• Uruguay to allow pot users to buy up to 20 joints a week

    Individuals will also be able to grow up to six plants for personal use
    Reuters (UK)
    Thursday, April 24, 2014

    uruguay-regula-2013Uruguayans will be able buy up to 10 grams of pot a week, enough to roll 20 joints, under new rules governing the recently legalized marijuana trade in the country. Cannabis consumers will have to register with the government on a confidential list before making purchases from authorized pharmacies, according to the law passed by Congress in December 2013. The pharmacies can only be supplied by private growers authorized by the government, which will oversee quality and choose varieties. The government will auction up to six licenses to produce cannabis legally.

  • Ketama, carrefour des drogues

    Au moment où le PAM lance le débat pour légaliser la culture du kif, le Rif fait face à un autre défi : enrayer la déferlante de drogues dures qui touche la région
    Tel Quel (Maroc)
    Mercredi, 23 avril 2014

    morocco-cannabis3Quelques centaines de cultivateurs de kif ont répondu à l’appel lancé par le Parti authenticité et modernité (PAM), sur le point de finaliser un projet pour la légalisation de la culture du kif. Hakim Benchemass ouvre le bal : «Il est inconcevable que 48 000 personnes soient recherchées par la gendarmerie. Elles doivent bénéficier de la grâce pour ne plus vivre dans la peur. Tout le monde sait que dans ces terres on ne peut pas faire pousser des fraises». Mais, selon les agriculteurs, son application risque de poser un problème. Pour commencer, les intervenants du PAM ne font aucune allusion à la transformation de la plante en cannabis.

  • Uruguay not a ‘pirate’

    "It is not our aim that anyone follow us or do what we have done."
    InterPress Service (IPS)
    Thursday, April 17, 2014

    canepa-dialogoThe Uruguayan government has made a controversial move to regulate the production and sale of cannabis, believing that this will help in the fight against drug-related crime and in dealing with public health issues. The move has been condemned by the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), whose president Raymond Yans accused the government of having a "pirate attitude" for going against the UN’s conventions on drugs. Diego Cánepa, secretary of the office of Uruguayan President, believes a regulated marijuana market was the right decision.

  • No, weed won’t rot your brain

    Study cannot determine cause and effect
    The Daily Beast (US web)
    Thursday, April 17, 2014

    Headlines are screaming Marijuana Makes Young Brains Go to Pot. But a new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, does not in any way prove that casual marijuana use is bad for your brain. Whatever brain changes are seen in casual users, they don’t predict addiction, otherwise, all casual users would become addicted—or at least, a much larger proportion than actually do. Several generations of American adults survived far higher rates of marijuana use than we see now—without encountering a major epidemic of cognitive impairment, schizophrenia, or lack of motivation. (See also: Does researching casual marijuana use cause brain abnormalities? and Striking a Nerve: Bungling the Cannabis Story)

  • Eric Holder 'cautiously optimistic' about marijuana legalization in Washington and Colorado

    Tough to predict where marijuana legalization will be in 10 years
    The Huffington Post (US web)
    Tuesday, April 15, 2014

    Attorney General Eric Holder is "cautiously optimistic" about how things are going in Washington state and Colorado following the legalization and state regulation of marijuana. Under Holder, the Justice Department has allowed marijuana legalization to move forward in Washington and Colorado and has issued guidance to federal prosecutors that is intended to open up banking access for pot shops that are legal on the state level.

  • Study: Marijuana legalization doesn’t increase crime

    Not only does medical marijuana legalization not correlate with an uptick in crime, it may actually reduce it
    MSNBC (US)
    Tuesday, April 15, 2014

    colorado-marijuanaAfter Colorado legalized marijuana for recreational use this year, violent and property crime rates in the city are actually falling. According to data from the Denver Police Department, violent crime (including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, and aggravated assault) fell by 6.9% in the first quarter of 2014. Property crime (including burglary, larceny, auto theft, theft from motor vehicle and arson) dropped by 11.1%. A study looking at the legalization of medical marijuana nationwide, published in the journal PLOS ONE, found that the trend holds.

  • Law professors demand cannabis legalization

    Over 120 German professors of criminal law are supporting an initiative to legalize cannabis
    Deutsche Welle (Germany)
    Thursday, April 10, 2014

    cannabis-germany3Around 3 million Germans regularly smoke marijuana. Some 14 million are estimated to have tried the drug at least once. It's not punishable by law in Germany to use pot, but it is to sell and grow it. Several legal experts believe that criminal prosecution of cannabis users doesn't serve the desired purpose. They have called on the Bundestag to discuss the issue. Merkel's coalition is skeptical.

  • Drogenexperten machen Dampf für straffreies Kiffen

    Fachleute setzen beim Versuch mit reguliertem Cannabis-Verkauf auf die grossen Städte – weil der Bund zögert
    Basler Zeitung (Switzerland)
    Dienstag, 8. April 2014

    marijuana-clippingExperten haben die Debatte um die ­Legalisierung von Cannabis neu lanciert. «Die repressive Drogenpolitik ist gescheitert», erklärte Thilo Beck, Mitautor des Grundlagenberichts «Marktregulierung in der Drogenpolitik». Gemäss dem Bericht der Nationalen Arbeitsgemeinschaft Suchtpolitik (NAS) hat sich der Konsum von Cannabis trotz des Verbots auf hohem Niveau gehalten. Die Abdrängung in die Illegalität habe lediglich dazu geführt, dass kriminelle Organisationen enorm viel Geld verdienten und der gehandelte Stoff mit hohen Mengen an Pestiziden und anderen Giftstoffen belastet sei, erklärten die Experten.

  • Cannabis: Le PAM veut amnistier 48.000 cultivateurs recherchés

    La majorité ne peut vivre en famille et se trouve dans une semi-clandestinité
    AuFait (Morocco)
    Mardi, 8 avril 2014

    Le Parti Authenticité et modernité (PAM) travaille sur un projet de loi prévoyant une amnistie pour les 48.000 cultivateurs de cannabis du nord du Maroc recherchés et vivant en “semi-clandestinité”. Plus de 700.000 Marocains vivraient de la culture du cannabis dans le Rif. Le PAM, qui avait suscité un débat sur le cannabis thérapeutique, a organisé une rencontre inédite avec quelque 2.000 cultivateurs. (A lire aussi: "Le kif ne tue pas, la faim si": dans le Rif, la culture du cannabis reste vitale)

  • Streit um neue Regeln für den Drogenmarkt

    Lücke im Betäubungsmittelgesetz?
    Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland)
    Dienstag, 8. April 2014

    Nach Jahren des Stillstands ist die Drogenpolitik wieder in Bewegung. Städte wie Genf, Basel oder Zürich bemühen sich um Projekte für eine regulierte Abgabe von Cannabis. Um eine als wenig chancenreich eingestufte Diskussion auf Bundesebene zu vermeiden, soll dies als vom Bund bewilligtes Experiment etikettiert werden. Fachverbände haben Argumente und Forderungen präsentiert, die weit darüber hinausgehen und die heutige Einteilung in legale und illegale Drogen hinterfragen. Die Analyse könne den Städten und Kantonen auch das Argumentarium für die Cannabisprojekte liefern, so die Nationale Arbeitsgemeinschaft Suchtpolitik (NAS).

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