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When Congress passed the omnibus appropriations bill a few weeks ago, it slashed funding for the federal grant program that funds local anti-drug task forces. Now the task forces are howling, and they and their allies are plotting a bid to get that money back.

The city council in Burlington, Vermont, has rejected putting a marijuana decriminalization proposal before the voters. But a council committee will study the idea.

US drug czar John Walters accused Venezuela of "colluding" in the cocaine traffic, an accusation Venezuela did not take lying down. Meanwhile, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez says he chews coca, much to the dismay of the Miami Herald.

The Mexican army has moved into a number of Rio Grande Valley border towns in Tamaulipas state and taken over from local police, whom it is investigating for links to the drug traffic.

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) has proposed a tax on illegal drugs as part of his budget proposal. $3.50 a gram for marijuana might be -- if it were legal, at least -- but $200 a gram for cocaine!?

In the latest installment of an ongoing snitch scandal in northeast Ohio, a federal judge has freed 15 men sentenced to prison on crack conspiracy charges based on perjured testimony from a DEA informant. Now, the informant is in prison, and the DEA agent is in the crosshairs.

A bill that would decriminalize the possession of up to 1.25 ounces of marijuana got a first hearing in the New Hampshire legislature this week. Two law enforcement officials spoke out in favor of it.

Last year, the Texas legislature approved a pilot needle exchange program in Bexar County (San Antonio), but a recalcitrant District Attorney has blocked it. Now, after San Antonio police arrested needle exchangers this week, the same DA is trying to hammer them.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that employers may fire medical marijuana users. The backlash is just getting underway.

While we take on the drug war's many different currents, it's important to remember our moral and intellectual roots. One of those is the role prohibition plays in fueling poverty. Understanding of this will one day dawn, and legalization will be seen as the wiser course.

Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition wrote the following memorial for one of LEAP's most active leaders, Judge Eleanor Schockett. We reprint it from the LEAP web site.

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"It's Really Easy to Put Innocent People in Jail for Drugs," "Idiot Steals Two Crocodiles and a Monkey, Blames Marijuana," "The Drug Czar's Awesome Plan to Blame Hugo Chavez for Everything," "Our Drug Laws Literally Allow Police to Steal From Innocent People," "Obama Pledges to Continue the Drug War," "Randomly Sad But True."

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