Drug War Chronicle

The momentum for marijuana legalization continues in the US, but Australia's New South Wales rejects medical marijuana even for the terminally ill. There's plenty more news, too.

The DEA and IRS raided Denver-area dispensaries and grow ops Thursday. More than a dozen were hit, and it's not yet clear just why.

Movement toward legal marijuana commerce continues in Washington, movement toward dispensaries continues in Massachusetts, medical marijuana polls very well in Florida, and more.

Headlines about the "cocaine congressman voting to drug test food stamp recipients" are at best only technically accurate, and miss the support Rep. Radel has shown for compassionate sentencing reform.

A quiet week on the corrupt cops front this week. We've got a pill-poppin' New England trooper stealing from the dead and a former New Orleans cop caught trying to peddle dope.

Federal agencies are beginning to work on the banking problem for medical marijuana businesses, the District of Columbia is looking at why its program is so tiny, and New Mexico can't keep up with medical marijuana demand. And there's much more, too.

A Maryland gubernatorial candidate and a Maine legislator both call for marijuana legalization, politicians are in trouble for using drugs (at least one of them a bonafide hypocrite for it), and marijuana law reforms appear to be advancing internationally, except in one Australian state. That's just for starters.

New York's attorney general has examined the stop-and-frisk tactics of the NYPD in a new report. Only a miniscule fraction of stops result in an arrest for a serious crime, he found.

The International Narcotics Control Board is "concerned" that Uruguay might actually go ahead and legalize marijuana. But Uruguay doesn't seem to care.

Hmmm, on the same day the DEA warns that "marijuana availability seems to be on the increase," hundreds of people apply for licenses to sell pot in Washington state. Times are changing, and somebody needs to let the DEA know. And there's more news, too.