State & Local Legislatures

The New Jersey senate passed a medical marijuana bill Monday, and the governor said Wednesday he would "absolutely" sign it. But it has to get through the Assembly first.

For the first time since California criminalized marijuana in 1913, a bill has been introduced to regulate and tax its legal sale and production.

When a Maryland SWAT team raided an innocent mayor's house and killed his dogs, the outrage was palpable. Now, some Maryland legislators have filed a bill that would begin to hold SWAT teams accountable.

A marijuana decriminalization bill in Washington state was approved by a Senate committee Wednesday, but there has to be similar action in the state House by next week, or it's dead for the session.

Is New Jersey poised to become the next medical marijuana state? The state Senate will vote on it on Monday.

Does meth use equal child abuse? The New Mexico House thinks so.

Medical marijuana is moving again in Minnesota. A bill this week passed a Senate committee, despite crazed testimony from LaRouchites and Christian conservatives.

California has been addicted to mass incarceration for the past quarter-century. Now, it looks like some federal judges are going to make the state go cold turkey. Tens of thousands of prisoners could be set free because California can't or won't pay to treat them as the Constitution requires.

With a budget crisis and a change in New York leadership, a politically perfect storm for reform of the state's draconian drug laws seems to be brewing. With the Rockefeller drug laws finally be repealed, after 35 years?

The South Dakota legislature has killed a medical marijuana bill, while the House has passed a bill to ban salvia divinorum.