Drug War Chronicle

Police in Columbia, Missouri, have endured all kinds of criticism in the week since a video of one of their SWAT raids went viral. This week, they issued new policies regarding SWAT raids. It's a start, but only a start.

The beat goes on. This week, we have a trio of ethically-challenged cops, and, of course, another crooked jail guard.

Policing the drug laws is supposed to be dangerous work, but the numbers year after year don't seem to bear that out. And too often when police do get killed enforcing prohibition, the very aggressive tactics that they claim keep them safe are the ones that do them in. The human (and canine) targets of aggressive raids pay the price, too.

The Associated Press has just declared the war on drugs a failure. When will the politicians admit the same?

Up to a quarter of the Afghan poppy crop could be lost to a mysterious fungal disease especially afflicting Helmand and Kandahar provinces. Suspicious Afghan farmers are pointing fingers at the US and NATO.

The fever to free the weed burned hot in Rome and Buenos Aires and Mexico City last Saturday as the second round of the Global Marijuana March took place.

El Chapo had the personal cell phone numbers of Mexican officials charged with hunting him down? A seizure this week hints at the extent of the Sinaloa Cartel's intelligence gathering and just why Chapo Guzman always seems to be at least one step ahead of the authorities.

Singapore's law minister justifies the mandatory death penalty for drug offenders. Unlike the rest of us losers, Singapore hasn't lost the war on drugs, he said.

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"Drug Czar Admits Failure, Pledges to Continue It," "John Walters Still Thinks the Drug War is Awesome," "The Dog-Killing Drug Raid That Pissed Off America," "Do Cops Get Drunk at Anti-Pot Conferences?," "Utah Cops Create Website for Snitching on Marijuana Gardens," "Gary Johnson Talks Marijuana Legalization on the Colbert Report," "DEA Accidentally Argues for Marijuana Legalization."