Politics Outside US

The 2007 Afghan opium poppy crop has set another record, the US ambassador conceded this week. All the more reason to embark on forced eradication, he said.

The relative harmlessness of drugs like marijuana is a good reason to want to legalize them. But the harmfulness of other drugs is a reason to want to legalize them too.

A leading Scottish police chief says it is time to consider prescribing hard drugs to users in a bid to get a grip on acquisitive crime. Perhaps the Scottish new prime minister of Britain will lend an ear to the idea.

Mexico has purged its federal police chiefs in all 31 states and the Federal District to ensure police are fighting the drug traffic, not abetting it.

Iran executed four convicted drug traffickers on Saturday. That makes at least 102 executions in Iran so far this year.

Shortly after taking office late last year, Mexican President Felipe Calderón called on the army to take on the drug traffickers. Six months in, the death toll is mounting on all sides, but the drugs just keep coming.

Trouble in paradise? The hint of a proposal for marijuana decriminalization from the top law enforcement official of the Northern Mariana Islands has blown up a typhoon of criticism.

Strict drug law enforcement at the Dubai airport has snagged yet another Westerner -- this time, a Canadian working for the UN anti-drug agency in Afghanistan.

The nations of Southeast Asia and the Middle East continue to inflict the death penalty on drug offenders. This week, two Vietnamese peasants got the ultimate sanction and a Saudi got beheaded.

The US government reported Monday that coca cultivation had increased in Colombia again last year -- despite a massive aerial herbicide spraying campaign and $700 million in US aid. The announcement comes as congressional Democrats attempt to cut anti-drug aid to Colombia.