DEA

Florida's medical marijuana initiative appears poised to qualify for the ballot (if it survives a challenge in the state Supreme Court), a new pot poll finds the country evenly split, Afghanistan was on the agenda in the Senate yesterday, and more.

The New Year starts off with a whole bunch of marijuana news, the DEA Cartagena prostitution scandal gets an update, another Republican governor calls for welfare drug testing, and a South Korean comedian gets hammered for toking up. And more.

The DEA and IRS raided Denver-area dispensaries and grow ops Thursday. More than a dozen were hit, and it's not yet clear just why.

Hmmm, on the same day the DEA warns that "marijuana availability seems to be on the increase," hundreds of people apply for licenses to sell pot in Washington state. Times are changing, and somebody needs to let the DEA know. And there's more news, too.

A pair of federal bills that would allow states to tax and regulate marijuana had a coming out party at a press conference Tuesday. And there are more bills to come, their authors said.

The US Supreme Court has smothered the last breath of life left in the third effort to reschedule marijuana out of Schedule I. But a fourth effort is already in progress.

A clamor is growing for congressional hearings on the DEA. Recent revelations of the DEA's use of NSA and AT&T spy data provided the catalyst, but concern has been festering for years.

The DEA is working hand in glove with one of the nation's largest telecommunications providers, exploiting AT&T's 26-year phone call database to help make criminal cases in what had previously been a secret program.

Fallout continues from the Reuters revelation that the DEA is using NSA intelligence gathered under counter-terrorism laws. Now, senators and congressmen are asking Attorney General Holder to explain in a classified hearing next month.

The head of the Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled a hearing on the federal response to medical marijuana in 20 states and legal marijuana in two states. He has asked Attorney General Holder to testify. The hearing will be September 10.