I recommend that you all download and watch this excellent video by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
We can’t make the drugs go away, so this War on Drugs really isn’t a good title. Makes us feel good. Gonna win the war… But it really doesn’t describe the policy. I’ve [...]

Evo Morales, newly elected president of Bolivia (who has just taken a 50% pay cut in order to fund more teachers and doctors) must walk a thin line in the Drug War, appeasing its warriors as well as the Bolivian public, for whom chewing coca leaves has been a part of their culture for millennia.
Morales [...]

From Drug War Rant:
Plan Colombia By The Numbers
Adam Isaacson’s got the data:
Total U.S. aid to Colombia over the seven years between 2000 and 2006: $4.72 billion
Square miles of Colombia sprayed with “Round-Up Ultra” herbicide, 2000-2005: 2,550
Land area of Delaware, square miles: 1,954
Square miles planted in Colombia with coca, the plant used to make cocaine, [...]

Radley Balko made an interesting observation about drug raids: They always shoot the dog.
I guess it’s to get them out of the way. Given all the armor SWAT teams usually don, it’s certainly not out of fear for their own safety.
When the target of the raid and the dog’s owner proves to [...]

From Drug War Rant:
Via Marginal Revolution, I see that a new paper in the Journal of Political Economy by Gary Becker, Kevin Murphy, and Michael Grossman called “The Economic Theory of Illegal Goods: The Case of Drugs” will attempt to explain it to our political leaders.
From the paper:
In an important new study, world-renowned economists–including a [...]

You can go to The Austin Chronicle to read the Top 10 Drug War Stories of 2005.
My personal favorite was the Lollipot scandal, pictured at the top of the list.

Rhode Island became the 11th state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes yesterday morning:
The Rhode Island House voted Tuesday to override Governor Carcieri’s 2005 veto of the state’s medical marijuana bill. This makes Rhode Island the 11th state to legalize marijuana for medical use.
The bill was first passed by the Rhode Island House and Senate [...]