Is it wrong that cheer inside when I read about a cop being shot?

This country is fucked up.

Who wants to move to Amsterdam with me?

A backyard full of weed doesn't spread toxins through the neighborhood or hook anybody, dooming them to a short brutal life. That personal choice is cool.
Meth is another story - it's apples and oranges. Let people grow weed, and execute anyone using/dealing meth.

Um, no, because that would be stupid. You could say that you know what soldiers report, or that you know what soldiers say it's like, but saying that you know what it's like would be a potent cocktail of stupidity and jackassery, just as it's always been.

I still believe that there shouldn't be any resources or focus spent on victimless crime. Somebody wants to smoke meth? Fine. If that person doesn't harm anyone while high, why should anybody give a damn? If smoking meth causes that person to commit assault, on the other hand, prosecute them for the assault. If it causes them to commit burglary, or robbery, or any other crime where a person is actually victimized, prosecute them for whatever that crime happens to be. But as long as the only person the user harms is the user him- or her- self, it's none of society's legitimate business.

Meth labs, on the other hand, do present a clear and present danger to other people, however, via the toxins they produce and their chemically volatile nature, being highly flammable and potentially explosive. Still not the right environment into which to send packs of trigger-happy Judge Dredd wannabes. Might as well send the fire department to house fires armed with flamethrowers.

Let me think about that for just a second... everybody rides bikes, smokes weed, and celebrates sexual expression... yep, booking my flight right now.

I do.

Wait, bikes? Nevermind.

I'm about 50/50. I still avoid them at all times, every time. They can only cost you money, never save you any money.

Pussy.
Seriously though, if you lived in Amsterdam, Budapest or Prague, you wouldn't need a car: All three cities are very, very walkable, and the public transportation makes American analogues look like shit, save for New York or Boston and similarly structured ones.

I might be persuaded to ride a bike in Europe, since their cars are shit, mostly.

Well, yeah, but that's pretty much the problem: policing is seen by many police as a competitive game in which the goal is to win. Anyone with that attitude may be welcome on a football team but should be fired from the police ASAP. Given what we know about the operations of SWAT teams, anyone who'd rather be on the SWAT team than on desk duty shouldn't be allowed to own a gun, much less brandish it with the authority of the state.

I think it's unlikely that people would go to the trouble to cook meth at home when they could just pick up some Desoxyn at the local Walgreens that is more pure and less likely to kill them.

Most meth consumed in the U.S. comes from huge refinery like set ups in Mexico. Not what amounts to the modern equivalent of a hillbillies still in an Americans kitchen.

Moncton disagree's!

A lot of the militarization of law enforcement was helped along by the post-9/11 militaristic fervor -- Homeland Security grants to local agencies for pieces of equipment they didn't need, but that allowed congresscritters to go home and say they were "gittin' tuff" on crime and terr'rists.

If it were reversed, how many Fox News pundits and right-wing bloggers would immediately start screaming about the pussification of the police and the coddling of criminals?

Pretty much all of them, although a few bloggers at Reason might just stay silent instead.