Sentencing

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

Sen Jim Webb (D-VA) has become a hero for drug reformers in the short time he's been in the Senate. Now, his latest effort is sure to earn him more kudos.

The Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy issued a report Wednesday calling for harm reduction, treating drug use as a public health issue, and decriminalizing marijuana. The report was an intervention aimed as much at Washington as at Vienna, where the UN meets next month to plot global drug strategy.

California has been addicted to mass incarceration for the past quarter-century. Now, it looks like some federal judges are going to make the state go cold turkey. Tens of thousands of prisoners could be set free because California can't or won't pay to treat them as the Constitution requires.

With a budget crisis and a change in New York leadership, a politically perfect storm for reform of the state's draconian drug laws seems to be brewing. With the Rockefeller drug laws finally be repealed, after 35 years?

Will 2009 be a happy New Year for positive drug policy changes? Here, we take a look at what could -- or couldn't -- be coming down the pike, as well as some festering issues that aren't going to go away.

As we wave goodbye to 2008, it's worth taking a moment to look back at the biggest drug policy stories of the year. It's a definite mixed bag, but better than most recent years. Following this story is another that looks forward into 2009 -- also likely to be a mixed bag, but with more signs of life to bring hope to drug reformers.

The National Drug Intelligence Center is out with its National Drug Threat Assessment 2009. If the authors would read their own words, they would realize they are making a strong argument for ending drug prohibition.

Americans can rest secure in the knowledge that our country maintains its role as the world's leading jailer. According to a new Bureau of Justice Statistics report, we have an all-time record 2.3 million people behind bars, and that includes more than half a million drug offenders.

A callous DC judge sentenced wheelchair-bound Jonathan Magbie to 10 days in jail for marijuana possession after he told her he would keep using it to ease his ills. He died before he made it halfway through his sentence, and now, DC and a local hospital will have to pay out the nose for their sins.