State & Local Legislatures

Marching boldly backward, the Ohio State Senate has voted to reduce the disparity in sentencing for powder and crack cocaine offenses by raising those penalties for powder -- not reducing those for crack.

Faced with a wave of indoor marijuana growing operations, Florida drug warrior Attorney General Bill McCullom and his law enforcement and legislative allies are fighting back with a bill proposing tougher penalties and new criminal offenses.

With violent crime on the increase in New Orleans, police are busy arresting traffic scofflaws and drug offenders, and prosecutors are spending more than half their time prosecuting drug offenders. A local watchdog commission says that's dumb.

Ten years ago this week, Wisconsin medical marijuana patient Jacki Rickert led a 210-mile "Journey for Justice" to the state capitol in Madison. This week, she was back and being honored as two representatives announced they were introducing a medical marijuana bill with her name on it.

A Republican former Kansas attorney general spoke out for medical marijuana last Friday as a push to get a bill passed there gets underway.

DEA agents raided 10 Los Angeles-area medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday, the same day the LA City Council sent it a letter asking it to butt out. The raids were met by angry protests and civil disobedience.

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.

A medical marijuana bill passes both houses of the Connecticut legislature, but Gov. Jodi Rell has now vetoed it.

Nevada's governor has signed an anti-meth lab bill that further restricts the purchase of over-the-counter cold and allergy remedies. Problem is, nobody is cooking meth in Nevada anymore.

Frustrated by endless drug war and associated crime and violence, a Baltimore city council member says it's time to talk about drug legalization.