While the nation worries about baseball players on steroids and teenagers smoking pot, an epidemic of drug overdoses is sweeping the country. There are methods of reducing the toll, but there are many obstacles, too, not the least of which is public and official indifference.

Current approaches to methamphetamine use in the US have largely failed and should be replaced by a "Four Pillars" approach embracing prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and law enforcement, according to a report issued Tuesday. Some states have already moved that direction.

We usually reserve this space for books hot off the press, but in the case of "Over the Influence," we make an exception. This book is special enough for us to make it a premium for our contributors, and given that we are publishing a story this week about the rapidly rise toll from drug overdoses, we think its importance is self-evident.

We are pleased to offer the works "Over the Influence: The Harm Reduction Guide for Managing Drugs and Alcohol," "Women Behind Bars: The Crisis of Women in the US Prison System," and "Cannabis: Yields and Dosage," as our latest membership premium gifts.

Greedy jail guards, pill-peddling cops, sticky-fingered cops, and a sticky-fingered prosecutor. On the corrupt cop front, it's the same old same old. Here's this week's version.

The black community in Lima, Ohio, cried for justice after a SWAT team member killed Tarika Wilson and wounded her infant son during a raid in January. Those cries are unlikely to be quieted now as local authorities charged the police shooter with a pair of misdemeanors for the killing. He faces a maximum of eight months in jail.

Although the Bush administration has tried repeatedly to zero out funding for the Justice Department grant program that funds state and local anti-drug task forces, Congress keeps trying to put it back. Last week, the Senate voted to restore more than $900 million in funds in the FY 2009 budget, but there's a long way to go yet.

The New Hampshire House Tuesday approved a bill that would decriminalize the possession of up to a quarter ounce of marijuana. But Senate leaders say it is dead on arrival, and the governor is vowing to veto it if it passes.

The drug czar's office may be pushing the random drug testing of high school students, but it isn't going to happen in Washington state. The state Supreme Court last week ruled such testing unconstitutional.

The Czech Republic is set to decriminalize the possession of up to 20 joints and the growing of up three marijuana plants. The move comes as an adjustment to the penal code.

For the first time, Brazilian authorities have found coca plantations and a cocaine lab on national territory, and they are worried there could be more.

"They're Producing Cocaine in Brazil Now, Too," "DEA Opens Drug War Fantasy Camp," "Mark Souder Accidentally Assists Marijuana Decrim Efforts in New Hampshire," "UN Drug Czar Refuses to Answer a Tough Question," "Internet Users Take a Swing at Anti-drug PSAs," "High School Drug Policy: Striving for Underachievement."

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

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