State & Local Executive Branches

A Prince Georges County, Maryland, SWAT team raided a mayor's house last summer, shot his two dogs, and manhandled the mayor and his mother-in-law because they thought they were marijuana traffickers. They weren't, and the cops have acknowledged as much. Now the county sheriff has investigated the incident and concluded his boys did nothing wrong. The mayor disagrees -- and he's going to court.

Attempting to appease the opposition of Democratic Gov. John Lynch, the New Hampshire legislature has approved a medical marijuana bill that forbids patients from growing their own -- they would have to go to a "compassion center." Will that be enough to satisfy the governor?

There are serious plans afoot for a marijuana legalization initiative in California for the November 2010 elections. Is it time to take advantage of apparent momentum for reform, or is the move premature and potentially counterproductive?

For years, heroin offenders in Louisiana faced draconian sentences of life without parole. The legislature changed that a few years ago, but didn't act to free the remaining "heroin lifers." It may get around to it this year.

Rhode Island will become the third medical marijuana dispensary state and the first to expand an existing program to include dispensaries. This after the both houses of the legislature overwhelmingly overrode a veto by chronic medical marijuana obstacle Republican Gov. Donald Carcieri.

Rhode Island is about to become the third medical marijuana state to authorize its distribution through dispensaries after a bill passed both houses with veto-proof majorities.

In a bid to deal with the state's gargantuan budget deficit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to cut funding for HIV/AIDS programs and Proposition 36 treatment programs. Protests over the former broke out this past week in cities across the state.

Taxi drivers' wake-me-up or terrorist drug threat? The herbal stimulant khat is popular with elements of America's immigrant East African population despite being banned by federal law. Now, Washington, DC, home to one of the nation's East African immigrant communities, wants its law to be as severe as federal law. A battle is brewing.

New York Republicans and prosecutors lost the battle over Rockefeller drug law reform in April. They were back this week with a last-ditch effort to repeal one of the new law's key provisions. But with the governor and Democrats in the Assembly standing firm, it looks like it ain't gonna happen.

The Rhode Island legislature is well on its way to passing the medical marijuana dispensary bill by overwhelming veto-proof margins. Take that, Gov. Carcieri!