Politics Outside US

The British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, the government body charged with setting drug policy, has a new chairman this week, and he has said he wants to downgrade Ecstasy to a less serious drug classification.

More than 100 people, including several top federal police commanders, have been killed in surging prohibition-related violence in Mexico in recent days as the so-called drug cartels strike back hard against police, soldiers, and each other.

Two Thai citizens have been sentenced to death in Malaysia over 75 pounds of marijuana, and nine convicted drug sellers go to the gallows in Iran.

As the US Congress begins to move toward passing a massive anti-drug aid package aimed mainly at the Mexican military, abuses by soldiers in the drug war there have prompted a serious legal challenge.

The Vietnamese National Assembly is considering decriminalizing drug possession. But with most drug users sent to detox camps under administrative regulations instead of criminal charges, it might not make much difference in the real world.

The new tough line on marijuana signaled last week by the British government when it reclassified the herb may not be so tough after all. The British Sentencing Guidelines Council says small-scale sales and cultivation should be punished by probation and fines in most cases.

As expected, the British government announced Wednesday it would reclassify marijuana as a more dangerous drug, thus theoretically increasing maximum jail sentences for pot smokers. In so doing, the government rejected the recommendation of its own advisory panel that marijuana stay a Class B drug.

In more than 200 cities worldwide, activists celebrated the Global Marijuana March on Saturday. But in a handful of places, there was trouble, with local authorities trying to repress the marches. Here's a report.

Iran complains that the West is ignoring opium production in Afghanistan, and some US Marines inadvertently help Tehran make its case.

Marijuana is big business in the Netherlands -- a conservative estimate says that the government collects $600 million a year in tax revenues from the coffee shops.