• Former Nigerian leader Obasanjo urges West African govts to decriminalise drugs

    The recommendations by Obasanjo's West Africa Commission on Drugs come as a number of countries look to decriminalise drug use
    Reuters (UK)
    Tuesday, September 11, 2018

    obasanjoWest African governments should overhaul their drug laws to decriminalise personal use and prioritise treatment as a response to rising substance abuse in the region, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo of the West Africa Commission on Drugs said. In an interview before he was due to present a model drug law to regional officials in Senegal, Obasanjo urged authorities to channel resources into fighting large-scale trafficking, which he said was undermining regional democracy. Obasanjo named Senegal and Ghana as two countries that are moving to expand treatment options. Senegal has since 2014 opened centres to treat addicts, while Ghana is considering a proposal to exempt first-time offenders from prison terms.

  • Pas de nouvelle loi sur le cannabis

    Le Conseil national a rejeté ce mardi une initiative parlementaire proposant une nouvelle loi fédérale sur le chanvre
    Tribune de Genève (Suisse)
    Mardi, 11 septembre 2018

    Pas besoin d'une nouvelle loi fédérale pour régler en détail la culture, le commerce, la consommation et l'imposition du chanvre. Le Conseil national a rejeté mardi, par 104 voix contre 86 et 4 abstentions, une initiative parlementaire des Verts en ce sens. La Suisse devrait créer une loi fédérale sur le chanvre qui remplacerait les interdictions prévues dans la loi sur les stupéfiants, a expliqué Maya Graf (Verts/BL). Il est temps de lancer un processus de régulation ciblée, selon elle. Une nouvelle loi rapporterait entre 300 et 600 millions de francs à l'Etat, selon les Verts. Ces montants pourraient servir à renforcer la prévention. Le chanvre serait soumis aux mêmes restrictions que l'alcool et le tabac.

  • Agriculture minister seeks to link small ganja farmers with large processors

    The ganja business is not just for the wealthy, who have the capital to do it
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Monday, September 10, 2018

    Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw, says he is looking to link small ganja farmers with large processors who have the ability to convert ganja into a range of medicinal products. “What I'm working on is a programme where all serious ganja farmers who want to plant the herb for the formal industry will have to come together and form a cooperative,” he explained. “The cooperative will then apply to the Cannabis Licensing Authority for a licence, which will give them legitimacy to grow the herb," he added. Shaw pointed out that the “ganja business is not just for the wealthy, who have the capital to do it. I want to build a model in Jamaica with opportunities for many farmers”.

  • PM: Government to review marijuana legislation in 2019

    Antigua and Barbuda, as well as St Vincent and the Grenadines, announced plans to decriminalise marijuana for personal use
    Loop (Trinidad & Tobago)
    Sunday, September 9, 2018

    Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley says Government will examine marijuana legislation in 2019 with a view toward possibly decriminalising the plant. Rowley said many young men from 'certain communities' are being sent to the nation's jails because of the plant. "Our jails are full of young people, largely young men because they smoked a marijuana joint and the law in this county makes the smoking of a marijuana cigarette a criminal offence." In July, Government agreed to hold consultations with community groups to review marijuana decriminalisation after a petition with over 10,000 signatures was submitted by advocacy group the Caribbean Collective for Justice (CCJ).

  • Acquittement pour le Cannabis Social Club de Namur, le ministère public fait appel

    "Des militants, pas des délinquants"
    RTBF (Belgium)
    Vendredi, 7 septembre 2018

    belgium csc namurLe jugement est tombé au tribunal correctionnel de Namur dans l'affaire du Cannabis Social Club. Les cinq prévenus poursuivis pour trafic de stupéfiants ont été acquittés. La juge a estimé qu'ils avaient fait une erreur, certes, mais ce qu'on appelle en droit une "erreur invincible", c'est-à-dire que tout homme normalement prudent, confronté à une telle législation, peu claire, aurait pu faire la même chose. Le ministère public a déjà annoncé qu'il interjetterait appel de cette décision. En 2013, ces cinq personnes avaient créé une ASBL pour cultiver et vendre du cannabis à leurs membres. L'année suivante, en juillet 2014, la police avait saisi plus de quatre kilos de marijuana dans les locaux du club.

