• Deputies to stop harassing I-502 proponents

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Thursday, December 8, 2011

    King County authorities and the Washington State Public Stadium Authority have agreed to stop harassing people collecting signatures outside the Seahawks football stadium for an initiative that would legalize and tax recreational marijuana in the state. One of the collectors, Benjamin Schroeter, was arrested Nov. 13 after he refused an order to stop collecting signatures for Initiative 502 in a public area outside the stadium where fans were tailgating.

  • Should We Reschedule Marijuana?

    Second-Guessing Governor Chris Gregoire
    Seattle Weekly (US)
    Wednesday, December 7, 2011

    Last week's request by Govs. Chris Gregoire and Rhode Island's Lincoln Chafee to have the federal government reclassify marijuana as medicine--which at first glance looked like unalloyed good news for those who support safe access for patients--is actually a double-edged sword.

  • Combination of cannabinoids and opiates could help reduce chronic pain

    Medical News (US)
    Wednesday, December 7, 2011

    A UCSF study suggests patients with chronic pain may experience greater relief if their doctors add cannabinoids - the main ingredient in cannabis or medical marijuana - to an opiates-only treatment. The findings, from a small-scale study, also suggest that a combined therapy could result in reduced opiate dosages. Cannabidiol, or CBD, appears to be very effective against pain and inflammation without creating the "high" created by THC.

  • Sanctionner l'usage de stupéfiants par une contravention?

    Le Monde (France)
    Mercredi, 7 decembre 2011

    Actuellement, l'usage de stupéfiants est puni d'une amende maximale de 3 750 euros et d'un an d'emprisonnement. Une proposition de loi, adoptée le 7 décembre 2011 par le Sénat, entend modifier ces sanctions. Au lieu d'être un délit, le premier usage - et lui seul - deviendrait une contravention, assortie d'une amende de 68 euros. C'est une "suite logique" aux conclusions d'un rapport publié en juillet 2011 par la mission parlementaire d'information sur les toxicomanies, précise Jacques Mézard, président radical du groupe Rassemblement démocratique et social européen (RDSE) au Sénat, et rapporteur du texte.

  • Marijuana in California and Colorado: Highs and laws

    Jerky progress towards legalisation
    The Economist
    Saturday, December 3, 2011

    While it is allowed in some form in 16 states and Washington, DC, Colorado is the leader in trying to make medicinal pot a legitimate business. It has been legal since a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution in 2000, but the for-profit side only took off two years ago after the legislature allowed individual counties and towns more flexibility in interpreting the rules. Over a hundred have done so.

  • The great debate that no one's talking about

    About 7 million Australians take recreational drugs but no one will talk about it openly
    David Marr
    The Brisbane Times (Australia)
    Saturday, December 3, 2011

    Scientists, lawyers, police, social workers, doctors and directors of public prosecution are pleading for change but no political party will touch the issue in Australia. Public debate on the subject remains as primitive as ever. After all these years we are still dealing with the basics – over and over again. That's no accident. It's what moral panic driven by some media does.

  • New legislation proposes legalization of medical cannabis under strict rules

    Radio Prague (Czech Republic)
    Friday, December 2, 2011

    A government expert group is adding finishing touches to new draft legislation proposing the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. While still banning patients from growing medical cannabis on their own, the amended legislation allows importing as well as the cultivation of medical hemp by local private companies under strict state supervision. The committee, whose existence was prompted by a petition initiated earlier this year by doctors, researchers and patients and is supported by the chairwoman of the lower house of Parliament, is supposed to submit the final draft proposal to the Prime Minister in about a week’s time.

  • Obama Drug Policy: Reforming the Criminal Justice System

    Rafael Lemaitre (Communications director for the Office of National Drug Control Policy)
    The Huffington Post (US)
    Friday, December 2, 2011

    The complexity and scale of our drug problem requires a nationwide effort to support smart drug policies that reduce drug use and its consequences. The Obama Administration has been engaged in a government-wide effort to reform our nation's drug policies and restore balance to the way we deal with the drug problem. We have pursued a variety of alternatives that abandon an unproductive enforcement-only "War on Drugs" approach to drug control and acknowledge we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem and, further, that drug addiction is a disease of the brain, not some "moral failing."

  • A win-win on drugs? Fighting gangs by legalizing pot

    Copenhagen voted overwhelmingly to remove its cannabis prohibition. Here’s why
    The Global Post
    Thursday, December 1, 2011

    Copenhagen just got a lot closer to legalizing the sale of pot. If approved by the Danish parliament, next year the city could grant licenses to individual marijuana growers. City-owned shops would then sell their crop to the public. “We are thinking of perhaps 30 to 40 public sales houses, where the people aren’t interested in selling you more, they’re interested in you,” Mikkel Warming, the mayor in charge of social affairs in Copenhagen. “We don’t want an Amsterdam model," Warming said. "We want a way to make it legal to import or grow marijuana."

  • The politics of pot

    Are our politicians too paranoid to decriminalize marijuana?
    Mick Dumke and Ben Joravsky
    Chicago Reader
    Thursday, December 1, 2011

    pot-violation2Polls show overwhelming support for amending the laws. In fact, 50 percent of Americans—the largest portion ever recorded—now favor legalizing marijuana, according to an October Gallup poll. But elected officials have yet to catch up. Even those politicians who privately wisecrack about all the weed they smoked in their younger days are usually too timid to take on decades-old preconceptions about marijuana. In other words, the politicians who have the power to enact new rules have been too wimpy to use it, and those who want to see changes don't have the clout. The result is a political limbo where reefer madness still rules.

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