State & Local Executive Branches

If advocates for medical marijuana in New Jersey needed a poster boy, they've found him in John Ray Wilson. The broke, unemployed, MS patient goes on trial next week for growing his own medicine. He's looking at 20 years in prison for something that might not even be a crime next month.

The Cook County Board president wants police to quit wasting time jailing small-time marijuana offenders, and the police may just take a half-step in that direction.

Faced with rising drug overdose deaths, New York is the latest -- and largest -- state to pass a 911 Good Samaritan law allowing people to seek help without fear of prosecution.

Americans feel pretty strongly that welfare applicants and recipients should be subject to drug testing, according to a new poll, but the findings could be skewed.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie today shrugged off federal threats and promised to move ahead "immediately" with the state's long-delayed medical marijuana program.

After more than three years of controversy and challenges, the state of Hawaii has given up on trying to impose random, suspicionless drug testing on teachers.

The possession of up to a quarter ounce of marijuana is now decriminalized in La Crosse, Wisconsin. But police can still charge you with a criminal misdemeanor under state law, if they so choose.

When confronted with new intoxicating substances, legislators' prohibitionist reflexes kick in. Just ask fake pot and "bath salts" users.

The Chicago Housing Authority's proposal to require suspicionless drug tests for public housing residents excited lots of opposition. Now it's dead.

Will New Jersey medical marijuana patients ever gain legal access to their medicine? Eighteen months after the law was passed, Gov. Christie appears bent on delaying it as long as possible.