Obama Drug Policy

Despite growing consumer demand for these eco-friendly and healthy products, the U.S. remains the only industrialized nation in the world that allows the importation and sale of hemp raw materials and finished goods, but bans its farmers from growing the crop.

Throughout Europe and Latin America, and in many U.S. states, a similar debate is playing out: Can and should the drug war be replaced with drug regulation that supports individuals with health issues and focuses law enforcement on serious criminals?

Despite our disappointment with the substance of Obama's policy on controlled substances, we can and should applaud the president for at least understanding that the thoughtless tough-on-drugs pandering of the 80s and 90s has no place in modern American politics.

There is no simple, straightforward fix to America's drug problem. Successfully combating this social challenge requires an approach that blends drug treatment, smart law enforcement and alternatives to incarceration.

Medical marijuana is now a $1.7 billion industry that is helping sick people, creating jobs, and generating substantial tax revenue. There is no reason that this important progress can't continue.

WASHINGTON -- Drug legalization is an "entirely legitimate topic for debate," President Barack Obama said Thursday during his online YouTube town hall...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama plans to take questions from YouTube viewers Thursday afternoon, and for the third time in as many years, the ove...

WASHINGTON — The White House is putting more resources into drug prevention and treatment, part of President Barack Obama's pledge to treat ille...

It's clear that if the administration really wants to continue -- and win -- a War on Drugs, the fastest, cleanest, best way to do so is to cut off the cartels' bloodstream by legalizing marijuana.

There hasn't been a more confusing legal environment regarding marijuana than there is now in California, as recent multi-agency raids on two L.A. medical marijuana dispensaries demonstrate.

The White House backtracked slightly on Thursday from reports that it had made a hugely significant and binding backroom deal with the pharmaceutical ...

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In ...

When it comes to addressing America's disastrous war on drugs, the Obama administration is saying the right things. But when it comes to putting its rhetoric into action, the administration has faltered.

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration joined a federal judge Wednesday in urging Congress to end a racial disparity by equalizing prison sentenc...

Our leader doesn't seem to understand that millions of his interlocutor-constituents are actually quite serious about the issue.

Hey government dudes! (male and female). Give the bong back to Michael Phelps and make up your mind. The left hand seems to have forgotten what the right hand is doing.

Ganja may cause the giggles, but legalization shouldn't be a laughing matter. And it certainly shouldn't be treated as cavalierly as it has by the current administration.

What gives me hope is the fact that Seattle has been at the cutting edge of harm reduction and other drug policy reform developments in the U.S. over the last decade.

Current Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske will no doubt do a better job as the nation's "drug czar" than his predecessor, John Walters, who was a fanatic enemy of science and reason.

Vice President Joe Biden officially nominated Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as chief of the Office of National Drug Control Policy Wednesday. ...

WASHINGTON — The White House won't say it explicitly. Neither will the Drug Enforcement Administration. Yet there is a whiff in the air that U.S...

Obama must take advantage of this rare opportunity to expose the tired rhetoric of the drug war and do the right thing. Support harm reduction like the rest of the developed world does.