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Could crack cocaine vapes be harm reduction tools of the future?
Much like prescribed heroin or any form of freely provided safe supply, prescribed crack vape pens could add stability to people’s lives
Filter (US)
Wednesday, November 17, 2021
There is a glut of research surrounding safer alternatives for people who use opioids. Less well researched are safer alternatives for crack cocaine use—though some argue that chewing coca leaf (a precursor to cocaine and, thus, crack) has potential. A kind of crack vape pen, yet to be developed, could be a valuable harm reduction tool, mitigating some of the health risks of consuming crack from illicit sources, according to a new paper. “It’s a thought I’ve had for a very long time,” Fabian P. Steinmetz, a toxicologist who co-authored the paper with social scientist Heino Stöver, told Filter. Steinmetz emphasized that this is an entirely theoretical concept—even setting aside legal barriers, there’s no prototype and no experiments have been done to make such a pen. -
Pot of gold? Cannabis could bring Germany $5 billion a year - survey
Legalising cannabis in Germany would give a boost to a ballooning European market
Reuters (UK)
Tuesday, November 16, 2021
Legalising cannabis could bring Germany annual tax revenues and cost savings of about 4.7 billion euros ($5.34 billion) and create 27,000 new jobs, a survey said as politicians thrash out rules for the budding sector. Negotiators for the SPD, Greens and FDP are still working out details of their coalition deal, including rules under which the sale and use of recreational cannabis would be allowed and regulated in Europe's largest economy. The survey by the Institute for Competition Economics (DICE) in Duesseldorf, and commissioned by the German hemp association, found that legalising cannabis could lead to additional tax revenues of about 3.4 billion euros per year. At the same time, it could bring cost savings in the police and judicial system of 1.3 billion euros per year. -
Modi govt plans changes to NDPS Act, could decriminalise possession of small quantities of drugs
Mandatory treatment for de-addiction
The Print (India)
Sunday, November 14, 2021
In an attempt to help the victims of drug abuse to come out of addiction, the Narendra Modi government is planning to decriminalise personal consumption of small quantities of drugs including cannabis, narcotics and psychotropic substances. The recommendations in this regard arrived at a high-level meeting on 10 November at the Prime Minister’s Office with top officials from the Department of Revenue, Ministry of Home Affairs, Narcotics Control Bureau, Social Justice Ministry and health ministry. The recommendations made by the various ministries are likely to be considered and included in the draft of an amendment bill that could be presented in the upcoming Parliament session, sources said. -
The UK countryside is ablaze with hemp farms. But how do they help the climate?
Hemp absorbs more CO2 than it takes to cultivate
Euronews (Europe)
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Despite the lack of state support, more and more farmers in the UK are turning to hemp production for its economic and environmental benefits. It's legal for them to sell a variety of hemp-made products, like milk and seed powers, to supermarkets and other businesses. In the right conditions, hemp absorbs more CO2 than it takes to cultivate - sequestering nine to 15 tonnes of CO2 per hectare. That’s almost twice as much as a forest of the same size, according to a Cambridge University researcher. Could it be the next big carbon sucker? As well as absorbing carbon, “hemp regenerates the soil it grows in, cleaning it of heavy metals and toxins left behind from other crops,” explains Tommy Corbyn, co-founder of the National Hemp Service. -
Bongs for beer steins? Why Germany might move to legalise cannabis
Regardless of the precise details of implementation, Germany looks set to undergo big changes to its cannabis culture
Euronews (Europe)
Wednesday, November 10, 2021
Germany's likely new government, the left-leaning Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens and the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP), have been locked in intense coalition negotiations in recent weeks. One area that’s sure to change is Germany’s drug policy. According to Georg Wurth, President of the German Hemp Association, decriminalisation, which removes criminal penalties for consumption, typically precedes full legalisation and is the more likely outcome, though the parties are still negotiating. “It’s really hard to imagine that we’d jump straight to legalisation. But the signs from the coalition talks are there, and they’ve committed to modernisation. This would fit right in, and make us trailblazers in the global context,” said Wurth. -
