Crime & Violence

In some ways, 2012 has been a year of dramatic, exciting change in drug policy, as the edifice of global drug prohibition appears to crumble before our eyes. In other ways it's still business as usual in the drug war. Here, we look at the biggest drug policy stories of the year.

With a new president taking over, Mexico has a chance to rethink its disastrous war on the cartels. Two new books on the Mexican drug wars have a few thoughts about where it's been and where it should go next.

Even as Uruguay moves to create a system of state-regulated marijuana commerce, legislators from across the political spectrum are calling for the legalization of all drugs in a bid to blunt the threat from the drug trade.

A Mexican lawmaker has just introduced a marijuana legalization bill. It's unlikely to pass, but will provide an opportunity for debate on drug policy and is yet another response to last week's legalization victories here in the US.

Uruguayan President Jose Mujica's bill to start state-operated or -regulated marijuana cultivation and distribution was presented to Congress Wednesday, and it includes home grow and "smoking club" cultivation provisions.

Latin American leaders are watching closely as US states begin to move toward marijuana legalization. Now, five of them want the OAS and the UN to talk about it, and what it means for the global prohibition regime.

Three out of four BC residents in a new poll want to legalize marijuana, and there's more support for full-blown legalization than for the half-measure of decriminalization.

Veteran antiwar activist Tom Hayden opened the first day of the national NORML conference with a call for the creation of a social justice-based peace movement to end the drug war.

The association representing British Columbia municipal governments has endorsed a resolution calling for marijuana decriminalization. That puts it in line with more than two-thirds of the province's residents, but not with the federal government in Ottawa.

Colombia's capital may be about to open drug consumption rooms for addicts, who will get their drugs by prescription. Colombian President Santos gave the go-ahead to Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro Friday.