Elaborate methods of smuggling cocaine and a record number of new unregulated drugs are challenging drug control policies in Europe. Traffickers are increasingly using exports such as clothes, plastics and fertilizers to smuggle cocaine base which is then extracted in clandestine laboratories.

U.S. federal appeals court judge Judge Juan Torruella says the United States should consider legalizing marijuana and perhaps other drugs as it is a better way to reduce drug abuse and crime.

Low attendance and a drop in donations have caused a financial crisis for the northeastern Mexican Diocese of Nuevo Laredo, which is located in an area plagued by drug prohibition violence. Weekly collections are no longer sufficient to pay for basic services, such as water and electricity.

The Los Angeles City Council will consider amending its medical marijuana ordinance because one of its provisions unexpectedly disqualified dozens of dispensaries from continuing operations.

Drug traffickers are moving drugs into India via terminally ill patients -- mostly women from foreign countries. Most of them go scot free on humanitarian grounds.

In a government effort to curb what is perhaps their nation's best-known vice, Dutch households will soon receive marijuana-scented scratch-and-sniff cards to help them detect illegal urban cannabis plantations in their vicinity. According to Rotterdam authorities, over 30,000 cards are being distributed this week to help citizens identify marijuana's pungent odor. Each of the 8-by-4 inch cards, which bear the slogan "Assist in combatting cannabis plantations," contain two boxes which can be scratched to release the cannabis scent, along with the telephone number of a local police precinct.