• Entkriminalisierung von Cannabis: Theoretische Mehrheit im Bundestag

    FDP, Linke und Grüne bringen Vorschläge zur Liberalisierung der „weichen Droge“ ein. Auch die SPD scheint nicht abgeneigt
    Die Tageszeitung (Germany)
    Donnerstag, 22. Februar 2018

    Im Deutschen Bundestag besteht eine theoretische Mehrheit, die die Entkriminalisierung des Cannabiskonsums vorantreiben will. Die Bundestagsfraktionen von FDP, Linken und Grünen stellen ihre Vorschläge zu dem Thema im Parlament zur Debatte. Das Novum: Auch die SPD hat signalisiert, dem Vorhaben grundsätzlich positiv gegenüberzustehen. Nach Jahren fruchtloser Diskussionen könnte nun also Bewegung in die Sache kommen. Mit einer kurzfristigen Entscheidung ist jedoch in keinem Fall zu rechnen – die drei Vorlagen werden zunächst an die Ausschüsse überwiesen. (Mehr dazu: Universität Düsseldorf steigt aus Cannabis-Projekt aus | Bremen: Cannabis-Freigabe vom Tisch | Düsseldorfer Uni-Dekan würde Cannabis-Aktien kaufen)

  • Hong Kong drug firm’s shares rise after it brings in Chinese hemp producer to explore medical uses of cannabis

    Meilleure Health International Industry Group issues 312 million new shares to Hemp Investment Group for about HK$109 million
    South China Morning Post (China)
    Thursday, February 22, 2018

    Shares in Hong Kong pharmaceutical company Meilleure Health International Industry Group soared by as much as 35 per cent on Thursday after it issued 312 million new shares to top Chinese hemp producer Hemp Investment Group for about HK$109 million (US$13.92 million). The companies will explore medical uses for cannabis in China, the world’s largest hemp producing country. Hemp production is legal in some Chinese provinces, including Yunnan and Heilongjiang. China accounts for about half of the world’s legal hemp cultivation, and is the biggest exporter of hemp paper and textiles, according to official figures.

  • How New Zealand laws contributed to a synthetic drug crisis

    Good legislation gone bad
    Vice (New Zealand)
    Monday, February 21, 2018

    Had things gone another way, the Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) might be the grand pillar of Peter Dunne’s parliamentary legacy, a test case for the world to watch. Unfortunately for Dunne, as it stands, the act sits on the books basically unused, while New Zealanders continue to die from one of the drugs the act was designed to protect them from: synthetic cannabinoids. Dunne proposed the basic tenet of the PSA: instead of the government finding each of these basically endless combinations illegal after they had entered the black market, producers that could prove the safety of their product could be granted a license to sell them legally. That testing would have to be to the same standard as regular pharmaceutical products, the cost of which—estimated at about a million dollars per product—would be borne entirely by the applicant.

  • Colombia’s two anti-coca strategies are at war with each other

    Forced eradication is proceeding faster than voluntary crop substitution
    The Economist (UK)
    Tuesday, February 20, 2018

    colombia erradicacion forzosaThe government’s “comprehensive programme for illicit crop substitution” (PNIS) aims to replace the coca with a profitable legal crop. The crop-substitution strategy is set out in a peace accord that in 2016 ended more than 50 years of war between the government and the FARC, a leftist guerrilla group. It is part of a broader project to bring stability and better living standards to swathes of the countryside once controlled by the FARC. The government says it reserves forced eradication for industrial-scale plantations controlled by large drug gangs, and for farmers who refuse to participate in crop substitution. The two approaches are supposed to complement each other. The government wants to eradicate by force 65,000 hectares (160,000 acres) of coca this year.

  • Hemp without the high: Legal side still smoky, but cannabis startups eye areas from fabric to medicine

    The legality of cannabis use in India has been a subject matter of debate from the British rule to as recent as 2017. But India is finally warming up to R&D in this area
    The Indian Express (India)
    Tuesday, February 20, 2018

    In April 2017, when the Central government and the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued the first-ever research licence to grow cannabis to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR – IIIM) in collaboration with Bombay Hemp Company (BOHECO), it was the start of something unprecedented. Cannabis startup Boheco was banking on the revival of cannabis to improve research, reduce drug abuse and aid cancer patients. Since November 14, 1985, when the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act came into force in India, the use of cannabis, with the exception of bhang, has gone underground.

