Afghanistan Expects Record Poppy Harvest

Afghanistan will produce another record poppy harvest this year that cements its status as the world's near-sole supplier of the heroin source, yet a furious debate over how to reverse the trend is stalling proposals to cut the crop, U.S. officials say.

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40,000 Pounds of Cocaine Seized at Sea

The Coast Guard began unloading more than 40,000 pounds of cocaine seized from three ships off the Central American coast, much of it from a single bust considered the largest in U.S. maritime history.

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Study: Antidepressants May Help Kids

Authors of a new comprehensive analysis of antidepressants for children and teenagers say the benefits of treatment trump the small risk of increasing some patients' chances of having suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

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$19M Found Buried Under House in Cali

Police say they found $19 million in cash under the floorboards of a house in Cali on Saturday.

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Afghanistan Won't Spray Poppy Plants

Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country's heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.

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Professor David Nutt, the former head of Britain's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), who was fired late last month by Home Secretary Alan Johnson for criticizing the government's drug policies as driven by politics instead of science, is now calling for a Royal Comm …

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Last January I proclaimed in the The Hill's Congress blog: "Marijuana law reform is no longer a political liability; it's a political opportunity." Ten months later it appears that an unprecedented number of state-elected officials are heeding the message.

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Members of the California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates have endorsed a resolution stating that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is a "failed public health policy."

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Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers than they are for those who use cannabis, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a report published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.

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THIS week's paper examines international attitudes on the drug war, and argues that because of the cost, the difficulty, and the complications, many countries are wearying of it, including the United States:

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This two-year scientific/legal investigation reveals a drug testing regime of fraudulent forensics used by police, prosecutors, and judges which abrogates every American's Constitutional rights.

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Ten months into the Obama administration, drug policy reform in the US Congress is moving along on a number of tracks. Here's an update on some of the more significant legislation moving (or not) on the Hill.

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If you wish to justify a policy that will plainly increase the harms associated with each individual act of drug use, by creating violent criminal gangs as distributors, driving the sale of contaminated black market drugs, blighting the careers of users caught by the police, crim …

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The settlement of a 15-year-old lawsuit has resulted in the U.S. agreeing to pay $3 million to a former government worker who accused officials with the CIA and State Department of spying on him with a "bugged coffee table." Allison Kilkenny

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The Schedule I federal classification of cannabis — which states that, by law, the marijuana plant and its natural compounds have "no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States" — has long since passed the point of farcical.

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I don't for a minute buy cannabis "fatalities". It's impossible to kill yourself with pot. The press reports "cannabis-related" deaths which is surreal.

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Sen. Charles Grassley, author of the censorship amendment to the National Criminal Justice Commission Act, was asked about his anti-speech tendencies by a reporter on a conference call today. The full transcript is below, but here's the most interesting part of what Sen.

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Britain has become the online "designer drugs" capital of Europe with more than a third of all internet retailers that sell "legal highs" based in the UK, according to a report from the European Union's drug agency.

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Sen. Jim Webb (D-Virginia) has bravely proposed legislation to create a Blue Ribbon commission to conduct an 18-month, "top-to-bottom" review of America's criminal justice system with the goal of bringing U.S.

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MORE than 2,000 Scottish children as young as 10 have been treated for alcohol and drug addiction in the past five years, it was revealed yesterday.

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The home secretary faces mass resignations from the government's drug advisory body over his decision to force out its chairman, who accused ministers of distorting scientific evidence on cannabis.

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California was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana and, if three ballot measures and a bill floating around the state legislature have anything to say about it, the Golden State could be the first to legalize and tax adult marijuana use across the board.

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As the headlines this week alone demonstrate, the whole process of determining drug classification has become quite complex and highly politicised.

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A LEADING government adviser faced calls to resign yesterday after claiming LSD, Ecstasy and cannabis are less dangerous than alcohol and cigarettes.

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On several occasions, this blog has asked the same rhetorical question: how could a policy as ludicrous and destructive as marijuana prohibition have been endorsed by the whole world? The answer turns out to be critically important, embarrassing, and even more absurd than the pol …

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The story of drug policy is often told through the lens of hypocrisy and potential revenues.

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California state lawmakers are scheduled to hear testimony tomorrow in support of taxing and regulating the commercial production and distribution of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.

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This website is intended to be a resource where those interested in drug policy can discover how prohibition of currently illegal drugs impacts upon individuals, our local communities, and on communities around the world.

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Obama's new position on medical marijuana is a step in the right direction.

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A quick review from this week's avalanche of cannabis-related news, comes a stark contrast that reveals: Four Prohibition Pragmatists And A Drug War Whore

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