Congress

A bill that defines addiction as a brain disease is moving in Congress. Treatment professionals and recovery advocates laud it. There are skeptics too.

This week, we mark the 70th anniversary of federal marijuana prohibition. We would much rather be writing its obituary.

When Atlanta narcotics officers shot and killed 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston last November after falsely telling a magistrate an informant had named her address as a drug hot-spot, they opened a window on a very shady part of the American criminal justice system. Now, Congress has taken a look and some key members are ready to rein in the snitch system.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has announced that his government will deemphasize aerial spraying of coca crops and emphasize manual eradication. The move comes as Congress ponders ways to cut funding for the drug war in Colombia.

Detailed compilation and analysis of which members of Congress voted which way on the annual Hinchey/Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment to bar the Dept. of Justice from undermining state medical marijuana laws.

The House of Representatives Wednesday defeated the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would have barred the use of federal funds to arrest and prosecute medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is legal. Supporters gained only two votes over last year, sparking discussion about what comes next.

DEA and ONDCP functionaries got a grilling on medical marijuana issues at a House subcommittee hearing last week.

For the first time in more than a decade, the DEA came under congressional scrutiny last week for its interference in the practice of medicine. Pain patient and doctor advocates got a chance to tell a congressional committee about the crisis in chronic pain and how the DEA gets in the way.

Citing smoking-gun memos between White House political staffers and the drug czar's office, the head of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Tuesday accused the Bush administration of politicizing the Office of National Drug Control Policy. And they're deposing witnesses.

Eleven years ago, no Americans had the protection of a state medical marijuana law. Now, some 50 million do, but that means some 250 million don't. While progress has been made, it has been slow, and there is plenty more to do.