• The reason pot stocks will never recover

    The whole marijuana industry is staring down the barrel of price compression
    Forbes (US)
    Friday, August 30, 2019

    dollar cannabisMarijuana stocks. At a glance, they seem like a disruption investor’s dream... After all, it’s a multi-billion-dollar market opening up after 100 years in the shadows. It’s forecast to grow at breakneck speed. And big companies are plowing huge sums of money in. However, you must look past the stock performance and into the actual business of selling marijuana. The fact is, most marijuana companies stand little chance of ever making significant profits. Sure, it’s new and exciting. But marijuana is a tough business. And it’s going to get much, much tougher as the market matures. You see, now that it’s becoming legal, there’s nothing special about marijuana. Like corn or wheat, it’s a crop. Selling marijuana was lucrative because it was illegal.

  • Green light: ten towns named for legalised cannabis-growing experiment

    A total of 79 coffee shops will, from 2021, be supplied by officially regulated cannabis growers
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Thursday, August 29, 2019

    coffeeshop salesOne in seven Dutch coffee shops is set to join an experiment where for the first time cannabis growing is to be regulated. Justice minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus and health minister Bruno Bruins named the ten municipalities where all coffee shops will take part in a four year experiment aimed at controlling drug quality and reducing criminality. The Netherlands’ major four cities, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, will not take part in the experiment as it was deemed too difficult to include all of their coffee shops. Instead, the trial will include Arnhem, Almere, Breda, Groningen, Heerlen, Hellevoetsluis, Maastricht, Nijmegen, Tilburg and Zaanstad. (See also: Cannabis trial: Dutch cities picked for cafe supply experiment | Dutch municipalities mull formal legalization of weed)

  • A global revolution in attitudes towards cannabis is under way

    The legalisation of the drug for medicinal use is paving the way for a broader liberalisation
    The Economist (UK)
    Thursday, August 29, 2019

    un cannabis2Uruguay paved the way when it legalised cannabis in 2013. But it is the reform in Canada, a G7 member, that has done most to heighten international tension over cannabis’s legal status. Last year it fully legalised the drug. Part of its rationale was that a regulated legal trade would curb the black market and protect young people, who were buying it there. Canada’s change has caused fierce fights within the UN in Vienna, according to Martin Jelsma of the Transnational Institute, a think-tank. A possibility that intrigues international-policy wonks is for Canada and other law-breakers to form an “inter se” (between themselves) agreement, allowing them to modify existing drug-treaty provisions. For this to be an option, Canada will probably want to wait until the club of outlaws is bigger.

  • Almere, Breda and Tilburg set to join regulated marijuana experiment

    One issue is with the four year trial period, which will not be extended, even if the experiment is successful
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Wednesday, August 28, 2019

    The Dutch government will press ahead with trials of regulated marijuana production with the maximum 10 cities when the experiment starts in 2021. The experiment is part of the current government’s coalition agreement and was the express wish of the Liberal democratic party D66. The lower house voted in favour earlier this year, but the senate has yet to have its say. The experiment with regulated growing is supposed to remove the gray area between the sale of marijuana in council-licenced coffee shops and the illegal cultivation and supply. However, there are so many problems with the proposals that the big cities, where most of the coffee shops are located, see no point in joining in. (See also: New approach needed to tackle Amsterdam's drugs crime, mayor admits)

  • Drug research ignores stable or pleasurable use — And that’s a problem

    Too often, drug research proceeds from the assumption that self-regulated drug use is unlikely or extraordinarily rare
    Filter (US)
    Tuesday, August 27, 2019

    In the United States and beyond, drug research ignores most people who use drugs. While the large majority of people who use drugs (PWUD) do not suffer from substance use disorders (anywhere from 80-90 percent), research in the field predominantly focuses on the minority experience of harmful use. In part, this is an issue of the needs and urgency surrounding severe substance use disorders. At the same time, it is also an issue of funding. The National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), which funds around 80 percent of all drug research around the world, has the stated goal of funding research on “drug abuse and addiction.” The question of what drug research is “fundable” and/or “publishable” in this context incentivizes researchers to continue to do more research on the harms of drugs.

