This comes as no surprise to me and other criminal defense lawyers representing those charged with drug crimes, but it's good to see it made public.

In an audit published Friday, Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine examined thousands of seizures between October 2003 and November 2005.

Fine's report states that drug agents rarely counted the cash they took, often didn't provide receipts for seized money, rarely recorded the seizures in agency ledgers and often didn't ask their colleagues to witness their counting and handling of the money.

What this means according to the Inspector General:

The lack of internal controls over the seized cash leads to accusations of theft by the agents, the report states.

What it means in my opinion: Sometimes less money is reported seized than actually is seized. Because of the faulty reporting, and because some may be less than honest about the amount seized, it's very hard to prove.

The use of SWAT team tactics to execute search warrants, a growing phenomenon decried in this editorial, can lead to tragic results. The death of Kathryn Johnston, an elderly woman who was killed when police forced their way, unannounced, into her home, is one example. This story provides another example. Here’s another:

[Gilbert, AZ police officers] say they were [at Salvador Celaya’s residence] to execute a search warrant for evidence they assumed to be on the premises. They hoped to find some stolen goods because they thought a truck a crook had used was registered to that address.

The details will take a long time to sort out, but the bottom line is, by the time the cops were done, they had burned the Celayas' house down. The instrument of destruction was a flash-bang diversionary grenade the cops now admit they tossed into the house before they found an armed Salvador Celaya trying to defend his property from intruders. The grenade, which is not supposed to be deployed near anything flammable, landed on a bed.

So long, house.

And here's still another:

• The BBC reports Bush is on the brink of announcing he will send more troops to Iraq.

• Iraq has announced the launch of a formal investigation into the cell phone video of Saddam's execution. If you haven't seen the video yet, it's here.

• Grits for Breakfast has a list of the top ten Texas injustice stories of 2006.

• Jane Hamsher at Firedoglake is upset that she didn't receive the top award for the 20 Most Annoying Liberals.

• Crooks and Liars is all over Rudy Giuliani's loss of his election playbook.

• Skippy has a rant on unfair press coverage of John Edwards, whom he is not supporting at this time, since he is, like me and many bloggers, waiting to make up his mind on this important choice.

Amendment 44, by SaferChoice, was on Colorado's ballot this year. It would have legalized adult possession of up to one ounce of pot. The measure passed in Denver in 2004, and this was an attempt to make it state-wide. It failed.

For anyone who is interested, NORML has put up the audio of my talk to college kids the week before the election on why it should pass and why it is so critical for young people to register to vote and then weigh in on election day. It's about 15 minutes long.

Kids are the future. If you have a political pulpit to reach them, please use it. Rome wasn't built in a day and the Amendment will be back in 2008.

Here's a gift idea for your local pot dealer:

A one-time Texas drug agent described by a former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country plans to begin selling a video that shows people how to conceal their drugs and fool police.

Barry Cooper, who once worked for police departments in Gladewater and Big Sandy and the Permian Basin Drug Task Force, plans to launch a Web site next week where he will sell his video, "Never Get Busted Again," the Tyler Morning Telegraph reported in its online edition Thursday.

A promotional video says Cooper will show viewers how to "conceal their stash," "avoid narcotics profiling" and "fool canines every time."

Cooper says he made the video "because he believes the nation's fight against drugs is a waste of resources."

Busting marijuana users fills up prisons with nonviolent offenders, he said.

Genarlow Wilson and some friends rented a hotel room for a New Years Eve party in 2003. They planned to drink and smoke some weed and fool around. One of Wilson's friends, a 15 year old girl, performed an act of oral gratification on Wilson, who was 17. Although she testified that she was a willing participant, Georgia law made it a felony for Wilson to receive oral pleasure from a minor -- even a minor who was close to his own age -- so jurors found him guilty.

The verdict might have been different if jurors had known Wilson was facing a minimum sentence of 11 years, 10 to be served without parole. Wilson is also required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

As a result of the publicity surrounding Wilson's case, Georgia changed its law, but the Georgia Supreme Court declined to hear Wilson's appeal. The Court's justification is, to put it politely, hogwash.

The trend towards adopting laws restricting where sex offenders may live may be slowing down as more legal challenges are filed and cities and states are finding they are not the panacea once thought.

From the Kansas Department of Corrections, here are "Twenty Findings of Research on Residential Restrictions for Sex Offenders and the Iowa Experience with Similar Policies."

Just a few:

• Housing restrictions appear to be based largely on three myths that are repeatedly propagated by the media: 1) all sex offenders reoffend; 2) treatment does not work; and 3) the concept of “stranger danger.” Research does not support these myths, but there is research to suggest that such policies may ultimately be counterproductive.

• Research shows that there is no correlation between residency restrictions and reducing sex offenses against children or improving the safety of children.

There's a debate taking shape in Houston. Are the cops disproportionately using stun guns against African-Americans?

[Houston] officers are facing a new question: Are they using the high-voltage Taser -- what police call a less-than-lethal "intermediary" weapon -- indiscriminately against black suspects? The recent arrest and use of a Taser against a black professional football player has once again put the police department of the nation's fourth-largest city under scrutiny.

...Police data show that in almost 1,000 Taser deployments since December 2004, 63 percent of the suspects were black. Houston's population of 1.95 million is 25 percent black.

You do the math.

The Drug Law Blog has them and some are doozies. Part 2 is here. One of my favorites:

The United States Gets Tough on Methamphetamine By Locking Up All Its Cold Medicine, Forcing Tweakers To Import Speed From Mexico Instead and Messing Up the Formula For Nyquil

Another:

Scalia Writes Hudson v. Michigan, Breaks Fourth Amendment Supression Doctrine Into Little Tiny Crumbs of Dust.

The Drug Czar's web page trumpets the administration's commitment to effective drug treatment.

Director Walters has overseen the creation and implementation of the "Access to Recovery" treatment initiative announced by President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address. This innovative approach to drug treatment funding provides vouchers for hundreds of thousands of Americans struggling with addiction.

The program doesn't seem to be helping Travis County, Texas, where probationers wait months to enter underfunded treatment programs.

"It's imperative to get them into treatment early," [pobation officer Julie Vasquez-Martinez] said. "It's imperative so they don't continue to make the wrong decisions. They need these tools and techniques to stay clean and sober." But department statistics show that hundreds of newly sentenced probationers in Travis County are waiting to get into court-ordered substance abuse treatment.

Judges send some offenders to county jails to wait for a treatment slot to open up, exacerbating the county's ongoing jail crowding problem. Others are released into the community to fight their addiction on their own.

Hard to believe that a message board for the Texas District Attorneys' Association is public, but it is. It's also revealing in its revelation of tactics prosecutors use for minor offenses.

Via Grits for Breakfast, here's the thread. Grits says:

Be careful who you agree to let become one of your MySpace friends - what you blog can and will be used against you if they turn out to be a police investigator.

I'm going to reprint much of the thread below in case it's taken down.

Remember Operation Trick or Treat, a drug sting that netted 33 arrests in Texas over Halloween?

Grits for Breakfast reports the cases have been dismissed. The probable cause for arrests was based on a single snitch, and, big surprise, it turns out he lied.

Harrison County District Attorney Joe Black has dropped charges against 33 people arrested this past October in Operation Trick or Treat.

"Information came forward to our office that the informant utilized in this undercover operation had possibly misled and lied to officers during the investigation," Black said. "Secondly, my office nor any local law enforcement agencies want to participate in the prosecution of any individual based upon evidence which may have been illegally or fraudulently obtained."

About 20 percent of the cases were compromised, Black said, but a shadow was cast over the entire operation.

Did they learn nothing from Tulia?