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Quality issues delay sale of cannabis products in Basel pilot scheme
Switzerland's first pilot project for the legal sale of cannabis products has been delayed after some of the initial stock failed quality control tests
Swissinfo (Switzerland)
Friday, September 9, 2022
The ‘Weed Care’ experiment in the city of Basel was supposed to launch on September 15. But it has been put on hold because traces of pesticides were found in some of the supposedly organic plants. Basel’s health department said on Friday that the delay could last several weeks or even months as products must now be analysed again by an independent body. Six cannabinoid products – four types of cannabis flowers and two types of hashish – were due to go on sale in nine pharmacies from next week. The Federal Office of Public Health approved the pilot scheme in April as part of a project by the University of Basel, its psychiatric clinics and the cantonal health department. -
The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths
Intense cultivation is causing unmeasured environmental damage.
Los Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Proposition 64, California’s 2016 landmark cannabis initiative, sold voters on the promise a legal market would cripple the drug’s outlaw trade, with its associated violence and environmental wreckage. Instead, the law triggered a surge in illegal cannabis on a scale California has never before witnessed. Criminal enterprises operate with near impunity, leasing private land and rapidly building out complexes of as many as 100 greenhouses. Police are overwhelmed, able to raid only a fraction of the farms, and even those are often back in business in days. The raids rip out plants and snare low-wage laborers while those responsible, some operating with money from overseas, remain untouched by the law, hidden behind straw buyers and fake names on leases. Labor exploitation is common, and conditions are sometimes lethal. -
Czechia, mulling cannabis decriminalisation, calls for joint EU action
Market regulation and decriminalisation of cannabis users were among the topics of the Prague meeting of European anti-drug coordinators
Euractiv (Europe)
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Czech National Anti-drug Coordinator Jindřich Vobořil wants to strictly regulate the Czech cannabis market as cannabis sales should be decriminalised and regulated at the European level. While recreational cannabis is not allowed in Czechia, possession and growing at home has been decriminalised since 2010 but is still punishable as a civil offence. Market regulation and decriminalisation of cannabis users were among the topics of a meeting of European anti-drug coordinators, organised under the Czech EU Presidency. “We hope it will be a coordinated effort (to regulate the cannabis market). It is impossible not to talk about it on an EU-wide basis. Prohibition has not proved to be effective enough; we need to look for other models of control,” Vobořil said. (See also: Anti-drug coordinator: Czechia could soon legalise sale and growing of marijuana) -
Britain blocks Bermuda’s cannabis legislation
Premier Burt has said if royal assent was not given to the bill, it would destroy relations between Bermuda and Britain
Caribbean National Weekly (US)
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Bermuda’s governor Rena Lalgie announced that the United Kingdom has blocked the Bermuda government’s controversial bid to legalize the use and production of cannabis in the British Overseas Territory. “I previously announced that I had reserved the Cannabis Licensing Bill 2022 for the signification of her majesty’s pleasure under Section 35 (2) of the Bermuda Constitution. I have now received an instruction, issued to me on Her Majesty’s behalf, not to assent to the bill as drafted." The Bill, as currently drafted, is not consistent with obligations held by the UK and Bermuda under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The Cannabis Licensing Act 2022 was intended to create a regulated framework for the growth and sale of the drug. (See also: Crisis looms as Britain blocks cannabis legalisation | The long road to legalisation) -
Explained: Bhang, ganja, and criminality in the NDPS Act
Courts ruled that bhang is not ganja, and is therefore not covered under the NDPS Act
The Indian Express (India)
Thursday, September 1, 2022
While granting bail to a man arrested on June 1 for possessing 29 kg of bhang and 400 g of ganja, Karnataka High Court recently observed that nowhere in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is bhang referred to as a prohibited drink or prohibited drug in India. Since the ganja recovered was below commercial quantity, the accused was given bail on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh. The single judge Bench relied on two earlier judgments, Madhukar vs the State of Maharashtra, 2002 and Arjun Singh vs State of Haryana, 2004, where the courts had ruled that bhang is not ganja, and is therefore not covered under the NDPS Act. (See also: Cannabis in India: A rather long story, with its highs and lows) -
