Executive Branch

Massachusetts and Illinois prepare for medical marijuana dispensaries, action is picking up in state legislatures, and Americans for Safe Access issues a report on state compliance with federal enforcement priorities.

The DEA and IRS raided Denver-area dispensaries and grow ops Thursday. More than a dozen were hit, and it's not yet clear just why.

Federal agencies are beginning to work on the banking problem for medical marijuana businesses, the District of Columbia is looking at why its program is so tiny, and New Mexico can't keep up with medical marijuana demand. And there's much more, too.

The Cartagena summit saw an historic discussion of drug legalization this weekend, with President Obama conceding that the topic is a legitimate one even as he reiterated US opposition to legalization.

The big news today is yesterday's surprising appeals court ruling allowing the NYPD to continue stop-and-frisk searches, but there's more as well on marijuana reform, drug testing, and a conference in New Zealand.

A pair of federal bills that would allow states to tax and regulate marijuana had a coming out party at a press conference Tuesday. And there are more bills to come, their authors said.

The times they are a-changing, if Tuesdays Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on marijuana policy is any indication. Only one senator suffered from Reefer Madness; the others wanted to figure out how to make things work.

A Michigan couple get their child back, New Jersey gets its second dispensary, and Washington regulators get an earful over attempts to do away with patient home grows under I-502 legalization. And much, much more.

The feds back off in some Southern California asset forfeiture cases, an Iowa newspaper tells local authorities to back off from prosecuting a cancer patient, and several states move forward with implementing their medical marijuana laws.

The Venezuelan government is threatening to shoot suspected drug-running planes out of the sky. Brazil and Peru already do that.