State & Local Executive Branches

A California appeals court has made a landmark ruling, the DEA keeps on raiding, and a Montana medical marijuana provider refuses a post-conviction plea bargain, and those are just the top stories.

The federal rescheduling petition got a day in court, the feds keep up the pressure in California, a dispensary may actually open in New Jersey, and those are just the headlines. There's much more going on, too.

An effort to reform California's draconian Three Strikes law was foiled at the last minute in 2004, but this year, Proposition 36 appears set to cruise to victory. No more 25-to-life for getting caught with drugs after two previous felonies if it passes.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has conditionally vetoed a 911 Good Samaritan law aimed at avoiding fatal drug overdoses. He's afraid it might let drug dealers "off the hook" and wants the legislature to study the issue for another year-and-a-half instead.

A state Health Department review of New Jersey's needle exchange program has found it is working and should be continued.

The Massachusetts drug lab testing scandal continues to reverberate. Now, the lab analyst at the center of it has been arrested, and courts are scheduling special sessions to free the more than 1,100 behind bars in cases where she was involved.

Award-winning film maker Rick Ray turns his camera and his sharp eye on the ongoing medical marijuana wars with his 2012 documentary Lynching Charlie Lynch. It's quite good.

Last issue, we reported that the DEA had taken the week off. Well, they're back, and so is the push-back.