within the EU with respect to importing alcohol for personal use from other, sometimes low cost, EU member countries. Now a Swedish government commission has recommended that Sweden follow the lead of Finland and Denmark, by severely cutting alcohol taxes:

Sweden should slash its traditionally high taxes on hard liquor by 40 percent to get Swedes to purchase more of their booze at home where the government can keep tabs on their drinking habits, a government commissioned report recommended on Monday.

"To break the pattern of the strong increase in travel-imports of spirits and to strengthen the Swedish alcohol policy's legitimacy, we suggest that the tax on hard liquor be lowered by 40 percent starting on January 1, 2005," head of the study Kent Haerstedt said in a statement.

Vice Squad has been tracking the Finnish and Swedish alcohol tax developments, most recently on August 9.

Apologies for the blogging hiatus. My out-of-town visitors are now gone, however, and I hope to be back to my dull everyday existence, er, I mean, my "regular blogging schedule."

 
A Poor Host...
- posted by Jim @ 8:34 AM

...on two fronts. First, I am being a poor host to my three houseguests, to whom I am about to return. But for the next few days, I will also be a poor host here at Vice Squad, because of my other (sadly neglected) hosting duties.

 
Smoke in Front of Your Kids, Go to Jail
- posted by Jim @ 8:12 AM

And not just in theory, according to this AP article at Fredricksburg.com:

A Caroline County [Virginia] woman was sentenced to 10 days in jail yesterday for defying a court order not to smoke around her daughter and son.

Tamara Silvius, 44, was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom by deputies, The Associated Press reported. Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Judge John H. Thomas said Silvius could post a $500 bond while she appeals his ruling.

Thomas last August barred Silvius from smoking around the children, now ages 8 and 10, as part of her shared-custody arrangement with her ex-husband. She violated the order during a trip to South Carolina for Thanksgiving when she taped plastic inside her car to keep the smoke from reaching her children.

Now maybe these kids, ages 8 and 10, have some special condition such that environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) really poses a threat to them -- though no evidence on that score is provided in the article. And of course, the mom is being jailed for violating a court order, and that is what happens when you violate a court order. But should a smoking ban -- that in the end, will be enforced by these sorts of measures -- really be part of shared-custody agreements, absent some very special physical susceptibilities to ETS? Are the risks to the kids from ETS any greater than the risk they face if their dad, say, occasionally drives over the speed limit?

 
Are Some Varieties of Prostitution Legal in South Dakota?
- posted by Jim @ 7:51 AM

Maybe. In particular, touching that falls short of intercourse may not be forbidden by state law. A state's attorney dropped a case against a massage parlor owner following "a close reading of the statutes," according to this AP article on Aberdeen News.com. A similar "loophole" in the wording of the anti-prostitution statute occurs in the state laws of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana.

Speaking of legal prostitution, government funding for Red Thread, the Dutch union for prostitutes, looks like it might come to an end.

 
Interstate Wine Shipments
- posted by Jim @ 6:18 PM

Professor Todd Zywicki of George Mason Law School is back at the Volokh Conspiracy following a stint at the FTC. He has a series of interesting posts that concern direct interstate shipments of alcohol to individuals. The loyal Vice Squad reader will recall that there are two legal cases, to be argued before the Supreme Court next term, involving state laws (in Michigan and New York) that prohibit such interstate alcohol shipments but permit similar in-state shipments. So far, Prof. Zywicki has been laying out the issues and explaining why the plain meaning of the Prohibition-ending 21st Amendment doesn't give states carte blanche to do what they want with respect to alcohol imports.

His posts (so far) can be found (1) here; (2) here; and (3) here. Professor Bainbridge is another blogger who has written quite a bit on this topic. I first got up to speed on this issue thanks to the efforts of a pretty good student.

 
The Chicago Tribune's Hemp Farm
- posted by Jim @ 3:59 PM

Stephen Young, author of Maximizing Harm, tells the tale of an experimental farm run by the Chicago Tribune in the 1930s that grew hemp. His article, "The Colonel's Weed," appeared in the July 30th edition of the Chicago Reader. (The Colonel in the title refers to Robert McCormick, long-time editor and publisher of the Trib.) The idea behind the farm, the progress of which was tracked in a regular Trib column, was to promote innovation among farmers during the dark days of the Depression. Instead, the farm captured the attention of the feds, whose pressure put an end to the hemp experiment -- and for that matter, all US hemp farming -- following the 1937 passage of the Marijuana Tax Act. My synopsis doesn't do justice to the article, however, and the details are quite interesting.

