Drug War Chronicle

Busy, busy, busy. Here's this week's medical marijuana news digest.

We are pleased to announce our newest offer for donating members, the recent Prohibition documentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick made for PBS. These three disk sets include 90 minutes of bonus footage not available on the web site or shown on TV.

Spain's Basque County Autonomous Community is on course to legalize marijuana early next year.

A Virginia sheriff gets raided, a sleazy Michigan cop gets busted, a New Jersey cop gets convicted, and several Oklahoma lawmen are headed to prison.

Republicans in Congress are pushing to reinstate a ban on use of federal AIDS funds for needle exchange programs. If they succeed, if won't reduce federal spending, but it will kill people. Please call today to tell Congress and the President to say no.

A Republican congressman from Georgia has introduced a bill that would mandate drug screening assessments for unemployment applicants and drug tests for those assessed as having a "high probability" of being drug users. But he cited only apocryphal evidence for any need for such legislation.

Marijuana legalization gets strong support in polls in Colorado and Massachusetts, but not enough for activists to rest easy.

A new law allowing prosecutors to divert small-time drug possessors into treatment instead of prison went into effect Friday.

A 24-year-old California man is dead after a shootout during an attempted drug bust, and a local gang is vowing revenge.

As expected, the House of Representatives has passed a bill banning synthetic stimulants and cannabinoids. On the positive side, 98 members voted against responding to the drugs with a new prohibition.