Radical relook at drug policies puts human rights into equation
“The message is that no country is doing well. They all have huge room for improvement”
IPS News
Tuesday, November 9, 2021
A “radically innovative” new analysis of global drug policies has laid bare the full impact repressive drug laws and their implementation have on millions of people worldwide, civil society groups behind its creation have said. The Global Drug Policy Index (GDPI), developed by the Harm Reduction Consortium (HRC) ranks countries on their drug policies against a series of indicators related to health, development, and human rights. It is the first tool of its kind to document, measure, and compare countries’ drug policies, and their implementation, across the world. And the results of the first index have underlined how even the best-ranked countries are falling dramatically short in aligning policies and their implementation with UN principles of human rights, health, and development. -
You’ll never have a drug-free society, expert warns UK
Consortium on drugs policy blasts Home Office for approach to tackling narcotic abuse
The Observer (UK)
Sunday, November 7, 2021The Home Office should climb off its “high horse of oppression and prohibition” and stop pursuing the “fantasy” of a drug-free society, the chair of an influential international consortium on drug policy has said. As a new Global Drug Policy Index is set to rank each country’s approach to tackling narcotics, former New Zealand prime minister and chair of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, Helen Clark, said that the UK was fixated with a “self-defeating” strategy to the issue that bred misery. Clark also said that the Home Office’s approach to drug policy meant it deterred police and crime commissioners in England and Wales who might otherwise advocate for a more liberal strategy. -
California legalized weed five years ago. Why is the illicit market still thriving?
Despite appearances, the state’s cannabis industry is in disarray as legal businesses struggle to make a profit
The Guardian (UK)
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
Five years after cannabis legalization, California is awash with signs of an apparently booming industry. Californians can toke on Justin Bieber-branded joints and ash their blunts in Seth Rogen’s $95 ceramics. They can sip on THC-infused seltzers, relax inside a cannabis cafe, and get edibles delivered to their doors. But behind the flashy facade, the legal weed industry remains far from the law-abiding, prosperous sector many had hoped for. In fact, it’s a mess. Voters passed a law in November 2016 making recreational marijuana legal. But today, the vast majority of the market remains underground – about 80-90% of it, according to experts. (See also: ‘A farce of social equity’: California is failing its Black cannabis businesses) -
Italian activists turn in more than half a million signatures for marijuana and psilocybin referendum
If the courts allow the referendum to move forward, voters are expected to be given the chance to decide on the policy change sometime between April 15 and June 15
Marijuana Moment (US)
Thursday, October 28, 2021
Italian activists formally turned in about 630,000 signatures for a referendum to legalize the personal cultivation of marijuana and other psychoactive plants and fungi like psilocybin mushrooms. The referendum question was first filed in September, and the reform campaign has now submitted more than half a million signatures that they hope will qualify the measure to go before the nation’s voters in early 2022. Part of the reason activists were able to gather that volume of signatures so quickly is a policy change that allowed them to collect signatures online instead of in person only. The Supreme Court of Cassation, the body will have 30 days to ensure that they are valid. Then the Constitutional Court will will determine whether the referendum is legal and can proceed. -
ABN raises charges for coffeeshops by 1000% to cover money laundering costs
In April ABN agreed to pay €480 million to avoid being prosecuted for failing to supervise money-laundering by its customers
Dutch News (Netherlands)
Thursday, October 28, 2021
ABN AMRO is raising its bank charges for coffeeshops by 1000% to cover the costs of complying with anti-money laundering laws. From January coffeeshop owners who have a business account with the bank will pay €110 a month, compared to €9.90 presently. The bank has around 250 coffeeshop businesses on its books. ABN said in a statement that the cannabis cafés were ‘an explicit risk’ because of the cost of administering their accounts and the high penalties for non-compliance. ‘For specific groups of client we are calculating extra charges for client audits that we have to perform in our role as gatekeepers,’ said a spokesman.
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