National
- Thirty years after reports of an outbreak of pneumocystis pneumonia in Los Angeles signaled the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, the medical and advocacy communities are taking a look back.
- Meanwhile, doctors are examining the case of a man cured of HIV and leukemia after undergoing a bone marrow transplant using cells from a donor with a rare genetic mutation.
- A panel of federal appellate judges in Cincinnati began hearing arguments this week on whether it is constitutional for the Obama healthcare law to require that uninsured Americans buy medical coverage.
- A new law in Florida mandates drug tests for all applicants to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program; those who test positive for illegal substances won’t be eligible for a year, or until they successfully complete a substance-abuse treatment program.
- Women who did not participate in a drug treatment program after being released from prison were 10 times more likely to return to prison within one year, Canadian researchers have found.
- A report compiled by the Global Commission on Drug Policy concludes that the war on drugs has been a failure and recommends decriminalizing the use of drugs to undermine the power of organized crime.
- In related news, an article in the New England Journal of Medicine explores the link between the increase in the U.S. prison population and the "war on drugs” mentality and the failure to treat addiction and mental illness as medical conditions.
- The editorial board of The Post-Standard of Syracuse cited a report by our partners at the Center for Community Alternatives in pushing for colleges to reconsider their use of criminal records in admissions.
- Governor Jerry Brown of California ordered more than 400 administrative positions cut at the state's Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in an effort to save $30 million.
- Under a proposal supported by U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., thousands of federal inmates could retroactively have their sentences trimmed to correct wide disparities in sentences between crack and powder cocaine offenses.
- Speaking at a law enforcement symposium in Washington this week, Mr. Holder said people charged with nonviolent crimes would generally be better served by remaining at home instead of behind bars, and said society needed to develop better alternatives to incarceration.
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