Every time I think the murder of 22-year-old Rachel Hoffman couldn't get more repulsive, new details emerge suggesting there's no end to the incompetence, recklessness, and misplaced values of the officers who caused her death. The young woman – whom the Tallahassee Police Department recruited as a confidential informant after threatening her with a marijuana charge – was murdered by the drug dealers she'd been sent to ensnare in a sting operation. One of the many confounding aspects of the case…

The last of three Atlanta police officers pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the shooting death of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston nearly two years ago, thus concluding the federal investigation of that tragic incident. It appears likely the investigation report will fault shortcuts taken by Atlanta narcotics officers to secure illegal search warrants, which, if you'll read our summary of the incident, you'll see is a grotesque understatement in Ms. Johnston's case. These officers arbitrarily targeted…

The opposition to Proposal 1, the Michigan medical marijuana initiative, is going on the air with this new TV ad -- a spot so egregiously dishonest that even my very jaded jaw dropped when I saw it. It may set an all-time record for the most lies ever packed into a 30-second commercial, spoken by a narrator over grainy, black-and-white footage of what purports to be a medical marijuana dispensary. The most obvious: 1) California's medical marijuana law is "just like Proposal 1." No, it's not. California's…

It turns out that three of the Massachusetts district attorneys leading the fight against Question 2, the Massachusetts marijuana decriminalization initiative, admit to having used marijuana themselves in the past. To our knowledge, they have yet to explain how their having criminal records that would have barred them from their present careers would leave the state  better off.

You may remember a few weeks back when Dan posted a couple of John Walters's question and answer segments from a drug czar press conference where Walters claimed that "finding somebody in jail or prison for a first time, non-violent offender [sic] for possession of marijuana is like finding a unicorn."  More recently, Ben found plenty of unicorns by Walters's definition. Over at MPP-TV, we decided to take a look at the drug czar's numbers and do the math ourselves ... and came up with this video…

Drug Czar John Walters claims that finding a first time marijuana offender in jail for possession is like finding a unicorn. Here's what we think. You know what you can get for just seven cents per day? Not much! But, just seven cents a day will get you a MPP membership and the peace of mind that comes with knowing that you are helping the nation’s number one marijuana policy reform organization.

There is evidence that marijuana may work synergistically with opioid pain drugs, allowing equal or better relief with reduced doses of narcotics and reduced development of tolerance to the drugs. But most of this evidence comes from animal studies, so data from human clinical trials is urgently needed. Dr. Donald Abrams of the University of California, San Francisco, is doing just such a study right now and needs volunteers who are suffering from chronic pain and currently taking OxyContin or MS…

Dealing with White House drug czar John Walters increasingly feels like a trip into some sort of alternate universe. Last week he told The New York Times that he supports a Mexican government proposal to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana or other illicit drugs.  How shocking is that? Well, in a March 19, 2008, press release, deputy drug czar Scott Burns called a New Hampshire proposal to impose a $200 fine rather than jail time for possession of a small amount of marijuana "a…

What else will happen on November 4? As Bruce Mirken pointed out in another post, Rep. Mark Souder, a stalwart drug warrior, may lose his seat in Congress this year.  Souder’s possible departure is part of a larger trend of drug warriors losing elections to more sensible candidates. This change is largely due to the unpopularity of President Bush and the fact that most virulent prohibitionists have maintained close ties with his policies for the last eight years.  Their departure is significant for…

I don't know how much attention this is going to get in the press, but this strikes me as an extraordinary – and as far as I know, unique – instance of cowardice and cruelty: SILVER CITY, N.M. (AP) — A woman was told to move out of her apartment when the landlord discovered she has marijuana for medical use. Bobbie Wooten, 47, uses a wheelchair because she was paralyzed from the waist down in a car crash several years ago and suffers severe spasms. She joined the state's medical marijuana program…