Two UN agencies report that US airstrikes on Afghan drug labs were illegal and killed civilians, a Michigan roadside drug testing pilot program has now gone statewide, and more.

A Michigan pilot roadside drug testing program has now gone statewide. (Creative Commons)

Michigan Roadside Drug Testing Program Now Statewide. A pilot program to test drivers for a range of illicit drugs has now gone statewide, the Michigan State Police have announced. The program had been underway in five counties for the past year. It uses check swab tests to detect the presence of amphetamines, benzodiazepines, cannabis (delta 9 THC), cocaine, methamphetamines and opiates. During that first year, police arrested 89 people for impaired driving based on the test, most of them for marijuana.

Hemp

South Dakota Lawmakers Move to Legalize Hemp Over Governor's Objection. A legislative Hemp Study Committee met Monday to begin writing a bill to legalize hemp next year over the objections of Gov. Kristi Noem (R). The legislature passed a hemp bill last year, only to have Noem veto it, citing difficulties for law enforcement and fears it was a stalking horse for marijuana legalization. One issue for legislators now is whether to include CBD in hemp legalization.

Foreign Policy

UN Says US Airstrikes on Afghan Drug Labs Unlawful, Killed Civilians. A United Nations report Wednesday found that US airstrikes on Afghan drug labs killed or wounded at least 39 civilians, violating international humanitarian law since the victims were non-combatants. The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN Human Rights Office jointly issued the report. "UNAMA has assessed that the personnel working inside the drug production facilities were not performing combat functions," the report said. "They were therefore entitled to protection from attack, and could only have lost this protection if, and for such time, as they had been directly participating in hostilities."

That New Jersey legalization bill may yet rise from the dead, the CDC wants more naloxone access in rural areas, Ohio's largest city just quit prosecuting small-time pot busts, Bernie Sanders vows to use an executive order to federally legalize marijuana, and more.

Bernie Sanders stays in the marijuana legalization vanguard. (Creative Commons)

Bernie Sanders Says He Will Legalize Marijuana Via Executive Order. If elected president, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) will legalize marijuana by executive order, he told podcast host Joe Rogan in a recent interview. "When I ran for president for the Democratic nomination in 2016, I talked about a broken criminal justice system, which ends up having in the United States more people in jail than any other country," Sanders said. "And what I call for then, and I call for now, is the legalization of marijuana in America." It sounds like he wants to modify the Controlled Substances Act, which puts marijuana in the same category as heroin. "That is insane. Heroin is a killer drug," he said on the episode. "You can argue the plusses and minuses of marijuana, but marijuana ain't heroin. So we have to end that and that's what I will do as President of the United States. I believe we can do that through executive order and I will do that."

New Jersey Marijuana Legalization Effort May Come Back at Year's End. Although lawmakers gave up on trying to get a legalization bill passed three months ago, with Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) saying it would likely be up to the state's voters at the 2020 election, Sweeney was singing a slightly different tune this week. "I'm not going to give up trying," he said. "I would love to do it. We'll make one more run at it."

Ohio's Largest City Quits Prosecuting Misdemeanor Marijuana Cases. Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein said Wednesday his office will no longer prosecute misdemeanor possession charges because current drug tests make it difficult to determine the exact amount of THC in the samples. This is a direct result of the legislature passing a law that legalizes hemp and CBD. Field drug tests cannot differentiate between hemp and recreational marijuana.

Heroin and Prescription Opioids

CDC Says Naloxone Not Getting Where Most Needed. In a new report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said prescriptions for the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone doubled from 2017 to 2018, but rural counties, which are often hard-hit by the opioid epidemic, were far less likely to dispense the drug. The CDC is asking doctors and pharmacists to allow more access to the drug. "Efforts to improve naloxone access and distribution work most effectively with efforts to improve opioid prescribing, implement other harm-reduction strategies, promote linkage to medications for opioid use disorder treatment, and enhance public health and public safety partnerships," the CDC said.

