Crime & Violence

2010 is on the way to being the bloodiest year yet in Mexico's ever-escalating prohibition-fueled violence. In 2008, 5,000 were killed; last year, the toll was 8,000. This year, we're only at the half-way point, and the toll so far is closing in on 6,000.

Arizona voters in 1996 and 1998 approved medical marijuana, only to see their efforts thwarted by flawed language. Now, backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, Arizona activists have qualified an initiative for the ballot and look to be sitting pretty -- at least for now.

The Associated Press has just declared the war on drugs a failure. When will the politicians admit the same?

If you want to reduce "drug-related" violence, sending in more cops and cracking down harder is exactly the wrong thing to do, a review of 20 years worth of studies has concluded.

We're already $1.2 billion into helping Mexico try to wage prohibition on its powerful and violent drug trafficking cartels. Now, border congressmen want another $500 million in an emergency appropriation this year.

Bermuda has long taken a hard-line on marijuana possession, but now members of the ruling party are suggesting it's time for a change.

Pierre-Arnaud Chouvy has spent years trudging through the poppy fields of Asia on his way to becoming one of the world's leading experts on the opium trade. With the publication of "Opium: Uncovering the Politics of the Poppy," the fruits of his labors are now available in English, and we should be thankful for that.

The drug czar was in the hot seat at a Wednesday congressional hearing, and activists and academics got a chance to weigh in on the flaws of US drug policy as well.

Things that make you go hmmm... In one incident in Mexico this week, gunmen attacked a convoy carrying two prisoners. In the aftermath, the two prisoners were turned over to the Mexican Marines. Next thing you know, one of them turns up dead on the side of a road and the other has gone missing. Hmmm.

The illegal drug supply is increasing, and Mexican narcos are public enemy #1, according to the Justice Department's primary drug intelligence unit. There's no end in sight, the unit concludes.