Law Enforcement

Law enforcement groups representing sheriffs, police chiefs, criminal investigators, and narcotics officers have issued a letter signaling their displeasure with the Justice Department's newly announced policy toward marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington.

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.

The Justice Department will not -- at least for now -- try to block implementation of marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington, AG Holder said today. And there's a new memo instructing federal prosecutors how to respond.

Another Mexican drug cartel myth has been demolished. Add "the cartels operate in 1,000 US cities" to the trash heap along with "the cartels are growing marijuana in the national forests."

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.

In a major policy speech to the American Bar Association Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder announced sentencing reform measures he is ordering the Justice Department to undertake, especially backing away from the use of mandatory minimum sentencing for low-level nonviolent drug offenders.

Medical marijuana wars continue in California, a Michigan town gets intrusive, Nevada prepares to rake in the dough from dispensaries, and Washington patients organize in the face of legalization.

A federal prosecutor in Miami seems to have real problems practicing her profession within the rules of the game, particularly if drugs are involved.

From the big picture of the origins and state of marijuana prohibition in America to the close-up portrait of one of the country's most pot-friendly and -dependent local economies, Doug Fine delivers with "Too Big to Fail."