News Brief

There were municipal elections across British Columbia Saturday, and drug reformers continued to hold power in Vancouver, were returned to the mayoralty in Grand Forks, and won a seat on the city council in Victoria.

While the conservative Dutch national government would like to see cannabis coffee shops go away, the mayors of the towns that have them beg to differ. In fact, most of them want to see production as well as sales tolerated.

A trio of bad apples from Arizona, including a DARE officer with a penchant for sexual assault, made the news this week, while the city of Berwyn, Illinois, found itself in a bit of hot water over the way it used asset forfeiture funds.

Who knew? Marijuana decriminalization is polling above 50% in Arkansas. Arkansas!

Bolivia's President Evo Morales said yes to Obama, but no to the DEA at the UN this week

Crooked policing sparks lawsuits in Oakland and New Haven, another jail guard goes down, so does a Border Patrol inspector, a Louisiana narc gets busted for burglary, and an Illinois cop gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

The Swiss will vote November 30 on whether to decriminalize marijuana and whether to continue the government's ongoing four pillars drug strategy, complete with prescription heroin.

A pair of would-be North Dakota hemp farmers were in a federal appeals court Wednesday as they resumed their bid to get the federal government out of their way.

People busted with dirty pipes or needles in Cleveland will no longer face felony drug possession charges -- unless they try really hard.

The lower house of the Czech parliament has approved reforms to the penal code that would decriminalize marijuana possession and separate "hard" and "soft" drugs.