New York Times, 07 May 2013 – COURT UPHOLDS BAN ON MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES The California Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right of local governments to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. As dispensaries have proliferated since 1996, when California became the first state to allow medical marijuana, many municipalities across the state have used zoning laws to prohibits dispensaries from opening inside city limits. Patients and dispensary owners have argued that these local laws violate the state medical marijuana statutes by reducing patients’ access to the drug. But the court unanimously upheld a ban in the City of Riverside, paving the way for more municipalities to prohibit marijuana dispensaries. – — MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

New York Times, 09 Dec 2012 – LOS ANGELES – The small, open-hull fishing boats head north from Baja Mexico, traveling at night, their navigation lights off. It is an old smuggling route, popular with tequila runners during Prohibition in the 1920s and then little used for nearly a century. Enlarge This Image But as a result of a security crackdown along the border with Mexico, the waters off Southern California have again been teeming with smugglers in the last few years, as drug cartels seek new avenues to move illicit cargo into the United States.