Drug War Chronicle #629 - April 23, 2010

Medical marijuana is coming to the nation's capital. The question now is how good the DC City Council will make the program. Some advocates are happy with the progress, while others fear the restrictions could doom the program to fail.

It wasn't just the scent of pot smoke that hung in the air over 4/20 events around the country this week, it was the sense of imminent change. And even drug reform leaders who had been leery of such Cannabis Nation celebrations are coming to grips with their grassroots.

The Mexico Drug War Update was on vacation last week, but now it's back. Weirdly enough, 420 people were killed in prohibition-related violence there in the past two weeks. Nothing to celebrate about that.

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A coke-peddling NYPD cop cops a plea, a Florida deputy provides a favor to the wrong woman, and a New Orleans jail guard gets caught peddling pot to a prisoner.

We're already $1.2 billion into helping Mexico try to wage prohibition on its powerful and violent drug trafficking cartels. Now, border congressmen want another $500 million in an emergency appropriation this year.

Two national polls on marijuana legalization came out this week. One lowballs support levels at 33%, while the other is in line with other recent polls at 44%. In either case, we're not over the top yet, except maybe out West.

Can that legalization initiative in California really pull it off? A new poll has some encouraging numbers.

A majority of Canadians think marijuana should be legalized, according to a new poll. They also approve of harm reduction -- even if the Conservative government doesn't.

Wisconsin won't be the 15th state to approve medical marijuana, at least not this year. The session ended yesterday with no Assembly floor vote.

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

"Marijuana Will be Legal Soon (And if You Don't Like it, Move to Canada)," "Blogger Forces Drug Czar's Office to Correct False Information," "Happy 4/20," "Will the Economic Argument Help Legalize Marijuana? Yes," "Three Reasons to Legalize Marijuana Now."

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