Search and Seizure

Pennsylvania Court Rules Smell of Marijuana Doesn't Justify Car Search. Pennsylvania is a medical marijuana state and thus police cannot use the smell of marijuana as probable cause to search a vehicle once the suspect has showed proof he is a medical marijuana patients, a Lehigh County judge ruled last week. It was "illogical, impractical, and unreasonable" for police to suspect illegal activity once the medical marijuana card was produced, he said. "Pennsylvania legislators did not contemplate that people with legal medical marijuana cards would be arrested and prosecuted for possession of marijuana in a package that is not clearly marked with a dispensary name on it. Such actions are merely means of hampering the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes," the judge wrote as he threw out the marijuana charge.

International

British Columbia Nurses Endorse Drug Decriminalization. British Columbia nurses collectively called for the province to save lives by decriminalizing drug possession. "[We] call on the B.C. government to take immediate steps to move toward the decriminalization of people who use drugs," reads a statement issued Thursday by the Nurses and Nurse Practitioners of British Columbia (NNPBC), a professional organization with more than 3,800 members, and the Harm Reduction Nurses Association (HRNA), a national organization with members across Canada. "As nurses who work in B.C. and provide frontline care in the midst of this public health emergency, we see firsthand the impact of criminalization on our clients, on their families, on our practice and our communities," it continues. "As nurses, we see decriminalization as an essential step to remove barriers to care and support, reduce stigma and discrimination, improve health and socioeconomic outcomes, and work toward a more just and compassionate society."

(This article was prepared by StoptheDrugWar.org's 501(c)(4) lobbying nonprofit, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also pays the cost of maintaining this website. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)

Colorado has raked in a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenues, Cincinnati decriminalizes, Bonaroo harm reduction protest, Pompeo pushes Colombia coca crop spraying, and more.

Is this truck driver "an illicit drug user"? A trucking group says hundreds of thousands are. (Creative Commons)

Colorado Hits $1 Billion in Marijuana Tax Revenues. The state Department of Revenue reported this week that tax revenues from marijuana sales since legalization in 2014 have now topped the one-billion-dollar mark. The department reported tax, license, and fee revenues of $1.02 billion on sales of $6.5 billion. It also reported that the state now has 2,900 licensed marijuana businesses employing 41,000 people.

Nevada Becomes First State to Bar Employers from Refusing to Hire Marijuana Users. Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) last week signed into law AB 132, which bans employers from refusing to hire people who test positive for marijuana on a drug test, making Nevada the first state to do so. "It is unlawful for any employer in this State to fail or refuse to hire a prospective employee because the prospective employee submitted to a screening test and the results of the screening test indicate the presence of marijuana," the law says. There are exceptions for some public safety-related positions. The law goes into effect on January 1.

Cincinnati Decriminalizes. The Cincinnati city council voted 5-3 Wednesday to decriminalize the possession of up to 100 grams of marijuana -- as long as it is not being used in public. There will be no fines, either.

Heroin and Prescription Opioids

Idaho Governor Signs Executive Order on Opioids and Substance Abuse. Gov. Brad Little (R) on Thursday signed into law an executive order aimed at combatting opioid and substance misuse in the state. The order creates an advisory group to study diversion policies for first-time drug offenders, prescription monitoring programs, treatment options, educating the medical community, and a public awareness campaign around opioids.

Asset Forfeiture

Alabama Governor Signs Asset Forfeiture Reform Bill. Gov. Kay Ivey (R) has signed into law SB 191, which does not end civil asset forfeiture in the state but requires that law enforcement report on its asset forfeiture activities.

Foreign Policy

Secretary of State Pompeo Doubles Down on Backing Aerial Coca Spraying in Colombia. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control Tuesday that the US still strongly supports the resumption of the aerial spraying of the pesticide glyphosate on coca fields in Colombia. He neither acknowledged global criticism of the use of glyphosate -- the Colombian constitutional court banned it in 2015 -- nor any other strategy for reducing coca cultivation. Instead, he said spraying is "an important tool they need" to reduce coca production.

