Drug War Chronicle #648 - September 9, 2010

If anyone needs a reason to consider voting "yes" on California's Proposition 19, we've got 550,000 of them right here.

He led the effort to imprison Prince of Pot Marc Emery, but now former federal prosecutor John McVay has emerged from the dark side.

The mass murder of 72 migrants reported two weeks ago continued to suck up more lives in its aftermath. Three suspected murderers from the incident, and two police officers who were investigating it, were found dead this week.

Why do I feel like I just keep writing the same stories of law enforcement venality over and over again? More crooked jail guards, more sticky-fingered cops, more cops on the take, and another pervert power-tripper cop.

Prop 19's lead has dropped three points in the latest SurveyUSA poll, but it's still leading with the election less than 60 days away.

To gently chide Mexico for continuing human rights violations by its military, the US will withold $26 million that Mexico won't see until next year anyway. To make up for that, the US is releasing $36 million it withheld last year.

Voters in Madison, Wisconsin, will have a chance to tell their legislators where they stand on medical marijuana in November, and a second town is considering it, too.

Possessing up to four grams of crack or 14 grams of powder cocaine is just a misdemeanor in Maine, and the Portland police chief wants to change that.

A tea party insurgent running for the Kentucky Republican gubernatorial nomination said last week he support hemp production. That makes two hempsters in the 2011 race.

The numbe of Israeli medical marijuana patients is set to expand dramatically after the Health Ministry allowed the number of doctors allowed to prescribe it from one to six.