News Feature

There was a drug checkpoint on a Louisiana highway last week. Only one problem: they're illegal. Now the local cops are backtracking furiously and claiming it was really a legal highway safety checkpoint. And the drug dogs were there to help read drivers' licenses?

Kenneth Rau is the first person in the US to face prison time for possessing salvia divinorum. Prosecutors have offered him five years in prison if he cops a plea. Otherwise, he faces up to 20.

Federal prosecutors won another conviction against a California medical marijuana dispensary operator this week. It's easy pickings when the defense can't mention medical marijuana, and it raises issues about how to deal with local law enforcement officials who work with the feds to get around state law.

A study released this week shows a dramatic increase in "fatal medical errors" related to self-administered prescription drugs, especially when other drugs and/or alcohol are involved. But the study is raising as many questions as answers.

For the first time in decades, there is a marijuana decriminalization bill before Congress. No one thinks it will pass this year, but you have to start somewhere.

Research from Italy suggesting that whole-plant marijuana extracts provide more effective pain relief than isolated compounds from the plant should be welcome news for medical marijuana supporters.

With South Dakota's annual Sturgis Motorcyle Rally just a few days away, state law enforcement is gearing up for unwary travelers. Eric Sage was one of their victims last year. He's not going this year, but he just filed a civil suit over his mistreatment.

Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) has made a political career out of being "tough on drugs." Now, in an election year where Obamamania has already swept his district, a newly-formed political action committee wants to make him pay for it.

Meeting in Vienna last week, representatives of more than 300 non-governmental organizations concerned with various aspects of drug policy crafted a consensus document calling for a fundamental shift in global drug control.

Who profits from drug prohibition? With this article we begin our occasional series on Vested Interests of Prohibition, and we begin with a law enforcement establishment grown fat off drug war bounty.