Psychoactive Drugs

Medical Marijuana: Los Angeles Pot Shop Owners Fight Ban

The Los Angeles City Council voted in July to ban prescription pot shops, but dispensary owners have decided to fight back, the L.A. Times reports. As detailed by the Times, the City Attorney has threatened medical marijuana managers with "penalties of $2,500 a day and up to six months in jail" if ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: New Jersey's Prescription Pot Moves Ahead Slowly

So we have been following developments in New Jersey's prescription pot program, and it seems like a common motif is slowness. Yes, the state recently started registering patients, but prescription pot has been legal there since 2010! Today brings us news that some patients are now officially elig ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Maine's Proposed Prescription Pot Rules Criticized by Many

As Maine tries to come up with ways to manage its medical marijuana program, one of the state's lawmakers is speaking out against some proposed restrictions. As detailed by the Portland Daily Sun, Rep. Deb Sanderson worries that the state will implement rules that "are more restrictive and divergen ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: North Dakota Might Consider Prescription Pot

In a few months, North Dakota voters might decide whether to allow prescription pot as a painkiller. The Associated Press has the story: Medical marijuana propopnents are collecting signatures to put the measure on November's ballot. North Dakota's legislature has never weighed the issue, the AP ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Will Los Angeles Ban Prescription Pot?

Los Angeles might ban prescription pot shops. The City Council is set to vote today on a proposed measure that would make the municipality's dispensaries illegal. The decision comes as the feds turn up the heat on California's cannabis industry. While medical marijuana is legal in California, fede ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Is Pot Gaining More Ground in Washington?

Shoreline, Wash., has just decided to permanently regulate collective medical marijuana gardens, according to media reports. What this means? The City Council agreed last night that it's OK with these prescription pot setups, and the vote means the municipality's administrations will develop code ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Delays Cause Confusion in New Jersey

Though the feds have come down on California dispensaries, including Oakland's Harborside Health Center, other states are pushing ahead with prescription pot initiatives. New Jersey, in fact, is so down with medical marijuana that one lawmaker has criticized state bureaucracy for taking too long to ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Are Kentucky and Arkansas Next?

Though Kentucky has a rep as one of the most anti-marijuana states in the country, one of the commonwealth's senators has submitted a prescription pot bill to the legislature for consideration, according to The Associated Press. Perry Clark, a Democrat state senator from Louisville, told reporters ... More >>

Medical Marijuana: Is Massachusetts Next?

Big news this morning for Massachusetts's prescription pot promoters: Today is the deadline for them to gather enough signatures for a medical marijuana ballot question. So, if they get 68,000 John Hancocks, Massachusetts voters will weigh palliative pot in November.

Medical Marijuana: New Hampshire Gov Says 'No' To Prescription Pot

Friday brings us some more weed news from the Northeast. Though Connecticut potpreneurs are readying themselves for a medical marijuana-prompted business boom, it doesn't look like that will be the case in New Hampshire quite yet. Citing patient "risks" and calling cannabis a "serious drug," Gov. ... More >>

Andrew Cuomo Wants To Make Weed Even Less Illegal (While Still Refusing To Support Medical Marijuana)

Governor Andrew Cuomo today will reportedly ask state lawmakers to make marijuana even less illegal than it already is in the Empire State. Keep in mind, though, Cuomo is the same guy who's still unwilling to support the legalization of marijuana used for medicinal purposes, despite enormous public ... More >>

Pot Policies: Weed's Legal Use Might Widen in Arizona

New York still hasn't decided whether it's going to OK medical marijuana, but more developments across the U.S. suggest that it's spreading -- though with some legal blowback from the U.S. courts and feds.

Happy 420, Stoners: Should Fake Pot In New York Really Be More Illegal Than Real Pot?

