Criminal defendants who may be mentally ill and stuck in Washington state jails may finally get some relief they are long overdue. A federal judge has ruled the state must buckle down and adhere to a law that was already on the books requiring jail inmates receive mental competency exams within seven days.
In 2014, $25.4 billion was set aside to continue fighting the war on drugs in the U.S., with over $14.7 billion going to domestic and international law enforcement, as well as efforts to intercept trafficking. The big problem is that these efforts are nothing new, and the problem hasn’t gone away. In an investigative series, …
Law Enforcement, Besieged Family Drug Warriors on Different Turf Read More »
A new bill concerning edible marijuana products has passed the Colorado Legislature with bipartisan support. The new law requires that marijuana edibles be clearly recognizable as marijuana products even after they have been removed from their original container or packaging.
Decriminalizing pot is an action that many municipal governments have taken, but the term is confusing. Despite how it sounds, decriminalization is not the same as legalization. Attitudes toward marijuana are constantly shifting, as well as the laws that parallel them, and it becomes more and more important to understand what it all means. Decriminalization …
The player’s association of the National Football League (NFL) has agreed to the revised drug policy proposed by the league. The revisions include the introduction of testing for human growth hormone (HGH), changes to the league’s DUI policy, as well as changes to the threshold for marijuana testing.
When it comes to sentencing drug offenders, research indicates that addiction treatment is often a better option than jail time, both in effectiveness and cost. But is court-ordered treatment and forced rehab the answer?
On July 9, 2014, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) released its strategy for the upcoming year. Michael Botticelli, the current drug czar who assumed his position in March, released the official National Drug Control Strategy at an event in Roanoke, Va.
In July 2014, a new District of Columbia law came into effect that made possession of marijuana a civil offense rather than a criminal offense. The law was approved by the D.C. council in the spring, but it had to pass a 60-day congressional review period before becoming active.
Breathalyzers are devices originally developed to detect the concentration of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream. Law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. commonly use these devices as part of procedures designed to identify people driving while intoxicated. In a study published in December 2013 in the journal Clinical Chemistry and reported in May 2014 by study …
An army of officers will fan out over Memorial Day weekend around the country with DUI checkpoints and patrols aimed at snagging not just drunk drivers, but the growing menace of drugged drivers. This intensified focus comes on the heels of a new study that finds an increase in fatal accidents involving marijuana since Colorado …
Memorial Day Weekend Checkpoints for Drugged, Drunk Driving Read More »