News Brief

In a bid to reduce public nuisance complaints aimed at Amsterdam's famous cannabis coffee shops, the city government is about to embark on an experiment: to-go-only coffee shops and on-premises-consumption-only coffee shops.

In a classic example of the balloon effect, coca production has gone down in Colombia, according to the UNODC, only to be replaced by increasing production in Peru.

As the rising conservative clamor to "secure the border" -- whatever that means -- grows louder, the Obama administration is moving fast to pay for more border guards, customs and immigration agents, DEA agents, FBI task forces, and even a couple of unmanned drones -- about $600 million total of "emergency appropriations."

Who knew the Kentucky legislature could be so progressive? A state maternal health law passed in 1992 protects women from being prosecuted as child-endangerers for drug use while pregnant, and last week the state's Supreme Court told prosecutors to obey the law.

Medical marijuana is hitting the Pacific. There was already interest in the Northern Marianas, and now a Guamanian senator has introduced a bill in that US territory.

From a Supreme Court whose rulings too frequently defy both justice and common sense, finally, a decision that embraces both. The high court has unanimously held that a pair of petty drug offenses is not grounds for mandatory deportation of legal immigrants.

A marijuana moon over Miami Beach? How romantic. A decriminalization initiative campaign is underway to make the tourist destination a bit more pot-friendly.

Five officers convicted of criminal offenses, two officers fired, six officers disciplined, one officer resigning to avoid discipline -- that's the toll the killing of Kathryn Johnston in a botched drug raid has taken on the Atlanta Police Department. The department says it's learned its lesson. Let's hope it's true.

This may have been the bloodiest week yet in the prohibition-related violence that has wracked Mexico since Felipe Calderon called out the army in December 2006. And the death toll this year just passed 5,000, putting 2010 on pace to be the deadliest year yet south of the border.

Ciudad Juarez passed a grim milestone this week as it marked its one thousandth prohibition-related killing of the year.