Last week, new legislation on impaired driving came into effect in Canada that includes tougher penalties and new, mandatory tests for drivers suspected of taking drugs. Under Bill C-2, the Tackling Violent Crime Act, effective July 2, if a driver is found to be impaired during a roadside test, he or she will be required to provide a mandatory sample of bodily fluids. full story

Red-faced drug cops looking for a marijuana grow-op came up with a tomato grow-op instead. Prince Rupert commercial fisherman Bruce Aleksich said that about 15 Mounties burst into his business last Thursday, only to find 400 tomato plants in various stages of growth. After a bleak spring, Aleksich decided to grow the tomatoes under lights. He has recently been rotating the tomatoes between the indoors and outdoors. full story

NEW YORK -- In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project. She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open. But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. "I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected." full story

Speakers at a seminar in Depok on Saturday said drug laws needed to place more of an emphasis on rehabilitation for users and stop treating addicts the same as traffickers and dealers. Drug laws, according to an official from the Health Ministry, criminalize drug users, treating them like traffickers, which in turn undermines efforts aimed at rehabilitation. full story

PARIS -- Dutch dope-selling coffee shops, hash smoking in 1960s London, and Moroccan marijuana production all come under the spotlight in a mammoth new study Thursday on the use and abuse of cannabis in Europe. "Over 13 million Europeans have consumed it in the past month," said the 700-page report by the EU drugs agency European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). "An estimated one in five European adults have tried it at some time in their lives." full story

OTTAWA - Drivers who get behind the wheel while high on drugs will face roadside testing and they could be ordered to surrender urine, blood or saliva samples at the police station under a controversial new law that takes effect July 2. Drivers who refuse to comply will be subject to a minimum $1,000 fine -- the same penalty for refusing the breathalyzer. Police will be given their new powers to nab drug-impaired drivers after almost five years of intense debate in the federal Parliament. full story

MIAMI -- From "Scarface" to "Miami Vice," Florida's drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined. full story

The other day, reading the New York Post's Page Six gossip page, I was surprised to find a picture of me, followed by the lines: "ABC's John Stossel wants the government to stop interfering with your right to get high ... The crowd went silent at his call to legalize hard drugs." I had attended a Marijuana Policy Project event celebrating the New York State Assembly's passage of a medical-marijuana bill. (The bill hasn't yet passed the Senate.) I told the audience I thought it pathetic that the mere half passage of a bill to allow sick people to try a possible remedy would merit such a celebration. Of course medical marijuana should be legal. For adults, everything should be legal. full story

A newly updated analysis co-authored by Dr. Mitch Earleywine, associate professor of psychology at the Albany campus of the State University of New York, shows that state medical marijuana laws have not increased teen marijuana use despite fears that have been raised when such measures are considered. Teen marijuana use has consistently declined in states with medical marijuana laws, and generally more markedly than national averages. The report, based entirely on data from federal and state government-funded drug use surveys, is available at www.mpp.org/teens/. full story

Canadians Marc Emery, Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams are fighting extradition to the USA. The Canadian Government decided to not go along with the plea deal even though the USA and Marc Emery were in agreement, so the extradition hearing has been rescheduled. Emery, Rainey and Williams (collectively known as the BC3) appeared in the BC Supreme Court on April 9th and set dates for the extradition hearing. The extradition hearing is now scheduled for February 9th through 17th, 2009. See the No Extradition forum in the CC Forums for more information and discussion. full story