The United States of Marijuana

Medicinal marijuana in Colorado

AP IMPACT: Al-Qaida carves out own country in Mali

Piece from Associated Press reported in the Guardian breaking news stream. Report on the situation in Northern Mali, where al Qaeda related groups appear to be digging in for a long conflict. The lesson should be: the West cant afford to undermine states. The long term winners are non-state actors such as al Qaeda. There is no mention of organised crime in this piece, but the people smuggling and trafficking trails will be there at the very least. What else?

Britain 'losing the war on cyber crime' as costs hit £205 million

Hmmm...Commissioner of City of London basically trying to protect himself against cuts here, I suspect, but he does give figures for various types of crime...mostly from the back of an envelope, but that never stopped academics using them as references!

22 NI laundering plants shut

Probably red diesel: agricultural fuel. Duty on petrol in UK so high that there must be other networks finding ways of avoiding it. but how and where is it sold?

Camorra boss Antonio Leonardi arrested today

Italian police today arrested Antonio Leonardi, one of the most wanted and most dangerous Camorra bosses. He is considered one of the major drug trafficker in Neaples.

Huge rise in social media 'crimes'

This is an area where the process of definition of what is and isnt a "crime" is still taking place. The Chambers case demonstrated that protest can still overturn a stupid decision by a court, but it also demonstrated the power of celebrities, which is itself a disturbing feature. Might be an idea to look at the interim guidelines, linked from this BBC piece.

Police radars to detect suicide bombers and gunmen

What will they really be looking for? UK not prone to random gunmen...The odd samurai sword wielder, yes, we do suffer from...but without tempting fate, weve only had two suicide bomber incidents. Thugs with knoves? yes, I'm all for their detection and arrest. Who is trying to sell the police what and why? [well for profit, obviously, stupid] or is it just Keith Vaz getting his name in the papers again?

French cannabis coops

Cannabis social clubs in France press for legalisation. Article in French. Its been a while since Ive explored the continental press, for which I apologise. All to do with changing laptops and forgetting bookmarks. Dont suppose this will get into the English redtops, so struggle through!

Intense Alienation Can Be an Incubator for Violence

Interesting argument: mass murder more likely in small communities. Just saying...

Review of FBI forensics does not extend to federally trained state, local examiners

How many countries did the FBI train as well as local US forensic examiners? How many of these faults and exaggerations also apply to DNA evidence and analysis?

Alcohol duty fraud: Action needed, say off-licences

Given the level of duty, this really isnt very surprising. The neo-liberals who run the world want low taxes on income, because people will evade high taxes, but dont seem to have worked out that exactly the same thing will happen with alcohol, tobacco and eventually petrol, assuming their argument is correct. Its OK to use high taxation to change behaviour, but not the behaviour of the rich. What happened to logical thought processes?

The 'Ndrangheta: 40 convictions in Lombardy

In the trial following "Operazione Infinito", which has shown the significant presence of the 'Ndrangheta in Lombardy, 40 persons have been convicted.