• Congress is considering a bill that would expand Jeff Sessions’s power to escalate the war on drugs

    The new bill extends the temporary scheduling duration to five years for Schedule A substances and eliminates the requirement for analyzing the drug's abuse record and its potential risk to public health
    The Washington Post (US)
    Friday, June 16, 2017

    Congress is considering a bill that would expand the federal government's ability to pursue the war on drugs, granting new power to the attorney general to set federal drug policy. The bipartisan legislation, sponsored by powerful committee chairs in Congress, would allow the attorney general to unilaterally outlaw certain unregulated chemical compounds on a temporary basis. The bill could be used to justify bans on substances that are not particularly lethal or dangerous. The drug known as kratom is an area of concern. The risks with using kratom are “remarkably low,” and people say it has helped them quit using alcohol, opiates and other, much deadlier substances. Kratom advocates fear that the new bill would allow the Justice Department to outlaw the drug, as it tried unsuccessfully to do last year.

  • Wrecking to ‘revitalise’: São Paulo expels drug users and razes buildings, claiming public safety

    Latin America’s most innovative social inclusion initiatives, Braços Abertos, shut down
    The Conversation (UK)
    Friday, June 16, 2017

    On May 21, 500 civil and military police descended on the downtown neighbourhood where, since the late 1990s, hundreds to thousands of crack-cocaine users and drug dealers have congregated (hence its dubious appellation Cracolândia). Throwing gas grenades and with the aid of barking dogs, the police raided the area with a brutality that shocked the city. Tear gas, sound bombs and rubber bullets were unleashed in a "scatter" model, sending residents running. Canvas tents and shacks that provide shelter for dozens of homeless people were ripped down, razed and burned. Mayor João Doria committed to shut down the Braços Abertos (Open Arms) programme, despite contradictory scientific and human evidence.

  • Kazakhstan hopes to ride high on hemp exports

    Cannabis grows all over the country. So we have to decide what to do with it
    Eurasianet (US)
    Thursday, June 15, 2017

    kazakhstan cannabis fieldKazakhstan has decided to profit from its natural cannabis riches and intends to start exporting hemp products to the Netherlands, Russia and China, TengriNews website has reported. TengriNews on June 15 cited the Agriculture Ministry as saying that around six square kilometers of industrial hemp were cultivated in the southern Almaty region this year for that purpose. KazHemp is the only company in Kazakhstan now officially engaged in sowing and harvesting hemp. The company has said it plants to harvest some 600 tons of hemp seeds and 4,000 tons of industrial hemp stems. "The plan is to process the stems into 1,000 tons of fiber at a primary processing plant being built in the Kerbulak district of Almaty region … for further use in the textile industry,” the Agriculture Ministry was cited as saying.

  • Mexico’s worsening war without a name

    The “war on drugs” has morphed into a new rash of killings in Mexico
    International Crisis Group
    Thursday, June 15, 2017

    The deadly violence of well-organised, business-minded criminal groups in Mexico risks being aggravated by government inaction, corruption and bombastic U.S. rhetoric – exactly what caused the problem in the first place. Murder rates have hit a record high. Over the first four months of 2017, three murders took place every hour to reach a total of 8,705, about half of which can be attributed to organised crime. The path to this grisly statistic advanced through various stages. The first was the militarisation of the “war on drugs” in 2006 by former President Felipe Calderón, triggering clashes between criminal organisations and state security forces. Then came strategies aimed at taking down “kingpin” cartel leaders and at splintering criminal organisations, both of which aggravated the violence and reinforced ties with corrupt state institutions.