Members of the New York state Assembly -- on both sides of the aisle -- showed support yesterday for a bill that would criminalize synthetic marijuana. As we pointed out in our post about the bill, if it becomes law, it would make fake weed more illegal than real weed.Marijuana was decriminalized in ... More >>

Richard Branson Talks Legal Drugs at NYC Press Conference in the Waldorf

Esther Zuckerman ​This morning, a bunch of high-powered people packed into a suite on the 33rd floor of the the Waldorf-Astoria to talk about drugs. Even though that might elicit thoughts of a Charlie Sheen-style bender, the meeting was, in fact, a press conference announcing a report from the ... More >>

Ibogaine and Addiction in I'm Dangerous With Love

New Jersey Inching Toward Medical Marijuana, But It Won't Be the "Good Stuff"

NJ Stoners​Ailing New Jersey residents may be smoking medical marijuana by next summer thanks to a compromise reached between Governor Chris Christie and weed advocates, who thought they had won when previous Governor Jon Corzine signed a law legalizing the treatment on his way out of office. ... More >>

Jockbeat: Does Golf, With Its Rotten History, Have Any Business Investigating Tiger Woods?

Since when did golfers need to be nice guys?​We can sum up all the nuttiness and overreaction to the Tiger Woods scandal with Hank Gola's column in Friday's New York Daily News. "We've heard condemnations from [Swedish golfer] Jesper Parnevik and Herm Edwards, support from Charles Barkley ... More >>

Heroin Successfully Used to Treat Heroin Addiction

​Well, it's about time. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine based on research conducted by (natch) Canadians suggests that the best way to treat heroin addicts is... prescriptions for heroin. Apparently a lot of heroin users don't like methadone or develop a resistance to it, and ... More >>

The Miseducation of Elaine Bartlett

New York's war on drugs held her hostage for 16 years. A story of prison, politics, and one woman's pride.

Light 'Em Up

Advocates for medical pot look beyond a Supreme Court bummer

The DEA's War on Pain Doctors

Party Patrol

A New Federal Law Could Spoil Your Summer Fun

Just Say Maybe?

Politicians Posture but Rockefeller Reforms Still Elusive

Don't Do Drug Ads

Here's a Downer Story for the Media

Prescription: Euphoria

New Research Brings Ecstasy Back to the Couch

The Dope on Dope

How Global Heroin Shifts Could Hit Home

The People's Prozac

Dissident Scientists Question the Ban on Ecstasy

Agent Orange, All Over Again

EPA Stalled Resolution on Spraying in Colombia

World Leaders on Dope

Right Joins Left in Call For an End to the Drug War

Up In Smoke

Supreme Court Snuffs Medical Marijuana Clubs, But Users Vow To Keep on Toking

Seizing the Spotlight

A Stand-Up Comedian Fights the Drug Laws by Working the Media

Who Owns Ecstasy?

Studying MDMA is Shaping up to Be the Latest Battle in the Drug War

The Year In Pot

Twelve Months in the Life of Marijuana Prohibition

Mixed Bag

Prisoners' Relatives Assess Pataki's Drug Law Reform Plan

The Herbalist

Arrested for Giving Marijuana to the Sick, Kenneth Toglia Still Sows Seeds of Hope

Injecting Big Brother

New Vaccines May Drug-Proof Kids

Two Million and Counting

An Expert Analyzes the Prison Population Boom

The Miseducation of Elaine Bartlett

New York's War on Drugs Held Her Hostage for 16 Years. A Story of Prison, Politics, and One Woman's Pride.

Washington 451

Searching in the Dark

Searching in the Dark

Net Filtering Software Censors Much More Than Porn

Colombian Coke Caper

Wife of U.S. Anti-Drug Commander Nabbed in Smuggling Case

Smack Attack

Heroin Deaths Rattle The East Village

Smoke and Jeers

Million Marijuana March Protests NYC's Record-High Pot Arrests

Pot Shots

Tobacco Row

Long Shot

Drug Policy Experts Ponder Prescribing Heroin to Junkies

New York's Drug-Law Debacle

Governor Rockefeller started the war on drugs in 1973. His laws have packed prisons, cost billions, and failed to stop the drug trade. On the 25th anniversary, there's new momentum for change.

Rocky's Road

How the Worst Law in the State's History Came To Be

Beyond Incarceration

What Lies Ahead? The Antiprison Movement Contemplates the Future