Sentencing

Colorado has taken another step down the path of drug sentencing reform with the passage of Senate Bill 250. The governor is expected to sign it into law.

Remember when we used to say "You don't have to make a federal case out of it?" Well, we did. Now, we have more than 4,500 federal criminal laws, and some members of Congress are ready to do something about it.

In some ways, 2012 has been a year of dramatic, exciting change in drug policy, as the edifice of global drug prohibition appears to crumble before our eyes. In other ways it's still business as usual in the drug war. Here, we look at the biggest drug policy stories of the year.

The number of prisoners in America is declining ever so slightly, but there are still 330,000 drug offenders doing time in state and federal prisons.

Doh! The GAO has found that the drug war is driving federal prison overcrowding and that that can have negative consequences. That's a shocker.

25 to life for drug possession? Not anymore, not under California's now amended Three Strikes law. The first drug prisoner to be released after voters approved Prop 36 last month is now a free man.

Here's the lowdown on a mixed bag of election results for drug-related state and local initiatives and public policy questions.

What do pot-growing Kentucky good ol' boys and crack-slinging South Central LA hustlers have in common? We review a pair of new books and make the connections.

It's less than a week to Election Day. Here's what we're watching and our analysis of what's likely to happen.