Strip Searching Students is Not Ok. Duh!

I'm not sure what the school administrators were thinking when they decided it was necessary to strip search 13 year old Savannah Redding because they suspected she was hiding ibuprofen in her underwear. Not only did the humiliating and unconstitutional search not find any of that oh-so dangerous ibuprofen, but those who carried out the search contended that they had done nothing wrong.

After years of going from court to court, Redding, now 19, finally has some closure. The Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that her consitutional rights were violated by the school. However, they also ruled 7-2 that the school officials "are nevertheless protected from liability through qualified immunity."

Savannah did what too many young people are afraid or intimidated to do - she stood up for herself and for her rights in the hopes that she might be able to stop this from happening to another young person.

"It frustrated me that everyone else could see that it was wrong, except for the people that did it," Redding said.

Boy. If that doesn't sum up what its like to be a drug policy reformer - I don't know what does!

Thank you Savannah!

Gimme a L... Gimme a E... Gimme a G...

What does that spell? Legalize! A word that supposedly, neither President Obama nor ONDCP Director Gil Kelikowske have in their combined vocabulary.

Ok. While Obama doesn't say legalize here - he does say decriminalize. What is much more important in this clip is:

"I think that the war on drugs has been an utter failure."

Is failure in their vocabulary? Because they better get used that word being associated with U.S. drug policy if neither are willing to even say the "L-word". How can we take these two seriously when it comes to the much needed reform of our criminal justice system and drug policies?