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Oklahoma Mom Gets 10 Years for Selling $31 of Marijuana

An Oklahoma woman has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for selling $31 of marijuana. Patricia Marilyn Spottedcrow, a 25-year-old mother of four, and her mother, Delita Starr, 50, sold an $11 dime bag to a police informant in Oklahoma on Dec. 31, 2009. The informant returned two weeks later to buy $20 of marijuana....

Is Portugal's Liberal Drug Policy a Model for US?

LISBON, Portugal (Aug. 14) -- Ten years ago, Portugal had some 100,000 heroin addicts -- about 1 percent of its entire population. HIV infections from injecting drugs were among the highest in Europe. Now the addict count has been cut nearly in half. HIV infections from drug use have fallen more than 90 percent. And the...

Congress Cuts Sentencing Disparity Between Crack Cocaine and Powder, but How Similar Are the Drugs?

(July 28) -- On Wednesday, the U.S. Congress took the somewhat unusual step of passing legislation to actually make the federal drug laws less severe. Before the new guidelines, a person arrested for possession of 5 grams or more of crack cocaine received an automatic five-year prison sentence. If signed by the...