Low attendance and a drop in donations have caused a financial crisis for the northeastern Mexican Diocese of Nuevo Laredo, which is located in an area plagued by drug prohibition violence. Weekly collections are no longer sufficient to pay for basic services, such as water and electricity.

With killings and disappearances to assert their authority, Mexico's prohibition-created drug trafficking organizations are beginning to interfere with everyday government activities in pockets of the country, keeping workers off their turf and interrupting some of the most basic services. Not only do they maintain checkpoints and kill police or mayors to control territory, they now try to keep everyone from mid-level officials to delivery truck drivers and meter readers out of rural areas they use to transport drugs, stash weapons and kidnap victims, and hide from authorities. In the process, they are blocking deliveries of gasoline, pension checks, farm aid and other services to Mexicans.

As Californians go to the polls Tuesday night, they won't just be deciding the future of marijuana in their state - the vote may also rattle the booming B.C. bud industry. If the law passes, B.C.'s illegal pot industry - which generates between $3 billion and $7 billion a year - could take a big hit, says Darryl Plecas, a criminology professor at B.C.'s University of the Fraser Valley.

Should people who take legally prescribed painkillers on the job be fired for failing a drug test? What companies consider an effort to maintain a safe work environment is drawing complaints from employees who cite privacy concerns and contend that they should not be fired for taking legal medications, sometimes for injuries sustained on the job.