• Im Görlitzer Park wird weiter gedealt

    Null-Toleranz-Regelung in Kreuzberg
    Berliner Zeitung (Germany)
    Donnerstag, 9. April 2015

    Seit dem 31. März gilt im Görlitzer Park die Null- Toleranz-Regelung. Wer mit kleinsten Mengen Marihuana oder Haschisch erwischt wird, muss mit einer strafrechtlichen Verfolgung rechnen. Die Toleranzregel für zehn bis maximal 15 Gramm Marihuana und Haschisch zum Eigenbedarf ist im Park aufgehoben. Rund anderthalb Wochen nach der Einführung der Null-Toleranz-Regelung am Görlitzer Park verkaufen Dealer dort nach wie vor Drogen. Kreuzbergs Bezirksbürgermeisterin Monika Herrmann hält an der Idee des kontrolliertem Verkaufs fest. (Mehr dazu: Görli: Mehr als 2000 Anzeigen)

  • France votes to legalize drug 'shooting galleries'

    Drug addicts would be allowed to take illegal drugs, up to a limit, without being arrested
    The Local (France)
    Wednesday, April 8, 2015

    France's National Assembly voted this week to legalize drug consumption rooms - safe places for addicts to consume drugs - in the hope of keeping users off the street. The move has already proved controversial, with opponents calling the galleries "death rows". After four hours of animated debate, French MPs approved a six-year testing of so-called shooting galleries ("salle de shoot") for drug addicts in Paris and in at least two other cities. (See also: Addressing opposition to France’s Safer Consumption Rooms)

  • U.S. secretly tracked billions of calls for decades

    The DEA used its data collection extensively and in ways that the NSA is now prohibited from doing
    USA Today (US)
    Wednesday, April 8, 2015

    For more than two decades, the Justice Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration amassed logs of virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries linked to drug trafficking. The Justice Department revealed in January that the DEA had collected data about calls to "designated foreign countries." The now-discontinued operation, carried out by the DEA's intelligence arm, was the government's first known effort to gather data on Americans in bulk, sweeping up records of telephone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens regardless of whether they were suspected of a crime.

  • Chile opens debate on marijuana bill

    The bill now moves to the full Chamber of Deputies before passing to the Senate, a legislative process that could take years
    Agence France Presse (AFP)
    Tuesday, April 7, 2015

    Chile's congressional health committee approved a bill that would legalize the cultivation of marijuana for private recreational or medicinal use, sending it to the floor for a full debate. The bill would take marijuana off the list of hard drugs and make it a soft drug like alcohol. It would allow people over the age of 18 to grow up to six cannabis plants for their own use, or for use by minors if they use the substance as part of a prescribed treatment. But it would maintain the country's ban on using marijuana in public and limit the amount a person can possess to 10 grams.

  • Tobacco Trade Association calls for legalizing hash

    The government could impose a 50 percent tax on this trade through a long-term strategy
    The Cairo Post (Egypt)
    Tuesday, April 7, 2015

    The Cairo and Giza Tobacco Merchants Association submitted a proposal to the Cabinet to legalize the use and trade of hash, arguing the measure could prove an effective means to reduce the state budget deficit, according to Al-Masry Al-Youm. Association head Osama Salama said he submitted the proposal to the Legislative Reform Committee headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab. “We urge the state to use the ‘forbidden fruit’ rule,” said Salama explaining that “imposing 10 taxes on hash sales could generate EGP 5 billion ($700 million) in state revenues every year.” (See also: Political leader calls for legalizing hashish trade)

  • Canadian company to tap into Jamaica for medicinal cannabis supply

    The Gleaner (Jamaica)
    Saturday, April 4, 2015

    A Canadian company is seeking to tap into the Jamaican market for the supply of dried marijuana to the medicinal marijuana industry in Canada. Marketing director of FLOR, Raymond Grant, (the local agent for the company), said that 80 per cent of the shares of the company are owned by Jamaicans living in Canada who are ready to invest in Jamaica. Grant has been meeting with local farmers and laying the groundwork for the development of a supply industry in Jamaica.

  • Big need for marijuana banking, yet Congress has ‘no appetite’ to fix issue

    Supporters of federal legislation to give financial institutions a green light to deal with marijuana business say momentum is on their side as more states legalize the drug
    The Denver Post (US)
    Friday, April 3, 2015

    Congress doesn’t have the appetite to deal with the conflict between federal and state laws that has caused a banking crisis for the burgeoning marijuana industry in Colorado and other states, according to a member of a House committee that would take up the debate. Despite repeated calls for Congress to address federal rules that restrict banks from openly working with the marijuana industry — the drug is illegal under federal law — U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton, R-Cortez, said he sees little resolve in Washington, D.C., to take it on. It’s also unlikely the Federal Reserve will act anytime soon on marijuana-only Fourth Corner Credit Union’s request for direct access to the nation’s banking system.

  • Kratom criminalisation successfully shelved in Malaysia

    Medicinal value and harms of criminalization were the key reasons for opposition of the amendment
    IDPC
    Thursday, April 2, 2015

    The increasingly widespread use of ketum (or kratom) in Malaysia earlier this year prompted the Ministry of Home Affairs to lead a push to schedule it in the Dangerous Drugs Act 1952. On April 1, the amendment to the DDA was shelved. Opposition MP Wong Chen wrote a Facebook post detailing reasons for opposition to the amendment, including: usage as traditional medication, lack of socioeconomic considerations, and the need for evidence-based rehabilitation. He also emphasized that the country should be moving towards decriminalization of drugs.

  • Cannabis for schizophrenia - A new medication?

    Deutsche Welle (Germany)
    Thursday, April 2, 2015

    Cannabidiol, which is an active substance in cannabis, helps relieve the symptoms of schizophrenia by helping to normalize brain metabolism. Schizophrenia is a severe and disabling brain disorder. Professor Markus Leweke, a medical doctor at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany, describes the potential benefits of medical cannabis and pharmacological treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders, with a focus on cannabinoids.

  • This is what's actually in your ecstasy

    A new breed of super-strong ecstasy has accompanied this peak in quality
    Vice (UK)
    Wednesday, April 1, 2015

    The latest data on ecstasy – taken from pills seized by police in England and Wales between July and October of last year – reveals that the average pinger contains 108mg of MDMA, making them the strongest they've ever been in the UK. For context, "back in the day" – i.e. during the Second Summer of Love, as rave took off here in the late-80s and early-90s – most pills were around the 80mg mark. Which is close to what's seen by ecstasy researchers as the "acceptable" dose (70-75mg) for an average-sized adult during one drug-taking session. (See also: Why are pills so strong at the moment?)

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