News Brief

An undercover drug sting in a Charlotte school parking lot ended with an informant wounded and a marijuana seller dead, and local residents questioning police decisions.

The US Conference of Mayors, representing the chief elected official in cities over 30,000, has come out strongly and unanimously to call for the feds to take a hands off approach to medical marijuana and marijuana legalization in the states.

An amendment to allow limited hemp production passed the House, but the Farm Bill it was attached to was surprisingly defeated. On the upside, that also killed an amendment that would have let states drug test food stamp recipients.

A Bronx man is dead after swallowing a bag of cocaine while struggling with police trying to arrest him. That's 16 drug war deaths so far this year.

2014 marijuana legalization initiatives are starting to pop up. There is action already in Alaska, Arizona, and Oregon.

Well, at least the DEA didn't raid any dispensaries in the last week. In California, the battle continues at the local level, while progress is being made in several states.

In a decision that should cut back on prison time for some drug offenders, the Supreme Court has held that facts used to impose mandatory minimum sentences must be proven before a jury -- not a judge with a lower standard of proof.

Two of our three cases this week involve cops protecting their steroids dealers. Go figger. The other one is a crooked police chief who bragged, "I'm the best cop money can buy."

New Hampshire is poised to become the next medical marijuana state after House and Senate negotiators reached a compromise on the legislation that satisfies the concerns of Gov. Maggie Hassan. That means no patient grows.

A Chicago man with a drug record who fled a traffic stop in an area of "drug activity" was shot and killed by police Sunday. Police said he was armed. His family said he wasn't, and that police shot him in the back.