• Senators introduce bipartisan bill to protect state laws on marijuana

    Gardner said outlawing legalized pot was like “putting the ketchup back in the bottle"
    The Hill (US)
    Thursday, June 7, 2018

    Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) introduced a bipartisan bill that would allow states to regulate marijuana without federal interference. Warren and Gardner, who both represent states with legal recreational pot, introduced the legislation, known as Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States (STATES) Act, as a response to the Trump administration's hard-line stance. The bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act to include a framework that says it no longer applies to those following state, territory or tribal laws “relating to the manufacture, production, possession, distribution, dispensation, administration, or delivery of [marijuana]." (See also: Trump signals support for states deciding if pot is legal)

  • Stop blaming banned drugs for the devastation caused by prohibition

    New Zealand was poised for drug reform in 2007, but reform never came
    The Spinnoff (New Zealand)
    Thursday, June 7, 2018

    nz cannabis helicopterNew Zealand was poised for drug reform in 2007 when the Law Commission was tasked to review the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. In 2011 after a four-year investigation the Law Commission published a comprehensive radical review, including 144 recommendations. Key recommendations of the Law Commission included rescinding the 1975 Act and replacing it with new legislation rooted in a health approach, a cautioning scheme for all drug personal possession, and ending the use of prison for low-level social drug dealing. New Zealand has gone in the opposite direction. The revelations concerning the meth testing of houses have epitomised just how punitive drug policies and practices have become in New Zealand.

  • Commonwealth Bank agrees to pay $700m to settle money laundering lawsuit

    If federal court accepts offer it will be largest civil penalty in Australia’s corporate history
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, June 4, 2018

    The Commonwealth Bank has agreed to pay $700m to settle civil proceedings relating to breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. The announcement follows court-ordered mediation between CBA and the government’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac. The deal would close civil proceedings against CBA, which began 10 months ago. In August Austrac announced it was suing CBA for 53,700 alleged breaches of money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. The case related to CBA’s use of intelligent deposit machines, a type of ATM launched in 2012, which let customers anonymously deposit and transfer cash.

  • Pot delivery services could be 'cockroaches' of marijuana legalization, experts say

    Some say so-called grey market will bloom while legal businesses suffer under strict legalization
    CBC News (Canada)
    Sunday, June 3, 2018

    canada spruceMarijuana businesses are growing as Canada moves toward legalization of recreational pot, creating an increasingly daunting job for those tasked with enforcing the rules. In Vancouver's bustling downtown, sleek, modern posters are plastered on lamp posts. It's not until you take a closer look that you spot the rolled joints inside a sandwich or buds among a plate of broccoli. Once an underground industry, marijuana delivery services are now advertising publicly, joining unlicensed retail stores and online shops as cannabis businesses openly skirting the existing law. (See also: Craft cannabis growers in B.C. sound alarm over survival of sector | 'I deliver to your house': pot dealers on why legalization won't kill the black market)

  • Legalising cannabis ‘could earn Treasury £3.5bn’

    Report suggests change to law would generate revenue and cut costs across justice system
    The Guardian (UK)
    Saturday, June 2, 2018

    Introducing a legal cannabis market to the UK could earn the Treasury between £1bn and £3.5bn a year in tax revenues, a new report suggests. Health Poverty Action, an international development organisation, claims that regulating and legalising cannabis in the UK is an “idea whose time has come” and that the windfall could be used to plug the gap in the NHS budget. “Prohibition has failed,” said the group’s advocacy officer, Natasha Horsfield. “From our perspective, it’s about regulating the market to improve public health outcomes and create a safer environment. But we can see the potential benefits from a taxation perspective if we were to regulate it.” (See also: Why we must legalise cannabis now for the sake of public health)

  • Dominica minister wants debate on decriminalisation of marijuana

    Dominica "should start talking about it" adding "as to what we decide is another matter"
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Friday, June 1, 2018

    A senior government minister says he remains baffled as to why Dominicans are afraid of debating the issue of decriminalisation of marijuana whether it is or medicinal or other purposes. “There's a debate on marijuana…the whole world is debating marijuana, whether it is for medicinal purposes, whether it is for religious purposes. Are we going to remain in our little world and afraid to take about marijuana? It is a discussion we need to have,” Deputy Prime Minister Reginald Austrie said. “In St Vincent (and the Grenadines) they talking about it, CARICOM (Caribbean Community) has taken a decision to begin to talk about it. Why are we not talking about it more in Dominica?"

  • Illicit drug trade worth 2.7bn euros a year in France

    The statistics are the first ever produced in France on the contribution of drug trafficking to the economy
    AFP (France)
    Wednesday, May 30, 2018

    The trade in illegal drugs contributes an estimated 0.1 percent of France's GDP, earning 2.7 billion euros, according to the national statistical institute, Insee. The figures are based on the findings of a government agency poll and could be an underestimate, according to Insee statisticians, since some respondents may have distrusted the pollsters. An estimated 3.1 billion euros-worth of drugs are consumed in France each year, according to the findings, but 400 million euros represent imports and so must be subtracted and credited to the GDP of the exporting countries, leaving a balance of 2.7 billion euros. France's trade in cannabis is worth a billion euros and that in cocaine 800 million euros, according to the estimates.

  • Origins of an epidemic: Purdue Pharma knew its opioids were widely abused

    The company was aware early on that OxyContin was being crushed and snorted for its powerful narcotic, but continued to promote it as less addictive
    The New York Times (US)
    Tuesday, May 29, 2018

    Purdue Pharma, the company that planted the seeds of the opioid epidemic through its aggressive marketing of OxyContin, has long claimed it was unaware of the powerful opioid painkiller’s growing abuse until years after it went on the market. But a copy of a confidential Justice Department report shows that federal prosecutors investigating the company found that Purdue Pharma knew about “significant” abuse of OxyContin in the first years after the drug’s introduction in 1996 and concealed that information. But the drug maker continued “in the face of this knowledge” to market OxyContin as less prone to abuse and addiction than other prescription opioids, prosecutors wrote in 2006.

  • We went undercover in a Chinese MDMA factory

    Getting down to work in Hangzhou to land a multi-million pound deal
    MixMag (UK)
    Tuesday, May 29, 2018

    ecstasy labWe want to understand why MDMA is today so cheap, so pure, and so abundant across the UK and the EU. Since 2012, pills have doubled or tripled in strength and now have to be taken in halves if you want to remember your night – or to survive it. There were 65 MDMA-related deaths in 2016 – a fivefold increase from the 13 recorded by the Office for National Statistics in 2011. On dark web markets, prices for kilogrammes of MDMA are now £5,000; 10 years ago it was £30–40K. MDMA used to sell at street level for £60/gramme; now it can be bought for £30. The chemical we’ll buy, PMK-glycidate, caused these changes, as it is being used to make MDMA on an unprecedented, industrial scale.

  • Danish police in new Christiania clampdown as hash market pulled down

    The Local (Denmark)
    Monday, May 28, 2018

    Police in Copenhagen tore down cannabis stands in the Pusher Street market area in Christiania for the third consecutive day. But sellers in the alternative enclave do not yet appear to have accepted the outcome of the police operations. Stalls are regularly raided in police clampdowns on Christiania, an area within Copenhagen originally established by hippie squatters in 1971. Last week, the market area was fenced off for three days, reportedly due to internal discussions between residents. Concerns over increased violence and a “bad atmosphere” were related to the temporary closure. (See also: After five days of raids, Christiania hash traders stop rebuilding market | Police officers return to Christiania after violent scenes)

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