Anyone working in drug treatment for any period of time has become familiar with the oddity that lots of community resources are devoted to catching the drug users and locking them up without much effect on the tide of drug abuse or much return to the society that is footing the bill.    This art...

Gov. David A. Paterson will introduce legislation that would restore significant power to judges in sentencing first-time, nonviolent drug offenders....

Thugs stole over $1.2 million of good and cash from people attending the Phish concerts in Hampton, Virginia. In addition 194 concertgoers were kidnapped. It is unfortunate that the band was forced (or agreed) to pay for the 200 supposed peace officers who turned into domestic terrorists. Is it time...

Very interesting article in the Economist, which begins: A HUNDRED years ago a group of foreign diplomats gathered in Shanghai for the first-ever international effort to ban trade in a narcotic drug. On February 26th 1909 they agreed to set up the International Opium Commission—just a few decades ...

Disappointing story by Mike Lillis in the Washington Independent: The Obama administration’s opposition to controversial drug treatment programs has helped kill a prominent global effort to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS and other diseases among drug users. Gathered in Vienna, members of the Unite...

by Ali Noorani, National Immigration Forum Look no further than Arizona's Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio as the prime example of enforcement priorities that are terribly misguided. Recent reports, including a Government Accountability Office report released today, have called attention to the pr...

Medical marijuana is legal in California and 13 other states, which the DEA doesn’t like. So periodically (particularly down in southern California), the DEA will raid a state-legal dispensary. That now ends: the Federal government will respect state government laws: Attorney General Eric Hold...

An email from the Marijuana Policy Project: Although Washington, D.C., passed a ballot initiative to allow medical marijuana use in 1998, with an overwhelming 69% of the vote, Congress has thwarted the will of D.C. voters and prevented the law from taking effect. In fact, originally — until a cour...

Matt Yglesias has a very interesting post (with interesting comments at the link): Speaking of marijuana legalization polls, the question of course arises as to whether we should legalize pot. On this, I’ve come to stand with Mark Kleiman who conveniently repeated his gospel yesterday: Substantive...

To the Editor:....