News Brief

The now infamous SWAT raid in Columbia, Missouri, in February that left a family traumatized and a family dog dead keeps on generating citizen activism there. Now, a new group formed because of the raid is calling for permanent reforms.

Canadian "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery has already run up against US federal prison rules, and is sitting in solitary confinement as a result.

A signature gathering campaign underway in Washington state to put a marijuana legalization initiative on the November ballot should get a boost from a new poll. It uses the same language as the initiative and finds 52% of registered voters say "Legalize it!"

You know times are tough when even GOP-dominated legislatures in the Deep South are passing sentencing reform bills. It's not so much bleeding hearts as bleeding wallets.

Detroit led the way in approving medical marijuana in Michigan. Now, it's poised to lead the way in legalizing the possession of up to an ounce by adults.

For years, the annual Bureau of Justice Statistics jail population report has had the same bottom line: The jail population is up again. Not this year.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to help balance the budget by cutting out almost all Medi-Cal funding for more than 35,000 methadone maintenance patients. The nicest thing opponents can say about that idea is that it's penny wise but pound foolish, and the legislature seems to agree. But the Governator can still wield the line-item veto, so the fight isn't over yet.

In what is most likely a bid to blunt a campaign issue -- border security -- for Republicans in this year's off-year elections, the Obama administration is sending more than a thousand troops to the Southwestern border.

Britishers researchers are calling on the government to roll out heroin maintenance programs for chronic addicts who don't respond to other treatments. They've just released a new clinical study that makes their case.

The drug czar is warning about dangerous potheads on the nation's highways, but some new clinical findings suggest there's less here than meets the eye.