Drug War Chronicle

Ciudad Juarez continues to earn the title of Mexico's drug war murder capital, but there was plenty of prohibition-fueled killing to go around this past week.

West Africa has become an important transshipment point for cocaine headed from South America to Europe. They also grow a lot of marijuana there. Now, the Liberian government wants to crack down, and it's reading from the old US drug war playbook.

Maine is poised to become the next medical marijuana state to adopt a dispensary system with a measure on the ballot in next month's elections. Despite opposition, including from some unexpected quarters, the initiative appears set to pass handily.

Is this the year we finally see an end to the infamous crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity? A bill to do just that has passed the House Judiciary Committee, and now, Sen. Dick Durbin and nine cosponsors have introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

First, the Texas DA collaborated in a racially discriminatory and lawless asset forfeiture rip-off scheme directed at innocent motorists. Now, facing a civil lawsuit, she wants to use the very money she helped rip-off to pay for her defense. The ACLU has cried foul.

Another week, another grim death toll in Mexico. September was the bloodiest month this year.

As many as 1,500 Rockefeller drug law prisoners could walk out of prison early after reforms passed in April went into effect this week. But that still leaves 12,000 more behind bars in the Empire State.

The Obama administration earlier this year gave up the delusion that eradication of poppy crops was a viable response to widespread Afghan opium production. But now the Russians, with soaring addiction rates because of Afghan heroin, are urging that the poppy fields be sprayed.

The House has passed a measure that would end the federal ban on funding needle exchange programs, but it includes a provision barring them from operating within a thousand feet or schools, parks, and other public places. Advocates are working to ensure that a good bill comes out of the House-Senate conference committee at the end of the appropriations process.

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