That Belgian one is rad! That would make a great tattoo!

What exactly is wrong with unicorns that have wings and live in rainbows?

Perplexed,

@Takuan (#50)

Actually, in the twisted world of the War on Drugs, Sweden *could* actually be in the same league as Dubai for an Orwellian "zero tolerance" approach to drug prohibition.

The ban on "internal possession" of drugs mentioned by Binolini (#49) is enforced in Sweden by undercovers going into nightclubs and detaining anyone they suspect might be under the influence of drugs (powder drugs and ecstacy especially), forcing them to undergo an immediate urine test, and if positive, immediately committing the violator to involuntary treatment most likely in an offshore island run by a crypto-racist private "tough love" type reeducation contractor (the Hassela Nordic Network). It's a common misperception that Swedes are liberal about drugs, like the Dutch. Liberal about sex and rock and roll, maybe. Drugs, not so much.

Drug prohibition is universal -- required by a UN treaty lobbied for by the US in 1960. In most of the world, enforcement is benign, but to totalitarian and repressive regimes, including the US, Sweden, Dubai, China, Thailand and Russia in particular, drug laws are a handy means for allowing arbitrary police and military action and for unfair "Jim Crow" and population control laws.

And the ion scanners used in Dubai to detect minute levels of drugs are commonly used to test families of prisoners who wish to visit inmates in US federal prisons. Those who fail this "one molecule" test are commonly barred from visitation, although they may have traveled hours in a bus to get to the faraway rural prisons. (Yes, smuggling drugs is the cited reason, but as the Dubai article notes, the small detection limits are troublesome...more drugs are smuggled in by prison guards and workers).

A longtime enthusiast for this blog, I like the fresh design and love your decision to put reader comments back on the blog...truly good websites HAVE to be interactive!

Thanks for making a good site better.

And let us know if you ever hear anything official from the TSA (Jeni's story about LAX "freeze")

J