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Will Auckland become more like Oakland? It will if the Law Commission has its way. (Image via Wikimedia.org)
Will Auckland become more like Oakland? It will if the Law Commission has its way. (Image via Wikimedia.org)

New Zealand Commission Urges Drug Law Reform

A sweeping review of New Zealand's drug laws is calling for steps toward medical marijuana, decriminalization of drug possession and small-time dealing, and doing away with drug paraphernalia laws. Not too bad.
California Gov. Jerry Brown takes a tiny step toward corrections reform.
California Gov. Jerry Brown takes a tiny step toward corrections reform.

California Corrections "Realignment" Not Nearly Enough [FEATURE]

California Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill "realigning" corrections in the state, but that's just the tiniest of baby steps toward fixing an out of control prison system. How about some real sentencing reform?

Florida Taxpayers Spent Hundreds of Millions Jailing Nonviolent Drug Abusers, Treatment a Less Expensive and More Effective Method

Officials across Florida are realizing that in situations where drug offenders are non-violent it would be a better use of limited resources to send them to treatment instead of prison. But, there aren't enough treatment programs and Florida currently houses 19,414 inmates for non-violent drug offenses costing taxpayers $377,971,166 a year. Mary Lynn Ulray, the executive director of a Drug Treatment Program DACCO, says she thinks the legislature is starting to understand there is a cost benefit from drug treatment. Ulray says the agency's 6 month residential program has close to a 70 percent success rate in six months at a cost of $10,000 compare that to the average 6.4 year sentence costing taxpayer $124,601 per offender.

Bill to Lessen Penalties for Some Drug Offenders Clears Kentucky Senate Panel

A Kentucky Senate committee has approved legislation aimed at reducing the state’s fast-rising prison population by bolstering drug treatment and alternative sentences for non-violent offenders. The bill cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee without opposition. Supporters say the bill would produce net savings of $147 million over 10 years.
Bangkok looks so modern, but some Thai drug policies are downright medieval. (Image via Wikimedia)
Bangkok looks so modern, but some Thai drug policies are downright medieval. (Image via Wikimedia)

Thai Government in Massive Campaign to Round Up Drug Users [FEATURE]

The Thai government has officially embraced harm reduction, but the Interior Ministry doesn't seem to have gotten the memo. Mass roundups of suspected drug users are once again underway.

White House Moves to Fund Needle Exchanges As Drug Treatment

The Obama administration has designated needle exchanges as a drug treatment program, allowing federal money set aside to treat addictions to be used to distribute syringes to intravenous drug users. Two years ago President Obama lifted the 21-year ban on federally funded needle exchange programs as a necessary evil to reduce the spread of HIV among illicit drug users. The new position, determined by the surgeon general, is that the states can receive federal funding for programs that hand out the syringes as a treatment. A 11-year-old study in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment that found that addicts who participated in needle exchanges were five times more likely to enter drug treatment.
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