Andre Agassi makes the sensational confession today that he lied to the tennis authorities to escape a ban for taking hard drugs.

The American, one of the finest players to grace the game, tested positive for the highly addictive drug, crystal methamphetamine, and then duped the Association of Tennis Professionals into believing he had taken it by accident.

Agassi, now 39, relates how he took crystal meth — possession of which carries a maximum five-year jail sentence in the US — in 1997, when his form was falling and he was having doubts about his impending marriage to the actress, Brooke Shields.

Had the positive drugs test become public, the repercussions for Agassi could have been catastrophic. It remains to be seen whether repercussions will follow his confession.

Jeffrey Lewis - The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane
from the album The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane and Other Favorites

California state lawmakers are scheduled to hear testimony tomorrow in support of taxing and regulating the commercial production and distribution of marijuana for adults age 21 and older.

Members of the California Assembly Committee on Public Safety have called for the hearing, entitled “Examining the Fiscal and Legal Implication of the Legalization and Regulation of Marijuana.” The hearing will be chaired by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), sponsor of Assembly Bill 390, the Marijuana Control, Regulation, and Education Act. It will take place at 10am in room 126 of the State Capitol.

A press conference will take place prior to the hearing at 9 am in Capitol Room 317...

Tomorrow’s hearing marks one of the first times since 1913 that the California legislature has debated ending criminal prohibition.

Thanks Mike!

The recent protests against the state’s marijuana laws have died down. Several weeks ago, the pro-legalization group in Keene had about 120 people participating in its daily demonstrations on the city Square. And the press, some from as far away as Boston, was there to document it. Despite six protest-related arrests during the recent Pumpkin Festival, the daily count is back down to a few dozen demonstrators. The police - and the news media - have been staying away.

The classification of ketamine - which has become increasingly popular with clubbers - could be upgraded "at some point", the Home Office has said.

Government adviser Professor David Nutt said the drug, designed as a horse anaesthetic, could be doing "permanent damage" to some users' bladders.

The Home Office said it intended to review whether ketamine should remain at class C. This puts it in the "least dangerous" category of illegal drug...

The drug was linked to the deaths of 23 people between 1993 and 2006. Most had accidents after taking it.

There have been concerns it is growing in popularity on the UK club scene and it was made illegal in January 2006, after a surge in the number of people using it.

Prof Nutt, an expert in addiction based at Bristol University, told the Commons home affairs committee: "We are seeing a consistent increase in use and we are seeing a very worrying effect in terms of bladder spasms and bladder pain.

"There is concern that it is causing permanent bladder damage."

He told the MPs he had heard that many young people were turning to ketamine as a recreational drug because the street strengths of ecstasy and cocaine had declined.

Health and law enforcement officials around the nation are scrambling to figure out how to regulate medical marijuana now that the federal government has decided it will no longer prosecute legal users or providers.

For years, since the first medical marijuana laws were passed in the mid-1990s, many local and state governments could be confident, if not complacent, knowing that marijuana would be kept in check because it remained illegal under federal law, and that hard-nosed federal prosecutors were not about to forget it.

But with the Justice Department’s announcement last week that it would not prosecute people who use marijuana for medical purposes in states where it is legal, local and state officials say they will now have to take on the job themselves.

Thanks Matt!

Appearing on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, the Pulitzer-winning journalist and longtime icon of America's political right declared that with President Barack Obama's new policy which respects the states right to allow medical marijuana, the United States is "probably in the process now of legalizing marijuana."

He added that if there were to be a serious effort to fight the increasingly violent, powerful Mexican drug cartels, "you'd legalize marijuana," the sale of which provides the gangs the vast majority of their funding.

Will's comments come not even a week after a Gallup poll found record-breaking support across the United States for the legalization of marijuana, with nearly half of U.S. citizens in favor and a clear majority of support emerging among liberals, Democrats and moderates.

Will's proclamation, as a well-respected conservative thinker, is especially significant given that Gallup found the only two political groups in the U.S. that are still very strongly opposed to legalization are conservatives and Republicans.