Florida deputies get suspended in an excessive force investigation, a Miami sergeant gets popped for perverted play with a teen boy, and a couple of jail guards get caught doing what they always get caught doing.
An unsettling poll in Alaska, Minnesota medical marijuana mom gets busted, there's money to be made in drug testing, Maryland SWAT teams have been busy, a West African meeting on drugs is underway, and more.
Alarm bells should be ringing in Anchorage as a new poll shows the marijuana legalization initiative narrowly losing. The numbers could be skewed, but...
Big money for TV ads in Oregon, another Maine city will vote on marijuana legalization, a good bill goes bad in California, and Saudi Arabia executes four hash smugglers.
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Demonstration in support of Barcelona's cannabis clubs (fac.cc)
SWAT teams are in the news, the RAVE Act gets critiqued as counterproductive, there will be no medical marijuana initiative in Oklahoma, but it looks like there will be a decriminalization initiative in Santa Fe, and more.
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Jeb Bush comes out against Florida's medical marijuana initiative. (wikipedia/gage skidmore)
The California legislature acts on harm reduction, but kills medical marijuana regulation, Jeb Bush takes a stand on medical marijuana, New Hampshire bans a kind of synthetic cannabinoid, and more.
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Steve DeAngelo at Oakland's Harborside dispensary. It and thousands more will remain unregulated at the state level. (leap.cc)
There will be no statewide regulation of medical marijuana in California this year. An effort to pass a regulation bill died yesterday in the Assembly.
Two harm reduction bills, one allowing pharmacists to dispense unlimited numbers of syringes without a prescription and the other allowing them to dispense the overdose drug naloxone, have passed the California legislature. They now go to the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown.
ProCon.org is a series of in-depth web sites presenting information and views from on current issues, several with relevance to drug policy. The Chronicle is currently running a series of info items from ProCon.org -- this one from sportsanddrugs.procon.org -- and we encourage you to check it out.
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There's action on sentencing on a couple of fronts today. (supremecourt.gov)
A bill to end the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity is close to becoming law in California, the US Sentencing Commission still has work to do on mandatory minimums, the 50th anniversary of America's first pot protest will be commemorated this weekend, and more.
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California Fair Sentencing Act sponsor Sen. Holly Mitchell (senate.ca.gov)
A bill that would eliminate the crack and powder cocaine sentencing disparity in California has passed the state Assembly. It is now only a Senate concurrence vote away from heading to the governor's desk.
California's controversial medical marijuana regulation bill is going down to the wire, Delaware will soon see its first dispensary, Guam will vote on a medical marijuana initiative in November, and more.
More problems for the scandal-tainted dope squads in Detroit and Philadelphia, a new Jersey college cop admits to peddling pills, and a Texas parole officer gone bad goes to prison.
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Canadian "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery is reunited with wife Jodie after spending five years in US prison. (wikipedia.org)
A key California sentencing reform bill gets a final Assembly vote tomorrow, the Oregon legalization initiative gets some organized oppositions, Delaware gets a step closer to its first dispensary, Marc Emery gets to go home, and more.
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Tax dollars go up in smoke as DEA pays an Amtrak snitch nearly a million bucks for freely available passenger information.
Everybody must be at the beach, because it's pretty quiet on the drug reform front. But Philly faces a class action lawsuit over asset forfeiture, the DEA gets caught wasting taxpayer money, and there's marijuana policy action down South America way.
Randy Credico is a veteran New York activist, gadfly, and comedian, but there's nothing funny about the issues he's campaigning on in his quest to be governor of New York.
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Poster for last Saturday's Hemp Parade (Hanfparade) in Berlin.
Germans march for marijuana, Washington state takes in a million in taxes from the first month of pot sales, New Mexico local decriminalization initiatives struggle to make the ballot, Central Florida cops make a bunch of small-time drug busts, a new poll has some old results on the success of the drug war, and more.
In a historic ruling in June, the US Supreme Court held that police must obtain a warrant before searching cell phones and smart phones. But what about the people already convicted on the basis of those searches?
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Britain will provide free foil for heroin smokers in a bid to reduce injecting the drug. (wikimedia.org)
Things get slow in the dog days of summer, but there's still news from the legal marijuana states, California continues to grapple with regulating medical marijuana, and a couple of items from Britain suggest change could be in the air there.
The legalization debate packed 'em in in Anchorage, California's medical marijuana regulation bill is going down to the wire, Massachusetts has a new substance abuse law, China executes two for drugs, and more.