News Brief

West Africa has become an important transshipment point for cocaine headed from South America to Europe. They also grow a lot of marijuana there. Now, the Liberian government wants to crack down, and it's reading from the old US drug war playbook.

Medical marijuana patients and supporters in Wisconsin have been pushing for action in the legislature this year. Now, a bill is set to be introduced.

A sheriff shaking down motorists under the guise of asset forfeiture gets a slap on the wrist, and so does a narc who stole the cash from a drug raid. A drug investigation nets two New Jersey cops -- among others -- and another Florida deputy goes down for extorting a pot grower. And sometimes, a cop may not be as corrupt as she first seems.

Faced with high levels of methamphetamine use, the New Zealand government is moving to require prescriptions for cold and flu medications containing pseudoephedrine, and just in time for the swine flu. It's got some other anti-meth measures coming, too.

The forces of reaction are on the move in Perth. Claiming a mandate from a year-old election, Western Australia Premier Colin Barnett wants to turn back the clock on marijuana law reform, and he's got some more ugly surprises in store, too.

All of the attention has been on California, but it's Massachusetts where the state legislature will hold a hearing on a marijuana legalization bill next week.

Another week, another grim death toll in Mexico. September was the bloodiest month this year.

As many as 1,500 Rockefeller drug law prisoners could walk out of prison early after reforms passed in April went into effect this week. But that still leaves 12,000 more behind bars in the Empire State.

The Obama administration earlier this year gave up the delusion that eradication of poppy crops was a viable response to widespread Afghan opium production. But now the Russians, with soaring addiction rates because of Afghan heroin, are urging that the poppy fields be sprayed.

Cops busted for testilying, a deputy arrested for demanding a bribe from a pot grower, a jail guard arrested for smuggling pot into the prison, and a Michigan town still doesn't know who stole drug buy money from the police department.