News Brief

It's starting to look more and more certain that the Oregon medical marijuana dispensary initiative will be on the November ballot. Organizers handed in 30,000 more signatures than they need Thursday, and they still have five weeks to get more if necessary.

Ding-dong, the witch is dead! Congress's most prolific and energetic drug warrior has gone down in flames, and reformers are not missing him.

Marching boldly backward into the last century, the Louisiana Senate this week approved a bill that toughens the state's already harsh penalties for second-time marijuana possession offenders. Don't these guys have a budget deficit and an environmental disaster to keep them busy?

The fever to free the weed burned hot in Rome and Buenos Aires and Mexico City last Saturday as the second round of the Global Marijuana March took place.

Singapore's law minister justifies the mandatory death penalty for drug offenders. Unlike the rest of us losers, Singapore hasn't lost the war on drugs, he said.

Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson Monday signed the extradition for "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery to begin serving five years in a US federal prison for selling pot seeds over the Internet. He was jailed on the spot in Vancouver, and could be in the American gulag by the time you read this.

Police in Columbia, Missouri, have endured all kinds of criticism in the week since a video of one of their SWAT raids went viral. This week, they issued new policies regarding SWAT raids. It's a start, but only a start.

The beat goes on. This week, we have a trio of ethically-challenged cops, and, of course, another crooked jail guard.

The Associated Press has just declared the war on drugs a failure. When will the politicians admit the same?

Up to a quarter of the Afghan poppy crop could be lost to a mysterious fungal disease especially afflicting Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Suspicious Afghan farmers are pointing fingers at the US and NATO.