Vice Squad member Mike and Libby at Last One Speaks recently have talked about the efforts at destroying wild hemp, which generally has a THC content much too low to attract smokers. The concluding sentences of "The Colonel's Weed" mention this phenomenon, and the amazing hardiness of the hemp plant:

Hemp still grows in Illinois. The Tribune reported in 1998 that $450,000 had been spent by state police the previous year to destroy roughly ten million uncultivated hemp plants, many descended from the Hemp for Victory effort in World War II. If ingested, none of those plants would have given anyone a buzz. In 2002 another 633,000 wild hemp plants were obliterated.

The numbers vary from year to year, but the battle continues. It may be possible to willfully ignore hemp's virtues, but its essential nature makes it difficult to eradicate. It is, after all, a weed. Only months after it's slashed and burned, hemp sprouts again, pushing its head to the sun.

 
Alcohol Ban v. Fire Control
- posted by Jim @ 3:30 PM

That was the dilemma faced by Hampton, Iowa, on Tuesday. Hampton is being pressured by its insurer to prohibit alcohol on all public property, excluding parks. Some publicity of the potential ban singled out the volunteer fire department; that didn't sit too well with the volunteers. The chief resigned, and the rest of the force apparently threatened to resign at Tuesday night's City Council meeting. The Council decided to table the proposed ban for the time being, and enter into discussions with the volunteer fire fighters.

The ban would require some change to the workings of the fire squad, according to this article from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier: "In the past, alcohol was allowed at fire department events on four occasions each year, including a dance. And sometimes firefighters drink beer after a fire call."

 
Pharmacotherapy
- posted by Jim @ 8:06 PM

On July 27 Vice Squad briefly mentioned the possibility of "immunizing" children against illicit drug use. Updates included a link to a post by Mark Kleiman that questioned whether a mass immunization along these lines would ever be practical, and a link to a more chilling post from Last One Speaks. The Last One Speaks post mentioned this recent report (52 page pdf) from the Center For Cognitive Liberty and Ethics (CCLE). I have finally gotten around to reading the report (entitled "Threats to Cognitive Liberty: Pharmacotherapy and the Future of the Drug War"), and I recommend it to Vice Squad readers interested in the pharmacotherapy issue.

The first 15 or so pages of the report explain the various developments in anti-drug "vaccines" that are out there. Antabuse (or disulfiram) was an early entry that fights alcoholism, by rendering someone sick if he consumes alcohol. Nicotine gums and patches are other now-venerable pharmacotherapies, but more are on the way, possibly including some aimed at cocaine and marijuana.

It is in section 2 that the report begins to indicate the extent to which such agents could become "threats to cognitive liberty." They quote this chilling paragraph from the second section of the 2003 National Drug Control Strategy:

And yet the disease [of drug use] spreads. It spreads because the vectors of contagion are not addicts in the streets but users who do not yet show the consequences of their drug habit. Last year, some 16 million Americans used an illegal drug on at least a monthly basis, while 6.1 million Americans were in need of treatment. The rest, still in the "honeymoon" phase of their drug-using careers, are "carriers" who transmit the disease to others who see only the surface of the fraud. Treatment practitioners report that new users in particular are prone to encouraging their peers to join them in their new behavior.

The CCLE report notes that between 1907 and 1978, more than 60,000 Americans were forcibly sterilized by states, and argues that people within the criminal justice system, as well as those on public assistance, might be the first to see coercive application of pharmacotherapies. And schoolkids, too:

Under the totality of the circumstances, the CCLE is thus concerned that government rhetoric equating the use of illegal drugs with infectious disease, combined with the already watered-down constitutional rights of children who attend public school, may set the stage for requiring the use of various pharmacotherapy "vaccines" as a precondition to attending public school or to participating in sports and other extracurricular activities.

More on this report tomorrow, probably.

 
Referenda to Repeal City Smoking Bans Make Headway in Columbus, Toledo
- posted by Jim @ 5:15 PM

That's Ohio, of course:

(1) Columbus;

(2) Toledo.

