Drug War Chronicle

There's less than a month to go, but some initiatives are more active than others.

The big news this week is that Oakland is suing the feds over their efforts to shut down Harborside. Meanwhile, the battles continue at the state and local level in California and beyond.

Oregon's Measure 80 is the most far reaching of this year's legalization initiatives. It is also the longest shot.

NORML's 41st annual national conference took place in Los Angeles over the weekend. Discussion of pending marijuana legalization initiatives dominated the event.

Some Michigan narcs were up to no good, a New Mexico probation officer getscaught carrying pounds of weed, a New York City prison guard gets caught peddling pot and placebos (!) to prisoners, and a Florida cop gets caught stealing weed to use as probable cause for a search warrant. Just another week in the drug war.

A state Health Department review of New Jersey's needle exchange program has found it is working and should be continued.

A San Diego housewife and an Arizona Border Patrol agent both died at the hands of Border Patrol agents in drug-related incidents in recent days, bringing this year's toll of drug war killings to 48.

The marijuana reform movement has found a most unlikely spokeswoman: A silver-haired octogenarian Texas Republican woman. But Ann Lee isn't just any silver-haired octogenarian Texas Republican woman.

Veteran antiwar activist Tom Hayden opened the first day of the national NORML conference with a call for the creation of a social justice-based peace movement to end the drug war.

With marijuana legalization initiatives heading to the ballot, some with a good chance of passage, and with growing international support for a real debate on prohibition, people are talking about drug policy like they never have before.