DEED RESTRICTIONS: These restrictions can be imposed by former owner of property, or township depending on application. For instance, you might be limited as to what kind of house you can build; or what materials you can use. You might not be allowed to build a log home. Some restrictions limit square footage of house, or use of property. You may have to limit height of your house, or even what type of fencing you can use. There might be a limit to kind of livestock you can manage, or how many acres per horse. This has nothing to do with zoning, which is a separate issue.

MINIMUM ACREAGE: Townships have started battling urban scrawl by imposing minimum acreage on a building lot. Sometimes, piece of land you are trying to buy is smaller than minimum acreage. If lot was subdivided before law was passed, it is usually considered "grandfathered" and you should be able to build on it. Check with authorities to be sure; you may have to obtain a variance to build on a "substandard" sized lot. Also, if you are purchasing a big piece of land with assumption that you can subdivide later and sell off parcels, make sure these subdivisions will be allowed. Sometimes, even large parcels can only be divided once or twice by law, depending on deed restrictions, prec restrictions, township restrictions, or possibly land preservation issues.

CLEAR TITLE: If there is a lien on a property due to non-payment of bills or taxes, title will be considered clouded and you might not be able to obtain clear title to your piece of land. There may be disputes about boundary lines, or adverse possession if you have an unwelcome long-term squatter. In most cases, a thorough title search will uncover any irregularities, and mortgage company will require that you purchase a one-time title insurance policy against any future issues. This needs to be done before settlement.

WATER SOURCE: If you need to dig a well, consult with local well driller. There's a pretty good chance that driller will have a good idea about how deep he'll need to go. You will pay by foot to drill a well, and it could add thousands to your budget.

When it comes to purchasing land, old saying "Let buyer beware" certainly comes to mind. If you do not thoroughly investigate your property with township, civil engineers, or land use lawyers, no one else is going to protect you. A cooperative township office will give you access to public records relating to your piece of land; if it's been perced in past, those records become public. They may already have a file about your lot and block number, and a trip to township office may enlighten you if there have been problems in past. At very least, you should have an idea what you can and cannot do with your land, before you make that big commitment.  

Drug law violations are difficult to detect as they generally involve a voluntary seller and purchaser. Purchasers may be seeking euphoric escape, relief of suffering or to fuel addiction. In order to discover these transactions, government often rely on snitches, informants, and undercover agents in order to ‘catch’ one or more persons engaging in mutually consensual commerce. Mitch Gooldy was such a man. Although he was a frequent flyer in drug court, he arranged to become an informant for government instead of going to jail (or obtaining medical help Shafer Commission thought he should be receiving). This placed him in ideal position to continue (ab)using illicit drugs and is a directly complicit circumstance in his vehicular murder of Ms. Comiskey.

Our current strategy for selective illicit drug use is fault based. If we were to consider instead a public health policy that utilizes harm reduction, reality education, treatment and maintenance programs, we would save billions (Rand study suggests a $7 return on every dollar such invested), allow hundreds of thousands of otherwise peaceful people to be productive citizens and family members, diminish our drain on welfare resources and free our police and courts to deal with more threatening problems. People in such a system are more than twice as likely to be employed and drug free. In such a system Ms. Comiskey might still be alive.

The problem is such a system relies on scientific facts, logic and reason. It diminishes moralists who feel certain drug use is simply wrong, and should be punished. Given current budgetary state of affairs in Indiana and America, we should re-evaluate our current approach if for no other purpose than to save money. The additional benefit would be healthier people, fewer broken homes, more people in work force.