  • Canadian marijuana legalisation has not removed crime: Dutch police lecturer

    The Canadian system has a number of weak points although it looks good on paper
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Tuesday, August 27, 2019

    nl cannabis cultivation policeCanada’s decision to legalise cannabis has not resulted in removing organised crime from the chain. Police Academy lecturer Pieter Tops, who visited Canada as part of a police delegation last month, told current affairs show Nieuwsuur that it remains easy for criminals to get hold of legally-grown marijuana. ‘The most important conclusion we can draw is that it is a mistake to think you can reduce the illegal cannabis world by legalisation,’ Tops said. The Canadian system, he said, has a number of weak points although it looks good on paper. The Netherlands plans to begin trials with regulated marijuana production although the draft legislation still has to be approved by the lower house of parliament. (See also: Cannabis legalization has no immediate impact on crime stats: Dutch police)

  • A new approach to criminalisation could end Cape Town’s drug wars

    Drug market regulation is a pragmatic position that involves rolling out strict government control into a marketplace where currently there is none
    The Conversation (US)
    Tuesday, August 27, 2019

    sa stop gang warIt’s not known exactly how many gangs there are in South Africa’s Western Cape province, but gang membership has been estimated at more than 100 000. Almost all these gangs, most concentrated in Cape Town, make the bulk of their money from procuring and selling illegal leisure drugs such as tik (crystal methamphetimine), heroin, nyaope (a street drug that mixes several illicit drugs) and dagga (marijuana). Herein lies the conundrum: the criminalisation of possession and use of drugs creates conditions that are conducive for organised crime. This is why understanding the use, misuse and trade of illegal drugs is central to any intervention involving gangs and any policy relating to them.

  • Bovenschulte will Modellprojekt für Cannabis

    In einem Interview hat sich Bürgermeister Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) für einen Modellversuch zur kontrollierten Abgabe von Cannabis ausgesprochen
    Weser Kurier (Germany)
    Dienstag, 27. August 2019

    germany cannabis flagsIn die Debatte über eine Lockerung der Bremer Cannabispolitik kommt erneut Bewegung. In einem Interview mit der Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung (NOZ) hat sich Bremens Bürgermeister Andreas Bovenschulte dafür ausgesprochen, die kontrollierte Abgabe von Cannabis in einem Modellversuch zu testen. Ziel des neuen Vorstoßes ist es laut Bovenschulte, durch die kontrollierte Abgabe von Cannabis einen besseren Jugendschutz und bessere Prävention gewährleisten zu können. Der NOZ sagte er wörtlich: "Man muss sagen: In Sachen Cannabis ist dieses Ziel in der Vergangenheit verfehlt worden." Bremen wolle den Modellversuch in Kooperation mit weiteren Ländern oder Kommunen angehen.

  • Roll up, roll up: capitalism will drive cannabis legalisation in Ireland

    Legalisation is coming, no matter what Irish policymakers may say now
    The Irish Times (Ireland)
    Friday, August 23, 2019

    ireland cloverIt is inevitable that cannabis will be legalised in Ireland in the coming years. It may take five years or even longer for the prohibition to be fully lifted but it is an utter fallacy to suggest this country will resist the inexorable trend that has taken hold in the United States, Canada, Spain and other western countries. Legalisation is coming, no matter what Irish policymakers may say about the prospect now. Doctors and campaigners and those who work in criminal justice will argue it out. But they are not the only ones driving the agenda. Once blue-chip international capital begins swirling around an issue – and this has already begun here – the die is basically cast.

  • It’s time we were made legal, say London’s cannabis dealers... but don’t do it for skunk

    Weed dealers in the capital would welcome being decriminalised... but worry that big business will swoop in and take all the profits
    Evening Standard (UK)
    Thursday, August 22, 2019

    uk cannabis debate esLondon cannabis dealers would welcome the legalisation of their trade, despite apprehension that they would be excluded from enjoying the fruits of the process and lose their livelihood. This was one of the key findings of a research project by London Metropolitan University and the Evening Standard in which two criminologists carried out interviews with cannabis dealers to glean their views on legalisation. Two dealers described dual cannabis markets, one for “pure weed” smoked by the older generation and another for skunk, smoked by young people. They were adamant that high-potency skunk should not be legalised as it was a contributing factor to street violence and mental illness, despite skunk being “more profitable”. (See also: 50 arrests as police swoop on 'cannabis cafe' in east London)

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