Drug War Chronicle

There will be no statewide regulation of medical marijuana in California this year. An effort to pass a regulation bill died yesterday in the Assembly.

Two harm reduction bills, one allowing pharmacists to dispense unlimited numbers of syringes without a prescription and the other allowing them to dispense the overdose drug naloxone, have passed the California legislature. They now go to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown.

ProCon.org is a series of in-depth web sites presenting information and views from on current issues, several with relevance to drug policy. The Chronicle is currently running a series of info items from ProCon.org -- this one from sportsanddrugs.procon.org -- and we encourage you to check it out.

A bill to end the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity is close to becoming law in California, the US Sentencing Commission still has work to do on mandatory minimums, the 50th anniversary of America's first pot protest will be commemorated this weekend, and more.

A bill that would eliminate the crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity in California has passed the state Assembly. It is now only a Senate concurrence vote away from heading to the governor's desk.

California's controversial medical marijuana regulation bill is going down to the wire, Delaware will soon see its first dispensary, Guam will vote on a medical marijuana initiative in November, and more.

More problems for the scandal-tainted dope squads in Detroit and Philadelphia, a new Jersey college cop admits to peddling pills, and a Texas parole officer gone bad goes to prison.

A key California sentencing reform bill gets a final Assembly vote tomorrow, the Oregon legalization initiative gets some organized oppositions, Delaware gets a step closer to its first dispensary, Marc Emery gets to go home, and more.

Everybody must be at the beach, because it's pretty quiet on the drug reform front. But Philly faces a class action lawsuit over asset forfeiture, the DEA gets caught wasting taxpayer money, and there's marijuana policy action down South America way.

Randy Credico is a veteran New York activist, gadfly, and comedian, but there's nothing funny about the issues he's campaigning on in his quest to be governor of New York.