• Uruguay pushes back start of marijuana sale in pharmacies

    Reuters
    Wednesday, November 26, 2014

    Uruguay could start selling marijuana in pharmacies in March 2015, the head of the National Drugs Board said, although the government had initially been aiming for year-end. A variety of hurdles are preventing the government from making its deadlines in implementing the measures passed into law last December. Even the plan to start selling marijuana in March, when President Jose Mujica leaves office, looks ambitious as the government is still tendering cultivation licenses.

  • Marijuana’s big-money Marley Brand makes a splash

    The subsidiary of Seattle-based Privateer Holdings is met with few tough questions, showing what a difference a year makes
    Seattle Weekly News (US)
    Tuesday, November 25, 2014

    Last week, NBC’s Today Show giddily announced an exclusive: Privateer Holdings, the Seattle marijuana company long acclaimed locally for its straight, corporate image and Ivy-League-educated bosses, was launching “the first global pot brand” based on the legacy of Bob Marley. The company is likely to start selling pot overseas, says Privateer public-relations director Zack Hutson, previously a spokesperson for Starbucks. “We’re in discussions with a distributor in Israel” – a country with a federally legal medical-marijuana system. Hutson also cites Uruguay and the Netherlands as potential early markets.

  • Marijuana industry sets its sights on the mainstream

    The appeal to the marijuana industry is simple: "The future of this industry depends on the present – don’t screw it up"
    The Huffington Post (US)
    Monday, November 24, 2014

    Marijuana is growing up. As Colorado and Washington’s recreational marijuana industries blossom and new markets in Oregon and Alaska begin to take shape, so-called ganjapreneurs are looking for ways to take cannabis mainstream. Before long, they hope, marijuana products will be as widely available as alcohol – and just as socially acceptable. While marijuana businesses may have dreams of mass market sales and global domination, for the moment, they seem to be taking the "go slow" approach.

  • Pro-marijuana groups eye Northeastern states, including Maine

    The Washington Post (US)
    Sunday, November 23, 2014

    maine2Marijuana advocates want to take their legalization drive — so far the province of Western states — to the Northeast, and they say the first state to do it here might be Maine. The Pine Tree State has a long history with cannabis — Maine voters approved medical marijuana legalization 15 years ago, becoming the first New England state to do so. Now, national marijuana advocates say, the state represents a chance for pro-marijuana forces to get a toehold in the Northeastern states they have long coveted.

  • The great American relapse

    An old sickness has returned to haunt a new generation
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, November 22, 2014

    The face of heroin use in America has changed utterly. Forty or fifty years ago heroin addicts were overwhelmingly male, disproportionately black, and very young. Most came from poor inner-city neighbourhoods. These days, the average user looks different. More than half are women, and 90% are white. The drug has crept into the suburbs and the middle classes. And although users are still mainly young, the age of initiation has risen: most first-timers are in their mid-20s. The spread of heroin to a new market of relatively affluent, suburban whites has allowed the drug to make a comeback, after decades of decline.

  • Vancouver addicts soon to receive prescription heroin

    The federal Health Minister objected to Health Canada’s approval of the treatment
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Saturday, November 22, 2014

    In a North American first, heroin addicts in Vancouver will soon receive prescription heroin outside of a clinical trial. Doctors at the Providence Crosstown Clinic received shipment of the drug this week for 26 former trial participants and will begin administering the drugs next week. In all, 120 severely addicted people have received authorization from Health Canada to receive the drugs; the rest are expected to get them soon. This development comes after more than a year of battles between Vancouver doctors and federal Health Minister Rona Ambrose.

  • Cannabis legalisation returns to Swiss agenda

    The idea is to set up clubs where anyone over 18 can smoke marijuana in a regulated setting
    Swissinfo (Switzerland)
    Friday, November 21, 2014

    Switzerland has always played a pioneering role in drug policy. In 1986, it was the first to open shelters for addicts and in 1994 it medically prescribed heroin. Today, its cities are looking at introducing cannabis social clubs – a controversial issue. "We propose experimenting with a possible new model because we need evidence of how the black market, crime and public health would change as a result of regulation," former interior minister Ruth Dreifuss, also a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, explained. "The pilot project will give us experience and facts so we can design a new policy."

  • Will Guatemala really explore marijuana legalization in 2015?

    In an interview with teleSUR Perez Molina said that his government would follow the example of Uruguay by taking a decision on legalizing marijuana in early 2015
    Talking Drugs
    Friday, November 21, 2014

    Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina in a recent interview mooted the idea of his country legalizing marijuana next year. Can we really expect bold changes in Guatemalan drug policy in the near future? Speaking to TeleSur, President Perez said that Guatemala was watching Uruguay's experiment with marijuana legalization and would likely take a decision on whether to pursue regulation itself in 2015.

  • Un peu moins de fumée autour des politiques antidrogues

    L’étude de deux députés, dont un favorable à une légalisation, pointe l’échec des mesures contre la consommation de stupéfiants
    Libération (France)
    Jeudi, 20 novembre 2014

    Il faut changer la loi de 1970 pénalisant l’usage de cannabis : c’est ce que préconisent deux députés, auteurs d’un rapport sur les drogues illicites dans lequel ils actent l’échec de la politique de prohibition, suivie depuis quatre décennies. Mais ils divergent sur la conduite à tenir : pour l’UMP Laurent Marcangeli (Corse-du-Sud), il convient de punir l’usage d’une simple contravention. Pour la PS Anne-Yvonne Le Dain, une légalisation s’impose dans l’espace privé, avec «une offre réglementée du produit sous le contrôle de l’Etat». (Cannabis : une contravention pour les consommateurs ?)

  • All the progress made on marijuana legalization could vanish with a new president

    The Huffington Post (US web)
    Wednesday, November 19, 2014

    The movement to end marijuana prohibition has made significant progress recently, but it could all be undone when the next president takes office in 2017. Harvard economist Jeff Miron, a supporter of marijuana policy reform, highlighted the precarious nature of state marijuana laws in an op-ed for CNN on why Congress needs to act now on federal marijuana policy. "Federal law still prohibits marijuana, and existing jurisprudence (Gonzales v. Raich 2005) holds that federal law trumps state law when it comes to marijuana prohibition," Miron wrote.

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