State & Local Executive Branches

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has vetoed a bill that would have provided employment protection for medical marijuana patients.

The biggest sentencing reforms in years were signed into law by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell last week, but the killing of a policeman by a parolee is now blocking all parole releases.

Unleashed by a pair of US Supreme Court rulings, the Bush administration has been pushing random suspicionless drug testing of students. They've been having some success, but have also engendered a vigorous opposition movement.

Suffering a budgetary hangover after years of "tough on crime" and mandatory minimum sentencing policies, the Pennsylvania Senate voted last week to divert nonviolent drug offenders to treatment, among other reforms. The House is expected to pass the bill soon.

In convicting a properly certified medical marijuana patient of cultivation, a Washington state judge has decided she's a doctor, not just a lawyer.

A Nebraska shop-keeper must stand trial for selling salvia divinorum, even though it's not illegal in Nebraska.

In November, California residents will vote on a massive, complicated "treatment not jail" initiative known as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA) and appearing on the ballot as Proposition 5. Battle lines are now being drawn.

It's official -- An initiative making adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest law enforcement priority in Fayetteville, Arkansas, will be on the November 4 ballot. But local prosecutors and law enforcement officials say it doesn't matter.

The Los Angeles City Council has extended its year-old moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries for another six months.

After more than a decade of conflict and confusion over California's medical marijuana laws, state Attorney General Jerry Brown Monday issued a series of guidelines for patients, providers, and police designed to specify just what is and is not allowable under the law.