Politics Outside US

Last year, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, whose father had done time in US jails as a drug courier, vowed to release hundreds of low-level drug mules serving long sentences. Now, the country's legislative organ has turned that vow into reality.

Coca grower unions in Bolivia's Chapare region have told USAID to get lost. They'll seek assistance from Venezuela's Hugo Chávez instead, they said.

Hashish growers on the Greek island of Crete ambushed police on Sunday. They also did it last fall. Once again, a manhunt is underway. And once again, the Greek media is talking about "Greece's Colombia."

A Dutch ban on tobacco smoking in public venues has Amsterdam's coffee shop owners worried. Smoking marijuana remains okay, but those Euro-style tobacco-laced joints will be forbidden.

The Law, Constitution, and Justice Committee of Israel's Knesset (parliament) has approved a measure that would ban the sale of bongs, or water pipes often used to smoke marijuana. It has two more readings to go and then a floor vote to become law.

The Argentine government is working on a rewrite of its drug laws, but courts there aren't waiting for the politicians. In April, two federal tribunals in Buenos Aires declared the drug possession laws unconstitutional, and now more courts have followed suit.

The Merida Initiative anti-drug assistance package for Mexico and Central America passed the House this week, but Mexico is balking at human rights and other conditions in the Senate version of the bill. Will the Senate sacrifice human rights on the altar of the drug war?

Citing an alleged link between marijuana use and mental illness, the Australian Medical Association is calling for tougher marijuana penalties. That goes against its earlier position that criminal laws don't work as a deterrent and can in fact be harmful to drug users.

Move over, Sicilian Mafia. The Calabrian mob, grown rich and powerful off trafficking in black market cocaine, are the new tough guys in Europe.

The Chilean government recently reclassified marijuana as a "dangerous drug" like heroin or methamphetamine, but one senator is crying foul.