News Brief

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have allowed second-time drug sales offenders parole eligibility. Instead, they will remain locked up doing 10-year mandatory minimum sentences.

Over-hyped Australian media accounts of "super dope" marijuana about to invade the country are dovetailing with efforts to crack down on bongs.

For years, the Colombian government has allowed indigenous traditional coca growers to market coca products nationwide, but now it has changed course, and some are pointing the finger at Coca-Cola.

The death toll from a deadly combination of heroin and fentanyl rose all through last year. Now, the DEA says more than a thousand people died.

For the first time, someone has been convicted of a drug charge in the Vatican.

The far north Wisconsin resort town of Washburn has decriminalized marijuana possession, and the town of Two Rivers is right behind it. They're only the latest Cheesehead State locales to go in that direction.

The Minnesota legislature is one House floor vote from passing a medical marijuana bill, but the Republican governor is vowing a veto.

A medical marijuana bill has gone down in defeat in Illinois despite broad support from the medical community.

A Boston cop gets busted, a Tacoma probation officer peddles meth, two former Memphis cops cop pleas, so does a former NYPD officer, and a small-town Texas lawman heads for federal prison.

In courthouses across the country, enforcing the drug laws is big business. We look at courthouse action in three separate locations to get a snapshot of the drug war.