Just as a coalition of international drug policy experts did last year with the Vienna Declaration, another international group has issued a report urging all governments to end the global war on drugs. Calling the “war on drugs” approach a costly failure, the Global Commission on Drug Policy recommended this week that the United States […]

In February, Antonio C., a 27-year-old professional mover and father of two who is married to a U.S. citizen, was arrested for the murder of two children. He had been framed, as Gwinnett County police acknowledged while dropping all criminal charges a mere two days after his arrest. Despite being exonerated of the double homicide, […]

May is National Drug Court Month, an event sponsored by the National Association of Drug Court Professionals (NADCP), and the Gwinnett County Drug and DUI Court Program celebrated on Friday, May 20, with a graduation ceremony and an address by U.S. Representative Rob Woodall of Georgia’s 7th Congressional District. First developed over 20 years ago, […]

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested 18 people of Somali and Yemeni descent, accusing them of drug trafficking and conspiracy to distribute of khat, a natural, plant-based stimulant. Khat, also known as “Miraa” and “Sallaa,” is consumed by chewing the leaves of a flowering plant known as Catha edulis. While it is […]

A DeKalb County man will not face any criminal charges after being publicly accused by DeKalb County police of operating a marijuana grow house. The allegations were made after his home was destroyed in a fire on April 2. Firefighters discovered unspecified plants, grow lights and other equipment in his basement and leapt to the […]

When the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 was signed into law on August 3, it reduced the mandatory minimum penalties for federal crack cocaine trafficking and eliminated the mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack. This week, the U.S. Sentencing Commission announced that it has promulgated the final amendments to the federal sentencing guidelines […]

In what the press described as “the latest case in which video appeared to undermine police testimony,” a San Francisco judge has dismissed drug trafficking charges against a 23-year-old California man after discovering numerous inconsistencies between videotape evidence and police testimony. The drug charges were filed after police allegedly found the man in possession of […]

In a recent Oklahoma case making national headlines, an Oklahoma City mother of four received a sentence of 10 years in prison for $31 worth of marijuana sales. She was charged with drug distribution and, because she had children in the home, possession of a dangerous substance in the presence of a minor. In Oklahoma, […]

The infamous Red Dogs, a drug task force unit of the Atlanta Police Department, have been disbanded following repeated accusations that Red Dog officers violated civil rights during arrested, using excessive force and performing illegal searches and seizures during drug raids. Mayor Reed announced that he was dissolving the unit last Monday and replacing it […]

For nearly two decades, criminal defense attorneys and social justice activists had bitterly complained about the 100-1 sentencing differential in the federal sentencing guidelines for crack vs. powder cocaine. The guidelines advised judges to sentence those convicted of possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine to, on average, 100 times more jail time than those […]