1. Editorial: It's Time to Get Real About Opium in Afghanistan

Opium eradication is a dangerous, dead-end road. It's time for a little realism, for the sake of Afghanistan's and global security.

2. Feature: Medical Marijuana Crisis in San Diego as Feds, Locals Move to Shut Down Remaining Dispensaries

The San Diego-area medical marijuana community is reeling under assault from the DEA and local officials, but is already fighting back at city hall and in the courts.

3. Feature: Bipartisan Group of US Senators Introduce Bill to Reduce Cocaine Sentencing Disparities

A new bill sponsored by four former state attorneys general would significantly reduce the number of crack cocaine offenders (and slightly increase the number of powder cocaine offenders) who face draconian mandatory minimum sentences for low-level offenses.

4. Feature: Holy Smoke Bust Mobilizes Interior British Columbia Cannabis Community

When Nelson city police raided the Holy Smoke Culture Shop almost two weeks ago, they awakened the area's large cannabis community. Now, Holy Smoke and its supporters are preparing to wage holy war (non-violently) to defend themselves and the herb.

5. Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Cops getting arrested, cops pleading guilty, cops going to prison -- and of course the ever-present drug-dealing prison guard.

6. Sentencing: Federal Judges More Likely to Acquit Than Juries

A new study of the federal courts finds judges less likely to convict than juries, and the author attributes it to the federal judiciary's discomfort with harsh sentencing guidelines.

7. Medical Marijuana: South Dakota Ballot Description Erroneous and Apparently Illegal

South Dakota Attorney General Larry Long has written a medical marijuana initiative ballot summary that appears to violate state law.

8. Medical Marijuana: In New York Democratic Gubernatorial Race, Spitzer Says No, Suozzi Says Yes

Upstart New York Democratic Party gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi and New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer parted ways on the issue of medical marijuana.

9. Search and Seizure: Five-Day Shackling in Colorado Prison to Find Swallowed Drugs Approaches Torture Level

A Colorado judge has ruled prison officials went too far when they shackled a prisoner to a chair for more than five days in a bid to see if he had swallowed drugs.

10. Khat: Feds Arrest 62 in Crackdown on Mild East African Stimulant Herb

US federal authorities have rounded up 62 immigrants on charges of smuggling khat, a mild stimulant herb used for hundreds of years in East Africa and the Arabian peninsula. Their use of the Hawala financial network has generated weak speculation that there could be a terrorist link.

11. Europe: British Conservatives Call For Legal, Licensed Afghan Opium Production As Troop Toll Mounts

With conflict heating up in Afghanistan, British Conservatives are urging their leader, David Cameron, to consider legalizing and licensing the opium crop.

12. Web Scan

Tony Papa debunks anti-rockreform report, horrendous Nightline khat segment, drug reform candidates, DrugTruth radio.

13. Weekly: This Week in History

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

14. Announcement: IJPD Seeks Article Submissions on Women and Harm Reduction

The International Journal of Drug Policy has released a call for papers for a special issue on "Women and Harm Reduction: Spanning the Globe."

15. Weekly: The Reformer's Calendar

Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!

16. Errata: Kershaw Not In Kershaw Anymore

A very minor geographical error in one of last week's corrupt cops stories.

1. Editorial: Not Playing by the Rules, Not Making Sense

Legislators and law enforcers should not disrespect the constitutional frameworks intended to limit their power.

2. Appeal/Book Offer: Race to Incarcerate, by Marc Mauer

Support DRCNet with a much-needed donation and get your copy of this important book about the unprecedented rise in the use of imprisonment in the United States over the last 25 years.

3. Feature: Judge Throws Out Part of Alaska Marijuana Recriminalization Law, Up to An Ounce is Now Legal At Home

Gov. Frank Murkowski's two-year effort to recriminalize marijuana in Alaska hit another roadblock Monday when a Superior Court judge struck down the part of the law he pushed through the legislature earlier this year.

4. Feature: Methamphetamine as Child Abuse Laws Gain Ground, But Do They Help or Hurt?

When Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) signed a package of anti-methamphetamine measures into law last Thursday, Michigan became at least the sixth state to define either the use or the production of meth where children are present as child abuse. The trend is part of an all-out offensive against methamphetamine use and manufacture by law enforcement and child welfare agencies, but child protection critics and maternal rights advocates say it is a destructive and unnecessary response.

According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, at least 21 states and the District of Columbia...

5. Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Some New Jersey cops got too friendly with drug dealers, while a Pennsylvania park ranger and a New Mexico jail guard got caught trying to be drug dealers.

6. Law Enforcement: Goose Creek Agrees to Pay Up, Change Ways in Settlement of Notorious High School Drug Raid Case

A federal judge Tuesday gave final approval to a landmark settlement in the infamous South Carolina school raid case. Included was a provision to enforce the Fourth amendment.

7. Sentencing: California Governor Signs Bill Amending Proposition 36, Is Immediately Sued

Gov. Schwarzenegger Wednesday signed a bill to substantially alter the state's voter-approved "treatment not jail" ballot measure. One of the authors of the measure immediately filed suit to block the new law from going into effect.

8. Search and Seizure: Vermont Judge Says State Constitution Provides Protection Even if Federal Doesn't

Though the US Supreme Court ruled last month that police officers who violate "knock and announce" search warrant rules can use the ill-gotten evidence against defendants, that's not good enough for at least one Vermont judge.

9. Sentencing: Justice Kennedy Lashes Out at Harsh Prison Terms

US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy told a gathering of judges in Southern California Sunday US sentencing practices were harsh and troubling.

10. Harm Reduction: San Diego Reinstates Needle Exchange Program

The city of San Diego Wednesday rejoined the ranks of cities offering needle exchange programs as a public health service when the city council voted to reinstate the privately-funded program.

11. First Amendment: New Michigan Law Bans Methamphetamine Recipes on Internet

Little noticed among the package of anti-methamphetamine bills signed last week by Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm was one that bans publication of recipes for cooking meth and provides civil sanctions for violating it.

12. Middle East: US Troops, Iraqi Police Seize Marijuana Plants

US troops and Iraqi police seized and destroyed a bumper crop of marijuana plants last week, according to a report in Stars and Stripes.

13. Web Scan: WOLA on Mexico Drug Wars, Sentencing Project and Others Report to UN Human Rights Committee, CURE on Prisons in OAS

WOLA on Mexican Drug Trade Violence and Corruption, Sentencing Project and Others Report to UN Human Rights Committee, CURE on Prisons in OAS

14. Weekly: This Week in History

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

15. Weekly: The Reformer's Calendar

Showing up at an event can be the best way to get involved! Check out this week's listings for events from today through next year, across the US and around the world!