  • Cities defiant after Justice Department’s threat on ‘supervised injection sites’

    Advocates contend that such sites have saved the lives of countless thousands
    The Washington Post (US)
    Tuesday, September 4, 2018

    Cities seeking to open sites where illegal drug users are monitored to prevent overdoses responded defiantly to a Justice Department threat to take “swift and aggressive action” against that approach to the nationwide opioid epidemic. Plans for those “supervised injection sites” — under consideration in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York City, Seattle and elsewhere — collided with a stern Justice Department warning issued, threatening to create a standoff between federal and local authorities like the confrontation over “sanctuary cities.” As they have before, some liberal-leaning cities trying to cope with conditions on their streets find themselves at odds with more-restrictive Trump-era policy and enforcement.

  • ING lax on money laundering, agrees €775m out-of-court settlement

    ING’s penalty coincides with European regulators considering whether to tighten regional controls of financial crime
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    September 4, 2018

    The public prosecution department has reached a €775m out of court settlement with ING for failing to properly monitor money transfers for potential money laundering. The department says between 2010 and 2016, the bank’s clients were effectively able to launder hundreds of millions of euros because ING was not doing its job properly. Banks are required by law to report suspicious transactions. "The criminal investigation revealed that ING NL was seriously deficient in this respect. As a result, clients were able to use accounts held with ING NL for criminal activities for many years, virtually undisturbed," the public prosecutor said. (See also: ING penalty puts Europe's money laundering controls on the spot | More Dutch banks are not taking money laundering seriously: central bank)

  • Has Big Pharma’s ‘inevitable entrance’ into the cannabis space arrived?

    Pfizer, GW Pharma, Merck & Co, and Sanofi-Aventis are among the leading cannabis patent holders in Canada, says report
    In Pharma (UK)
    Monday, September 3, 2018

    As Canada prepares to legalise the recreational use of marijuana, the medicinal potential of cannabis has attracted increased attention in the pharmaceutical space. According to a joint research project between US analytics firm New Frontier Data, and UK-based cannabis biotech, Grow Biotech, seven of Canada top 10 cannabis patent holders are major pharmaceutical companies. "Big Pharma inevitable entrance into the cannabis space has arrived," said New Frontier Data CEO Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, as the company listed Pfizer, Merck & Co. (known as MSD outside North America), and Sanofi-Aventis among the leading patent holders. Firms have been "racing to secure protectable intellectual property" before Canada becomes the first G-7 country to fully legalise cannabis.

  • St Vincent parliament to debate marijuana legislation

    Prime Minister Gonsalves criticised the opposition's approach to reforming of the marijuana laws
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Monday, September 3, 2018

    st vincent cannabis fieldThe St Vincent and the Grenadines parliament will meet for the first reading of three pieces of legislation as the government continues its efforts to establish a medical marijuana industry in the country. Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Saboto Caesar will table The Medicinal Cannabis Industry Bill, The Cannabis Cultivation (Amnesty) Bill, and The Permitted Use of Cannabis for Religious Purpose Bill, a few months after the Ralph Gonsalves administration had indicated a desire to have the relevant laws passed by March. The main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) has said that the government must ensure that any medical marijuana industry established in St Vincent benefits the citizens. (See also: Medical marijuana bills reach Parliament)

  • Andhra Pradesh's north eastern hilly belt fast becoming cannabis capital of India

    The authorities have been pursuing the villagers to shift to alternative crops. But the villagers don’t find the compensation good enough to abandon cannabis
    The Economic Times (India)
    Sunday, September 2, 2018

    Paderu is the main town in the area and the cannabis produced in the entire belt is popularly called Paderu ganja. This region is quickly becoming the cannabis capital of India, say officials. While cannabis is grown in several parts of the country, this region and the neighbouring Malkangiri district of Odisha has seen a spurt in cultivation. In the eight mandals, the area under cannabis cultivation is estimated to be 10,000 acres spread across 1,000 (of the total 3,000) villages, according to data available with the office of deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise (enforcement) of Visakhapatnam district. (See also: Modern technology to end ganja cultivation in Visakhapatnam Agency areas)

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