Maine's Governor Paul LePage is no stranger to making crazy comments in public that are unbecoming to an elected official, but his latest racist rant about heroin use in his state is rightfully getting people up in arms.

An international jury of independent human rights experts and advocates has found Mexico, the US and key countries of origin of migrants in transit jointly responsible for widespread human rights violations in Mexico, based on hearings held at New York University in September 2015.

There are so many sick aspects of the failed drug war, but law enforcement forcing people with a drug arrest to choose between a draconian prison sentence or becoming an informant is one of the most nauseating.

The art installation highlighted issues that affect all Americans, whether they use drugs or not. For example in "Justice in Black and White" I displayed the racial imbalance of New York's Rockefeller Drug Laws which were the precursor of racist federal mandatory minimum sentencing laws.

This article originally appeared on Inverse. ...

I know this culture of brutality and violence firsthand. In 1987, I was detained on Rikers Island. A group of young men in the holding cell tried to steal my jacket. Guards watched but did nothing as I defended myself against five other people. I kept my jacket, but was stabbed four times.

The people who broke into my home took a framed picture of my children that had been tucked away out of view and put it face down out in the open. This incident occurred as I'm carrying out an investigative reporting project into Mexico's most high-profile human rights crime.

It was in the mid-90s, while serving time at FCI Beckley in West Virginia, that I first heard about White Boy Rick. Like any street legend he had an equal number of supporters and detractors on the inside. I didn't read about White Boy Rick in any newspaper or see any media reports about him on the television.

Should the United Nations support the decriminalization of drug use? This was the question raised last week by Richard Branson, a well-known entrepreneur and member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, a private group.

There is a clear and troubling pattern where policy reforms in the criminal justice system do not extend to immigrants in the criminal justice or immigration enforcement systems. The glaring question is: why not?

So what happens when troops start questioning the underlying assumptions of the war they signed up to fight? We're seeing the answer now with the War on Drugs. This war will end because those on the front line realize that it doesn't make any sense.

Amy Schumer, Steph Curry, Ed Norton, Jesse Williams, Chris Pine, Russell Simmons, and Piper Kerman are among the nearly 100 celebrities calling for reform to our criminal justice system.

Oregon already has been producing high-quality marijuana for decades. Our market is valued at $1 billion a year. Now that legalization is happening, more of the marijuana sales are likely to occur on the legal market and the opportunity for growth is enormous.

Every 45 seconds, something that is the butt of jokes among well-fed politicians becomes a life-ending third strike for someone else.

We stand with Ayotzinapa. We honor the courage and resilience of the students' families and community, and we join them in demanding justice.

The massive militarization represented by billions of dollars of U.S. and European arms sales to Mexico as well as illegal gun trafficking is bad news for the many Mexicans devastated by the abuses of police and soldiers.