News Brief

In the fifth drug war killing in the past two weeks, members of a Massachusetts SWAT team shot and killed an apartment dweller after he allegedly confronted them with a weapon during a pre-dawn drug raid.

Marijuana decriminalization goes into effect Monday in Vermont, leaving New Hampshire as the odd man out when it comes to decriminalization in the region.

Two bills reducing penalties for marijuana offenses have been signed into law in Oregon. They take effect immediately.

At least the DEA didn't raid anybody this week, but some Michigan cops did. That and more in this week's update.

State revenuers in Colorado have released temporary rules for governing the state's looming legal marijuana commerce, but at this point, they are only a sketch of what is to come.

Thuggery in Philly, protecting drug shipments in Houston and Detroit, sticky fingers in Los Angeles, and that's not all.

A Malaysian government minister has said the Southeast Asian nation is shifting toward decriminalizing drug use, but her remarks suggest drug users could just trade jail cells for treatment beds.

An LA County Sheriff's Department "narcotics" raid on a marijuana grow in a rural property ended with an 80-year-old shot to death after police encountered him holding a gun in his own home. That's the fourth drug war death in a week.

A DEA drug raid in West virginia turned deadly Wednesday morning when state troopers shot and killed a man holding a rifle on them after they burst through his door at dawn.

It's been a good week for medical marijuana in state legislatures, with New Hampshire now poised to become the 19th medical marijuana state, and that's just for starters. Meanwhile, the war of attrition against California dispensaries continues.