News Brief

Another small-time drug busts ends in death as a Baltimore man dies after swallowing drugs as police moved in to arrest him.

Colombia's capital may be about to open drug consumption rooms for addicts, who will get their drugs by prescription. Colombian President Santos gave the go-ahead to Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro Friday.

The upper and lower chambers of the Swiss parliament have agreed on a marijuana decriminalization bill. Now it awaits a final vote next week.

Three marijuana legalization initiatives, two medical marijuana initiatives, and one sentencing reform initiative are on state ballots this year. We'll be running a feature story on one of them each week between now and election day, but we've created this short-term feature to keep up with all of them.

Last issue, we reported that the DEA had taken the week off. Well, they're back, and so is the push-back.

A Virginia prison guard smuggles heroin, a Pennsylvania cop steals and uses it, and a New Jersey cop pays off a prostitute with it, and that's just some of the crooked cop action this week.

There is more good polling news from Colorado, but we'd still like to see those numbers for marijuana legalization go higher.

The Oregon marijuana legalization initiative is trailing narrowly in a new poll, with a large number of undecideds.

California will become the 10th state to enact a Good Samaritan law designed to reduce fatal drug overdoses by providing some protections from criminal prosecution for people seeking emergency help for overdose victims.

Bolivia and Venezuela told the US to take a hike after President Obama last week certified them as not cooperating in US drug policy objectives. They suggested the US take a good look in the mirror.