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Düsseldorf: Gesundheitsdezernent hält an Cannabis-Pilotprojekt fest
Venlo zeigt Interesse an Cannabis-Projekt
Rheinische Post (Deutschland)
Donnerstag, 9. Mai 2019
Politisch ist es umstritten, doch die Ampel-Kooperation im Düsseldorfer Rat und Gesundheitsdezernent Andreas Meyer-Falcke halten eine lizensierte Abgabe von Cannabis an Erwachsene im Rahmen eines Pilotprojekts für wünschenswert. Die Verwaltung habe deshalb einen interkommunalen Austausch angestoßen. Positive Rückmeldungen gebe es aus den Niederlanden. Die Gemeinde Venlo habe Interesse an einem Gedankenaustausch und würde sich „gegebenenfalls an einem gemeinsamen Cannabis-Projekt beteiligen“. Zudem werde mit dem Leiter des Deutschen Instituts für Sucht- und Präventionsforschung der Katholischen Hochschule in Köln eine Untersuchung abgestimmt. (Mehr dazu: Demonstration in Düsseldorf: Breites Bündnis fordert Legalisierung von Cannabis) -
First three stores closed in 'war on cannabis'
Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Salvini said the issue could spark a government crisis
ANSA (Italy)
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini said that his drive to close all of Italy's 'cannabis shops' has started with the closure of three stores in central Italy. These shops sell 'cannabis light' - hemp flowers and products that have an extremely low level of the psychoactive compound that makes people high. At the moment cannabis light' can be sold legally, although, in theory at least, the aromatic hemp flowers must not be smoked or eaten and any eventual seeds must not be cultivated. The issue is the latest to expose differences between Salvini's League and its government coalition partner, the 5-Star Movement (M5S). (See also: League voted for cannabis shops, notes M5S MP | Italy’s interior minister declares war on cannabis, but stakeholders expect limited impact) -
Mexico wants to decriminalize all drugs and negotiate with the U.S. to do the same
The document says that ending prohibition is “the only real possibility” to address the problem
Newsweek (US)
Thursday, May 9, 2019
Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrado released a new plan that called for radical reform to the nation’s drug laws and negotiating with the United States to take similar steps. The plan calls for decriminalizing illegal drugs and transferring funding for combating the illicit substances to pay for treatment programs instead. It points to the failure of the decades-long international war on drugs, and calls for negotiating with the international community, and specifically the U.S., to ensure the new strategy’s success. “The ‘war on drugs’ has escalated the public health problem posed by currently banned substances to a public safety crisis,” the policy proposal, which came as part of AMLO’s National Development Plan for 2019-2024, read. Mexico’s current “prohibitionist strategy is unsustainable,” it argued. -
Denver voters approve measure to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms
In California activists took an initial step last week toward drafting a ballot measure to decriminalize psilocybin statewide
Forbes (US)
Wednesday, May 8, 2019
Voters in Denver, Colorado, made their city the first in the U.S. to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms by approving a ballot measure on the issue. Its provisions prohibit the city government from using any resources to impose criminal penalties against adults over 21 years of age for personal use and possession of psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called "magic mushrooms." Initiative 301 also specifies that going after people for the mushrooms is the city's “lowest law enforcement priority” and establishes a review panel to assess and report on the effects of the change by early 2021. The new ordinance is just one example of how drug policy reform activists are increasingly setting their sights beyond marijuana. (See also: Denver first in U.S. to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms) -
New Zealand tried for 20 years to curb its methamphetamine crisis. It failed
The meth they traffic is stronger than ever and shipments are growing larger
New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
For twenty years, New Zealand fought methamphetamine and lost. Now, a Herald investigation has examined the impact of the meth epidemic from the inside - spending six months in communities ravaged by meth. The documentary project, named Fighting the Demon, found a country gripped by the second wave of addiction; where users are punished but not helped; creating one of the most lucrative methamphetamine markets in the world. "If you were to ask any significant trafficker what is the best market for meth ... they would say Australia and New Zealand," said Drug Enforcement Agency Canberra attache Kevin Merkel. The figures behind the drug are startling. Meth inflicts an estimated $500 million of social damage a year. -
