News Brief

A pill-peddling cop, a court officer fudging drug tests in return for pills, and, of course, the requisite crooked jailers -- just another week in the drug war.

Both city and federal officials cracked down on the thriving LA medical marijuana scene Thursday, employing raids and civil enforcement actions.

In 2008, an effort to decriminalize marijuana was turned back in the New Hampshire legislature. Now, they're at it again, and a bill has already passed a key House committee and is headed for the floor.

Cocaine contaminated with a veterinary de-worming agent called levamisole made the news last fall when coke users started coming down with a nasty disease called agranulocytosis and a few of them died. While the clamor has quieted, the tainted dope hasn't gone away. In fact, there seems to be more of it than ever.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon caught serious flak this week from two different directions: Angry residents of Ciudad Juárez, tired of the killing and the soldiers, and the Mexican Catholic Church, which issued a report critical of human rights abuses in the military and crooked law enforcement.

The Iowa Board of Pharmacy had to be dragged into reconsidering marijuana's classification as a Schedule I drug with no medical benefit. But now it has done so, and is recommending it be rescheduled and that the legislature look into setting up a medical marijuana program. In so doing, it has become the first state pharmacy board to take such an action ahead of voters or lawmakers.

Thirty people were killed Wednesday in Mexico's prohibition-related violence. That's not even close to the daily record.

It's prison guards gone wild this week, with 16 going down in one Florida sting alone and one in New York City busted with a half-pound of smack. A crooked Texas border town cop cops a plea, too.

Republican House members in Missouri convinced their colleagues to pass a bill mandating drug testing for welfare recipients and applicants, but Democrats are filibustering the bill in the Senate.

An effort to get Idaho to join the list of states endorsing the legalization of hemp production died on a tie vote Wednesday. Old myths and misconceptions die hard, and there is more work to do in the Gem State.