• UK doctors will be able to prescribe cannabis medicine next month

    Sajid Javid says rules to allow cannabis-derived products come into force on 1 November
    The Guardian (UK)
    Thursday, October 11, 2018

    Doctors in England, Wales and Scotland will be able to prescribe cannabis-derived medicine in less than a month, the home secretary has announced. Sajid Javid previously announced cannabis-derived medicinal products were to be placed in schedule 2 of the 2001 Misuse of Drugs Regulations, allowing clinicians to prescribe them. The home secretary confirmed the regulations would come into force on 1 November. The changes come after a series of high-profile cases involving children being denied access to cannabis oil to control epileptic seizures. The cases include those of Billy Caldwell, 12, and Alfie Dingley, six, who have forms of intractable epilepsy, also known as refractory epilepsy, that appear to be eased by the use of cannabis oil.

  • Pot companies failing at financial reporting, regulator says

    There are now more than 135 publicly traded cannabis companies in Canada, with a combined market value of more than $46 billion
    The Toronto Star (Canada)
    Wednesday, October 10, 2018

    Cannabis companies are failing to adequately disclose even basic financial information to shareholders — from cost of production to fair value assessments, according to Canadian regulators. Of 70 companies reviewed, every single one fell short on disclosure requirements, often not providing enough information in their statements and management discussion for an investor to understand their financial performance, the Canadian Securities Administrators said. The CSA warning comes years after pot companies began listing on the country’s exchanges and just days before Canada legalizes marijuana for recreational use on Oct. 17. Valuations of many pot companies have soared, though the stocks are often volatile. (See also: Why the weed stock boom is about to bust)

  • About six-in-ten Americans support marijuana legalization

    This November, voters across seven states will vote on a variety of statewide and local marijuana reform measures
    Pew Research Center (US)
    Monday, October 8, 2018

    About six-in-ten Americans (62%) say the use of marijuana should be legalized, reflecting a steady increase over the past decade, according to a new Pew Research Center survey. The share of U.S. adults who support marijuana legalization is little changed from about a year ago – when 61% favored it – but it is double what it was in 2000 (31%). As in the past, there are wide generational and partisan differences in views of marijuana legalization. Nearly seven-in-ten Democrats (69%) say marijuana use should be legal, as do 75% of independents who lean toward the Democratic Party. Republicans are divided, with 45% in favor of legalizing marijuana and 51% opposed.

  • Mexico president-elect says will look at legalizing some drugs

    The president-elect has held town-hall reviews on violence and discuss potential "amnesty" for non-violent drug traffickers and farmers
    Reuters (UK)
    Sunday, October 7, 2018

    Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that he would consider legalizing certain drugs as part of a broader strategy to fight poverty and crime. Speaking in the state of Zacatecas, Lopez Obrador said that a recent proposal from the country's defense minister, who backed legalization of opium for medicinal use, was important and that he would not rule out anything. "It's important what he proposed," Lopez Obrador said. "There should be a comprehensive approach to the terrible problem of insecurity and violence."

  • Illegal snus operations a growing problem in Sweden

    Much of the foreign demand for snus comes from Norway, Finland and Russia
    The Local (Sweden)
    Sunday, October 7, 2018

    Sweden’s status as the only country in the EU where snus is legal has created a growing underground manufacturing operation, broadcaster SVT reported. More popular than cigarettes in Sweden, snus is a moist tobacco product either bought loose or in small parcels and placed under the lip. Its export to and sale within other EU countries is banned, and the EU has consistently opted to maintain that restriction, with Sweden granted an exception and allowed to sell the product within its borders. But demand for snus beyond Sweden’s borders is growing. So too is the number of Swedish operations apparently willing to break the law to meet the demand by producing and selling snus in secret.

  • Is India losing out on a ready-to-boom cannabis market by not legalising its use?

