Drug War Chronicle

Don't own a gun if you're contemplating committing a drug offense. It'll cost you five years in federal prison no matter if you used it or not, and the US Supreme Court is fine with that.

Sen. Jim Webb's bill to create a bipartisan National Criminal Justice Commission has passed the House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee. Your phone calls to US Senators could be what gets the bill passed this year, and the top-to-bottom review of the criminal justice system started.

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

Oakland is set to become the first city in the nation to tax and regulate large-scale medical marijuana grow ops after a Tuesday night vote at the city council.

The California medical marijuana community is starting to breathe a sigh of relief, as San Francisco DA Kamala Harris is taking the lead over LA DA Steve Cooley, a medical marijuana foe, in the late vote counting.

From the It Ain't Over Until It's Over Dept.: After losing on Election Day and trailing almost all the way through the late vote count, Arizona's medical marijuana initiative emerged victorious in the end.

Supporters had all but given up on Prop 23, but the final days of ballot counting have left if just 724 points behind, which means anything could happen -- victory, defeat, or a recount.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands has become the first US territory to see a marijuana legalization bill pass a legislative chamber.

Everybody's got an opinion on why Prop 19 lost. The Chronicle examines what a range of movement leaders and other thinkers think it means -- and what the discussion of why Prop 19 lost itself means.

A sticky-fingered sheriff leads this week's list of law enforcement miscreants.