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Narcs gone bad, evidence gone missing, cops gone over to the other side, and another jailer in trouble. Just another week in the drug war.

College athletes who like to toke up, take note! The NCAA is making it easier for you to test positive and, while it will lower the penalty, that lower penalty won't take effect for another year.

It may soon be harder for patients to get access to hydrocodone-based pain relievers like Vicodin after an FDA advisory panel recommended moving them from Schedule III to Schedule II in an effort to prevent overdoses and addiction.

The smart money is saying hold off on a California marijuana legalization initiative until 2016, but some will pay the price for waiting.

"What are you in for?" "Possession of Marlboros." That could be the case under a new bill filed in Oregon.

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

The effort to get the executive branch to reschedule marijuana has been blocked by a federal appeals court. While appeals will continue, efforts will now turn to forcing change in Congress and with the Obama administration.

Although it hasn't made reformers' top target list, Washington, DC, could be ripe for a marijuana reform initiative, whether legalization, expanding medical marijuana, or decrim. Local activists are meeting and national organizations are watching.

An important federal court ruling, medical marijuana bills start popping up in the states, more providers get prosecuted, and LA continues to stumble toward a resolution of its dispensary issue.

A British grandmother caught smuggling 10 pounds of cocaine into the Indonesian resort of Bali has been sentenced to death -- even though prosecutors asked only for 15 years. The court said her actions hurt Bali's reputation as a tourist destination.

Colombia's FARC guerrillas have called on the Colombian government to consider legalizing coca cultivation for medicinal and therapeutic ends and for cultural reasons.

A Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, woman suffering from terrible pain went to the hospital for help. Instead, she was jailed for possessing two pain pills without a prescription. She died in jail two hours later.

MedicalMarijuana.ProCon.org, part of the ProCon.org family, is an in-depth web site presenting information and views from a variety of perspectives on the medical marijuana issue. The Chronicle is running a six-part series of info items from ProCon.org, of which this week's is the third.

There's something fishy in a Virginia evidence room, a Louisiana deputy gets in trouble for peddling fake weed, three suburban Chicago cops were running a dirty racket, an NYPD cop gets himself arrested, and a Miami cop gets himself convicted.

Sen. Pat Leahy (D-VT), head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has said he wants to abolish mandatory minimum sentences, and he hopes the federal government doesn't spend a lot of money enforcing marijuana laws in states where it is legal.

A half-dozen states are expected to see marijuana legalization bills filed this year, but Hawaii is first out the gate after the House speaker filed a bill on Friday.

A young Orlando man has died after being shot by police during a drug investigation Wednesday night. He becomes the year's second drug war fatality.

Acting on a tip, DEA agents went on rural property without a warrant, set up surveillance cameras, and used the evidence obtained to get a search warrant and convict the property owners for growing marijuana. And a US district court judge said that was okay. Is it?

Opium -- boon, bane, or both? We review three recent books on various aspects of the poppy and its derivatives.

New state medical marijuana bills are starting to roll out as the legislative season gets underway, progress comes in Arizona, and San Diego's mayor steps up for medical marijuana.