News Brief

A Tokyo magazine publisher keeps putting out issues that seem to tell people how to grow marijuana, and local authorities there are grumbling. The tempest comes as Japanese pot arrests are at an all-time high.

The South Dakota legislature has killed a medical marijuana bill, while the House has passed a bill to ban salvia divinorum.

Last week, the US NATO commander in Afghanistan wanted to go after any and all drug traffickers as if they were enemy combatants. Now, faced with a rebellion by his commanders, he has had to back down.

Canada's medical marijuana laws have been declared unconstitutional in part, and now Health Canada has one year to get it right, a British Columbia judge has ruled.

An FDA panel has advised removing Darvon and its generic relatives from the market, citing safety and effectiveness issues. But banning the widely used opioid pain reliever could cause more problems than it solves.

The New Hampshire legislature will once again decide on marijuana decriminalization. Last year, it passed in the House, but died in the Senate.

Marijuana decriminalization will be on the Vermont legislature's agenda this session. A bill was filed Tuesday.

The House passed the economic stimulus bill Wednesday, including $3 billion for Byrne grants and $1 billion for COPS. But as the bill heads to the Senate, more than a dozen national organizations are calling for the funding to be cut -- and replaced by programs that will actually do some good.

Another jail guard gets caught, a Michigan narc cops a plea, so does an Arizona cop, and a North Carolina deputy is going to prison.

Faced with anger and ridicule over its drug testing policies, the World Chess Federation decided it didn't want to punish one of game's most popular figures for missing a drug test after all.