  • Report: 99% of California cannabis growers are still unlicensed

    CalGrowers estimates that only around 700 of the state's 68,000 farmers have obtained state licenses so far
    Leafly (US)
    Monday, February 19, 2018

    The backers of Prop. 64, the 2016 Adult Use of Marijuana Act, sold California voters on the promise that small and medium businesses would be the engine powering the state’s $7 billion legal cannabis market. So far, that’s not happening. According to a report, An Emerging Crisis: Barriers to Entry in California Cannabis, by the California Growers Association, a small-farmers advocacy group, fewer than 1% of California’s estimated 68,150 cannabis growers have secured state licenses to continue their businesses legally. The CalGrowers report estimates that 80% to 90% of growers who did business with the state’s legal storefront dispensaries prior to January 1 – when new licensing requirements went into effect – “are being pushed to the black market.”

  • Zwei von drei Deutschen haben noch nie gekifft

    68 Prozent gaben an, die Droge noch nie konsumiert zu haben
    Die Welt (Gremany)
    Sonntag, 18. Februar 2018

    Die Mehrheit der Deutschen hält Kiffen für gefährlich. Laut Yougov-Umfrage sind die Deutschen im Frage Freigabe von Cannabis für den Freizeitkonsumgänzlich unentschlossen: 35 Prozent gaben an, eine Haschisch-Legalisierung zu befürworten; 33 Prozent lehnten dies ab; 22 Prozent sagten, es sei ihnen egal. In einer anderen Umfrage, die im November 2017 vom Meinungsforschungsinstitut Forsa durchgeführt worden war, fiel die Ablehnung deutlich stärker aus: Dort hatten sich 63 Prozent gegen eine Legalisierung von Cannabis ausgesprochen. (Mehr dazu: Berlin: SPD-Fraktionschef Saleh fordert Liberalisierung bei Cannabis | Parlamentarier für Entkriminalisierung von Cannabiskonsums | Wie Grüne, Linke und FDP heute im Bundestag Cannabis legalisieren wollen)

  • Check benefits of cannabis, Prime Minister’s office tells health ministry

    The Hindustan Times (India)
    February 17, 2018

    As demands for the legalisation of cannabis or hemp gather momentum, the Prime Minister’s Office asked the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) to examine the benefits associated with the plant and respond to a petition within a month. The founder of The Great Legalisation movement, Viki Vaurora, had written to the PM asking him to legalise cannabis for medicinal and industrial purposes. The movement gathered steam around December because it was expected that the legalisation would be discussed during the winter session. However, MP Dharamvira Gandhi, whose private member bill seeking legalisation of “non-synthetic” intoxicants, including cannabis, was cleared by the legislative branch of Parliament, said the bill may come up for discussion only in the Budget session.

  • Duterte to Int'l Criminal Court: Drug war continues, case or no case

    'The war or the drive against drugs will not stop and it will last until the day I step out,' says a defiant President Rodrigo Duterte
    Rappler (Philippines)
    Monday, February 12, 2018

    Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte sought to appear unfazed by the International Criminal Court’s preliminary examination into his drug war, saying it will not stop the controversial campaign. “The war or the drive against drugs will not stop and it will last until the day I step out. If I go to prison, I go to prison,” Duterte said. Duterte said the ICC could not declare him guilty of a crime since merely threatening criminals with death is not a crime. The Philippine President has threatened to withdraw from the ICC. Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said the ICC preliminary examination is a “waste of time” as the Philippines’ justice system is fully functioning, thus the international court, as a “court of last resort,” has no jurisdiction over the drug war.

  • Plans for heroin to be prescribed to addicts in West Midlands

    Police and crime commissioner David Jamieson sets out policy at odds with national approach
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, February 12, 2018

    Doctors in the West Midlands could soon be prescribing heroin for addicts, who would be invited to inject themselves with clean syringes in drug consumption rooms with medical staff on standby, under a plan by the region’s police and crime commissioner David Jamieson setting out a number of recommendations for a regional drugs policy sharply at odds with the government’s zero-tolerance approach. The proposals also include a mechanism to divert criminals who use drugs into treatment rather than the justice system, equipping police with the overdose treatment naxalone, and introducing on-site drug testing in nightclubs. (See also: A police force is set to go against government policy to try and save lives | Drug reform police chief faces the Downing Street backlash)

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