Decriminalization

The Obama administration punts on marijuana rescheduling, Maryland's decrim excludes paraphernalia (for now), sneaky DEA tactics are being challenged in Arizona, fears of more cartel violence in Mexico, and more.

Maryland decriminalizes and becomes a medical marijuana state, a Tennessee hemp bill awaits the governor's signature, a Kentucky omnibus heroin bill appears dead for the session, a campaign is underway to free a Missouri marijuana lifer, and more.

The Maryland legislature passed both medical marijuana and decriminalization bills as the session ended in Annapolis, Colorado pot tax revenues aren't as high as the governor thought, the maker of the new opiate pain reliever Zohydro fights a state ban in Massachusetts, and more.

Talk about unintended consequences! Faced with a declining US market share, Mexican pot farmers are switching to opium poppies. Plus, AG Holder has some words about rescheduling, the Maryland decrim bill is back from the dead, it looks like 2016 for California legalization, and more.

Cops like to say they don't make the laws; they merely enforce them, but that wasn't exactly the case today in Louisiana, Oregon, and Washington, DC. Plus, decrim has a last hurrah in Maryland, an Alabama welfare drug testing bill passes, Vermont moves against the new pain reliever Zohydro, and more.

British celebrity chef Nigella Lawson is banned from the US for admitting using coke, decrim dies for the year in Maryland, CBD medical marijuana bill continue to move, the resort to the overdose drug naloxone is spreading rapidly, Guatemala's president wants to legalize pot and poppies, and more.

Washington, DC, Mayor Vincent Gray has signed a decriminalization bill. Now, Congress must act to stop it within 60 working days or it becomes law. But this is by no means the end of pot politics in the nation's capital.

A new Pew poll has majority support for marijuana legalization, treatment instead of jail for hard drug users, and getting rid of mandatory minimums. Now, how do we translate that into policy?