Executive Branch

Will federally-mandated drug testing come to the coal fields? The Mine Health and Safety Administration wants it to, but workers' unions say it is unnecessary and unconstitutional.

In its annual act of diplomatic hubris, the US government this week released its list of "major" drug producing and trafficking countries. Only three of them -- all political foes of Washington -- were found wanting.

The FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report is out. Serious crime is down across the board, but drug arrests held roughly steady. Marijuana arrests actually increased by 5% to more than 872,000 -- nearly 90% of them for simple possession.

The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health is out. While some drugs are less popular than last year, others are more popular, and overall use levels remain largely unchanged.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported this week that Afghan opium production has decreased slightly this year. While the West praised the findings, independent observers were much less sanguine.

A study released this week shows a dramatic increase in "fatal medical errors" related to self-administered prescription drugs, especially when other drugs and/or alcohol are involved. But the study is raising as many questions as answers.

A former State Department official who fought the Afghan drug war has taken to the New York Times to tell why the failure of the program is everybody else's fault not his.

The man who until last month was in charge of US anti-drug efforts in Afghanistan accuses the Karzai government of involvement in the drug trade. He's not too happy with the US military and NATO, either.

Who profits from drug prohibition? With this article we begin our occasional series on Vested Interests of Prohibition, and we begin with a law enforcement establishment grown fat off drug war bounty.

Coca grower unions in Bolivia's Chapare region have told USAID to get lost. They'll seek assistance from Venezuela's Hugo Chávez instead, they said.