Prosecution

For five years, Dr. Stephen Schneider and his wife, Linda, operated a pain management clinic in Haysville, Kansas. Now, they are on trial as drug dealers in a federal prosecution that revisits the ongoing conflict between the imperatives of pain treatment and those of drug law enforcement.

Will Marc Emery really be sent to prison in the US for five years for selling pot seeds over the Internet? The decision is now in the hands of Canada's justice minister, and Emery and his allies are campaigning to block his extradition.

A series of DEA raids on medical marijuana growers and labs in Colorado in recent weeks is raising serious questions about whether the Denver DEA is following Justice Department policy... or whether the Obama administration's stance on medical marijuana is shifting back toward the bad old Bush days.

Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 has passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. If enacted, it would provide for the first comprehensive review of criminal justice policies in decades.

Finally, some sanity in Houston! The Harris County District Attorney has announced that beginning January 1, people caught with trace amounts of drugs or drug paraphernalia with drug traces will no longer be charged with felonies.

Chakib El Khayari runs a human rights group in Morocco's Rif Mountains, where marijuana cultivation is a way of life. He has run afoul of the Moroccan government for criticizing its policies toward the poor pot farmers, and an appeals court has just ruled he should stay in a jail. Human rights and drug reform groups consider him a prisoner of conscience.

For years, federal prosecutors on the US-Mexican border have been so swamped with smuggling cases that they refuse to prosecute busts under 500 pounds. Local prosecutors can't handle the overflow, either, so now, the US is sending busted Mexican pot smugglers back home to be prosecuted.

Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) has reintroduced the Truth in Trials Act, which would allow medical marijuana providers prosecuted under federal law to introduce medical evidence during their trials.

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.

It's been 20 years since Janet Reno established the first drug court in Miami. Now, there are more than 2,100 of them, but the nation's leading criminal defense attorneys' group says they are distorting justice and need serious reforms.