Drug War Chronicle

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

The New Jersey legislature has become the first in the nation to pass a bill reforming mandatory minimum school zone laws. Gov. Jon Corzine has said he will sign it.

"It's Time to Legalize Medical Marijuana in Professional Sports," "Cocaine Vaccine Backfires Horribly," "Former Drug Czar Invents Awesome New Drug," "Consider the Possibility That People Do Drugs Because They Enjoy It," "States Don't Need Federal Permission to Legalize Medical Marijuana," "Cop Wants His Job Back After Planning the Sting That Killed Rachel Hoffman," "Why is DEA Condemning Efforts to Prevent Heroin Deaths?," "Judge Reprimanded for Illegally Drug Testing Random Guy," "Romantic Comedy 'It's Complicated' Gets R Rating for Depicting Casual Marijuana Use."

The war in Afghanistan, the rising tide of drug reform in Latin America, and battles over drug policies in European countries are among the dominant international drug policy stories of 2009. (Reprinted from last week's issue to accompany this week's top ten domestic drug policy stories feature.)

Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to funders. We need donations too.

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

Move over NAOMI, here comes SALOME. Just in time for the Winter Olympics, a new heroin maintenance trial is set to get underway early next year in Vancouver.

It's a Texas trifecta for Christmas, plus an Alabama jail guard.

The Mexican military killed a major drug lord last week, but that doesn't seem to have changed anything. The violence continues...

Bolivian President Evo Morales wants to amend his country's drug law to legalize coca farmers' small holdings and to bring allowed national cultivation limits in line with Bolivian reality. This won't go over well in Washington or with the UN anti-drug bureaucrats.