Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
A Boston cop goes to prison for being muscle for drug dealers, and a Miami-area cop and two prison guards get caught up in a massive Oxycontin and health fraud scandal.
Feature: Feds Score Another Conviction Against a California Medical Marijuana Dispensary Operator
Federal prosecutors won another conviction against a California medical marijuana dispensary operator this week. It's easy pickings when the defense can't mention medical marijuana, and it raises issues about how to deal with local law enforcement officials who work with the feds to get around state law.
Southeast Asia: Drug User Group Demonstrates for Legal Drug Use in Jakarta
Drug user activists handed out brochures called for the legalization of drug use in some of Jakarta's most notorious dope-dealing hot-spots this week. It was the second user demonstration this summer in Indonesia.
Medical Marijuana: National MS Society Takes Half-Step Toward Recognizing Therapeutic Uses
The National Multiple Sclerosis Society is calling for more research on medical marijuana. While that's only a half-step on the society's part, it's a half-step forward.
Southeast Asia: DEA Bringing Drug War Tactics to Vietnam
DEA trainers are in Vietnam this month to show Vietnamese how to have a drug war American-style, but the UN's man on the scene doesn't find that particularly helpful.
Medical Marijuana: California Appeals Court Upholds State Law, Rejects San Diego County Claim
In a victory for California's medical marijuana law, a state appeals court has rejected a challenge to the law from San Diego County. But it isn't over yet. The county said Tuesday it would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Marijuana: Arizona Court of Appeals Rejects Religious Defense
The Arizona Court of Appeals has rejected a religious defense for marijuana use and possession.
Weekly: This Week in History
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.
Dead at 22
When a 22 year old Surrey youth left a drug house with a supply of drugs he had no idea that his life was about to be taken from him for the crime of possession of said drugs.The RCMP,who had the hous
An Excellent Column on Marijuana Prohibition From Reuters
Fairness requires that I call attention to Reuters columnist Bernd Debusmann's excellent piece, America's never-ending prohibition. I've been critical of marijuana coverage at Reuters in the past, so I was pleased to see this:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - America's alcohol prohibition lasted 13 years, filled the country's prisons, inspired contempt for the law among millions, bred corruption and produced Al Capone. What it did not do was keep Americans from drinking.
America's marijuana prohibition drew into its 72nd year this month. It has created a huge underground industry catering to users, helped the U.S. prison population balloon into the world's largest, and diverted the resources of American law enforcement. What it has not done is keep Americans from using marijuana.
On the contrary. Since 1937, the year marijuana was outlawed, its use in the United States has gone up by 4,000 percent, according to the Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based lobby group which advocates regulating the drug similar to alcohol. A recent World Health Organization study of marijuana use in 17 countries placed Americans at the top of the list.
Indeed. Rather than measuring the drug war's success by comparing today's rates of drug use to their highest point in history, the drug czar should be comparing today's usage rates to what they were before we started this mindless crusade.