• Bill for legalised supply of opium, marijuana cleared for Parliament

    "The 30 years' period of enactment and implementation of NDPS Act has produced results contrary to the desired results"
    The Hindustan Times (India)
    Wednesday, November 2, 2016

    saddhu-chillumA proposed legislation to legalise and start regulated supply of traditional intoxicants such as opium and cannabis is likely to be placed in front of Parliament in a Private Member’s Bill. Patiala MP Dr Dharamvira Gandhi’s Bill to seek legalisation of the “non-synthetic” intoxicants has been cleared by the legislative branch of Parliament. Gandhi hopes this session the amendment for the NDPS Act will be tabled before the Parliament and hopefully the Act shall be amended to provide relief to common drug user through cheap, regulated and medically supervised supply of traditional and natural intoxicants. (See also: Bill on 'fixing' drug laws proposes stringent curbs | Legal marijuana in India? Punjab lawmaker Dharamvir Gandhi set to move Parliament)

  • Pot tax would reduce profits, allow black market to thrive: report

    Ottawa may not be able to tax cannabis in the same way as tobacco without pushing the price well beyond that of illegal pot
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Tuesday, November 1, 2016

    The parliamentary budget watchdog says Ottawa stands to generate hundreds of millions of dollars – not billions – from the first year of recreational marijuana sales, and that the black market will continue to bloom if the federal government applies much more than a sales tax on legal pot. The Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer says sales tax revenue could be as low as $356-million and as high as $959-million, with a likely take of about $618-million based on legalized retail cannabis selling for $9 per gram – in line with current street prices.

  • 'Commercialization won out': will legal marijuana be the next big tobacco?

    As the legal pot movement steams ahead, opponents argue the cannabis industry may be little better than cigarette companies in their pursuit of profit
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, October 31, 2016

    colorado-dispensaryCandi CdeBaca voted to legalize the free sale of marijuana in Colorado four years ago because she thought it would be good for her Denver neighborhood. She hoped that when Colorado became the first state in the nation to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana in 2014 it would not only keep people out of court, but also open up a legitimate means of earning a living. Today she would vote differently. “We have just swapped one kind of drug dealer for another,” said CdeBaca. All legalization has done is open the door to a takeover by corporate interests.

  • Police say Christiania cannabis trade decimated

    Just because sales are down in Christiania doesn’t mean that the cannabis trade on the whole is suffering
    The Local (Denmark)
    Monday, October 31, 2016

    christinia-removalPolice Director Thorkild Fogde told Politiken newspaper that although hash and marijuana are still being openly sold in Christiania’s Pusher Street, the level has fallen dramatically over the past two months. “We estimate that the trade is reduced to at least one fourth of what it was before the stalls were torn down.” While Fogde touted Copenhagen Police’s success in Pusher Street, critics argue that the cannabis trade has simply spread throughout the rest of Copenhagen. They point to a spate of recent gang-related shootings as proof. (See also: Police bust Hells Angels 'joint factory' in Christiania)

  • Medicinal cannabis crops now legal in Australia

    Health minister Sussan Ley says changes to law give patients and doctors access to a safe, reliable and legal source of cannabis for medicinal use
    The Guardian (UK)
    Sunday, October 30, 2016

    medical-useBudding cannabis producers can now apply for a licence to legally grow the crop in Australia, for medicinal use only. The Narcotic Drugs Amendment Act 2016 now allows businesses to apply for a licence to cultivate cannabis or manufacture cannabis products for medicinal purposes, or to conduct related research. The health minister, Sussan Ley, said the changes would give patients and doctors access to a safe, reliable and legal source of cannabis for medicinal use.

  • Alaska's first retail marijuana store set to open at 'high noon' two years after vote

    Herbal Outfitters in Valdez comes after state law was passed that allowed people 21 and older to recreationally use pot
    The Guardian (UK)
    Saturday, October 29, 2016

    A store in Alaska is to be the first in the state offering retail marijuana sales, with a grand opening scheduled for what the operators were calling “high noon”. The planned opening of Herbal Outfitters in Valdez comes nearly two years after voters approved allowing people 21 and older to recreationally use pot. Passage of the measure made it legal under state law to possess up to an ounce of marijuana outside of a home. The Valdez opening comes less than a week after the opening of the state’s first testing lab, CannTest, in Anchorage.

  • Archdiocese gives $850,000 to fight marijuana bid

    The church’s donation will likely help fund an existing advertising campaign
    The Boston Globe (US)
    Friday, October 28, 2016

    pope-cannabisThe Boston Archdiocese is pouring $850,000 into a last-minute effort to defeat a state ballot measure to legalize marijuana, calling increased drug use a threat to the Catholic Church’s health and social-service programs. The church’s contribution represents about a 50 percent increase over what the antimarijuana Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts has collected so far. The total, however, is still less than half of what has been raised by the referendum’s proponents.

  • Illicit cannabis farming thrives in Lebanon

    "It was the need to survive that forced me into it," says cannabis farmer Ali Nasri Shamas
    BBC News (UK)
    October 26, 2016

    Ali Nasri Shamas"When I was young I wasn't for it or against it. All I used to think about was going to school, graduating and getting a job. But there is poverty in this part of the country, the state is non-existent." The "it" Shamas refers to is the business of selling cannabis, something he first became involved with six years ago. He is now one of Lebanon's biggest growers and most prolific traders, with 130 hectares of hash fields in the country's Bekaa Valley and more than 50 employees. As he shows off his production factory and his plants - which grow openly in fields by the side of public roads - he happily poses for photos, showing little regard for the illegality of his work.

  • In Switzerland, high-CBD cannabis being sold legally as ‘tobacco substitute’

    If or when there will be additional regulation around the apparently legal cannabis or its consumption has yet to be decided
    Leafly (US)
    Monday, October 24, 2016

    An organic gardening company in Switzerland has managed to make high-CBD cannabis flower available to consumers by capping the THC content and registering the product with regulators as a tobacco substitute. The Fedora strain, cultivated by northern Swiss grower Bio Can, is advertised at 7.2 percent CBD and just 0.04 percent THC, which reportedly allows the buds to adhere to both the Swiss Narcotics Act as well as existing food laws. The CBD flowers have already been registered with the Swiss Federal Health Office as a tobacco substitute.

  • Election may be a turning point for legal marijuana

    If California moves, it will put more pressure on Mexico and Latin America writ large to reignite a debate on legalization there
    The New York Times (US)
    Monday, October 24, 2016

    us-marijuana-laws-coming_votes-2016To the red-and-blue map of American politics, it may be time to add green. The movement to legalize marijuana, the country’s most popular illicit drug, will take a giant leap on Election Day if California and four other states vote to allow recreational cannabis, as polls suggest they may. The map of where pot is legal could include the entire West Coast. A yes vote in California, which has an economy the size of a large industrial country’s, could blow the door open, experts say.

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