News Brief

One Arkansas medical marijuana initiative has been approved for signature-gathering, while a second still must win ballot title approval. But it looks like there will be two initiative campaigns there this year.

A Reuters investigative report has shone a light on a publicity-shy DEA unit that uses information from NSA surveillance and other sources to jump start criminal investigations, then hide their origins.

The UN anti-drug bureaucracies, charged with upholding the global drug prohibition regime, are eying Uruguay nervously after its lower house voted to approve legal, state-run marijuana markets.

Gov. Pat Quinn (D) Thursday signed into law the Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act, making Illinois the 21st medical marijuana state.

A pair of Indiana prison guards get in trouble over weed in separate incidents, a Florida deputy is apparently having way too much fun, and an Alabama cop gets nailed in a cocaine sting.

Illinois joins the ranks of the medical marijuana states; meanwhile, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are moving to put their medical marijuana programs in place, and there's more news, too.

There will be no meaningful effort to eradicate Lebanese marijuana fields this year. The security situation is too tense, financial compensation for last year hasn't appeared, and the farmers are too angry. Hash heads from Cairo to Ankara to Berlin are smiling.

Norway's Green Party is calling for state-controlled marijuana production and sales, and the decriminalization of possession of all drugs. Will anyone in Norway listen?

A bill to legalize and regulate marijuana markets and consumption has passed the lower House of the Uruguayan parliament. It now heads for the Senate later this year.

It looks like two, and possibly three, Michigan communities will vote on marijuana decriminalization this year. It's part of a broader effort to pass a statewide decrim bill.