Cannabis authority yet to start issuing licences, months after law introduced
‘This is a delicate process that cannot be done overnight’ – ARUC head
Times of Malta (Malta)
Monday, August 29, 2022
New rules on cannabis use came into force in Malta in December after parliament approved a new law aimed at further decriminalising the substance. The new law allows for the creation of cannabis associations for those smokers who might be unwilling or unable to grow the plant at home. They can join such associations, which cultivate cannabis to distribute among members, and buy their supply from there. But, eight months since the law was introduced, the Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) has yet to start issuing licences for these clubs - or even publish regulatory guidelines which such clubs must adhere to. Authority chairperson Mariella Dimech said that the process is “delicate” and “cannot be done overnight”. -
Pondoland: South Africa's cannabis growers left behind by legalisation plans
Traditional growers in the Eastern Cape feel left behind. The cost of getting a licence to grow cannabis is just too expensive for many
BBC News (UK)
Sunday, August 21, 2022
For generations, people in South Africa's Eastern Cape have made their living growing cannabis. You might expect that as the country moves to legalise the crop, they would be first in line to benefit, but that is not necessarily the case. Cannabis, colloquially referred to as "umthunzi wez'nkukhu," or, chicken shade, is an intrinsic part of many rural communities in Eastern Cape's Pondoland and a vital source of income. "Cannabis is very important to us because it's our livelihood and source of income. Everything we get, we get it through selling cannabis. There are no jobs, our children are just sitting here with us." While cannabis might be a way of life for this community, growing it at this scale is illegal. There are more than 900,000 small-scale farmers in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces who have been growing cannabis for years. -
Colombia, largest cocaine supplier to U.S., considers decriminalizing
“It is time for a new international convention that accepts that the war on drugs has failed,” President Gustavo Petro said in his inaugural address
The Washington Post (US)
Saturday, August 20, 2022
Colombia is the largest producer of cocaine in the world, the source of more than 90 percent of the drug seized in the United States. It’s home to the largest Drug Enforcement Administration office overseas. And for decades, it’s been a key partner in Washington’s never-ending “war on drugs.” Now, Colombia is calling for an end to that war. It wants instead to lead a global experiment: decriminalizing cocaine. Two weeks after taking office, the country’s first leftist government is proposing an end to “prohibition” and the start of a government-regulated cocaine market. Through legislation and alliances with other leftist governments in the region, officials in this South American nation hope to turn their country into a laboratory for drug decriminalization. -
Bhang not a prohibited drink or drug: Karnataka HC
Bombay high court and Punjab and Haryana high court have also held that bhang is not covered under NDPS Act
Times of India (India)
Saturday, August 30, 2022
Citing that bhang is not a prohibited drink under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the Karnataka high court has granted bail to an accused from Bihar. "There is no scientific evidence before this court to show that bhang is prepared out of charas or ganja or ganja leavesand seeds are excluded from the definition of ganja, and nowhere in the NDPS Act is bhang referred to as a prohibited drink or prohibited drug. Even the state government has not made any rules under the NDPS Act and mentioned bhang as a prohibitory drug or issued any notifications (on bhang)," Justice K Natarajan has noted in his order. (See also: 'Bhang' is not prohibited under NDPS Act: Karnataka HC) -
High street? Dutch ecstasy ‘shop’ shows possible way for drug reform
Mock-up XTC store in the centre of Utrecht demonstrates how drug might be sold if regulations change
The Guardian (UK)
Thursday, August 18, 2022
For campaigners advocating drug liberalisation, it is an image that is almost too good to be true: a store down a cobbled street in Utrecht legally selling ecstasy or MDMA for recreational use. The XTC shop in the centre of the Netherlands’ fourth largest city has even been visited in recent days by a government minister, who was pictured examining its bubblegum-style vending machines and in-house educational videos. Unfortunately for drug reformers, however, the “shop” is not – yet – the result of the extension of the famous Dutch gedoogbeleid (tolerance policy) on cannabis use and sale. The health minister was instead visiting a mock-up of how an ecstasy retailer might look – with three models inside of how the drug might be sold in practice depending on the level of state regulation.
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