  • Party drug ecstasy’s innocent image is wrong: Trimbos report

    Ecstasy has an innocent image so people don’t talk about the problems
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Thursday, June 15, 2017

    The image of ecstasy as an innocent party drug is wrong and although many people end up in hospital after taking a pill, few ever go public about their experiences, researchers from the Trimbos addiction institute said. One in 250 users end up being treated by first-aiders, researcher Esther Croes told the NRC. But users tend to dismiss the issue, arguing that sensible use of the drug does not cause problems. The research was carried out on behalf of the health ministry after pills with extremely high doses of the active ingredient MDMA started turning up. The researchers looked at the period 2006 to 2015 and found that just 3% of the Dutch use ecstasy and there has been a drop off in minor incidents. (See also: Deadly Superman ecstasy pill prompts 'red alert' in Netherlands)

  • Copenhagen’s drug injection rooms a success story, mayor says

    Life has become easier and safer for drug addicts in the Danish capital since the introduction of the fixerum in 2012
    The Copenhagen Post (Denmark)
    Tuesday, June 13, 2017

    The lives of drug addicts who overdose can often be saved, provided they are using a drug injection room, figures show. Since two fixerums were opened by the municipality of Copenhagen in 2012 in the face of considerable opposition, 643 people have been treated for overdoses without a single fatality. “This tells me there has been a crying need [for the fixerums]. And it has been right to find a new way for the many people living a chaotic existence on the street with little or no contact to the system,” said Jesper Christensen, the deputy mayor for social issues. “In just a single year we have concluded up to 2,500 advisory talks about health and social conditions with citizens living on the edge and often far from help, and there’s no doubt we have improved their prospects.”

  • Jeff Sessions personally asked Congress to let him prosecute medical marijuana providers

    The Rohrabacher-Farr amendment has significant bipartisan support in Congress
    The Washington Post (US)
    Tuesday, June 13, 2017

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions is asking congressional leaders to undo federal medical marijuana protections that have been in place since 2014, according to a May letter that became public. The protections, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, prohibit the Justice Department from using federal funds to prevent certain states "from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession or cultivation of medical marijuana." In his letter, first obtained by Tom Angell of Massroots.com, Sessions argued that the amendment would "inhibit [the Justice Department's] authority to enforce the Controlled Substances Act." (See also: Science calls out Jeff Sessions on medical marijuana and the "historic drug epidemic")

  • Support users, don't punish them: Ex-AFP boss' radical ideas to beat the drug trade

    The drug trade has just kept getting bigger and more dangerous, and we simply cannot arrest and imprison our way out of the problem
    The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
    Tuesday, June 13, 2017

    support dont punishFor over half a century governments in Australia have relied heavily on law enforcement to curb the drug trade and reduce drug use. But despite huge funding, ever-increasing levels of police effectiveness and effort, and the imposition of lengthy prison terms for serious drug offences, the drug trade has just kept getting bigger and more dangerous. With the best intentions in the world, we simply cannot arrest and imprison our way out of the problem. We must be prepared to try new ideas and approaches, writes Mick Palmer, the former commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.

  • U.K. tobacco giant gets medicinal cannabis expertise

    The appointment advances Imperial Brands’s efforts to move beyond its main product, as smoking rates in developed nations dwindle
    Bloomberg (US)
    Tuesday, June 13, 2017

    Imperial Brands Plc gained the services of a leader in the field of medicinal cannabis as the British tobacco manufacturer seeks to further its push beyond cigarettes. Simon Langelier, a 30-year veteran of Philip Morris International Inc., joined the board as a non-executive director. Langelier is chairman of PharmaCielo Ltd., a supplier of medicinal-grade cannabis oil extracts. He joined the Canadian-based company in 2015 after a career at Philip Morris that included heading up the next-generation products unit from 2007 to 2010. Imperial stands to benefit from his experience in tobacco and “wider consumer adjacencies,” Chairman Mark Williamson said. (See also: Canadian company PharmaCielo Ltd could be the first to grow legal pot in Colombia)

  • The case for prescription heroin

    Vancouver gives heroin to drug users suffering from addiction — and it works
    Vox (US)
    Monday, June 12, 2017

    CrosstownAs a deadly and devastating opioid epidemic ravages North America, the Providence Crosstown Clinic in Vancouver BC is giving their patients legal access the very drug they are addicted to: heroin. Patients can not only avoid death by overdose but otherwise go about their lives without stealing or committing other crimes to obtain heroin. And it isn’t some wild-eyed theory; the scientific research almost unanimously backs it up, and Crosstown’s own experience shows it can make a difference in drug users’ lives. Crosstown represents an international move toward providing a full spectrum of care for people who are addicted to drugs.

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