News Brief

Five more US drug war deaths this month bring the year's total to 54.

The pain relief movement has lost a true hero. Siobhan Reynolds, founder of the Pain Relief Network and a tireless advocate for the cause, was killed in a plane crash in Ohio on Christmas Eve day.

The UN says Rwanda needs a drug law. Rwanda agrees, and it's going to include medical marijuana.

Iran is executing hundreds of drug offenders, and that violates international law, says Amnesty International in a new report condemning the killings.

Ignoring strong evidence that needle exchange programs prevent the spread of AIDS and other blood-borne diseases, the US Congress has decided to ban the use of federal funds for them.

The number of people in prison in the US has dropped for the first time since 1972, and the number of people under correctional supervision has declined for the second year in a row. Is a sea change at hand?

Montreal wants four safe injection sites for hard drug users. The city's public health agency and mayor have given the okay, but now they need provincial funding and federal approval.

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson is set to give up on the Republicans and seek the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, Politico.com is reporting.

There's big problems in the Nassau County, Florida, sheriff's office, and more drug prohibition-related police misconduct as well.

2011 is wrapping up as slightly less bloody than 2010 in Mexico's plague of prohibition-related violence, but the death toll this year is still well above 10,000.