Drug War Chronicle

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"Beat the Heat: How to Handle Encounters with Law Enforcement" is the best legal self defense book we've seen in some time.

The Harper government in Canada is about to unveil its new national drug strategy -- it's bad -- and opponents are gathering forces.

Federal prosecutors managed to win another conviction against Ed Rosenthal after he was prevented from mounting a medical marijuana defense, but he won't do another day in jail, and his continuing persecution has sparked a novel form of civil disobedience in the courtroom.

Police need a search warrant to peruse the contents of a cell phone, even if its owner has been arrested or is being booked, a federal court in San Francisco held.

Even the Bush administration wanted to get rid of the federal grant program that funds multi-agency drug task forces at the state and local level. But spurred by powerful law enforcement interests, the Senate has voted to restore funding.

The screws are tightening on Holland's famous cannabis coffee shops. Rotterdam is cutting their number by nearly half, while Maastricht coffee shop owners are instituting a fingerprinting and ID scan scheme to try to avoid the heat.

A bill making Rhode Island's medical marijuana law permanent has passed both houses of the legislature with veto-proof majorities. Although Gov. Donald Carcieri is threatening a veto, it doesn't appear he will be able to stop it.

Marijuana gone missing from the evidence room, a sheriff pleads guilty, a cop gets arrested for leaking an investigation, and a trooper gets oral sex, but loses his job. Just another week of prohibition-related police misbehavior.

The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld the use of drug dogs to sniff the exterior of residences based on the "articulable suspicion" -- not the higher level of proof required by probable cause.