Executive Branch

The Justice Department is supporting a US Sentencing Commission proposal to extend recently enacted sentencing reductions to people who are currently serving federal time. The commission will vote on retroactivity next month.

Just hours after CBP Commissioner Gil Kerlikowkse announced new use of deadly force policies aimed at reducing killings by agents, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed a fleeing marijuana smuggler.

Advocates of drug testing people poor people lost another battle today as the USDA told Georgia its law mandating drug tests for some food stamp recipients violates federal policy and cannot be implemented.

Operation Gideon, in which the ATF,and sometimes, the DEA, set up fake drug stash house robbery stings, is raising questions about entrapment and racially-targeted law enforcement. Here's part one of a series on it from Clarence Walker.

Kentucky will be growing research hemp crops this year after the DEA backed down from its refusal to issue a permit for imported hemp seed. A lawsuit and a visit from the Senate Minority leader might have had something to do with it.

The feds will still arrest you for pot possession on their property in DC even though the city has decriminalized, Chicago cops will still arrest you for pot possession even though they could just give you a ticket, decrim initiatives are coming to Kansas cities, Minnesota becomes the 22nd medical marijuana state, Mexico doesn't want to legalize it, and more.

The DEA is in the hot seat, it looks like Minnesota will be the next medical marijuana state (but they won't be able to smoke it), California could actually get around to regulating its dispensary system, California voters will vote on whether to drug test doctors (!), the Russians are snarking about Afghanistan, and more.

Another poll has marijuana legalization at the tipping point, a Colorado bill to form credit co-ops for pot businesses passes, an Illinois bill to let kids with epilepsy use medical marijuana is moving, a New York naloxone bill passes, Pittsburgh needle exchanges get some breathing room, and more.

Washington state should see marijuana retail stores open in July after license lottery winners were announced, limited CBD medical marijuana bills continue to move, a Washington state family of patients faces a federal trial, and the OAS wraps up its drug meeting in Washington, DC.