News Brief

What may have been the largest drug bust ever took place in Afghanistan this week. But while NATO claimed it dealt a hard blow to the Taliban, profits from the lost hash are miniscule compared to what the group rakes in from the opium trade.

People are being killed in prohibition-related violence in Mexico at a rate 50% higher than last year. Mexico's attorney general claims that's a sign of success in the drug war.

A new study from the Drug Policy Alliance finds that New Jersey is spending more than $330 million a year to imprison drug offenders. The study comes as the state legislature ponders a first baby step toward reforming its tough drug sentencing laws.

In January, the California Supreme Court ruled that employers could fire employees who tested positive for marijuana even if they were legal patients under California law. Now, a bill that would undo that ruling has passed the state Assembly.

For the second time in less than a year, voters in Hailey, Idaho, have passed a trio of marijuana reform municipal initiatives. The first time around, city officials rejected them. Now what will they do?

For 30 years, residents of Hawaii's Big Island have endured the annual helicopter swoops and marijuana field raids of "Operation Green Harvest." But last week, the local government said "no thank you" to the state and federal funding that support the operation.

A Connecticut prison guard gets busted, a pair of JFK airport Customs inspectors do too, an Arizona Border Patrol agent cops a plea, and a Connecticut narc heads to prison. Just another week in the drug war.

A California appeals court has declared a 2004 law setting limits on the amount of marijuana patients may possess unconstitutional because it seeks to amend a voter initiative, and only the voters can do that.

Citing an alleged link between marijuana use and mental illness, the Australian Medical Association is calling for tougher marijuana penalties. That goes against its earlier position that criminal laws don't work as a deterrent and can in fact be harmful to drug users.

Faced with high rates of opiate addiction and a rising overdose toll, the Massachusetts Senate is considering funding a pair of "secure treatment centers" for arrested drug users.