Los Angeles county sheriff is suffering through the worst performance record in the country outside of noted racist Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Arizona. First, Sheriff Lee Baca had to endure credible allegations of mistreatment of prisoners in county lockups. Now, he has a new scandal on his hands.

I saw Lee Baca speak last night at the “People’s Hearing on Defending Religious Freedom,” an event put on by the Southern California chapter of the ACLU. Baca will head to DC today for the hearings. Baca said that the only way to focus on the problem of extremist violence is to look at the statistics. “Since 9/11, 77 extremist efforts or attacks have been carried out by non-Muslim extremists in the United States,” said Baca. In addition, of the last 10 terror plots attempted by Muslims, seven of them have been thwarted by Muslims coming forward. “This is not a Muslim problem, it’s a people problem.”

With Halloween just around the corner, eldritch tales of bone chilling terror abound. Oh noes! Razors in apples, Liquid-Plumr-laced chocolate, and the worst of all: DRUGS!

I’ve noticed a consistent but baseless distortion being spread by opponents of California’s Proposition 19, which would legalize, regulate and tax cannabis. They complain that Prop 19 is poorly crafted and/or would produce an unenforceable “patchwork” of regulation. The reality is that, compared with most propositions in California’s history, Prop 19 is very sensibly written, with the express purpose of giving state and local governments maximum flexibility to make legal marijuana workable. The fictitious, nightmarish “patchwork” of regulations caused by allowing local governments to craft local ordinances is no different than how local governments handle almost everything in our economy, including alcohol, parking, pizza ovens, farmers markets and building codes.

Eric Sterling is a member of the Just Say Now advisory board, and President of The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. He released this statement in response to comments made by LA County Sheriff Lee Baca to the effect that the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries has resulted in more crime in Los Angeles: