Drug War Chronicle

The death penalty for a couple pounds of pot?!?! It happened in Malaysia this week, and it's not the first time, either.

A quiet week on the corrupt cops front, but the two stories we do have share a common theme: problems with snitches.

Despite tough pot laws and harsh public condemnations of marijuana use in the media, Japan continues to see increasing numbers of marijuana arrests.

Last weekend's Seattle Hempfest is likely to have been the biggest one yet, as multitudes swarmed the waterfront for the two-day bash. But there are critics aiming at it, including a leading drug reformer and a former Hempfest organizer.

Three prominent marijuana reform activists have penned a very valuable new book, "Marijuana Is Safer -- So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?" They make a compelling argument, and they do it very nicely.

A research report from the North American Opiate Maintenance Initiative (NAOMI) published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that heroin is more effective than methadone for some hard-core addicts, but also that Dilaudid may work just as well. The report should only add to rising pressure to expand opiate maintenance programs in the US.

A bill that decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of drug for personal use is now the law of the land in Mexico. Although there was some doubt President Calderon would approve it, it appeared in the official gazette Thursday. It also includes provisions to allow the state and localities to go after small-time drug dealers, a power previously reserved to the federal government.

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Every two years drug policy reformers from across the United States and around the world come to the International Drug Policy Reform Conference to listen, learn, network and strategize together for change. This year the conference is in Albuquerque, in November, and StoptheDrugWar.org is a partner.