Drug War Chronicle

Bolivian President Evo Morales traveled to the town of Irupana in Bolivia's Yungas coca-growing region Saturday to preside over the opening of a factory where coca leaves will be made into legal products.

Nigeria's booming marijuana trade is more than the nation's drug enforcement agency can handle, their commander for a region that's a hotspot for the trade told a major newspaper last week.

Despite decades of drug war, Scotland has some of the highest drug use rates in Europe and more than 50,000 heroin addicts. Now Scotland's drug czar has unleashed a week of furious debate -- not the first in recent months -- by declaring that the war on drugs is lost and can never be won.

Citing Australian research showing that police presence during overdose calls increases the likelihood of overdose deaths by increasing drug users' fear of arrest, Vancouver police have formalized an already existing informal policy of leaving it to the paramedics.

If you smoke a joint Friday night and drive to work bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Monday morning in Michigan, you can be arrested, charged, and convicted as a drugged driver because inactive chemical traces of THC, or metabolites, remain in your bloodstream.

West Hollywood became the first Southern California city to adopt a "lowest law enforcement priority" measure toward marijuana when the City Council approved a resolution (albeit nonbinding) similar to Oakland's "Measure Z" on Monday night. Similar measures will go to voters in Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz and Santa Monica in November.

A federal prison contraband-for-sex scandal exploded into lethal violence Wednesday. And then there's the run of the mill: A one-time Wisconsin deputy goes down in a major marijuana bust, a former Mississippi deputy goes down for meth, a San Francisco prosecutor goes to prison for taking Ecstasy bribes, and a former Alabama deputy gets ready to go to prison for providing a gun and some crack rocks to an ex-con.

For the fourth consecutive year, an effort is underway in Congress to stop the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration from arresting and prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers in the 11 states where it is legal. Amendment sponsor Rep. Maurice Hinchey and others spoke with DRCNet about its prospects. Next week the US House of Representatives will vote again on the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment, which if passed will forbid the US Dept. of Justice from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. It's crucial that more members of Congress vote for medical marijuana this year than did last year.

In fall 2001, activists Tom Crosslin and Rollie Rohm were gunned down by state and federal agents, after desperation drove them to set fire to the buildings on their beloved Rainbow Farm campground and concert site. A new book tells the heart-wrenching story.

Get your copy of the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition video that Walter Cronkite called a "must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with [the drug] issue."