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Summit Daily News, 22 Feb 2010 - "I am in control here in the White House." - Secretary of State Alexander Haig, 1981 Ah, the good old days when even a big shot like Gen. Al Haig could get in trouble for such mavericky declarations that defy basic constitutional precedents.

The Hill Times, 22 Feb 2010 - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said his recent Senate appointments would help make Canada a safer place by allowing his government' s justice legislation to pass into law unchanged, but with the Independent Senators now holding the balance of power things aren't likely to be much different. The government introduced 17 law-and-order bills last year, of which three were passed into law, and the rest died on the Order Paper when Parliament was prorogued on Dec. 30. Of the three bills that were before the Upper House two were still making their way through the normal legislative process, and one was amended by the Liberal Senators with the support of four of the five Independents, with one absent due to illness.

Chronicle Herald, 21 Feb 2010 - Counselling, Support, Treatment Will Be Available For About 30 People Addiction Services has announced a new methadone maintenance program for people with drug addictions in northern Nova Scotia. Based at Covington Place on Willow Street in Truro, the opiate treatment program is available to people in the areas served by the Colchester-East Hants, Cumberland and Pictou County health authorities. The program has room for 30 people with harmful addictions to such drugs as morphine, codeine, OxyContin and Dilaudid.

SouthtownStar, 21 Feb 2010 - Multiple choice. Essays. Pop quizzes. Students at Marist High School may be subjected to yet another test next school year, but it's one they can prepare for by doing nothing at all. Principal Larry Tucker insists a proposed new drug testing policy at the school isn't geared toward punishing students at the coed Catholic school in Chicago's Mount Greenwood community.

The Murfreesboro Post, 21 Feb 2010 - Prescription painkillers may be replacing illegal narcotics as drugs of choice, a sheriff's narcotics detective said. And users are going through different means to get their hands on the pills - through prescription forgeries, doctor shopping, drug store robberies, home and auto burglaries and thefts from family medicine cabinets, said Detective Jerremy Weaver.

The Register-Guard, 21 Feb 2010 - A Canadian mother says her Canadian son should be with her, not in the Oregon foster care system Lisa Kirkman said she will do anything to get her 11-year-old son back. "I'll dance with a chicken on my head if I have to," the Calgary, Alberta, resident said.

The Register-Guard, 21 Feb 2010 - Decisions regarding foster care children in Oregon are made by judges in juvenile court, with input from state Department of Human Services caseworkers, DHS spokesman Gene Evans said. DHS is working with the Lane County Juvenile Court, the Canadian government and the U.S. State Department on Noah Kirkman's case, Evans said. One problem with such cases is that there is no specific international treaty for repatriation -- the return of a person to one's homeland -- of children, said Gloria Anderson, DHS's diversity and international affairs manager. Instead, two other international treaties are consulted, the Hague Adoption Convention and the Uniform Child Abduction Prevention Act, or UCAPA, Anderson said.

Northwest Herald, 21 Feb 2010 - WOODSTOCK - In some courthouses, the guy who was busted with cocaine might see a judge weekly, while the addict who beats his wife is required to visit his probation officer every six weeks. But, in drug-court expert Douglas Marlowe's mind, that just doesn't make sense.

Los Angeles Daily News, 21 Feb 2010 - There were cannabis creams and THC soda, doctor green thumbs, hemp nurses, and even a marijuana chef all taking part in the green festivities at HempCon 2010. Thousands of medical marijuana consumers, advocates and vendors crowded the Los Angeles Convention Center Saturday for the three-day event.

Sacramento Bee, 21 Feb 2010 - LOS ANGELES -- Three decades ago, Bruce Perlowin was smuggling hundreds of thousands of pounds of Colombian marijuana to California in fishing boats passing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. His childhood friend, David Tobias, was trafficking dope across turquoise Caribbean waters to Florida and Georgia. On Saturday, at a Los Angeles medical marijuana trade show teeming with entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on California's legal pot market, the two chums were reunited as business consultants marketing "solutions for an emerging industry."

Boston Globe, 21 Feb 2010 - AFTER DEATH, CITY WANTS TO ADDRESS USE OF HALLUCINOGENIC MUSHROOMS GLOUCESTER - To Mayor Carolyn Kirk and Police Chief Michael Lane, the revelation that a Gloucester High School sophomore ingested hallucinogenic mushrooms before his drug-related death last weekend seemed a rare and startling aberration.

Hawaii Tribune Herald, 20 Feb 2010 - Police say a vice officer who was accused at a January County Council committee meeting of misconduct in 2007 had been previously cleared of the allegations. The claims against Officer Brian Prudencio were made by a tearful 14-year-old Kian Tatum in a Jan. 5 hearing of the Public Works and Intergovernmental Relations Committee. The committee was discussing a resolution by Kona Councilman Kelly Greenwell to urge the state Legislature to decriminalize adult possession and personal use of marijuana. The proposal was rejected.

Pueblo Chieftain, 20 Feb 2010 - Many questions have no definitive answers when it comes to medicinal marijuana and the law. Over the past two weeks, the owner of Medimar Ministries has wrestled with the ambiguity of Colorado's medical marijuana law.

The Standard, 20 Feb 2010 - The big white van isn't something you'd want to see parked in your neighbour's driveway. At least double the length of a typical family minivan and tall enough to stand in, this one comes with large magnetic signs that can easily be stuck on the door panels.

El Paso Times, 20 Feb 2010 - EL PASO -- City Rep. Beto O'Rourke on Friday defended his stance for legalizing marijuana as a way to combat drug violence in Juarez, and said thousands of Mexican nationals are escaping to El Paso. He made the comments during a live online chat with readers of elpasotimes.com.

Record Searchlight, 20 Feb 2010 - Gun shop manager Patrick Jones says he wants to sell as many firearms as he can. But Jones won't do business with known medical cannabis patients, such as Army Spc. Sean Merritt, an honorably discharged and disabled veteran.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, 20 Feb 2010 - Federal agents are cracking down on imports of a synthetic marijuana that has started appearing in the Philadelphia area. It is not illegal in any state to possess the substance, but Food and Drug Administration regulations bar its import and sale because it is not a tested and approved drug.

AlterNet, 20 Feb 2010 - What About Dubya's Alleged Cocaine Consumption As a Younger Man? Or Rush Limbaugh's Painkiller Addiction? Giddy Republican leaders and conservatives of all stripes were fired up yesterday when they gathered at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington.

Daily Herald, 20 Feb 2010 - There was a house in Barrington, where police said they discovered marijuana being grown in every single room. Or the 5,000 Ecstasy pills that undercover drug officers purchased in Deerfield. Or the 15-year-old Lake County girl who police found with four empty vodka bottles, cocaine and explosives in her bedroom.

Vancouver Sun, 20 Feb 2010 - Ryan Wedding Says Evidence Shows Deal Was For Less Cocaine -- And That His Sentence Should Be Reduced Former Olympic snowboarder Ryan Wedding wants a California court to set aside his conviction for cocaine trafficking and grant him a new trial.