State & Local Executive Branches

California's medical marijuana community is split over whether taxation will help to normalize the coops as accepted business or expose them to greater risk by creating a paper trail available to the feds.

Acting at the behest of Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, the state of Florida has moved to restore voting rights to most ex-felons.

A Nevada governor's panel on methamphetamine is calling for more money for treatment, prevention, and policing, but lacks even a mention of harm reduction.

With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Bill Richardson has made New Mexico the 12th medical marijuana state.

With Gov. Bill Richardson's signature on the 911 Good Samaritan Act, New Mexico becomes the first state to provide limited immunity from prosecution to people who seek emergency medical treatment for overdose victims.

Last year, the Cincinnati city council voted for an ordinance that would make marijuana possession a criminal offense, saying it would reduce violent crime. It hasn't, but the council this week voted to extend it anyway.

Tyrone Brown is a free man! He walked out of prison in Texas Thursday after receiving a conditional pardon 17 years into a life sentence for violating probation by smoking pot.

The County of Los Angeles has approved a $500,000 needle exchange program in a bid to slow the spread of AIDS and Hepatitis B and C.

Medical marijuana, mandatory minimums, college aid and campus marijuana policies are all on the agenda in Maryland this year.

Prosecutors in Dane County (Madison), Wisconsin, will no longer bother to charge people with less than 25 grams of marijuana under state law. Now, at worst, offenders will face a fine. It's a matter of budgets and priorities, prosecutors say.