Drug War Chronicle

At the request of Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), the House Appropriations Committee has added language to the Justice Department appropriations bill asking the Obama administration to clarify its stance on DEA raids on medical marijuana providers in states where it is legal.

It never ends. Another week of greedy jail guards and thieving policemen. This whole cops robbing drug dealers thing is getting kind of old, too.

These days, the treasure of the Sierra Madre isn't gold, but pot and opium. And nobody down there seems to feel like they need any stinking badges, not even the cops. In "God's Middle Finger," journalist Richard Grant takes a wild trip through the cordillera. Tired of dry old books about drug policy? Try this one for a change of pace.

The Obama administration used an Albuquerque press conference to unveil and tout its latest proposals for dealing with Mexico's drug trafficking organizations and the prohibition-related violence around them, but is it anything other than more of the same old same old?

The Canadian House of Commons voted Monday to adopt US-style mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, including small-time marijuana grows. The only chance to defeat the measure now lies with the Canadian Senate, an unelected body not generally known for second-guessing the House.

In a hangover from the Clinton and Bush administrations' war against medical marijuana, California dispensary operator Charles Lynch was sentenced to a year and a day in prison Thursday. That was well below the mandatory minimum five-year sentence required by federal law, and Lynch remains free on appeal, but advocates say he should not have been punished at all.

Drug overdoses -- both licit and illicit -- are the second leading cause of accidental death for adults in the US. Now, a member of Congress wants to do something about it, and the Drug Policy Alliance has some ideas.

¿El desvelo de los taxistas o la amenaza de una droga que sustenta el terrorismo? El <em>khat</em> es un estimulante herbal popular entre elementos de la población de inmigrantes del Este Africano en EE. UU. a pesar de ser prohibido por la legislación federal estadounidense. Ahora, Washington, DC, que alberga una de las colonias de inmigrantes del Este Africano en EE. UU., quiere que su ley sea tan rigurosa como la legislación federal. Se cuece una contienda.

Los republicanos y fiscales neoyorquinos perdieron la lucha por la reforma de la legislación Rockefeller sobre la droga en abril. Esta semana regresaron con un intento de última hora de revocar una de las principales disposiciones de la nueva ley. Pero como el gobernador y los demócratas en la Asamblea se mantienen firmes, parece que no lo van a lograr.