Drug War Chronicle

It's taken ever so long, but it now looks like dispensaries will soon be operating in New Jersey and Washington, DC. Meanwhile, the battles over medical marijuana continue across the country.

This week, we have a grab bag of crooked law enforcement types, including a big city cop, a probation officer, a prosecutor, and a TSA agent.

University of Colorado Boulder officials are pulling out all the stops in a bid to squash the school's unofficial annual 4/20 rally. The ACLU is objecting, and the performer the school hired to divert students with a concert says pot ought to be legalized.

If grand jury indictments earlier this month are any indication, there's not enough real crime in Pitt County, North Carolina, to keep cops and prosecutors busy. The most common grand jury charge: possessing marijuana with intent.

The Colorado Democratic Party has endorsed Amendment 64, the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act.

The Cartagena summit saw an historic discussion of drug legalization this weekend, with President Obama conceding that the topic is a legitimate one even as he reiterated US opposition to legalization.

Missouri has the most extreme crack vs. powder cocaine sentencing disparity in the nation, but a bill that passed the House Thursday would reduce it. The bill still has to get through the Senate.

A drug raid gone bad has left a New Hampshire police chief dead, four other members of a drug task force wounded, and, early Friday morning, the suspect still holed up in his home with a woman, surrounded by a SWAT team.

A long-awaited study has recommended supervised drug injection sites in Toronto and Ottawa, but that's just the first step in what looks to be a long and contentious process.

The federal offensive against dispensaries in California and Colorado continues, even as more state legislatures take up medical marijuana.