• The UK needs common sense about ketamine

    Ketamine is a vital medicine, and restricting it has harmed patients without cutting recreational use. Britain should stand up to the UN’s failed ‘war on drugs’
    The Guardian (UK)
    Wednesday, February 18, 2015

    ketaminaKetamine is a unique anaesthetic and analgesic that has unfortunately become a popular recreational drug. In an attempt to reduce recreational use, and on the recommendation of its Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), the UK government decided to ban all ketamine-like drugs (analogues) and also put ketamine itself under greater controls. The recreational use in other countries could lead to an even more outrageous decision: the restriction of ketamine as a medicine world-wide by the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND).

  • 'Misperception is very dangerous'

    The Senate last week pushed through the ganja bill
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Tuesday, February 17, 2015

    Executive director of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA), Michael Tucker, has warned that the misinformation circulating among Jamaicans about marijuana could be dangerous. Tucker is quite concerned that people are confusing decriminalisation with legalisation. "It is illegal to grow it and it's illegal to sell it. Despite people not going to be locked up for two ounces or less, it is still illegal."

  • So smoking skunk cause psychosis, but milder cannabis doesn't?

    Research that looks at different potencies of cannabis could advance our understanding of the relationship between the drug and psychosis
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, February 16, 2015

    The Mail on Sunday has shouted that "cannabis TRIPLES psychosis risk" and that skunk is to blame for "1 in 4 of all new serious mental disorders". Is this what the study shows? Well, no, they found that those with psychosis were much more likely to have used skunk every day, than to have never used cannabis. Conversely, people who smoked hash every day were no more likely to have psychosis than people who never tried cannabis. (See also: What media reports on the new cannabis study don't tell you | Why cannabis studies are needed | Skunk's psychosis link is only half the cannabis story)

  • Rights group: Tough laws wrong response to Tunisia's drugs problem

    Activists say Tunisia's tough laws on smoking cannabis are ruining young people's lives
    Middle East Eye
    Thursday, February 12, 2015

    tunisia cannabis2Tunisia's tough law on cannabis use, laying down jail terms of at least one year, is "destroying lives" and overcrowding prisons, according to a group of activists urging reform. Since the law was passed more than 20 years ago, "tens of thousands of Tunisians have been convicted", the group said in an open letter to the government. "But the number of people sentenced and the number of users continue to grow, proving that this law is not a deterrent. It has failed," said the group, named Al Sajin 52 (Prisoner 52) as the law is called. Smoking "zatla", or cannabis resin, is punishable by between one and five years in jail, with the same law prohibiting judges from passing lighter sentences for extenuating circumstances.

  • HSBC got away with buying cocaine plane

    While the Justice Department was busy prosecuting American HSBC customers for tax evasion, it has taken no action against the bank for nearly five years
    The Daily Beast (US)
    Wednesday, February 11, 2015

    A money-laundering investigation as big as the bank itself ended with a deferred prosecution agreement that allowed HSBC to escape criminal charges and suffer only a fine. This while the US Department of Justice was jailing non-bankers by the dozen for laundering drug money, including cash from the Sinaloa cartel, which had been a prime HSBC co-conspirator. HSBC got a pass on helping the Sinaloa bunch acquire an airplane that was used to smuggle drugs by the ton. (See also: HSBC has form: remember Mexico and laundered drug money)

  • The weed war undermines science

    A Columbia professor argues that research that exaggerates the effects of marijuana is spurring people to reject other types of research as well
    East Bay Express (US)
    Wednesday, February 11, 2015

    Columbia professor Carl Hart: "The National Institute on Drug Abuse funds 90 percent of the world's research on drug abuse with our tax dollars. The mission of NIDA is to focus on pathology, or drug addiction. ... You have this disproportionate focus when, in fact, 90 percent of the people who use marijuana smoke it with no problems." (See also: Black leaders were misled about marijuana, Columbia professor says)

  • Give back safe smoking room to Vancouver crack users, study says

    Vancouver drug users want their illegal crack-smoking room back
    The Province (Canada)
    Tuesday, February 10, 2015

    For three years, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users’ (VANDU) operated an unsanctioned, peer-run “safer smoking room” for crack users in a small ventilated washroom in its Downtown Eastside facility. It protected crack users from violence, connected them with health care services, kept them away from public spaces and prevented the spread of disease from pipe-sharing, according to the authors of a recently-published study titled “We need somewhere to smoke crack.”

  • Four of the major fear campaigns that helped create America's insane war on drugs

    The techniques of fear and manipulation are nothing new. Here's how they've been applied with great success in crafting our harsh drug policies
    Alternet (US web)
    Monday, February 9, 2015

    If moral entrepreneurs and interest groups manage to whip up enough fear and anxiety, they can create a full-blown moral panic, the widespread sense that the moral condition of society is deteriorating at a rapid pace, which can be conveniently used to distract from underlying, status quo-threatening social problems and exert social control over the working class or other rebellious sectors of society.

  • How legal weed could change the future of sex

    Is pot really a love drug?
    Fusion (US)
    Monday, February 9, 2015

    Weed’s got a dirty little secret: It holds the power to transform our sex lives. Our ancient ancestors believed it, researchers in the 70s and 80s tried to prove it, and today, savvy “potrepreneurs” are attempting to capitalize on it. Cannabis-laced lube is only the beginning. What can pot do in bed? With the right strain and dosage, it can slooow down time, making every touch feel more intense, every kiss more passionate. For some people with sexual dysfunctions, it can make the unreachable reachable.

  • Justice minister calls for light drug legalisation, PM pulls rug

    The Portuguese prime minister has said that the decriminalisation of light drugs “is not on the government programme”
    Portugal News (Portugal)
    Monday, February 9, 2015

    The Portuguese justice minister, Paula Teixeira da Cruz, said she agreed with decriminalizing the use of soft drugs, in an interview to TSF radio, so “there is no highly organised crime or money laundering”. The prime minister has said that the decriminalisation of light drugs “is not on the government programme” and said that the comments made by the justice minister about this matter were made “personally”.

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