Bryan-College Station Judge John Delaney reported that probation officers in Brazos County had told him that passage of the bill, with its removal of incarceration and therefore of probation, would devastate their offices. Why? Because almost half of the county’s misdemeanor probationers have been convicted of possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. “We live off our under-two-ounce misdemeanor guys. They pay the rent.”

Give the man his marijuana. That was the gist of a simple order Tacoma Municipal Court Judge Jack Emery gave to Tacoma police two months ago. Police refused. Thursday, Emery repeated himself with emphasis: Police have seven days to comply with his Feb. 28 order and return the pot to Tacoma resident Joseph L. Robertson, or face a possible order of contempt. “Appeal or comply,” Emery told assistant city attorney John Walker. “Or next week, show up, and I would advise you to bring counsel.”

The world's first clinical trial designed to explore using a hallucinogen from magic mushrooms to treat people with depression has stalled because of British and European rules on the use of illegal drugs in research.

David Nutt, president of the British Neuroscience Association and professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, said he had been granted an ethical green light and funding for the trial, but regulations were blocking it.

"We live in a world of insanity in terms of regulating drugs," he told a neuroscience conference in London on Sunday.

Mexico’s drug cartels depend on smugglers to move their illicit wares. But to listen to the U.S. Border Patrol, you’d get the impression that most of the smugglers are Mexicans. In fact, most are born-in-the-USA Americans, as the cartels prefer that their mules look like Walter White. And the Border Patrol knows it.

With American drug use levels essentially the same as — and levels of drug-related violence either the same as or lower than — those in countries like the Netherlands with liberal drug laws, public support for the War on Drugs appears to be faltering. This was most recently evidenced in the victory of major drug decriminalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington. Some misguided commentators go so far as to say the Drug War is “a failure.” Here, to set the record straight, are fifteen ways in which it is a resounding success.