Drug War Chronicle

A decriminalization bill has passed the New Jersey Assembly, but faces an uphill battle to overcome a veto threat from Gov. Christie.

When it comes to slowing the spread of HIV/AIDS, the imperatives of the drug war are a hindrance, not a help, a new report from the Global Commission on Drugs finds. There is a better way, the group says.

NYPD refuses to stop charging people with misdemeanor marijuana possession after stopping and frisking them and forcing them to empty their pockets so they can be charged with "public possession," so now the Legal Aid Society is suing to make them knock it off.

Supervised injection sites are coming to Denmark, and so are broader "drug consumption rooms" where heroin and cocaine can be smoked or snorted. A new law takes effect July 1.

Marijuana decriminalization is one city council vote away from being approved in Chicago.

The left-leaning Uruguayan government says it will introduce a bill that would give it a monopoly on legal marijuana sales.

New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch has vetoed a medical marijuana bill--again. Now, it's up to the legislature to see if it can muster the votes to override the veto.

The Supreme Court has held that people "in the pipeline" -- convicted but not yet sentenced when Fair Sentencing Act reforms took effect -- on federal crack cocaine charges are entitled to be sentenced under the lesser penalties created by the act. Thousands could get sentence cuts.

Two Oregon marijuana legalization initiatives are in a mad scramble to make the ballot after being hit with unprecedented high invalidation rates for signatures already handed in. And they only have two weeks to go.

It's mainly news from California this week, with DEA and LAPD raids leading the way, but also some snippets from Colorado and Montana, and the DEA head goes on the hot seat.