Drug War Chronicle #829 - April 10, 2014

Camden, New Jersey, was the scene of one of the nastiest police corruption scandals in recent history. Investigative reporter Clarence Walker takes a look at some cops who would have made the dirty cops in Training Day blush.

Guatemala could present a plan to legalize marijuana and opium production by year's end, President Otto Perez Molina told Reuters yesterday.

The federal Smarter Sentencing Act picked up four new Republican House consponsors in one day this month.

Medical marijuana remains on the agenda at statehouses across the country, Oregon communities decide whether to bother with temporary dispensary moratoriums, DC looks to expand its medical marijuana program, and more.

A Wisconsin man with a history of drug charges was killed when he struggled with police during a "no knock" SWAT raid in February. We just heard about it now.

A 12-year-old Orange County girl was killed last week when a driver fleeing police seeking to apprehend him on drug and weapons warrants crashed into her family's car.

Another jail guard dope smuggler, another cop with a pain pill problem, another cop brought down by a sting, another cop selling cocaine, and yet another cop smuggling cocaine. Ho-hum. Just another week of drug war police corruption.

British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson is banned from the US for admitting using coke, decrim dies for the year in Maryland, CBD medical marijuana bill continue to move, the resort to the overdose drug naloxone is spreading rapidly, Guatemala's president wants to legalize pot and poppies, and more.

Cops like to say they don't make the laws; they merely enforce them, but that wasn't exactly the case today in Louisiana, Oregon, and Washington, DC. Plus, decrim has a last hurrah in Maryland, an Alabama welfare drug testing bill passes, Vermont moves against the new pain reliever Zohydro, and more.

Talk about unintended consequences! Faced with a declining US market share, Mexican pot farmers are switching to opium poppies. Plus, AG Holder has some words about rescheduling, the Maryland decrim bill is back from the dead, it looks like 2016 for California legalization, and more.

The Maryland legislature passed both medical marijuana and decriminalization bills as the session ended in Annapolis, Colorado pot tax revenues aren't as high as the governor thought, the maker of the new opiate pain reliever Zohydro fights a state ban in Massachusetts, and more.

Attorney General Holder was on the pot-seat in Congress yesterday, New Jersey's legalization bill looks to have an uphill battle with public opinion, there's a psychedelic conference in Massachusetts this weekend, Uruguay is going to give medical marijuana to prisoners, and more.