Biden's bombshell weed announcement is both bigger and smaller than it might seem. On Thursday afternoon, President Joe Biden announced that he would be pardoning some federal convictions for marijuana possession and urged states to do the same. He also asked Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to initiate a review of how marijuana is classified under federal law. "Sending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives – for conduct that is legal in many states," Biden tweeted.

Though “Dank Brandon” memes be be proliferating on your timeline, don’t forget that President Biden has supported America’s war on drugs for decades; he even wrote many of the laws that helped build a punitive criminal justice system for marijuana offenders.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents seized an estimated $4.3 million worth of fentanyl pills on Wednesday evening.

The seizure happened in the Tuscon, Arizona Sector when agents conducted a vehicle stop on a white Chevy Equinox and observed several duffel bags in the car, according to a press release. Agents also noticed that the female driver was "noticeably nervous as she was questioned." Another female was in the car, and both are U.S. citizens, according to officials.

The war on drugs may profess to be waged against narcotics, but it overwhelmingly targets people—a view increasingly shared by experts on drug use. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, touched on this recently when she wrote about addiction stigma in STAT, noting that “societal norms surrounding drug use and addiction continue to be informed by myths and misconceptions.”

The Biden administration is pushing to reform state drug laws in its latest move aimed at preventing deaths among people who use illegal drugs. The new approach focuses on so-called “harm reduction” measures that promote safe drug use over abstinence and the threat of imprisonment.

When Aaron Hinton walked through the housing project in Brownsville on a recent summer afternoon, he voiced love and pride for this tightknit, but troubled working-class neighborhood in New York City where he grew up.

He pointed to a community garden, the lush plots of vegetables and flowers tended by volunteers, and to the library where he has led after-school programs for kids.

But he also expressed deep rage and sorrow over the scars left by the nation's 50-year-long War on Drugs. "What good is it doing for us?" Hinton asked.

A determined political movement to end the war on drugs has taken shape across Europe and North America. Harm reduction advocates say lives can be saved and resources spared, if only the state would move away from punishing drug users. Perhaps, some predict, the state could even get into the business of regulating the production and sale of once-illegal substances.

President Donald Trump has expressed willingness to interfere in the West Coast’s seemingly intractable “homelessness” problem: “Donald Trump said he might ‘intercede’ to ‘clean up’ homelessness in San Francisco and Los Angeles, noting that world leaders ‘can’t be looking at that.’”

One day last winter, Ivin Smith decided to see where his son died.

He drove from his home in Harvey to J.R.'s Plaza Hotel on the West Side of Chicago. Smith walked into the room where his son had stayed and stood near the door, taking it in.