News Brief

As Colombian President Uribe attempts a massive manual eradication of coca plants, he is running into opposition from both angry peasants and armed rebels.

While Vietnam is generally noted for dealing with its heroin problem by sentencing traffickers to death, one methadone maintenance program for users is already underway and another one is set to open in Ho Chi Minh City.

Dr. John P. Morgan, coauthor of "Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts" and a leading academic advocate for drug policy reform, died suddenly last Friday. He will be sorely missed.

As the British government prepares for a seemingly inevitable up-scheduling of marijuana, a new poll finds that a plurality of Britons like the penalties for pot possession as they are, and about one quarter would just like to see it legalized or decriminalized.

Scandinavia tends toward harsh drug policies, but that isn't stopping marijuana growers in Norway. Police there report a series of recent grow up busts.

A judge in Cali has found a Colombian army colonel and 14 of his troops guilty of murder for killing 10 elite Colombian anti-drug police and their informant at the request of drug traffickers.

The drug laws just got tougher in Australia's Queensland. The parliament there passed a bill increasing penalties for Ecstasy, PMA, and a number of other drugs, added "analogues" to the list, and made it a crime to provide items used to make drugs.

Indiana's methadone clinics and patients are under attack in the Indiana legislature -- again. This time, pols want to make clinic patients have designated drivers and test them for marijuana. At least a proposal to bar them from bringing their children to the clinic has died -- for now.

A Pennsylvania cop's bad habits get him in trouble, a Boston cop goes to prison for steroids and perjury, and a Texas Department of Public Safety technician goes away for a long, long time for ripping off the lab's cocaine stash.

The ACLU of Washington state is going on the offensive with a campaign unveiled this week designed to start a national conversation about marijuana policy. The multimedia campaign features Rick Steves in a 30-minute video and has lots of other goodies for would-be debaters, too.