News Link • Global

Drug War

Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans than Illegal Drugs

11-11-08 • rinf.com/alt-news

An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials...

News Link • Global

Drug War

New Mass Marijuana Rules Dismay Officials

11-8-2008 • The Berkshire Eagle

The law, which will take "money and manpower" to enforce, "is overly burdensome to the police officer and to the court system," State Police Lt. McDyer said. Supporters say police and prosecutors should stop "whining".

News Link • Global

Drug War

Successful Pot Smokers: Let's Make a List

11-7-2008 • The Agitator

The latest ONDCP absurdity is an anti-pot PR campaign with the motto, “Hey, not trying to be your mom, but there aren’t many jobs out there for potheads.” [the list of Presidents, scientists, musicians, athletes, and artists is growing quickly]

News Link • Global

Drug War

GAO report: Plan Colombia success limited

11-5-2008 • AP

Despite record aerial eradication, coca cultivation rose by 15 percent. A widening scandal over army killings of civilians to boost body counts that cost Colombia's army chief his job this week could impact U.S. aid to the nation.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Mass. voters OK decriminalization of marijuana

11-05-2008 • Boston Globe

Massachusetts voters today approved a ballot initiative to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, making getting caught with less than an ounce of pot punishable by a civil fine of $100.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Bolivia's Morales bars "spying" U.S. DEA agents

11-2-2008 • Reuters

Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales accused U.S. anti-drug agents of spying on Saturday, and barred them from fighting cocaine traffickers in the Andean country until further notice.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Priest and Substance Abuse Counselor Avoid Jail Time For Pot

10-30-2008 • Charleston Daily Mail

Father James Edward O'Connor and Michael Deegan were arrested in South Charleston on Sunday, Sept. 29, about 10:35 p.m. after a police officer traveling behind them smelled the drug wafting from their vehicle.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Wrong Door Drug Raid by Criminals

10-28-2008 • The Agitator

The people who got raided by these criminals were actually treated better than most of the people wrongly raided by the police.

News Link • Global

Drug War

NATO Mulls Expanding Its Drug Role In Afghanistan

10-9-2008 • AP

The United States will push NATO allies to order their troops to target Afghanistan's thriving heroin trade in a bid to stem the flow of drug money to the widening insurgency against the troubled international military mission.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Cop tries choking to get evidence that doesn't exist

10-4-2008 • FreeStudents

A police officer arrested a man who he believed had marijuana. The cop couldn't find the marijuana so he assumed the man was swallowing it. To prevent this the officer then began chocking the man, who was in handcuffs and didn't try to resist

News Link • Global

Drug War

If Texas were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world

10-3-2008 • nowpublic.com

"If Texas were a country, it would have the highest incarceration rate in the world -- higher than even China and Russia," Kampia noted. "Incredibly, literally 1 percent of the entire population of Texas is currently behind bars."

News Link • Global

Drug War

Radley Balko Sheds Light on DHS's 'House of Death' Scandal

09-30-2008 • Reason

Rather than give up a drug operation, DEA Agent Gonzalez learned that ICE agents had allowed a paid government informant to participate in a dozen brutal murders—all but the first of which could have been prevented. Gonzalez was reprimanded & forced

News Link • Global

Drug War

U.S. moves to suspend trade benefits for Bolivia

9-26-2008 • Reuters

U.S. President George W. Bush is moving to suspend longtime U.S. trade benefits for Bolivia because of that country's failure to cooperate in drug-fighting efforts in the past year, the top U.S. trade official said on Friday.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Marijuana dispensary case jurors regret voting guilty

9-9-2008 • Modesto Bee

They said they would not have convicted Montes and Scarmazzo of engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise had they realized the felony carries a mandatory prison sentence of 20 years to life.

News Link • Global

Drug War

New law targets stoned drivers in Canada

09-09-2008 • Montreal Gazette

Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine, blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial law that takes effect one week from today.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Facing Drug Trial, Afghan Says He Aided U.S.

9-9-2008 • NY Times

Mr. Noorzai, whom President Bush had designated one of the world’s most wanted drug kingpins, said he knew a lot about a man the American authorities had been seeking for years: Mullah Mohammad Omar, the one-eyed cleric and reclusive leader of the Ta

News Link • Global

Drug War

Church founders plead guilty in marijuana case

9-6-2008 • East Valley Tribune

The founders of an Arizona church that deifies marijuana have pleaded guilty and are now facing 20 years in prison. But Dan and Mary Quaintance, founders of the Church of Cognizance, remain confident that they will not end up behind bars.

News Link • Global

Drug War

We're Running From The Cure

09-04-2008 • Phoenix Tears

There has been a medically safe and effective method to treat cancer and other health problems. A lone courageous Canadian has rediscovered it and been literally 'giving it' away to others for free. Watch "Run From The Cure" and l

News Link • Global

Drug War

Bolivian Is an Uneasy Ally as U.S. Presses Drug War

9-20088-28 • NY Times

The refrain here in the Chapare jungle about Americans is short but powerful: “Long Live Coca, Death to the Yanquis!”

News Link • Global

Drug War

LEAP latest victim of Government Censorship

08-28-2008 • LEAP

Retired police detective, Howard Wooldridge, representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition(LEAP) was ousted from the National Asian Peace Officers Association(NAPOA) Conference in Crystal City because he was

News Link • Global

Drug War

Mexican brewery taps name of crime legend

8-26-2008 • Az.Republic

Malverde Beer is named after Jesús Malverde, a Robin Hood-style figure who is revered by drug smugglers in the western Mexico state of Sinaloa.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Feds' medical pot challenge tossed

8-22-2008 • Santa Cruz Sentinel

A federal court ruling lifted the hopes of medical marijuana users by denying a Bush administration request to toss a lawsuit brought by Santa Cruz city and county officials and Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana members.

News Link • Global

Drug War

Drug Money

8-15-2008 • the Stranger

A local television station claims an infomercial hosted by a travel writer promotes the use of marijuana and is refusing to air it. But Fisher Communications, which owns KOMO television, collected thousands of dollars without airing the show.

News Link • Global

Drug War

House Votes to Grant FDA Control of Tobacco Regulation

8-10-2008 • American Cancer Society

This week the US House of Representatives voted 326 to 102 to pass the Family Smoking Prevention Tobacco Control Act, to grant the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco products. If the legislation is enacted, consumers would see tou

News Link • Global

Drug War

Ohio officer acquitted of killing mom holding baby

8-5-2008 • AP

A white police officer was acquitted in the drug-raid shooting death of an unarmed black woman that set off protests about how police treat minorities in a city where one in four residents is black. The all-white jury found Sgt. Joseph Chavalia not g

News Link • Global

Drug War

Deleted photo sparks fears DEA hiring mercenaries

8-4-2008 • Rawstory

That picture, which has now been widely reproduced at blogs, shows a long-haired man, wearing a Blackwater tshirt and with a pistol at his belt, passing a box marked "DEA Evidence" to other agents participating in the raid.