The new visibility of police violence toward African-Americans in the United States has stoked public debate about policing: What about body cameras? Should we reform police training? Perhaps we should go slow on all that military gear?

I find it almost impossible to sit through any of this while the underlying issue goes unaddressed: It’s the drug economy, stupid.

PHOENIX — Marijuana — a potential 2016 ballot initiative regarding its proposed legalization — will be the focus of a June 4 roundtable discussion hosted by Morrison Institute for Public Policy.

Marijuana presently is legal in Arizona if prescribed by a doctor for medicinal purposes only. The roundtable panel will discuss the current status of legal medical marijuana in Arizona and explore questions surrounding potential future legalization of recreational marijuana.

States across the nation — including Pennsylvania — are experimenting with relaxing marijuana laws, with some bringing to an end the long fight to outlaw its use.

That fight gained momentum in the 1930s. An article published in The Scranton Times on June 21, 1934, had the headline “State starts drive on Mexican narcotic weed.” Marijuana, which the article called a narcotic that “incites its users to crimes of perversion and violence and is an important factor in promoting industrial unrest,” had become “the target of an intensive enforcement drive by the state Department of Health.”

NBA players are pushing for a repeal of the league's anti-marijuana policy and hoping to convince league officials to legalize use of the drug for medicinal purposes.

TMZ Sports reports players want to completely abolish current league-wide policy that calls for a five-game suspension for first time offenders and a mandatory entrance into the league's substance abuse program. Penalties for each subsequent violation can be even harsher.

Working with Students for Sensible Drug Policy and writing for the Weed Blog, I am constantly surrounded by legalization activists. My Twitter feed, my Facebook news feed, and casual conversations at different events generally focuses on marijuana legalization in some kind of way. However, the line I constantly hear is something along the lines of “marijuana is safe! How could something as safe as marijuana be illegal!?”

Revised recreational marijuana bill SB 1176, died in Regulated Industries Committee on May 1, 2015.

The bill was the second attempt by Miami-Dade Senator Dwight Bullard to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. His first attempt, SB 1562, was filed last February 28. That bill also died in Regulated Industries Committee (May 2, 2014)

The difference between the original bill and revised bill was the revision “strengthened the efforts to direct revenue from the excise tax on marijuana to educational and health-related issues” according to Bullard.

In simpler terms, the new bill stated that some of the profit made by the tax on recreational marijuana would go to the Department of Health and Department of Education.

A volatile mix of marijuana and camping fuel exploded in a View Street apartment suite on Friday, the second time in a week that hash oil has caused an explosion on Vancouver Island.

Victoria firefighters arrived at the fifth-floor suite at 868 View St., near Quadra Street, about 5:30 p.m. Friday after a resident on the 11th floor called 911 to report an explosion. Firefighters were met by a man with burns to his face and body. There was no fire in the suite, but an explosion had occurred in the kitchen.

The man initially denied that he was cooking drugs, but drug paraphernalia was found at the scene, according to Victoria police.

“He was initially not forthcoming,” said watch commander Sgt. Matt Waterman.

Cambodia has a complicated relationship with cannabis. While it’s technically illegal, the authorities make exceptions for traditional and medicinal use. But now with a global trend away from prohibition, some suggest it’s high time the government here followed suit

As farmers across Cambodia take to their fields this month in anticipation of the rainy season, in a sleepy village in Battambang’s Moung Ruessei district, some are sowing a crop alongside their rice and cassava that’s just as traditional but much more controversial.

“Here, ganja is just like in Jamaica,” said Ratanak*, a 42-year-old farmer, after inhaling a lungful of thick, pungent cannabis smoke from a bamboo water pipe.

MILWAUKEE — Scores of travelers streamed through Los Angeles International Airport in March, just off a flight from China. But one passenger, a 33-year-old Chinese chemist, never reached baggage claim.

The passenger, Haijun Tian, was arrested at the airport by Drug Enforcement Administration agents, the prize at the end of an elaborate sting operation aimed at stemming the importation and sale of spice, the street name for a family of synthetic drugs that look like marijuana and are sprayed with a dangerous hallucinogenic chemical, then smoked.

(Photo : Getty Images/Hulton Archive) The golden artifacts were unearthed in the Caucasus Mountains in Russia.

Archaeologists have unearthed a 2,400-year-old set of gold artifacts within ancient grave mounds in the Caucasus Mountains of Southern Russia. The set included solid gold bongs that tested positive for marijuana and opium.