Widow fights drug war land grab

Like growing corporate hegemony over our education system, expansion of the failed War on Drugs has been a constant for almost 30 years, regardless of the party in the White House.

Indeed, it's sacrosanct. That's why so few of our so-called leaders have the will to even criticize it.

A woman from Chilton County, Alabama, is facing an effort by federal prosecutors to seize her home and her land because of a marijuana case against her deceased husband.

The woman is a 56-year-old nurse and cancer survivor. Her husband was facing marijuana charges, but he was never convicted. He suffered chronic pain and committed suicide while the case was pending.

The government is taking a hard-working nurse's house away all because of a marijuana case against her late husband - who wasn't even convicted?

The drug warriors are at minimum 2 steps removed from constitutionality. 1) It's unconstitutional to seize someone's home or property if they haven't been convicted. 2) The defendant is dead, so even if he was guilty, they can't go after his widow. The woman's attorney says she is protected by the "innocent spouse" rule.

The state of Alabama needs to bar the federal government from carrying out this land grab. But let's face it: Alabama law isn't exactly a model of justice, unfortunately.

What does the government plan to do with the land? Is it going to turn it over to a powerful developer - thus illustrating yet another face of drug war corruption?

(Source: http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/09/chilton_county_woman_fights_la.html)