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Make legal highs available for sale, government urged
Senior police have told inquiry into psychoactive synthetic drugs that making them illegal would not reduce their use
The Guardian (UK)
Monday, January 14, 2013
The least harmful new "legal highs" should be made readily available for sale under strictly regulated conditions rather than being immediately banned as happens now, according to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drug Policy Reform (APPG). Senior police officers told the inquiry into the new psychoactive synthetic drugs, which are appearing in Britain at the rate of more than one a week, that the existing criminal sanctions for drug users is doing nothing to reduce their use. (See also: Decriminalise drugs, inquiry by cross-party peers says and From mephedrone to Benzo Fury: the new 'legal highs') -
Decriminalise drugs – it would reduce the level of harm in Britain
The all-party parliamentary group on drug policy reform wants legal highs to be regulated and drugs classified on real evidence
The Guardian (UK)
Monday, January 14, 2013
The all-party parliamentary group on drug policy reform undertook an inquiry into the implications of the arrival of "legal highs" – a new substance appeared on the UK market every week in 2012. The prime minister says the current policy is working. I wish it were. But as the use of cannabis has declined by a few percentage points over the past few years, the use of "legal highs" has soared. The position for drugs users is therefore more dangerous than it was a few years ago. -
Pot smokers might not turn into dopes after all
Revisiting data casts doubts on link between heavy cannabis use and declining IQ
Nature
Monday, January 14, 2013
Cannabis rots your brain — or does it? Last year, a paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) suggested that people who used cannabis heavily as teenagers saw their IQs fall by middle age. But a study published today — also in PNAS — says that factors unrelated to cannabis use are to blame for the effect. Nature explores the competing claims. (See also: New Research Questions Marijuana’s Impact in Lowering IQ) -
Bolivians demand the right to chew coca leaves
Bolivia wins special exemption from global drugs convention despite international opposition
The Guardian (UK)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
A major international row with wide-ranging implications for global drugs policy has erupted over the right of Bolivia's indigenous Indian tribes to chew coca leaves, the principal ingredient in cocaine. The UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors implementation of the global drug treaties, has accused Bolivia of threatening the integrity of the international drug control regime. A number of countries – including the UK, the US, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands and Russia – opposed Bolivia's demands. -
In California, it’s U.S. vs. State over marijuana
The New York Times (US)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
In a case that highlights the growing clash between the federal government and those states that have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational use, the United States Justice Department indicted Matthew R. Davies six months ago on charges of cultivating marijuana, after raiding two dispensaries and a warehouse filled with nearly 2,000 marijuana plants. The case illustrates the struggle states and the federal government are now facing as they seek to deal with the changing contours of marijuana laws and public attitudes toward the drug. -
The condemned coca leaf
One standard for a major soft drink, another for the native people of South America
The New York Daily News (US)
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Last week, the United Nations voted on an appeal by Bolivia to amend the international treaty that prohibits the chewing of coca leaf. Bolivia won a partial victory — a tiny sign that the world may be ever so slowly coming to its senses on the insanely harsh treatment of this humble, mostly harmless plant and the people, mostly South American natives, who enjoy it in its raw form. (Ricardo Cortés is the author of A Secret History of Coffee, Coca & Cola) -
Pot sub-panel only scratches surface in first meeting
The Denver Post (US)
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Although they didn't make any clear decisions, the Local Authority and Control Working Group meeting started to address many questions and concerns that municipalities have about the newly forming marijuana industry. It was the first of several planned gatherings for the group — a subset of the Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force. -
Partial, symbolic victory for Bolivia in battle to legalize coca leaf
The Washington Post (US)
Friday, January 11, 2013
Evo Morales’ global crusade to decriminalize the coca leaf, launched in 2006 after the coca growers’ union leader was first elected president of Bolivia, has finally attained a partial, if largely, symbolic victory. A year ago, Bolivia temporarily withdrew from the 1961 U.N. convention on narcotic drugs because it classifies coca leaf, the raw material of cocaine, as an illicit drug. It has now rejoined, with one important caveat: The centuries-old Andean practice of chewing or otherwise ingesting coca leaves, a mild stimulant in its natural form, will now be universally recognized as legal within Bolivia. -
Can marijuana beat the Mafia? Some French say make it legal
Forbes (US)
Friday, January 11, 2013
France offers the most recent sign of changing attitudes. While consumption and production of pot for personal use are not criminal offenses in France, growing and selling for other than personal use is illegal. So 150 to 200 “clubs” of growers operating quietly, and their umbrella association called Cannabis Social Clubs, have decided to come out of the dark to lobby openly for legalization. -
Marijuana legalization, taxation supported by majority in Hawaii: Poll
The Huffington Post (US web)
Friday, January 11, 2013
The results of a survey commissioned by the Drug Policy Action Group shows 57 percent of respondents in favor of legalizing, taxing and regulating marijuana. According to Maui Now, that figure marks a 20 percent increase in support from 2005. The poll was accompanied by an economic impact report, which found that marijuana legalization would provide the state with savings of around $12 million a year in enforcement costs, as well as at least $11 million a year in additional revenue through taxation.
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