• Hard drugs just minutes away for Vancouver users, study finds

    The Canadian Press (Canada)
    Tuesday, August 14, 2012

    Illicit drugs are easily and quickly accessible to users in Vancouver despite decades of aggressive drug law enforcement efforts aimed at suppressing drug supply, according to a new study from the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. Researcher Evan Wood said the easy access means current drug policies are not succeeding in stopping the availability and use of illegal drugs. "If supply reduction is the foundation of Canada's drug strategy, we really need to have an impact assessment and evaluation of what we're actually getting from that investment."

  • Spokesman for pot group fired at news conference

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Tuesday, August 14, 2012

    The marijuana reform community in Washington State has become severely fractured, with various groups running competing initiatives and taking opposing positions on whether the state should be in the dispensary licensing business. The most recent debate is over I-502 by New Approach Washington, which tried to tailor it to receive the most possible support. In addition to setting up a state licensing system for marijuana production and sales, it would criminalize driving with more than 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood in the system. