Phillip S. Smith, Editor
David Borden, Executive Director

useless but better than arrests

• 1. Editorial: Call It What You Want

  Each day that passes, Louisiana's Heroin Lifers languish behind bars, unjustly denied their freedom.

• 2. Appeal: Please Support DRCNet's New Web Campaign!

  We believe you'll be excited and impressed when you see our new web site and what it can do. But it needs your help.

• 3. Feature: Afghan Opium Crop Hits Record as Violence Increases

  The West faces a crisis in Afghanistan, as opium cultivation rises to all-time record levels and a reinvigorated Taliban insurgency takes on NATO and the US.

• 4. Feature: Vancouver's Safe Injection Site Gets Only Limited Continuing Exemption

  Insite, Vancouver's pioneering safe injection site, has won a temporary reprieve from the Canadian government, but now the government wants more research and is refusing to pay for it.

• 5. Feature: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Stirs the Waters in Ireland

  LEAP member former Florida police chief Jerry Cameron went to Ireland and managed to really roil the waters.

• 6. Callout: Please Submit Blog Posts, News and Events on New DRCNet Web Site!

  Our new web site has many new interactive features...

• 7. Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

  The temptations of the border tarnish another Texas lawman's badge, a Tulsa cop is convicted of being too helpful to a drug dealer, and a pair of Newark's finest plea to a pill-pushing scheme.

• 8. Pain Medicine: DEA Set to Ease Restrictions on Schedule II Prescriptions

  The DEA has issued new "proposed rules" to again allow doctors to prescribe Schedule II pain relieving drugs for up to 90 days on one prescription instead of the current 30 days.

• 9. Harm Reduction: Pittsburgh Needle Exchange Wins Health Board Approval for Continued Operation

  Pittsburgh's sole needle exchange program is one step closer to being formalized after its legality was challenged earlier this year.

• 10. Marijuana: In Annual Harvest Roundup, 98% of All Marijuana Seizures Are Ditchweed

  Law enforcement authorities seized a whopping 233 million marijuana plants last year under a DEA program. Too bad 98% of them were ditchweed.

• 11. Europe: Scottish Police Move Toward Warnings for Simple Marijuana Possession

  Scottish police have embarked on a pilot program where people caught with small amounts of marijuana are warned, not arrested.

• 12. Southeast Asia: Australian Foreign Minister "Grateful" for Indonesia's Tough Drug Stance After Four Australians Sentenced to Death for Smuggling

  With six young Australians now facing the death penalty for drug smuggling in Indonesia, Australia's foreign minister pronounces himself "grateful" for the Indonesians' tough stance.

• 13. South Asia: India Rebels Threaten to Kill Drug Traffickers, Tobacco Dealers

  Separatist rebels in the Indian state of Manipur are threatening to execute drug traffickers and have already done so.

• 14. Weekly: This Week in History

  Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

• 15. Job Opportunies: Drug Policy Alliance, NYC & Sacramento

  DPA is hiring a public affairs director in New York and a director for their California state capital office.

• 16. Announcement: New Format for the Reformer's Calendar

  Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to the events coming up the soonest, and more.