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Agents in Oakland raid leader of medical marijuana movement
Los Angeles Times (US)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Federal agents struck at the heart of California's medical marijuana movement, raiding the nation's first pot trade school and a popular dispensary, both run by one of the state's most prominent and provocative activists, Richard Lee. The raids in Oakland by the Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administration sent a shudder through the medical cannabis trade and angered the plant's devotees, who believe the federal government is trampling on California law and the wishes of voters who approved medical marijuana use nearly 16 years ago. -
Drugs war 'a failure' that bred criminals
Report calls for a fundamental rethink of drug policies and ''an end to the tough on drugs approach''
The Age (Australia)
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, is among a group of prominent Australians who said the ''war on drugs'' is a failure. ''The prohibition of illicit drugs is killing and criminalising our children and we are letting it happen,'' says a report released by the group, which includes the former federal police chief Mick Palmer, the former NSW director of public prosecutions Nicholas Cowdery, the former West Australian premier Geoff Gallop, a former Defence Department secretary, Paul Barratt, the former federal health ministers Michael Wooldridge and Peter Baume, and the drug addiction expert Alex Wodak. (See also: Gillard and Carr divided over decriminalisation of drug) -
U.S. Facing Bold New Calls for “Drug War” Alternatives
Ekow Bartels-KodwoCouncil on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA)
Monday, April 2, 2012At a poorly attended summit of Central American leaders, President Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala reiterated calls for the decriminalization of recreational drug use. Although some former heads of state have called for such a solution, Molina became the first sitting head of state to openly advocate for such a controversial stance when speaking at the Central American Security Summit in Antigua, Guatemala. Billed initially as a groundbreaking summit during which “alternative solutions” to the War on Drugs were to be discussed, the conference’s emphasis on how to manage the War on Drugs, as well as talk of decriminalization, were sidelined before the conference even began.
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Drug policy debate is needed
To deal with the public health consequences of the criminalisation of drug use
BMJ (UK)
Editorial
Monday, April 2, 2012Discussions on drug policy are too often dominated by criminal justice arguments and polarised opinions on how to solve the so called war on drugs. Indeed, it is hard to maintain a neutral position on this topic, and any argument in favour of reviewing current policy in the light of existing evidence is in danger of being portrayed in the media as championing the legalising of all drugs, inciting headlines of the “top doc drug shock” variety.
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Law Could Hamper Drug Tourism in the Netherlands
The New York Times (US)
Monday, April 2, 2012
While there are many attractions that draw visitors to Amsterdam nearly a quarter of this city’s more than four million foreign tourists a year will visit its coffee shops, where the sale of small quantities of cannabis is tolerated. But Amsterdam’s days as a destination for hazy holidays may be numbered. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s right-wing coalition government is pushing to sharply restrict the operations of the coffee shops and to prohibit the sale of the drugs to nonresidents. If the measures survive a court challenge and the opposition of local officials, the first phase would begin May 1. -
New York police officers defy order to cut marijuana arrests
Nearly half of people charged with marijuana posession were reportedly not displaying the drug when they were stopped
The Guardian (UK) / New York World (US)
Friday, March 30, 2012Police officers in New York are "manufacturing" criminal offenses by forcing people with small amounts of marijuana to reveal their drugs, according to a survey by public defenders. Nearly half of New Yorkers picked up for small amounts of marijuana possession in recent months were not displaying the drug before they were stopped, the study shows, despite an order by New York police chief Ray Kelly that officers should not charge people in such circumstances.
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Israeli medicine goes to pot
Israel has one of the most progressive medical marijuana programs in the world
Israel21c (Israel)
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Israel’s inroads into legalizing cannabis for pain relief and managing terminal illness rest on the seminal research of Prof. Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem’s Center for Research on Pain. Back in 1964, working from bags of hashish seized by the local police, Mechoulam isolated the active compound from cannabis, THC. He came to be a trusted consultant on the topic to governments and individuals and urged that derivative compounds called cannabinoids be legalized for medical purposes in Israel. -
Narcotics watchdog turns blind eye to rights abuses
Patrick GallahueInter Press Service (IPS)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
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In a world where drug offences are punishable with the death penalty, torture or arbitrary detention, we must ask how far States can go to enforce the global prohibition on drugs. According to the so-called ‘guardian’ of the international drug control treaties – as far as they want. On several recent occasions, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) has refused to offer an opinion on sanctions that violate international law – even if those sanctions are imposed in order to comply with the drug control treaties. -
Ottawa's ideology-based drug policies under fire
CTV News (Canada)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A number of leading figures in Canadian public health are criticizing the federal government's approach to drug policy, suggesting political ideology is trumping scientific evidence. In a two-pronged attack, the chief medical officers of health for British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia are publishing a commentary in the journal Open Medicine that calls on the government to rethink strategies like minimum mandatory sentences for minor drug-related offences. -
Sex and drugs and private cells
Behind bars in South America
The Independent (UK)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A deadly riot in Mexico and an inferno in Honduras have turned the searchlight on conditions in Latin America's overcrowded and anarchic prisons. Of Peru's 66 desperately overcrowded jails, Lurigancho on the arid outskirts of Lima is the most overcrowded. Built for 2,500 inmates, this human clearing house crumbling walls are currently home to some 7,000 prisoners.
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