 
Charlotte Observer Drinking and Driving Series
- posted by Jim @ 4:46 PM

On Sunday Vice Squad drew (here and here) from the first part of a three-part series in the Charlotte Observer on drinking and driving. Parts 2 and 3 are now available (free registration required). Part 2 focuses on judges and courts, and includes this account of a special alcohol treatment court for repeat drunk drivers. The judge is a recovering alcoholic himself. The lead story in today's Part 3 concerns what happens when a driver refuses to take a breath test in the Carolinas. Here's a sample:

Each month in North Carolina, an average of nearly 900 DWI suspects -- or about 18 percent of those arrested -- refuse breath or blood alcohol tests, the Observer found. In South Carolina, 32 percent of those arrested on drunken driving charges refuse the tests, according to the S.C. State Law Enforcement Division.

Across North Carolina, when suspects plead not guilty after declining alcohol tests, about 57 percent who go to trial are convicted. For those who agree to be tested, the conviction rate is about 62 percent.

All three parts, which together total more than 20 individual stories, are available here.

 
Police Discretion
- posted by Jim @ 3:33 PM

The police have a lot of discretion over whether or not to arrest someone, and on what charges might be brought. That is true in all areas of the law, but generally more so with respect to vice offenses, as they generally don't involve a victim reporting a crime to the police.

A generous Vice Squad reader brings our attention to police intervention on the behalf of a friend [a friend of the officer, that is] who was, perhaps, driving while intoxicated. The events took place in Lafayette, Indiana. They are described in this article from the Lafayette Journal and Courier, with updates here and here. One reason it is unknown if the woman was driving while impaired is that the breathalyzer machine at the station wasn't operating, by golly. Rather than take her to another station, the shift commander for the Lafeyette police department decided to release her into the custody of the off-duty deputy chief of the West Lafayette police department. The woman is on probation from a September, 2003, drinking and driving incident, and she had three kids in the car with her. The deputy police chief is friends with the woman's husband, who is a trustee in his town of Wea Township, Indiana. The deputy police chief has been reprimanded for his intervention, though he has not been suspended nor will he receive any other disciplinary action. Sounds like a handy friend to have.

Via Crim Law (who in turn hat tips True Believer), we learn of another case of police discretion, only this time, the police officer is paying a high price. Last November, he stopped a car in Ashley, Illinois, where he was a village police officer. He found a marijuana cigarette but followed the instruction of an Illinois state trooper who was on the scene to forget about it, as the piddling arrest wasn't worth the trouble. Sounds like sensible advice. But the now-former officer faces two felony charges over the incident, one for malfeasance and a second for obstruction of justice. Why the charges? Well, according to the former officer, whose last name is Gibson, he managed to get on the wrong side of a local prosecutor. Here's an excerpt from the account at Belleville.com:

Gibson said his firing from his job as an Ashley Police officer is due to a personal campaign against him by [Washington County State's Attorney Brian] Trentman. He said it stems from a drunken driving citation Gibson issued in December to the 18-year-old grandson of a Washington County board member.

The board member, who is also a Democratic precinct committeeman, complained to Trentman. Trentman had the charge tossed on grounds that Gibson was out of his jurisdiction when he issued the ticket.

Trentman, who could not be reached, has denied pursuing a vendetta and has stated politics played no role in his decision to have the DUI dismissed.

But in January after Gibson complained about the dismissal in a newspaper story, he was charged by Trentman with a felony for allegedly making an improper traffic stop several months earlier -- stopping a motorist by using an unauthorized emergency light in his private vehicle. That was the marijuana stop on the interstate.

Gibson in January publicly accused Trentman of having the DUI dropped for political reasons and the next day he was charged for having the light in his SUV. Gibson was jailed until he posted $3,000 cash on a $30,000 bond and his SUV was seized as evidence. The vehicle has not been returned.

Trentman, a former St. Clair County public defender, was then running in the Democratic primary for county judge. He lost to Associate Judge Dennis Hatch.

In the latest charges, which Gibson said resulted from his earlier refusal to plead guilty and accept probation, he is accused of tossing the motorist's marijuana cigarette in a roadside ditch near Interstate 64.

At least this prosecutor wasn't actually elected to the bench.