Legalising cannabis: A grower’s perspective
He suggested the government limit the number of growers, suppliers and sellers, so the market didn't get out of control
RNZ (New Zealand)
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
As the New Zealand government announces its plans for a cannabis referendum, a self-described “cannabis master” who grows and sells marijuana, provides insight into the illegal business he’s running, and what a workable legitimate business model could look like. If recreational use becomes legal, he wants to be part of the change. It will allow growers and sellers like him – those he describes as “ninjas or living double lives” – to stop hiding. He said they'd come out of the woodwork and contribute to a new, legal market and would apply for a licence. (See also: New Zealand Drug Foundation is backing a Yes vote) -
Government releases cannabis referendum details
A legal purchase age will be 20
New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
People will vote on a proposal for a legal cannabis market in 2020 with tightly controlled rules including special bars for consumption, special outlets for sales, and strict rules for home-grown cannabis. Justice Minister Andrew Little made the much-anticipated announcement, including proposals to limit the potency of products, and having a licensing regime to control all stages of the supply chain as well as all available products - including edibles and resins. "Cabinet has agreed there will be a simple Yes/No question on the basis of a draft piece of legislation," Little said. A bill will be drafted before the 2020 election, but will not be passed into law, calling into question whether the referendum will be binding. (See also: Cannabis referendum: A simple yes or no question on reform at 2020 General Election |Explainer) -
No date yet for legalisation of marijuana, parliamentary secretary says
Reforms parliamentary secretary Julia Farrugia Portelli said that an educational campaign would be a fundamental part of legalising marijuana
Malta Today (Malta)
Tuesday, May 7, 2019
The Malta government has not yet set a date to motion a bill to potentially legalise recreational marijuana, parliamentary secretary for reforms Julia Farrugia Portelli has said. She confirmed that talks with stakeholders were currently under way and said that a campaign to educate people about the drug and its effects would necessarily be part and parcel of any law to legalise marijuana. Farrugia Portelli is piloting a proposed reform on the recreational use of marijuana and had previously told this newspaper that the government would be insisting on certain rules in this regard, including a minimum legal age of 21 for buying the drug, and an absolute prohibition to smoke in public places, among other things. (See also: PN and PD discussed possible legalisation of recreational marijuana) -
China cashes in on the cannabis boom
The movement to legalize the mind-altering kind of cannabis has virtually no chance of emerging in China
The New York Times (US)
Saturday, May 4, 2019
China has made your iPhone, your Nikes. Now, it wants to grow your cannabis. Two of China’s 34 regions are quietly leading a boom in cultivating cannabis to produce cannabidiol, or CBD, the nonintoxicating compound that has become a consumer health and beauty craze in the United States and beyond. They are doing so even though cannabidiol has not been authorized for consumption in China, a country with some of the strictest drug-enforcement policies in the world. “It has huge potential,” said Tan Xin, the chairman of Hanma Investment Group, which in 2017 became the first company to receive permission to extract cannabidiol here in southern China. The chemical is marketed abroad. -
Jamaicans are worried foreigners will take over the ganja market
Who is going to profit from this? Jamaicans, or somebody else?
Vice (US)
Saturday, May 4, 2019
Since 2015, Jamaica has become the site of a ganja gold rush, as foreign investors pump in money and set up shop on the island. Smaller local farmers, many of whom were being harassed and punished for growing in the past, simply can’t compete. Some locals see this as another extensions of colonial inaction. “I'm not saying all of these investors coming in are evil,” says Ras Iyah V, an activist who has been fighting for ganja legalization for years. “I'm just saying most of these coming in are concerned with money. About making money out of an industry that our people have suffered for.”
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