State & Local Legislatures

A New Jersey Senate committee Monday approved a medical marijuana bill, sending it to the Senate for a floor vote.

South Dakota has the dubious distinction of being the only state to defeat an initiative that would legalize medical marijuana, but that's not stopping advocates there. They have a bill ready for the legislature; now all they need are some sponsors.

Texas is the latest state to see an effort to ban salvia divinorum with a bill introduced this week. Another bill would limit its sales to adults, but it's not the one getting attention.

Right now, all eyes are on November 4, but leading drug reform groups are already looking down the road to 2010 and beyond.

Earlier this month, DEA agents strip-searched 147 Chinese nationals arriving in Saipan on vacation. The government of the Northern Mariana Islands is most unhappy.

A decade ago, Washington voters approved a medical marijuana law. Now, the state Department of Health has set quantity limits.

Spurred by YouTube videos and reports of increasing use, a bill that would ban salvia divinorum has passed the Massachusetts House of Representatives.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has vetoed a bill that would have provided employment protection for medical marijuana patients.

An Idaho Republican state legislator is threatening to introduce a medical marijuana bill next session. That would bring the state in line with neighbors Washington, Oregon, Nevada, and Montana.

The biggest sentencing reforms in years were signed into law by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell last week, but the killing of a policeman by a parolee is now blocking all parole releases.