News Brief

Oakland is set to become the first city in the nation to tax and regulate large-scale medical marijuana grow ops after a Tuesday night vote at the city council.

From the It Ain't Over Until It's Over Dept.: After losing on Election Day and trailing almost all the way through the late vote count, Arizona's medical marijuana initiative emerged victorious in the end.

Running gun battles in Matamoros, hundreds of residents fleeing a town in Tamaulipas, and Ciudad Juarez retains its title as Murder City. Oh, and this year's death toll just passed 9,000.

We can't have people getting high legally can we? Orrin Hatch doesn't think so, and wants the DEA to ban Spice.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands has become the first US territory to see a marijuana legalization bill pass a legislative chamber.

The Washington state marijuana legalization initiative campaign took a serious hit this week when a union it had been courting decided not to help fund signature-gathering. Now, with only three weeks left, Sensible Washington has less than half the signatures it needs and no money. Can a heroic volunteer effort save it?

The apparent killing of an American jet-skier on the border-straddling Lake Falcon continues to draw US media attention, but meanwhile, prohibition-related violence continues to flare across Mexico.

The Republicans ran on a vow to cut the budget deficit, but were short on specifics. The Heritage Foundation has a few ideas, including axing the drug czar's office and some other anti-drug spending.

It's not a done deal yet in the Arizona medical marijuana vote, the California attorney general vote, and a Washington state representative race of interest to drug reformers. Also, some election odds and ends.

A sticky-fingered sheriff leads this week's list of law enforcement miscreants.