The shooting of a 20 year old U-Vic psych student on saturday was being lamented by family and friends as a mistake,as the boy was popular and had no gang connections or drug history.That turned out t

No one is entitled to their opinion on the drug war unless they understand how often this happens:

WAREHAM — A pit bull was fatally shot after police were confronted by the dog while executing a search warrant at 298 Onset Ave. on Wednesday, Chief Thomas Joyce said Thursday night.
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The dog was "growling and acting in an aggressive manner," the report said, so an officer used a Taser in an attempt to make it back off.

"The dog retreated approximately 6 inches and then charged at the entry team growling and showing his teeth," the report said.
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"Unfortunately, at this point the officers feared for their safety and the dog had to be put down," according to the report. Chief Joyce said the dog was shot once by an unidentified officer.

According to police, a search of the premises netted several items often used in packaging drugs, but no illegal drugs were discovered, and no arrests were made. [SouthCoastToday.com]

This isn't the first time police who failed to locate any drugs have called attention to the discovery of so-called drug packaging materials. They should be more surprised not to find such items. Guess what, people package things. It doesn’t make someone a drug dealer and any reporter who references such nonsense is complicit in a petty, backhanded attempt to smear a guy whose dog just got killed for no good reason.

But that's just my opinion. Some nice people in the comment section beg to differ:

Here is the truth. The owner has been busted for drugs and gun charges in the past. He got lucky this time, he must have sold all his drugs before the raid.
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…usually when it gets to the point the DEA and a Task force is raiding your house it because they have had hours upon hours of documented proof the residents are dealing drugs . if these alleged drug dealers lived next door to u with crack heads coming and going all hours of the night I bet you would be glad they raided that house! The dog was an unfortunate casualty of war.
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they should have shot the owner instead.

Well, at the risk of satisfying such vicious bloodlust, allow me to point out that plenty of people are killed by police during drug raids that didn't turn up any drugs.

From a recent interview in Rolling Stone:

The War on Drugs has cost taxpayers $500 billion since 1973. Nearly 500,000 people are behind bars on drug charges today, yet drugs are as available as ever. Do you plan to continue the War on Drugs, or will you make some significant change in course?

Anybody who sees the devastating impact of the drug trade in the inner cities, or the methamphetamine trade in rural communities, knows that this is a huge problem. I believe in shifting the paradigm, shifting the model, so that we focus more on a public-health approach. I can say this as an ex-smoker: We've made enormous progress in making smoking socially unacceptable. You think about auto safety and the huge success we've had in getting people to fasten their seat belts.

The point is that if we're putting more money into education, into treatment, into prevention and reducing the demand side, then the ways that we operate on the criminal side can shift. I would start with nonviolent, first-time drug offenders. The notion that we are imposing felonies on them or sending them to prison, where they are getting advanced degrees in criminality, instead of thinking about ways like drug courts that can get them back on track in their lives -- it's expensive, it's counterproductive, and it doesn't make sense.

I've heard it said, and I agree, that this is a solid response from a mainstream politician on the presidential campaign trail. But I also think it simply reflects a realistic summary of what the centrist, mainstream view on U.S. drug policy sounds like. In other words, rather than commending Obama for not spouting tired war metaphors, let us welcome the new status quo.

We've reached a point at which this type of rhetoric is probably the most politically palatable perspective a serious candidate could offer. We've heard McCain making some similar points, and while I certainly won't be holding my breath, I think the possibility exists that we'll make it through the entire campaign without witnessing any serious controversy surrounding the concept that our drug war needs a major ideological makeover.

(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)