Jim Gierach is a former Cook County, Illinois, prosecutor, occasional failed political candidate, and longtime fighter in the trenches taking on the war on drugs. He makes no bones about what he thinks need to happen.
Speaking of futile pursuits, the Peruvians engage in some coca eradication. (PNP)
The man who was once Colombia's most powerful cocaine traffickers gets decades in US prison, New Hampshire will study the state liquor store model for potential legal marijuana sales, and more.
Missouri NORML is threatening recalcitrant rural counties with court orders over their failure to get expungements done, a pair of senators file a bill to fight Mexican cartels by increasing southbound inspections near the border, and more.
An Aghan opium poppy field. It is almost planting time again. Will the Taliban ban actually take place? Stay tuned. (UNODC)
There's a drug crackdown going on in India's Punjab, Afghan drug prices are rising despite questions about whether the Taliban ban is actually happening, and more.
The history of drug prohibition is increasingly well-trodden territory, but with Opium's Orphans, British historian P.E. Caquet brings a fascinating new perspective embedded in a sweeping narrative and fortified with an erudite grasp of the broad global historical context.
The former president lauded China for executing drug offenders and suggested we should do the same. (Creative Commons)
It looks like they will be voting to free the weed in North Dakota this year, Customs officers nail a 5,000 load of methamphetamine near the Mexican border, and more.
Transforming the War on Drugs: Warriors, Victims and Vulnerable Regions edited by Annette Idler and Juan Carlos Garzon Vergara (2021, Oxford University Press, 584 pp., $34.95 PB) If you
Fentanyl use has gone up during the COVID pandemic, data from Quest Diagnostics shows. (Creative Commons)
Virginia's governor signs a minor marijuana reform bill into, the Mexican government has captured a major cartel leader, heroin and fentanyl use is up during the pandemic, and more.