News Brief

Prosecutors can't convict a legal medical marijuana patient who legally owns a gun of being in possession of a weapon while committing a violent crime merely because he has a gun.

If the cops smell pot and knock on your door, you don't have to open it. They have to go get a warrant. But if, after they knock, they hear you making noises that sound like you're destroying evidence, they can kick the door down and come after you, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Willie Nelson and the Teapot Party venture into presidential politics.

And then there were 16! Delaware has become the latest state to approve medical marijuana.

In what looks like a drug raid wrong on many levels, a 26-year-old Afghan and Iraq war vet was killed by a Tucson SWAT team after his frightened wife woke him up to say there were intruders in the home and he grabbed a gun.

LAPD narcs encountered a homeless guy cutting drugs on the street, then shot and killed him when he turned toward them still holding the knife. That's drug war killing #25 for the year.

Florida is about to become the first state to impose suspicionless drug testing on welfare recipients. And then it will likely spend a lot of taxpayer money on a probably futile attempt to defend its constitutionality.

A welfare drug testing bill has passed out of the Missouri legislature and is headed for the governor's desk. This one requires "reasonable suspicion."

An Illinois medical marijuana bill has again fallen short in the House, even after it was watered-down and tightened-up.

Medical marijuana has all but passed the Delaware legislature. Only one Senate concurrence vote remains, and that does not look like it will be a problem.