• The great experiment

    At last, drug prohibition is being challenged by fresh thinking
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, February 23, 2012

    americans-legalisationA whiff of change is in the air regarding drug control policy. Officials in two American states, Colorado and Washington, are pondering how to implement their voters’ decisions last November to legalise cannabis. One immediate consequence is that the United States will be in breach of the UN Convention. Good. It should now join Latin American governments in an effort to reform that outdated document to allow signatories room to experiment. Imposing a failed policy on everybody benefits nobody.

  • La police cueille la tête des pro-marijuana

    Dominique Broc, leader des Cannabis Social Clubs, a été gardé à vue durant vingt-sept heures
    Libération (France)
    Samedi, 23 fevrier 2013

    La réponse des autorités ne s’est pas fait attendre… Alors que nous annoncions dans Libération que la Fédération des Cannabis Social Clubs (CSC) français, ces coopératives d’autoproducteurs, allait déposer ses statuts en préfecture le 4 mars, son leader, Dominique Broc a été interpellé. La police s’est présentée à son domicile, a détruit les plans de cannabis, et a saisi l’ensemble du dispositif de culture. Signe que les autorités ne désirent pas en rester là, la police s’est emparée du téléphone portable et du matériel informatique de Dominique Broc.

  • Maine, Maryland marijuana legalization bills filed

    The Daily Chronic (US web)
    Saturday, February 23, 2013

    maryland-marijuanaMaine and Maryland became the latest states to see marijuana legalization bills filed this year, with lawmakers in those two states rolling out measures this week. They join Hawaii (already defeated), Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, with Pennsylvania, Nevada and Vermont expected to add to the list shortly. In Maryland, Del. Curt Anderson (D-Baltimore) Thursday introduced House Bill 1453, which would legalize the possession of up to an ounce and three plants for adults 21 and over.

  • Towards a ceasefire

    Winding down the war on drugs. Experiments in legalisation are showing what a post-war approach to drug control could look like
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, February 23, 2013

    economist230213Partial reforms have their limits. Most drug crime is not cannabis-related. Moving from punishment to harm reduction may help drug users, but it leaves gangsters in control of supplies and revenues. Many countries still stick to prohibition. The votes in Colorado and Washington were hardly imaginable ten years ago and make deeper change likely. They weaken the Single Convention, the illegal trade, and the prohibition industry that feeds on it.

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  • Will high marijuana taxes encourage black markets?

    Time Magazine (US)
    Saturday, February 23, 2013

    marijuana-dispensaryThe cannabis industry is an easy target for legislatures to saddle with heavy taxes. In Washington State for instance, there is a 25% tax at three different stages of cannabis production: from the grower to the processor, from the processor to the retailer, and the retailer to the customer. These taxes are in addition to any other state or local sales taxes that might apply. Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer, for instance, has introduced marijuana reform legislation that would enact a 50% excise tax on production.

  • Our Right to Poison

    Lessons from the Failed War on Drugs
    Der Spiegel (Germany)
    Friday, February 22, 2013

    German officials take a decidedly cool stance toward drug policy reform. No top politician with a major German party is about to call for a new drug policy or even the legalization of marijuana. Drugs are not a winning issue, because it's too easy to get burned. Germany lacks the political pressure to change. There were 986 drug-related deaths in Germany in 2011, the smallest number since 1988. Drug use is declining in all age groups. So why change anything?

  • Pot on the patio?

    Colorado's 'surreal' path to legalizing marijuana
    The Christian Science Monitor (US)
    Thursday, February 21, 2013

    marijuana-plantingColorado's Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force is wading through the weeds of marijuana legalization, creating regulations to take pot from the shadows out into the open. In the wake of the decision by voters in Colorado last November to legalize recreational marijuana for adults, the question of how to integrate legal pot into the practical bureaucratic realities has fallen on two dozen Coloradans. By the end of the month, the Task Force must submit a report to the Colorado Legislature that lays out its suggestions for how the state should regulate legal marijuana.

  • Democratic and Republican legislators unite on bill to legalize and tax marijuana

    Bangor Daily News (US)
    Thursday, February 21, 2013

    maineLawmakers from opposite ends of the political spectrum unveiled a bill Thursday that would give Mainers the chance to legalize marijuana for recreational use in a statewide referendum. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, and co-sponsored by Rep. Aaron Libby, R-Waterboro, would make vast changes in Maine’s drug law, ranging from making possession of up to 2.5 ounces of pot legal to imposing a tax of $50 per ounce.

  • Maine could become the next state to legalize marijuana for adult use

    The Daily Chronic (US web)
    Thursday, February 21, 2013

    maineState Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland) was joined by Rep. Aaron Libby (R-Waterboro) at a press conference to unveil the details of her new bill that would make Maine the third state in the nation to make marijuana legal for adults 21 and older and establish a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed like alcohol. The bill would remove criminal penalties for possession and cultivation of small amounts of marijuana, direct a state agency to license and regulate marijuana commerce, create a $50 an ounce excise tax on wholesale sales, and allow localities to not allow marijuana commerce.

  • New Health Canada marijuana regulations may drive some into the bush

    The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
    Thursday, February 21, 2013

    The Conservative government's new medicinal pot system may lead some patients to illicitly grow their pot outdoors. Under proposed changes taking effect next year, personal-use production licences will be eliminated, making it illegal for patients to cultivate their own marijuana. Only commercial producers will be licensed in the new system. The new Marihuana for Medical Purposes Regulations estimates the current $1.80-a-gram cost for marijuana will rise to $8.80 a gram when the program takes effect. (See also: Medical marijuana users protest at Winnipeg MP's office)

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