Sentencing

A California judge can order a medical marijuana patient to hand in his ID card and give up his medicine if he wants to go on probation instead of to prison, an appeals court has ruled in a 2-1 decision. The ruling provoked a harsh dissent.

Like other states, Tennessee is feeling the effects of the bad economy, and so is the state's budget. Now, the governor is seeking a 9% across-the-board budget cut, and that could mean -- God forbid! -- that the state might have to let some nonviolent prisoners get out a few months early.

West Africa has become an important transshipment point for cocaine headed from South America to Europe. They also grow a lot of marijuana there. Now, the Liberian government wants to crack down, and it's reading from the old US drug war playbook.

Whether the Obama administration has ushered in a new era when it comes to the federal government and medical marijuana is arguable. One thing that isn't is that victims of Clinton and Bush era raids remain behind bars or facing prosecution. There are beginning to be moves afoot to right that lingering wrong.

Canadian cannabis entrepreneur and legalization advocate Marc Emery is just weeks away from a US federal prison term. But if US and Canadian authorities think they can shut him and his supporters up, they are in for a surprise.

When he got a 93-year sentence for a small medical marijuana grow in Oklahoma, Will Foster became a poster child for drug war abuses. A national campaign helped free him, and he headed for the friendlier climes of northern California, which released him from parole after three years. But Oklahoma wants him back, and now Foster has been in jail in California for the past 15 months fighting extradition. He needs your help.

One congressman marches resolutely backwards into the last century with a bill proposing 25-year sentences for people peddling kind bud. The "kush super-marijuana" turns good citizens into "zombie-like" creatures and must be stopped, suburban Chicago US Rep. Mark Kirk warns.

Who woulda thunk it? Former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who never saw a border that didn't need a fence, says it's time to talk about drug legalization.

A significant change in the impact of our drug policies may have occurred in the last few years. The number of African Americans doing time for drug charges is down, both percentage-wise and in raw numbers. Not so for whites.

We really get tired of writing the same old story about record prison and jail populations every year, but it's that time again.