This has the makings of another potential paramilitary drug raid legal drama:

An FBI agent was killed early yesterday near Pittsburgh during a raid on the home of a suspected cocaine dealer, who was taken into custody along with his wife. Federal officials later reported that the woman was being charged with the shooting.
…
A lawyer for the couple said Christina Korbe faces homicide charges in connection with Hicks's death, three Pittsburgh television stations reported. Station KDKA quoted lawyer Sumner Parker as saying the Korbes may have believed they were the victims of a home invasion. Federal officials said Christina Korbe was being held by state authorities in connection with the killing.

As he was led away in handcuffs from the Allegheny County police headquarters yesterday, Robert Korbe blamed the shooting on other law enforcement officers.

"They shot their own guy," he told reporters. "I didn't shoot him." [Washington Post]

We just don’t have enough facts at this point, but if this turns out to be another case of a confused suspect mistaking police for burglars (or police shooting each other), then it’s something we’ll be discussing in more detail very soon.
 
Whether it’s a police officer or a suspect, it’s just tragic that so many lives continue to be lost during aggressive drug raids. I agree with Radley Balko who asks why Robert Korbe couldn’t have been arrested outside the home. Busting into people’s houses at 6:00 in the morning is a prescription for disaster. If police can’t find a safer way to do these raids, they need to look harder.

No, of course not, but let me introduce you to some people who actually believe it will:

Council Bans Sale of Single Cigars in Bid to Curb Youths' Marijuana Use

The Prince George's County Council adopted one of the nation's most sweeping restrictions on the sale of cigars yesterday, an effort to curb a growing trend among urban youths of using hollowed-out cigars to smoke marijuana.

The council voted 8 to 1 to ban the sale of single cigars, requiring stores to sell them in packages of at least five. The new law will also make it easier to charge someone possessing a cigar with a drug paraphernalia offense…[Washington Post]

How much easier? I’d like to know more. Why would you charge someone with a drug offense for possessing cigars? If they have drugs, you can charge them for that. This is ridiculous.

Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a stupid idea when you’re trying to save the children:

Sylvia Quinton, who works with the Suitland-based Substance Abuse Treatment Education Prevention Network, said use of short fat cigars, often called blunts, to smoke marijuana has "become embedded in youth culture." Blunts make frequent cameos in rap music and movies.

She said the new law cannot stamp out the glorification of blunts, but raising the price might discourage some youths.

Are you crazy? If they can afford marijuana, they will find a way to smoke it. No one’s gonna give up on smoking a $10 bag because they couldn’t get a blunt for a buck. Not only will this plan fail overall, it will never work even one time on anybody, ever. They will eat their stash raw before surrendering to you.

Not to mention the glaring and hysterical fact that you can still buy boxes of blunts and get high five times, while saving some change. This is nothing but a much-needed lesson in economics for people who constantly waste weed by rolling it up in big slimy stinking blunt papers that spill herb into your mouth and make you smell like schwag for a day and a half.

The fact that we’re even talking about this is an enormous exhibit in the embarrassing failure of our marijuana laws.