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U.S. decrees that marijuana has no accepted medical use
Los Angeles Times (US)
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Marijuana has been approved by California, many other states and the nation's capital to treat a range of illnesses, but in a decision the federal government ruled that it has no accepted medical use and should remain classified as a highly dangerous drug like heroin. The decision by the DEA comes almost nine years after medical marijuana supporters asked the government to reclassify cannabis to take into account a growing body of worldwide research that shows its effectiveness in treating certain diseases, such as glaucoma and multiple sclerosis. -
A Puff in Paris
Danna HarmanThe Huffington Post (US web)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Napoleon's troops first brought over the mysterious dried leaf called hashish from Egypt in the early 1800s. Soon, it was being sold in pharmacies across France and gaining adherents, especially among the bohemian intellectual crowd. Today, France has some of the most conservative drugs laws in Europe. A high-level parliamentary report released recently concluded that it was impossible to continue "advocating the illusion of abstinence" and recommended that the drug be subject to "controlled legalization." -
Let states enact their own marijuana policies
Paul Armentano, deputy director of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana LawsCNN (US)
Wednesday, July 6, 2011Let's be clear: HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, proposed by Reps. Barney Frank and Ron Paul, does not "legalize drugs" or even so much as legalize marijuana. Rather, this legislation removes the power to prosecute minor marijuana offenders from the federal government and relinquishes this authority to state and local jurisdictions.
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INCB Regrets Bolivia’s Denunciation of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs
UN Information Service
Tuesday, July 5, 2011The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) regrets the decision by the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia to denounce the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol. On 29 June 2011, in an unprecedented step, the Government of Bolivia denounced the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961, as amended by the 1972 Protocol, to which the State of Bolivia had previously acceded. The Government also announced its intention to re-accede to this Convention but with a reservation regarding specific treaty provisions.
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Medical-pot shops feel heat amid new laws, federal prosecution warning
The Denver Post (US)
Saturday, July 2, 2011Colorado's medical-marijuana industry took a battering from all sides, as new laws restricting the businesses took effect and the Obama administration made its most explicit threat yet that dispensary raids are still possible. Perhaps the most pressing challenge to Colorado's medical-marijuana businesses came in a U.S. Department of Justice memo . In this week's memo, Deputy Attorney General James Cole wrote that people "who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana and those who knowingly facilitate such activities" are in violation of federal law, regardless of their state laws.
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California medical marijuana growers face pressure
San Francisco Chronicle (US)
Saturday, July 2, 2011
A new Obama administration memo approves federal prosecution of anyone in the business of growing or supplying marijuana for medical patients even if they are complying with state law, a contradiction, advocacy groups say, of President Obama's pledge to let states set their own policies. The memo, issued Wednesday by Deputy Attorney General James Cole, insisted that the Justice Department hadn't abandoned the policy it announced in a set of guidelines in October 2009. -
Portugal drug law show results ten years on, experts say
AFP
Friday, July 1, 2011Health experts in Portugal say that Portugal's decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked. "There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction. A report published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said Portugal had dealt with this issue "in a pragmatic and innovative way."
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Drug club: Spain’s alternative cannabis economy
Red Pepper (UK)
June 2011
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While public opinion seems to be shifting towards support for legalisation; there is surprisingly little discussion in the drugs counter-culture of what a socially just model of cannabis consumption might look like. Nick Buxton examines the experience of cannabis social clubs in Spain. -
Justice Department "Clarifies" Stance on Medical Marijuana: It's Illegal And They Will Arrest You
SF Weekly (US)
Friday, July 1, 2011For a few weeks now, medical marijuana activists have been waiting for Attorney General Eric Holder to "re-clarify" exactly what the Justice Department plans to do about state-legal, federally-illegal medical marijuana. In a memo dated June 29, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole did just that: marijuana is illegal, and the federal government can prosecute any user, any time for growing, selling or transporting it, state law be damned, he wrote.
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Bolivia formally renounces UN narcotics convention because it penalizes coca-leaf chewing
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 30, 2011Bolivia's government has informed the United Nations it is renouncing the world body's anti-drug convention because it classifies coca leaf as an illegal drug, the Foreign Ministry said Thursday. Bolivia's decision comes after a proposal by President Evo Morales to remove language obliging countries that have signed the convention to ban the chewing of coca leaves was rejected following U.S. objections.
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