News Feature

Bills to drug test people seeking public benefits have been all the rage at the statehouse this year, but they're having a surprisingly hard time passing. We have some reasons why.

4/20 in Oakland was aimed squarely at the Obama administration and its attacks on medical marijuana distribution. Obama is alienating his base, protestors said, as they delivered a message to his local campaign headquarters.

The 2012 National Drug Control Strategy is out. It looks much like the 2010 strategy or the 2005 strategy or the 2000 strategy. There are a few new wrinkles, but nothing much has changed.

Oaksterdam University is bouncing back from the federal raid two weeks ago, but Richard Lee is stepping down to prepare for legal troubles and campaign for drug law reform.

History is about to be made at the Summit of the Americas in Cartagena this weekend. Hemispheric heads of state will discuss alternatives to the drug war and challenge the US prohibitionist model. This could be the beginning of the end.

NYPD arrested more than 50,000 people, mostly young people of color, for marijuana possession last year. Thursday, protestors went to the mayor's house to tell him to put a stop to it.

A San Francisco medical marijuana community already unhappy with federal raids on dispensaries was outraged and energized by Monday's raid on Oaksterdam. Hundreds of protestors went to the federal building to let the US Attorney know it.

An historic meeting has taken place in Guatemala. Three Central American presidents got together to talk about alternatives to drug prohibition, including legalization and regulation of drug use and the drug trade.

A bill pending in California would make misdemeanors out of drug possession offenses that are currently felonies. An impressive coalition is growing in support of it, but law enforcement is skeptical.

The fight-back to restore federal needle exchange funding stripped out of last year's budget has begun in earnest, with a congressional call-in, actions in a dozen cities, and civil disobedience and dozens of arrests on Capitol Hill.