The Conscience of Abe’s Turn freedom of speech, defense, and life

The Marijuana Policy Project reports on a study examining what happens when we over-inflate the risks of using drugs. The study, recently published in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, notes that when the kids finally learn the truth, “intentions to engage in threatened behavior may be amplified.”

Of course, this is old news, or at least it should be. Telling someone not to do something just makes them want to do it more, and then lying to them about the dangers just encourages them to ignore you. No kidding? Maybe next we can commission a study to prove that water is wet.  read more »

A selection of news stories from the previous week. (Follow the links embedded in the following summaries to read more detailed news stories about each case.)

Lost: Thanks to Radley Balko’s dogged investigations, we now have the video evidence that shows Steven Hayne and Michael West falsifying evidence in Jimmie Duncan’s case, video that prosecutors originally refused to turn over to Duncan’s lawyers, video that the trial judge had inexplicably ruled contained “no exculpatory evidence favorable to the defendant.” There’s no telling how many innocent people have been harmed by Hayne and West, because even though the Missippi government has downgraded their trust in the alleged perjurers, officials still refuse to acknowledge there may have been a serious problem and refuse to review the many cases the duo worked on. Hayne in fact is still giving testimony in Missippi courts. (See also Rogier van Bakel’s post on the case and Radley Balko’s update.)  read more »