Wichita Kansas May Have To Put Marijuana On The Ballot

A petition to decriminalize marijuana has gotten 5,800 signatures so far, in order to force Wichita, Kansas to decriminalize marijuana and change the nature of the offense from a criminal misdemeanor to a minor civil offense. This is over twice the number of signature needed, so Wichita really has no excuse to refuse to put the question of decriminalizing marijuana on the ballot. The petition calls for a twenty-five dollar fine in municipal court instead of the current criminal sanctions and requests that violations be treated the same way building code violations or uncontrolled pets are treated. I do not use recreational drugs and do not approve of recreational drug use, but I also do not approve of prosecuting victimless crimes with millions of dollars that can more productively spent on education. It's also a nice gesture to avoid the needless ruin of lives with what amounts to malicious prosecution and selectively applied sanctions. Power To The People!

A Little Known Fact About The Waco Fertilizer Plant Explosion

How's this for some trivia? The last time the Texas Fertilizer Plant in Waco, where an explosion took place on April 17, which killed fifteen people, was inspected by OSHA, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, was in 1985. The plant was called West Chemical & Fertilizer Company, and they were fined $30.00 for unsafe storage of anhydrous amonia. After that, Texas figured that OSHA did not need to reinspect, because the company had most assuredly learned it's lesson and was in compliance. Absolutely.