News Brief

When a Maryland SWAT team raided an innocent mayor's house and killed his dogs, the outrage was palpable. Now, some Maryland legislators have filed a bill that would begin to hold SWAT teams accountable.

Does meth use equal child abuse? The New Mexico House thinks so.

Is New Jersey poised to become the next medical marijuana state? The state Senate will vote on it on Monday.

The economic stimulus bill will be stimulating the drug war, too. There's more than $3 billion in there for law enforcement, and much of that is destined for enforcing drug prohibition.

The drug reform community was hoping for a public health person -- not a cop or soldier -- to be named as drug czar. A cop is what we got, but a cop from a liberal town. Will an (arguably) progressive police chief as drug czar be as good?

Medical marijuana is moving again in Minnesota. A bill this week passed a Senate committee, despite crazed testimony from LaRouchites and Christian conservatives.

Dutch banks have been snubbing coffee house accounts, closing existing ones and refusing to open new ones. Now, the Dutch government says the coffee houses are legal businesses and the banks must deal with them.

The FDA is moving to tighten prescribing rules for extended-release and patch opioid pain medications. That means it could be harder for patients to obtain drugs like OxyContin and Duragesic, but it's not a done deal yet.

There may be something rotten in the dope squad in Philly, something definitely was rotten in Beantown, and yes, another jail guard goes down.

Once again, the British government has ignored the recommendations of its own advisory committee to down-schedule a drug. Last year, it was marijuana. This time, it's Ecstasy. And it looks like next time, the same thing will happen with LSD. It's making some wonder whether the government wants evidence-based drug policies or not.