Drug War Chronicle

In what looks like a drug raid wrong on many levels, a 26-year-old Afghan and Iraq war vet was killed by a Tucson SWAT team after his frightened wife woke him up to say there were intruders in the home and he grabbed a gun.

A Chicago man is dead after allegedly swallowing a bag of drugs in a bid to avoid arrest. He's the 26th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations this year.

With a draconian medical marijuana "reform" bill set to become law in a matter of weeks, the Montana medical marijuana industry is fighting back with lawsuits and an initiative campaign.

Saturday, it was Global Marijuana March day. Sunday saw marches, too, but much more somber.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past.

Mexicans marched against drug war mayhem by the tens of thousands over the weekend, but the hit men didn't even break stride.

A Texas DA is on the wrong side of the bars, and so is a Kentucky jail guard. Meanwhile, crooked cops in Philly and California's East Bay have their own problems.

LAPD narcs encountered a homeless guy cutting drugs on the street, then shot and killed him when he turned toward them still holding the knife. That's drug war killing #25 for the year.

A welfare drug testing bill has passed out of the Missouri legislature and is headed for the governor's desk. This one requires "reasonable suspicion."

Language that would have created a per se drugged driving law in Colorado was briefly reinserted in a bill Friday, but then the bill was killed Monday.