Congress

A Republican congressman from Georgia has introduced a bill that would mandate drug screening assessments for unemployment applicants and drug tests for those assessed as having a "high probability" of being drug users. But he cited only apocryphal evidence for any need for such legislation.

As expected, the House of Representatives has passed a bill banning synthetic stimulants and cannabinoids. On the positive side, 98 members voted against responding to the drugs with a new prohibition.

Republicans in Congress are pushing to reinstate a ban on use of federal AIDS funds for needle exchange programs. If they succeed, if won't reduce federal spending, but it will kill people. Please call today to tell Congress and the President to say no.

No "Frankenfungi" for the drug warriors just yet -- we don't know enough about the dangers of using mycoherbicides to eradicate drug crops to be doing that, a panel of scientists from the National Research Council says.

Some congressional Republicans want to know why the DEA is laundering money for drug cartels. Meanwhile, the killings continue.

The drug reform movement is losing a key congressional ally. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) announced Monday he will retire at the end of this term.

The first hundreds of what could be more than 12,000 federal crack offenders to win retroactive sentence reductions began walking out of federal prisons Tuesday, but there is much more work to do.

Senate Republicans have blocked an amendment that would have passed Sen. Jim Webb's National Criminal Justice Commission Act, warning hyperbolically that it would violate states' rights.