Drug War Chronicle

The Russians want more appointments to high positions in the UN, and it looks like a Russian diplomat will replace outgoing UNODC head Antonio Maria Costa. Given Russia's retrograde positions on drug policy issues, alarm bells are going off.

The knee-jerk prohibitionist impulse remains strong in America, especially in the South. Confronted with a synthetic cannabinoid, states are lining up to ban it.

$38 an ounce for kind bud?!?!? That's what RAND says could happen if California legalizes it. Tax revenue estimates are all over the place, depending on multiple factors. And consumption could go up dramatically, but it might not. Bottom line: Nobody knows for sure what's going to happen.

2010 is a critical year in the effort to end prohibition and the war on drugs. The StoptheDrugWar.org (DRCNet) "Changing Minds, Changing Laws, Changing Lives" campaign is asking for you to pitch in -- your support is more important now than it has ever been before!

Apply for an internship at DRCNet and you could spend a semester fighting the good fight!

"Will the Marijuana Vote Help the Democrats in November?," "The War on Marijuana = Federal $$$ for Local Cops," "A Scary New Drug Threatens Our Children: Nutmeg," "Marijuana Legalization is a Civil Rights Issue," "UN Drug Policy in the Dark Ages," "What's the Big Deal About Narco-Subs?"

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Arizona voters in 1996 and 1998 approved medical marijuana, only to see their efforts thwarted by flawed language. Now, backed by the Marijuana Policy Project, Arizona activists have qualified an initiative for the ballot and look to be sitting pretty -- at least for now.

The UNODC, the European Commission and its member states, as well as Japan and the US all contribute to overseas anti-drug law enforcment programs that result in people being sentenced to death for drug offenses, the International Harm Reduction Association (IHRA) said in a report this week. It needs to stop, and IHRA has some concrete recommendations on how to do that.

There is no end in sight to the prohibition-related violence plaguing Mexico, and now, the cartels have started making threats aimed at law enforcement on the US side of the border.