News Brief

State legislative sessions are getting underway, and drug policy-related bills are popping up all over. There's good, bad, and ugly.

New York has a marijuana legalization bill, New Hampshire ponders a study of legalization, Rhode Island patients get a vapor lounge, the DEA has another means of surveilling Americans, Indonesia's resort to the death penalty for drugs stirs controversy, and more.

The year's first drug war death occurred Wednesday in Draper, Utah, during a scuffle as cops tried to arrest a man they suspected of using drugs.

Attorney General Holder announces a major civil asset forfeiture reform move, the NCAA will review its drug policies, a Vermont report on the impact of pot legalization has been released, and more.

Oregon pot regulators are going on a listening tour, Oregon pot consumers are getting organized, a Minnesota Indian reservation ponders producing medical marijuana, UMass ends its student snitch program, and more.

Marijuana legalization battles start to heat up in the states, a flurry of federal drug reform bills are filed, heroin overdose deaths are up sharply, Mexican cartels seem to be switching from pot to meth and heroin, and more.

Congress voted to block DC from implementing marijuana legalization, but DC councilmembers are raring to go and have just filed a bill to tax and regulate the weed.

The District of Columbia is challenging Congress on marijuana legalization, Sens. Feinstein and Grassley complain about administration drug policy, a plethora of pot bills have bill filed in Oregon, and more.

A California tribe looks to be the first to grow marijuana, DC councilmembers move ahead with plans to tax and regulate pot, key congressional committee chairs call for asset forfeiture reform, an omnibus heroin bill is on the move in Kentucky, and more.

A high-ranking DEA agent in Mexico is in trouble, so is a former North Carolina SBI narc, an Alabama police officer and a West Virginia jail guard.