Harm Reduction

Harm Reductionists Protest at Bonaroo Over Harassment of Drug Checking Kit Providers. Tennessee's Bonaroo music festival has been plagued by drug overdoses in recent years even though authorities had allowed harm reduction groups such as DanceSafe and the Bunk Police to hand out drug checking kits. But for the past couple of years, police have forced the groups out of the festival, so the Bunk Police have organized a protest Thursday and Friday afternoons to raise awareness of the issue. "We're trying to bring attention to the issue and have them join us and showing that there's a problem and that Bonnaroo could, you know, take action and allow this harm reduction effort, which could allow for a safe environment for the patrons," the Bunk Police said.

Transportation Policy

Trucking Group Demands Purge of 300,000 Truck Drivers as "Illicit Drug Users." Addressing Congress on Thursday, a trucking group composed of some of the industry's largest carriers said it had data indicating as many as 300,000 truck drivers are "manipulating" urine drug testing protocols and should be removed from the nation's highways. The Trucking Alliance told the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure that "thousands of commercial truck drivers are illicit drug users" and that they have the drug testing data to back up their claims. They based their data on the number of drivers who passed urine drug tests but either failed or refused to undergo hair drug tests, which can detect the presence of substances for months -- long after they would have any influence on drivers. There is a chronic shortage of drivers in the industry, which other groups testifying attributed in part to the spread of marijuana legalization.

The nation's leading drug policy reform group is seeing staff cuts and state office shutdowns, the NFL and its players' union are looking at league marijuana policies, Connecticut lawmakers may put legalization up to a popular vote, and more.

The path to marijuana legalization in Connecticut may lead to the voting booth. (Creative Commons)

Connecticut Legislature's Legalization Effort Falls Short, Talk Turns to 2020 Constitutional Amendment. It now appears there are not enough votes in the legislature to pass legalization this year, so some legislators are considering placing the issue before the voters next year as a constitutional amendment. That would require three-quarters of both the House and the Senate to approve a resolution allowing the measure to appear on the ballot in 2020. If the resolution passes with less than three-quarters in either house, it would go back to the legislature next year, and if it passed that session by a simple majority, it would go to voters in 2022.

Illinois Poll Has Strong Support for Legalization. A new poll from Big Think Illinois show marijuana legalization has broad support across the state. Statewide support was at 60%, with support at 68% in suburban Cook County, 60% in Chicago and the metropolitan collar counties, and 54% downstate. The poll comes as the legislature considers a legalization bill with two weeks left in the session.

Oakland to Consider Lowering Marijuana Business Taxes. The East Bay city has a 10% tax on gross receipts for all non-medical pot businesses, which is among the highest in the state. City Council member Dan Kalb is now proposing an ordinance to lower that rate to 5% in a bid to keep such businesses from leaving the city. The council is set to vote on the ordinance later today.

Medical Marijuana

NFL, Players to Study Marijuana as Pain Management Tool. With collective bargaining talks between the NFL and the players' union, the NFLPA, getting underway, marijuana is on the agenda. The league and the NFLPA have agreed to form two new joint medical committees, partly to study marijuana as a pain management tool. The move could result in a revision of the NFL's current drug policy, which bars marijuana and punishes players for using it.

Drug Policy

Drug Policy Alliance Cuts Staff, Closes Two State Offices. Citing a decline in funding, the Drug Policy Alliance announced Monday that it was laying off 17 of its 65 staff members and closing its state offices in Colorado and New Jersey. State offices in California, New Mexico, and New York will remain open, but the New Mexico office is seeing a staff cut.

Drug Testing

Louisiana Bill to Require Drug Testing in Severe Auto Accidents Advances. The House Transportation Committee approved a bill Monday to require either chemical, blood, or urine testing for drivers involved in a crash involving serious bodily injury or death. SB 1138 would expand the state's current law, which requires testing only in the case of fatal accidents. The bill has already passed the Senate and now heads for a House floor vote.

Drug Policy Alliance is a financial supporter of Drug War Chronicle.