News Brief

This week, we have our mandatory greedy jail guards, and another case that's a little stickier. Are the people in our first story corrupt cops or desperate pain patients or junkies or pill peddlers or some combination of the above? You be the judge.

Last week, San Francisco took the first tentative steps toward creating a safe injection site for drug users. It would be the first in the United States, but don't hold your breath -- there's a long way to go and many obstacles to overcome.

The world's drug laws continue to create new victims for the executioner. In Iran, five more are hanged, while in Indonesia, prosecutors ask for the death penalty for an Australian over a few grams of hash and weed.

The lease on the US anti-drug air base at Manta, Ecuador, runs out in 2009. Ecuador's President Correa says no way he will renew it -- unless Washington lets him put a base in Miami.

Drug prohibition is proving to be a bonanza for the Taliban, according to the top US military commander in Afghanistan.

Faced with a wave of indoor marijuana growing operations, Florida drug warrior Attorney General Bill McCullom and his law enforcement and legislative allies are fighting back with a bill proposing tougher penalties and new criminal offenses.

The North Wales police chief's call to legalize drugs is stirring controversy, but his own department has now signed on to his stand.

With violent crime on the increase in New Orleans, police are busy arresting traffic scofflaws and drug offenders, and prosecutors are spending more than half their time prosecuting drug offenders. A local watchdog commission says that's dumb.

Could San Francisco become the first American city to host a safe injection site? The obstacles are many, but discussions are getting under way.

Sex and drugs! Sex and drugs! That's our law enforcement corruption theme this week as a gaggle of hormonally-challenged Southern cops let it all hang out above and beyond the call of duty.