• Experts debate what to do about cannabis

    In Switzerland, 35% of 15 year olds have already smoked a joint
    Swissinfo (Switzerland)
    Sunday, July 22, 2012

    rolling-jointShould pot be outlawed, controlled, or just legalised? For anti-addiction experts, regulating consumption would counter a drug market associated with violent crime and lead to better public health and safety. But not everyone agrees. This year, Parliament agreed on the principle that adult cannabis users should be fined and not subjected to criminal charges. (See also: Growing cannabis at home)

  • Global banks are the financial services wing of the drug cartels

    As HSBC executives apologise to the US Senate for laundering drugs money, the fact is that nothing changes
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, July 22, 2012

    Last week, managers from Britain's biggest bank, HSBC, lined up before the Senate's permanent sub-committee on investigations. Europe's largest bank ignored warning signs about money-launderers. The notion of any dichotomy between the global criminal economy and the "legal" one is fantasy. Worse, it is a lie. They are seamless, mutually interdependent – one and the same.

  • Legal marijuana debated as Belize joins regional push on drugs

    Bloomberg News (US)
    Tuesday, July 17, 2012

    Marijuana possession may be decriminalized in Belize as the Central American nation joins a list of countries from Mexico to Uruguay whose leaders have called for alternatives in the U.S.-led war on drugs. Prime Minister Dean Barrow’s government has appointed a committee to evaluate the decriminalization of up to 10 grams of marijuana. (See also: Support continues to flow for decriminalization of marijuana possession)

  • Peru’s Ex-Drug Czar on Where the Government is Going Wrong

    InSight Crime
    Tuesday, July 17, 2012

    Peru is fighting on two fronts against an expanding cocaine trade and resurgent Shining Path guerrillas. The country's former top anti-drug official Ricardo Soberon told InSight Crime why the government’s militarized approach, designed to keep the army and the US on its side, is only making things worse.

  • Comparing marijuana legalization measures in Oregon, Colorado, and Washington State

    Oregon Joins Colorado and Washington in voting on marijuana legalization this election
    National Cannabis Coalition
    Sunday, July 15, 2012

    national-cannabis-coalitionHistory was made as the Oregon Secretary of State announced that the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act turned in enough valid signatures to qualify for the 2012 ballot. Oregon joins Washington and Colorado in voting for marijuana legalization this year, the first time in history three U.S. states will put the legalization question to voters. Here is a look at the three legalization measures to be put before the voters in the November 2012 election.

  • Matt Bowden: The drugs lord who's strictly legal

    It seems prudent that parallel systems be implemented for regulation of new psychoactives
    The Independent (UK)
    Friday, July 13, 2012

    It is a remarkable statement - the rock musician and drugs activist credited with spawning the global legal highs industry is now calling for new laws in Britain to protect the millions of young people who take the substances. "It is clearly possible to regulate. The level of regulation should be commensurate with the level of risk, and the majority of these drugs carry a level of risk far lower than the risks associated with many other normal daily activities including driving a car, swimming off the beach and drinking alcohol."

  • Oakland protests U.S. attorney's crackdown on large medical marijuana dispensary

    City leaders say Harborside Health Center follows state and local laws and that its closure would have serious economic consequences
    Los Angeles Times (US)
    Friday, July 13, 2012

    A day after federal prosecutors moved to shutter the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary, city leaders and other officials came to the defense of Harborside Health Center, warning of dire economic and social consequences if Oakland's carefully regulated industry is quashed. "We cannot afford the money, we cannot afford the waste of law enforcement resources, and we cannot afford the loss of jobs that this would entail," City Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan said.

  • Lebanon: Hashish growers and the Government face off

    The areas planted with cannabis in Baalbek-Hermel cover more than 150,000 acres, based on unofficial numbers collected by the security forces
    Al Akhbar (Egypt)
    Friday, July 13, 2012

    lebanon cannabis fieldIt is hard to predict how this year’s planned destruction of the hashish crop in the Bekaa will play out. The farmers insist on confronting any such attempt, and the security forces are “determined” to destroy the cannabis crop. While the security forces continue with their preparations, hashish growers are adamant that they will “protect their livelihood.” Fighting the coming invasion is the farmers’ last resort after the state deserted them by “abandoning any attempt to address agricultural problems, support traditional crops, and compensate losses resulting from natural disasters or any downturn in agricultural production in light of the Syrian crisis,” according to one farmer.

  • Brazil Launches Campaign to Decriminalise Drug Use

    Fabiana Frayssinet
    IPS
    Thursday, July 12, 2012

    e-justo-issoA host of academic, legal, health, political and social figures are joining together to back a campaign to decriminalise drug use in Brazil, as tens of thousands of consumers uninvolved in the drug trade are currently jailed. The “Drug Law: It’s Time to Change” campaign is an initiative launched by the Brazilian Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which aims to gather one million signatures in support of a bill that will be introduced in congress during the second half of 2013.

  • U.S. cracks down on "world's largest" medical marijuana dispensary

    Reuters
    Wednesday, July 11, 2012

    Federal prosecutors have filed civil forfeiture actions against an Oakland medical marijuana dispensary that bills itself as the world's largest, as part of a crackdown by U.S. authorities on California's massive cannabis trade. The lawsuits seek forfeiture of two properties where Harborside Health Center operates, said the U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California. Harborside says it is the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the world, serving more than 100,000 patients and is subject of the Discovery Channel reality TV show Weed Wars.

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