Drug War Chronicle

In the latest round of the battle of the California pot polls, Prop 19 comes out well ahead.

A bill that would create a blue-ribbon National Criminal Justice Commission to explore mass incarceration, the drug war, and related topics has passed the House. The Senate version awaits a floor vote.

Veterans in states where medical marijuana is legal may use it without getting thrown out of Veterans Administration pain treatment programs, the VA has announced in a clarification of its policies. The move responds to years of patient VA patients' efforts. Those advocates point out that VA physicians still are bound by an agency gag rule preventing them from recommending the substance until federal law changes.

Oh, my goodness! Charles Bowden has written a mind-blowing book on the prohibition-fueled violence in Ciudad Juarez. Prepare for existential dread.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

It seems like there's a new atrocity every week in Mexico's unending prohibition-related violence. How about guards letting prisoners out of their cells so they can go murder people, then go back to the safety of prison?

The House of Representatives Wednesday approved a bill that would reduce, but not eliminate, the sentencing disparity for federal crack and powder cocaine offenses. The measure had already passed the Senate, and it has the support of the White House, which means the bill will soon be a law.

More than a decade after District voters approved it, medical marijuana is now legal in the nation's capital. But operating dispensaries are still months away.

Support for pot legalization remains in the forties, but is higher than opposition and is trending upward, according to the latest Rasmussen poll.

A sleazy federal probation officer gets indicted, a bunch more cops get arrested, and two big city East Coast dirty cops head for the slammer.