Politics Outside US

The U.S. was denied greater access to Colombian military bases when a joint base deal aimed at combating drug trafficking among other things was deemed unconstitutional by Colombia's Constitutional court. The deal was reached after Ecuador refused to renew the lease on the US military base of Manta almost three years ago. During his refusal, President Rafael Correa said, "If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorian base in the United States."

Experts say Mexico's President FelipeCalderon needs to get entrenched problems in the penal and judicial system under control if he is to have any chance of winning a war that has claimed more than 28,000 lives since late 2006 and sparked fears that drug trafficking organizations could turn Mexico into a lawless narco state.

Yet another Mexican politican falls prey to drug prohibition violence. Security forces have found the handcuffed and blindfolded body of kidnapped mayor Edelmiro Cavazos of the northern Mexican city of Santiago. Cavazos was taken from his home by armed men on Sunday night.

Time for another unintended consequence of drug prohibition: Alarming reports are pouring in from all over Mexico -- priests are being constantly threatened, extorted and abused by drug traffickers.

Medical marijuana will be available in Germany soon, with the center-right coalition preparing to make groundbreaking changes to drug laws.

Perhaps targeted for his efforts to clean up Santiago's corrupt police force, Mayor Edelmiro Cavazo was abducted by suspected drug hitmen in the latest surge in drug prohibition violence threatening to undermine industry and scare off investors in Mexico. The abduction follows a spike in violence over the weekend in northern Mexico, where rival gangs are battling for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes into the United States.

In Israel, citizens wrote State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss with a request that he look into the 'waste of tax money' on police searches for them. The letter noted that "tens or hundreds of thousands of entirely normative people smoke marijuana" and that the police "are doing everything in their capacity to persecute them." The letter's authors claimed that the persecution has intensified in recent weeks, with the police searching private homes.

Some areas of Mexico along the U.S. border have been paralyzed economically by drug prohibition violence, and the governor of the border state of Tamaulipas said the federal government should send relief funds. Violence has affected tourism, commerce and investment, Gov. Eugenio Hernandez said during an anti-crime strategy meeting between Mexican state governors and President Felipe Calderon.

An anonymous twenty-something blogger is risking his own life as he defies a culture of fear to post chilling pictures and videos of the ongoing battle between Mexico's drug trafficking organizations and law enforcement. The gruesome uncensored content on Blog del Narco is extremely graphic and appears to be provided by all sides - drug gangs to display their power, law enforcement to show resolve and the public so people in Mexico can learn about incidents the mainstream media is forced to ignore or play down.