    Looks like it’s not just the beverage companies that have an interest in cannabis. The trend now extends to the beauty industry
    The Economic Times (India)
    Saturday, October 6, 2018

    Just about everybody smokes cannabis in India. Hush, not a word to anybody. We will all be arrested. It’s a democratic, egalitarian weed loved by copywriters, doctors, designers, salesmen, delivery boys, auto-rickshaw drivers, cycle-rickshaw pullers, politicians and, of course, musicians. It’s illegal and yet its use is widespread. In Odisha, it is relatively more acceptable and easier to procure. In Varanasi, at a fancy lit fest that I was invited to, bhang balls were served to delegates on a silver platter. It was part of tradition and local hospitality, the law be damned. While the world, from Coca-Cola to Corona, appropriates our tropical plant and basically reinvents bhang, making billions in the process, we have no political, moral and judicial stand on it. We have given up all claims on what was our own for millennia.

  • ‘An argument that made no sense at all’

    Why Ed Rendell supported needle exchange during the AIDS epidemic and safe injection sites today
    The Philadelphia Inquirer (US)
    Friday, October 5, 2018

    us philly overdose prevention siteFormer Gov. Ed Rendell announced that he is incorporating a nonprofit, called Safehouse, that will work to open a safe injection site in Philadelphia. Responding to a threat by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that federal law enforcement would crack down on a site if one were to open, Rendell told WHYY: "My address is in the offices of the Bellevue and he [Rosenstein] can come and arrest me first." This isn't the first time Rendell has volunteered to be arrested. In July of 1992, then-Mayor Rendell authorized the establishment of a syringe exchange program — a measure to prevent the transmission of HIV. Looking back, Rendell says that the exchange is "a universally acclaimed success and none of the supposed downsides ever really existed."

  • Cannabis capitalism: who is making money in the marijuana industry?

    Marginalized groups that championed legalization struggle to compete with corporate refugees jumping on the bandwagon
    The Guardian (UK)
    Wednesday, October 3, 2018

    The cannabis industry’s moral challenge is to ensure the groups who have suffered the most under the drug war can participate in the green rush and enjoy the spoils of legalization. Marijuana insiders often refer to the “cannabis space” – a term broad enough to include a social justice movement and unapologetic capitalism – and recognize no contradiction between them. For growers who operated in California’s gray and illegal markets and now want to transition into the legal market, the economics can be brutal. In the illegal market, an Emerald Triangle farmer might have sold a pound for $3,000 tax-free. Now the price is more like $600, before taxes and compliance related costs. (See also: High stakes: cannabis capitalists seek funds to drive drug trade)

  • Amsterdam calls plan for regulated cannabis cultivation unfeasible, dangerous

    Amsterdam would like to take part in this experiment, but for that the rules will have to be adjusted
    NL Times (Netherlands)
    Wednesday, October 3, 2018

    femke halsemaAmsterdam finds the national experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation unfeasible and "risky to public order". The municipality would like to participate in the experiment, but only with other rules, says mayor Femke Halsema. in the experiment, which would allow cannabis cultivation for coffeeshops for four years. Too few types of cannabis and hashish will be allowed in the experiment and that will stimulate street dealing. The city can also only participate if all 166 coffeeshops in the municipality take part. "They'll have to dispose of their illegal suppliers in one go", Halsema wrote. "It is not imaginary that problems with 'the back door' will arise at that moment." (See also: Amsterdam mayor criticises regulated cannabis cultivation plan)

  • Should Punjab government legalise opium? Here's what leaders have to say

    The first politician to endorse the demand to allow farmers to grow poppy and marijuana is former MP Dharamvira Gandhi
    India Today (India)
    Wednesday, October 3, 2018

    Consuming opium and poppy husk is not considered bad in Punjab. It is called 'kali nagini ' (black female serpent) and people from all walks of life consume it. Punjab's politicians are now demanding that the cultivation of opium be legalised in the state. The first politician to demand to allow farmers to grow poppy and cannabis is Patiala MP Dharamvira Gandhi. He not only introduced a private bill in Parliament in 2016 but also demanded doses of poppy husk for the state's drug addicts by writing a letter to the Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh. (See also: Patiala MP reiterates demands to decriminalise drug addicts, legalise opium | Opium production: A potential economic high for India)

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