State & Local Executive Branches

New Jersey's governor, all 21 county prosecutors, and the state sentencing commission all want to reform the state's "drug-free zone" law, but some New Jersey cops like things just the way they are.

A week after Denver voters for the third time in as many years signaled that marijuana users should not be arrested, city officials are moving -- reluctantly -- to implement a lowest priority initiative.

Ronnie Naulls thought he knew what to expect if the DEA came after his dispensary, but he never thought they'd try to take his kids. He's not the only California medical marijuana patient or provider with problems with child protective services or family courts, either.

Faced with a wave of indoor marijuana growing operations, Florida drug warrior Attorney General Bill McCullom and his law enforcement and legislative allies are fighting back with a bill proposing tougher penalties and new criminal offenses.

With violent crime on the increase in New Orleans, police are busy arresting traffic scofflaws and drug offenders, and prosecutors are spending more than half their time prosecuting drug offenders. A local watchdog commission says that's dumb.

Marijuana policy is an issue in some local races this year. This week, it popped up in the Cincinnati mayoral campaign and a New York county district attorney race.

Florida pain patient Richard Paey won some justice Thursday when Gov. Charlie Crist went beyond his family's request for clemency and instead pardoned him in full. The wheelchair bound prisoner was three years into a mandatory minimum 25-year sentence as a drug trafficker for fraudulently trying to obtain pain pills. Now he is no longer even a convicted felon.

California's Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) has been eradicating pot plants for nearly a quarter-century. It's a losing battle.

In return for a wage increase, a Hawaii teachers' union bargaining unit agreed to a program of random, suspicionless drug testing of teachers. Now, the ACLU will challenge the program in court.

Georgia's Fulton County (Atlanta) district attorney has some odd ideas about how asset forfeiture funds should be spent, an audit of his books has found.