News Feature

The UNODC, the European Commission and its member states, as well as Japan and the US all contribute to overseas anti-drug law enforcment programs that result in people being sentenced to death for drug offenses, the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) said in a report this week. It needs to stop, and IHRA has some concrete recommendations on how to do that.

Arizona voters in 1996 and 1998 approved medical marijuana, only to see their efforts thwarted by flawed language. Now, backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, Arizona activists have qualified an initiative for the ballot and look to be sitting pretty -- at least for now.

It looks very likely that Colorado will see a marijuana legalization initiative in 2012. The question is which one? SAFER's Mason Tvert already has one drafted and filed, but now other activists are saying they want to draft one, too.

Will the second time be the charm in South Dakota? A medical marijuana initiative was barely defeated there in 2006; this time the scent of victory is in the air.

Arizona voters have already approved medical marijuana twice, only to have it taken away by the legislature in 1996 and shot down by bad drafting language in 1998. Now, they have a third shot at it, and organizers say they've gotten everything right.

This week's outbreak of violence between supporters of a drug gang leader and Jamaican police and soldiers in the Kingston slum neighborhood of Tivoli Gardens reveals not only the weakness of the Jamaican state, but also some usually obscure links between politicians and the underworld.

Dead kids, dead dogs, broken doors, broken windows... what can we do to rein in those SWAT teams? There are answers.

Less than six months from election day, the California "tax and regulate" initiative to legalize marijuana has the support of half the voters, according to two polls this week. But just barely, and it has to get those numbers up to be sure of a November win.

At least 32 countries have laws on the books allowing for the death penalty for some drug offenses. The United States is one of them. And as many as a thousand people a year face execution for drug offenses, according to a new report.

Policing the drug laws is supposed to be dangerous work, but the numbers year after year don't seem to bear that out. And too often when police do get killed enforcing prohibition, the very aggressive tactics that they claim keep them safe are the ones that do them in. The human (and canine) targets of aggressive raids pay the price, too.