News Brief

Law enforcement agencies which cannot seem to grasp that medical marijuana is legal in their states got their hands slapped by courts in Colorado and California this week. In both states, judges ruled that police must return medical marijuana unlawfully seized from legal patients or providers.

A federal district judge in Bismarck has dismissed a lawsuit by two would-be North Dakota hemp farmers who sought to get the DEA out of their way. Congress should address the issue, the judge said.

A high police official in Edinburgh has broached the notion of not arresting small-time drug offenders in the city center, but the idea has attracted a lot of heat, and now the police are backpedaling.

Bad cops cost cases in one Georgia county, a bad cop gets popped in another Georgia county, a bad cop gets several breaks from his colleagues in Michigan, and a bad cop goes to prison in Texas.

Investigatory panels looking into 2,500 drug war killings in Thailand in the spring of 2003 have determined that more than half of those killed had nothing to do with drugs. Meanwhile, at least one Thai politician wants to return to the tough drug policies that led to those mass killings.

Four and a half years ago, then Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra vowed to wipe out drug use in Thailand. Within three months, 2,500 people were dead. Now, a new government is about to release a series of reports on the killings.

A smarter and more humane approach to crime and imprisonment, including drug decriminalization, could save billions of dollars and greatly reduce the need to put millions of people behind bars, a new report says.

Canada's Conservative government this week unveiled its repressive new approach to drugs. It wants mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses, including marijuana growing, and it wants to double the maximum sentence for pot growing. Look for a battle royal in the West's most pot-friendly country.

A pilot heroin maintenance program in three British locations has been successful in cutting crime and street drug use, according to preliminary results.

It looks like medical marijuana will be on the 2008 ballot in Michigan. Organizers of a signature-gathering campaign for an initiative turned in nearly 500,000 signatures this week, almost 200,000 more than needed.