News Brief

Republican House members in Missouri convinced their colleagues to pass a bill mandating drug testing for welfare recipients and applicants, but Democrats are filibustering the bill in the Senate.

It's prison guards gone wild this week, with 16 going down in one Florida sting alone and one in New York City busted with a half-pound of smack. A crooked Texas border town cop cops a plea, too.

Thirty people were killed Wednesday in Mexico's prohibition-related violence. That's not even close to the daily record.

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy had to be dragged into reconsidering marijuana's classification as a Schedule I drug with no medical benefit. But now it has done so, and is recommending it be rescheduled and that the legislature look into setting up a medical marijuana program. In so doing, it has become the first state pharmacy board to take such an action ahead of voters or lawmakers.

The European death toll from heroin apparently contaminated with anthrax has risen to 11 as England reported its first death Wednesday. There have been nine more in Scotland and one more in Germany, leading to fears the contamination is widespread. The official response is still mainly limited to telling users to stop.

Heads not attached to bodies keep popping up in unexpected places in Mexico. Yet another gruesome reminder of the prohibition-related savagery wracking the country.

Afghan opium cultivation and production figures this year should be similar to 2009, the UN said in a report this week. That means that Afghanistan is still producing 40% more opium than is needed to supply all the world's junkies.

People are dying from drug overdoses at the rate of nearly two a day in Washington state. Now, the state Senate has passed a bill that could reduce that toll by encouraging people ODing or their friends to seek medical help.

Canada's Conservatives don't know when to quit. They've lost twice in a court battle over Vancouver's safe injection site, and now they're trying yet again.

Although Scottish authorities have yet to find any dirty dope, they have found another heroin user dead of anthrax.