News Brief

A quiet week on the corrupt cops front, but the two stories we do have share a common theme: problems with snitches.

Despite tough pot laws and harsh public condemnations of marijuana use in the media, Japan continues to see increasing numbers of marijuana arrests.

A bill that decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of drug for personal use is now the law of the land in Mexico. Although there was some doubt President Calderon would approve it, it appeared in the official gazette Thursday. It also includes provisions to allow the state and localities to go after small-time drug dealers, a power previously reserved to the federal government.

Does taking a hit off a joint merit a death sentence? A Hawaii insurance carrier thinks so, and it's not alone.

Largely impelled by tireless medical marijuana advocate Carl Olsen, the Iowa Pharmacy Board Wednesday held the first in a series of public hearings about possibly rescheduling marijuana so it could be used as a medicine under state law.

North Carolina is about to join the ranks of states and localities that have banned salvia divinorum. A bill has passed the legislature and awaits the governor's signature.

It's been another bloody couple of weeks of prohibition-related violence in Mexico. Here's the latest on that and other drug war developments south of the border.

Oregon has become the latest state to pass legislation enabling the farming of industrial hemp and, like North Dakota, they don't need no stinking federal licenses. But the DEA tends to disagree about that.

Talk of marijuana legalization is definitely in the air in California, but none of the announced major party gubernatorial candidates want to add to it. Yet.

We knew Dubai was tough on drugs; we've seen the horror stories about unwary travelers busted for microscopic amounts of dope and routinely sent off to prison for four years. But this is ridiculous.