The government of newly elected Peruvian President Ollanta Humala announced this week that it is suspending the US-backed coca eradication program in the Upper Huallaga Valley, the only ongoing eradication program in the country. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Peru has surpassed Colombia as the world's largest coca leaf producer, although Colombia maintains a slight lead in cocaine production.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]The Upper Huallaga isn't Peru's largest coca growing area — that distinction belongs to the Ene and Apurimac River Valleys (VRAE in the Spanish acronym), …

This week marks the 40th anniversary of America's contemporary war on drugs, and the country's largest anti-restrictionist law enforcement aggregation is commemorating — not celebrating — the occasion with the release of report detailing the damage done. Members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) hand-delivered a copy of the report, Ending the Drug War: A Dream Deferred, to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (the drug czar's office) Tuesday after holding a press conference in Washington, DC.
[image:1 align:left caption:true][Editor's Note: This is merely the first commemoration of 40 years ...

May 11, 2000: Mexican cartel leaders the Arellano-Felix brothers are charged with 10 counts of drug trafficking, conspiracy, money laundering and aiding and abetting violent crimes. The US State Department offers a $2 million reward for information leading to their arrest and conviction.
May 5, 2001: The United States is voted off the United Nations Narcotics Control Board, the 13-member commission that monitors compliance with UN drug conventions on substance abuse and illegal trafficking.
May 6, 2001: Sydney, Australia, opens its first legal heroin injection room in the Kings Cross Neighborhood, operated …

Following up on the news that the Drug Czar is looking for a new job, I have a piece in the Huffington Post looking at how the current political climate is rendering the Drug Czar's office irrelevant. Issues like maryjane legalization are taking off and threatening to destroy the legacy of anyone who stands in the way. More here.
read more

May 1, 1972: Nobel Prize laureate for economics Milton Friedman is quoted in Newsweek: "Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and raise the quality of law enforcement. Can you conceive of any other measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order?"
April 30, 1984: Colombian Minister of Justice Rodrigo Lara Bonilla, who had crusaded against the Medellin cartel, is assassinated by motorcycle-riding contract killers. President Belisario Betancur, who had opposed extradition, announces, "We will extradite Colombians." Carlos Lehder is the first to be put on …

It's hard to imagine a worse job than defending the drug war every single day, and it looks as though Gil Kerlikowske has had about all he can take:
read more

There's been much discussion recently about the Drug Czar's request to meet with the Seattle Times editorial board in an apparent response to this editorial endorsement of hemp legalization. You can read here about how that meeting went, but I think this video more perfectly captures the absurdity of the situation:
read more

The Obama administration released its a href=”http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/policy/12budget/fy12Highlight.pdf”>proposed 2012 National Drug Control Budget Monday and, despite President Obama’s statement just over two weeks ago that the federal government needed to "shift resources" to have a smarter, more effective federal drug policy emphasizing public health approaches, there is little sign of any resource shifting.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]Although budget documents said the administration seeks "a balanced approach" of prevention, treatment, and domestic and international law enforcement, law enforcement continues to get the lion's share of federal drug dollars. Of the more than $26 billion …

Struggling with chronic budget crises, lawmakers in more and more states are embracing sentencing and other reforms in a bid to hold down corrections costs. But while sentencing reform has long been the domain of "bleeding heart" liberals, now conservatives are driving those efforts in some states.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]It's not just about dollars. Although fiscal concerns are a driving force among conservatives, there are also signs they are recognizing and confronting the failures of our drug and criminal justice policies. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, none other than former …

The active ingredient in marijuana appears to reduce tumor growth, according to a Spanish study published on Wednesday. The researchers demonstrated giving THC to mice with cancer decreased tumor growth and killed cells off in a process called autophagy.“ The findings support that safe, therapeutically efficacious doses of THC may be reached in cancer patients,” Guillermo Velasco of Complutense University in Madrid and colleagues reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
 
Other research has shown benefits, such as staving off Alzheimer’s, and many doctors view THC as a valuable way to …