The Open Society Institute is hiring a Deputy Director for its International Harm Reduction Development Program.

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

Joining a handful of other states, Illinois made salvia divinorum illegal as of January 1. Now, Virginia wants to be next. A bill to ban it has already passed the House of Delegates and is headed to the state Senate.

Police deaths in the line of duty were up last year, and so was the number of cops killed by gunfire. But only handful died enforcing the drug laws, and policing remains safer than a good number of other professions.

Caught in the middle of Iraq's simmering violence, Iraqi farmers are turning to the opium poppy to make a living. Militias and warlords are behind it, says British journalist Patrick Cockburn.

Marc Emery, Canada's "Prince of Pot," announced this week that he has accepted a plea deal with US federal prosecutors that will spare his associates jail time but will see him do at least five years in prison -- mostly in Canada -- for selling marijuana seeds to customers in the US. The trio had faced mandatory minimums of 10 years and the possibility of life.

The Detroit drug squad is under investigation, a Pennsylvania police chief is accused of stealing money from drug busts, and a Wisconsin prison has a problem with pill-stealing guards.

Giving or selling any amount of marijuana to a minor can get you 10 years in South Dakota, but now the state attorney general wants to increase those penalties for all but small amounts, and his bill is moving in the legislature.

A debate on drug policy is gathering steam in Vermont, where the legislature is set to ponder both marijuana decriminalization and harsher sentencing for some hard drug offenses.

Nigeria's top narc warns of the evils of marijuana as he burns tons of the stuff, but it looks like he's fighting a losing battle.