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

As the British government prepares for a seemingly inevitable up-scheduling of marijuana, a new poll finds that a plurality of Britons like the penalties for pot possession as they are, and about one quarter would just like to see it legalized or decriminalized.

Scandinavia tends toward harsh drug policies, but that isn't stopping marijuana growers in Norway. Police there report a series of recent grow up busts.

A judge in Cali has found a Colombian army colonel and 14 of his troops guilty of murder for killing 10 elite Colombian anti-drug police and their informant at the request of drug traffickers.

The drug laws just got tougher in Australia's Queensland. The parliament there passed a bill increasing penalties for Ecstasy, PMA, and a number of other drugs, added "analogues" to the list, and made it a crime to provide items used to make drugs.

The nation's second largest doctors' organization endorsed the medicinal use of marijuana in a major policy statement released last week.

California's prison system is the nation's second largest, behind only the federal prison system. Now, an initiative that would dramatically expand Proposition 36-style "treatment not jail" programs, as well as other systemic reforms, is headed for the November ballot.

While Vietnam is generally noted for dealing with its heroin problem by sentencing traffickers to death, one methadone maintenance program for users is already underway and another one is set to open in Ho Chi Minh City.

Slim picking on the corrupt cop front this week, but we still have a Los Angeles probation officer rounded up in a major bust and a small town Pennsylvania cop about to pay for his big ambitions.

Dr. John P. Morgan, coauthor of "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts" and a leading academic advocate for drug policy reform, died suddenly last Friday. He will be sorely missed.

A bill that would decriminalize marijuana possession in New Hampshire is hitting some bumps. Last week, a subcommittee slashed the quantity from one ounce or less to one-quarter ounce or less, and this week a committee voted not to recommend the bill. But it will still go to the House floor and a possible roll-call vote.

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