The Best and Worst of 2006?

The year is coming to an end, and it is time to look back at 2006. What did we achieve? What did we fail to achieve? What were the highlights and lowlights for drug policy reform this year? I'm thinking I'll make a pair of feature articles out of this and I hereby invite you to submit your nominations for the best and worst of the year. They can be events, they can be trends... Just off the top of my head, I would include the success of the lowest priority marijuana law enforcement initiatives and New Jersey's passage of needle exchange legislation last week among the highlights of the year. On the downer side, there is the failure of the statewide legalization initiatives in Nevada and Colorado and the failure of the medical marijuana initiative in South Dakota. The continuing methamphetamine mania as an excuse to continue to craft repressive, punitive legislation will probably also make the list. But let's not limit this to the United States. Certainly, there are things going on in the rest of the world that could be included. Perhaps the relative quiet in the Bolivian coca fields during the first year of Evo Morales' presidency is worth mentioning? Or the increasingly shrill shouts from England and Australia that marijuana is linked to mental illness? (And just what is it about that Commonwealth weed? I don't hear too many similar accusations here in the US, even though you would think John Walters and his ilk would be jumping all over it). What do you think needs to be mentioning in the year-end wrap-up? Do tell.