Newswire

Gov. Haley Barbour on Friday signed a bill immediately banning the sale and possession of the herbal mixture known by names such as Spice, K2, Demon, Voodoo, Genie and Zohai. (Link to Story)

More than 36,000 Oregonians are allowed to use marijuana for medical purposes, but they can't legally buy the drug -- they have to grow it themselves or find a caregiver to grow it for them. Backers of a measure on this November's ballot want to change that and they want to do it by following California's lead. Sponsors of Oregon's Measure 74 say it takes a more conservative approach to storefront pot sales. (Link to Story)

A Detroit-area judge is allowing some defendants arrested in a series of raids to keep using state-approved medical marijuana while out on bond. (Link to Story)

On August 25, the Los Angeles Times published an open editorial written by six former US drug czars referring to cannabis policies in the Netherlands while voicing their opposition to California's Proposition 19. On September 2, ENCOD president Fredrick Polak sent an open letter to the LA Times. (Link to Story)

Yet more evidence that the tired statement made by prohibitionists that "marijuana is a gateway drug" is false. Researchers said the predictors of whether someone uses harder drugs are social factors such as income status, psychological stress levels, employment status/potential, race and ethnicity, etc., not whether they ever smoked pot before. [Of course, more than a decade ago Institute of Medicine research conducted at the behest of Gen. Barry McCaffrey -- then the U.S. drug czar -- concluded "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs", and that marijuana has been mistaken for a gateway drug in the past because "Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana -- usually before they are of legal age."] (Link to Story)

Drug traffickers exert influence over 71 percent of Mexico’s 2,439 municipal governments and completely control 195 of them. Criminal groups find it easy to dominate municipalities because local administrations are chronically short of money and suffer from neglect on the part of the state and federal governments. (Link to Story)

The FDA has approved a new sublingual film formulation of the opioid dependence treatment combination buprenorphrine/naloxone (Suboxone). (Link to Story)

A Sacramento, CA dispensary — run by a conservative Christian — makes history with a television commercial touting the benefits of medical marijuana. (Link to Story)

The extremely dangerous city of Ciudad Juárez had more homicides this past August than any other month since prohibition-inspired drug trafficking organizations began fighting a turf war in 2008. Other very deadly months include this past June, when 313 people were slain, and August 2009, with 315. (Link to Story)