Drug War Chronicle #772 - February 21, 2013

With the introduction of medical marijuana and hemp bills this week, along with marijuana legalization legislation introduced earlier this month, Congress has a full-blown marijuana agenda before it this session. And now, it has an emerging cannabis caucus.

We remember needle exchange pioneer Dave Purchase, who passed away last month at age 73.

We are pleased to launch a new gift offer -- and continue several older but good ones -- for StoptheDrugWar.org supporters donating $15 or more.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced that police will no longer hold people arrested for small-time marijuana busts, but will instead merely have them make a desk appearance and then be released.

A police drug dog's training or certification records are sufficient indicators of its reliability to establish probable cause for a vehicle search, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

There is majority support for legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana in Britain, a new poll has found. And two-thirds also want to see a comprehensive review of British drug policy.

Most of the action was at statehouses this week, but there was also news from the Harborside Health Center battle in California and an announcement that the nation's capital will soon have its first dispensary.

An Arizona appeals court has ruled that even the presence of inactive THC metabolites from as long as a month after toking is sufficient to earn a driving under the influence conviction.

In the latest example of the drug testing fever sweeping Charleston, a West Virginia delegate has introduced a bill requiring teens to pass not one but three drug tests before being granted full drivers' licenses.

After the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that dispensaries are illegal, a conservative lawmker is introducing a bill that would allow them by local option.

A Miami police investigation of a possible grow house turned into a half-hour-long gun battle with three men, two of whom are now dead. They become the 4th and 5th persons to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

A North Carolina narc gets canned, and so does a Florida patrol officer, and an Ohio evidence room supervisor gets busted after drugs walk away.