News Brief

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is trying to dumb down the debate over drugs with simplistic sloganeering this week.

Marijuana policy is an issue in some local races this year. This week, it popped up in the Cincinnati mayoral campaign and a New York county district attorney race.

Scheming cops, greedy cops, rogue cops ripping off dealers, and, of course, yet another jail guard falls prey to temptation.

The national Red Cross/Red Crescent organizations in nine Asian countries have joined a growing number of such groups that have signed onto a consensus statement calling for humanitarian drug policies.

A religious challenge to Hawaii's marijuana law was rejected by the state Supreme Court late last month.

Vancouver's safe injection site has won another six-month reprieve from the Canadian government, but supporters are getting tired of jumping through hoops.

Marijuana prohibition costs governments in the US more than $10 billion a year in law enforcement and more than $30 billion a year in lost revenues, a new study finds.

With the Pentagon sticking $1.4 billion in anti-drug aid for Mexico into its 2008 budget, Washington is preparing to radically ramp up its involvement in the drug war south of the border.

Holland's cannabis coffee shops have been operating openly for more than 30 years, but now it looks like the slow squeeze is on.

Faced with a booming trans-Atlantic cocaine trade aimed at insatiable European markets, some European countries have formed an organization to coordinate efforts to block it.