As part of the "War on Drugs" an entire family of hydroponics sellers, selling legally available material, were sentenced to prison without parole. Gary Tucker has just been released after a ten year stretch and confiscation of all his goods and money. His brother Steve died of cancer in prison. Why? He refused to allow the DEA to install surveillance cameras in his store to identify his customers.
"This isn't Nazi Germany" he said. One wonders... read the rest. It's harrowing.
Hat tip to the Lippard Blog
In my area, I'm seeing more and more police crackdowns on just about everything, from DUI, to drugs, to parking tickets. The politicians "war on crime" slogan sells well here, and they're getting better at finding things to convict you of.