New York decriminalized pot possession 35 years ago, but NYPD keeps arresting and jailing people for "possession in public view" after forcing them to empty their pockets.

A bill to make simple hard drug possession a misdemeanor instead of a felony was defeated in the California Senate by members who were afraid they could "see Amsterdam" on the horizon.

Detroit elected officials' efforts to block city residents from voting to legalize marijuana have been shot down by the state Supreme Court.

A bill that would bring sorely lacking statewide regulation to California's medical marijuana industry passed the Assembly Thursday and now heads to the Senate.

Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy has signed a medical marijuana bill passed by the legislature last month.

A new poll show support for marijuana legalization below 50% in California and suggests some demographic groups that need some attention if it is to receive majority support.

It's been a pretty quiet week on the medical marijuana front. Heck, it looks like even the DEA took a break -- no raids to report.

The Senate has passed a bill banning new synthetic drugs. It's already passed the House, and the president is expected to sign it into law shortly.

Don't give joints to snitches you're having an affair with -- that's the lesson one California cop learned last week. There are more crooked cops for us this week, too.

A former El Paso city council member who wants to legalize marijuana has knocked off drug warrior Rep.

Marijuana decriminalization is just a pair of floor votes away from passage in the Rhode Island General Assembly after companion bills were approved by respective judiciary committees Tuesday.

After seven years in an Indonesian prison over nine pounds of marijuana, there are signs that Schapelle Corby could be free by this fall.

If you want welfare benefits in Tennessee, you will have to submit to drug screening that could include a drug test under a bill just signed into law.

Barry Obama and his buddies in the Choom Gang spent their high school and undergraduate years in a haze of pot smoke, a new biography reveals.

The police can -- and do -- track your cell phone without a warrant, and they are increasingly resorting to it in the wake of the January Supreme Court decision barring warrantless GPS tracking.

An medical marijuana initiative campaign is getting underway in North Dakota, people are going to federal prison in Montana, and the battles continue in California.

Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of years past, in Drug War Chronicle.

Philadelphia pays for police misbehavior, more cops get caught pilfering the evidence, one gets caught helping a heroin dealer, and another goes down hard for helping drug traffickers.

A new Rasmussen poll has national support for marijuana legalization and regulation at 56%, up significantly from a poll just two months ago.

US backing for and involvement in Honduras' war against drug trafficking is under increasing scrutiny after a DEA-involved raid that left four innocent people dead.