Safer Injection Sites

Sentencing reform bills look to be picking up steam in Congress, Massachusetts is expanding drug courts, Tennessee's welfare drug test law generates unimpressive results, drug reform conferences are coming in Latin America, and more.

This fall's drug policy initiative picture is beginning to clear up, with DC and Oregon seemingly on the way to voting on marijuana legalization in November, the first retailer sales licenses for marijuana in Washington state were issued today, with the signature of Gov. Cuomo, New York becomes the 23rd medical marijuana state, and more.

A new poll suggests Vermont is ready to legalize it, and so is the mayor of Rome, a San Francisco crack pipe exchange is set to expand, a West Virginia county's latest grand jury indictments shine a light on drug war in the Appalachians, Bermuda marijuana growers want an emergency exemption for medical marijuana, and more. Let's get to it.

A DC marijuana legalization initiative is about to start signature-gathering, we have a trio of state pot polls, the US Sentencing Commission moves to cut drug sentences, German criminal law professors call for marijuana legalization, and more.

The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) issued its annual report on the global drug situation today, and it is very "concerned" about marijuana legalization. But its chorus of critics is growing larger and louder.

Olympic drug testers back off on marijuana, a surprise marijuana vote in New Mexico, a bad medical marijuana bill in Michigan, NYPD's most sued cops are all narcs, a new South Australian law criminalizes some speech about synthetic drugs, and more.

The death of Phillip Seymour Hoffman has focused a media spotlight on heroin overdoses. There are better ways to deal with heroin than the current one, if there is the will.

Medical marijuana gets attention in the statehouse, another drug war atrocity in New Mexico, Greece's first safe injection site is open, and a gram of opium or a few pounds of pot can get you the death penalty if you're in the wrong place. And more.

Supervised injection sites for hard drug users are a proven public health and harm reduction intervention. Advocates and activists say the time is now to start opening them in the US.

Prescription heroin is coming to Canada, at least on a limited basis, whether the Conservative government likes it or not. Health Canada has okayed it, despite the protests of the health minister.