News Brief

The drug czar's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is an expensive failure, a new study has found.

Four out of every five pounds of pot grown in the Netherlands is destined for export, says a top Dutch cop, and the black market trade is generating violent crime as well as big profits.

Marijuana will be rescheduled as a more serious drug in Britain beginning January 26. First-time possession offenders will still get warnings, but a second offense will bring a fine, and a third offense will result in arrest. There is a loophole, but this is still a step backward for Albion.

For the fifth consecutive election cycle, Massachusetts marijuana reform activists are putting local public policy questions on the ballot. So far, questions regarding decriminalization, medical marijuana, industrial, and tax and regulate have a winning streak of 41-0. This year, it's four more about medical marijuana.

Michigan's medical marijuana initiative appears headed for victory in November, but now an organized opposition of the usual suspects has emerged, and the drug czar and his minion came to the state this week to try to derail it.

A lawsuit filed by a Long Island woman who was strip searched after being busted for a marijuana stem -- with the search allegedly watched by ogling male cops via video -- can go forward, a federal appeals court has ruled.

More rogue cops in New York City, a Texas sheriff gets busted, some sticky-fingered narcs in Ohio, a would-be pot-growing cop in Florida, and yes, another prison employee busted for getting the inmates high.

Human Rights Watch has issued a new report charging that millions of people around the world are suffering needlessly from treatable pain, and international drug control laws are part of the problem.

UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa trotted out some tired old arguments last week in Mexico City as he warned of "drug crime," but ignored the role of prohibition in facilitating it.

Will federally-mandated drug testing come to the coal fields? The Mine Health and Safety Administration wants it to, but workers' unions say it is unnecessary and unconstitutional.