News Brief

Another bloody week in Ciudad Juarez and another rough week for Mexican police.

A Kentucky sheriff gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, a Texas deputy gets busted for protecting a drug dealer, two Southern California cops get nailed for doing robberies disguised as drug busts, and a small-town Wisconsin cop lets her crack habit get the best of her.

The Polish government is cracking down on new synthetic drugs and wants the power to pull from the shelves any product that could be harmful to health or life. It didn't mention Polish vodka, though.

The knee-jerk prohibitionist impulse remains strong in America, especially in the South. Confronted with a synthetic cannabinoid, states are lining up to ban it.

Products like Spice and K2 that contain a synthetic cannabinoid that gets you kind of high have only appeared in the US in about the last year, but a number of states have already acted to ban them. Georgia is the latest.

Is Prop 19 winning or losing? It depends on which pollster you ask.

The battle of the Proposition 19 polls continues, with a new SurveyUSA poll showing it with a four point lead, but still under 50%. Now, every vote is going to count.

A leading scholar of the history of American drug policy has died. David Musto's "The American Disease" broke new ground when published in 1973.

Mexican police seized 134 tons of marijuana Tuesday. They were still burning it as we went to press. Meanwhile, the violence south of the border continues unabated.

South Dakota will vote on a medical marijuana initiative on election day. It came within four points in 2006. Maybe this time, the state can wipe away the stigma of being the only one to defeat medical marijuana at the ballot box.