News Brief

Travelers beware! Having even the smallest detectable amount of hash or marijuana on you when traveling to Dubai can mean you'll be spending years in prison.

Marijuana gone missing from the evidence room, a sheriff pleads guilty, a cop gets arrested for leaking an investigation, and a trooper gets oral sex, but loses his job. Just another week of prohibition-related police misbehavior.

A bill making Rhode Island's medical marijuana law permanent has passed both houses of the legislature with veto-proof majorities. Although Gov. Donald Carcieri is threatening a veto, it doesn't appear he will be able to stop it.

The screws are tightening on Holland's famous cannabis coffee shops. Rotterdam is cutting their number by nearly half, while Maastricht coffee shop owners are instituting a fingerprinting and ID scan scheme to try to avoid the heat.

Even the Bush administration wanted to get rid of the federal grant program that funds multi-agency drug task forces at the state and local level. But spurred by powerful law enforcement interests, the Senate has voted to restore funding.

Police need a search warrant to peruse the contents of a cell phone, even if its owner has been arrested or is being booked, a federal court in San Francisco held.

The Southeast Asian version of the drug war keeps producing more death sentences, with nine handed out Tuesday in Indonesia and seven more the same day in Vietnam.

Signature-gathering is set to begin in force for a medical marijuana initiative campaign getting underway in Michigan.

After final procedural votes this week, the Rhode Island legislature has sent a bill making the state's medical marijuana law permanent to Gov. Donald Carcieri. He's threatening to veto it, but the legislature has the votes to override as it did last year.

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel made a splash at the first Democratic presidential debate last month in South Carolina. That's drawing attention to his drug policy platform and recent statements supporting the regulation and control of drugs.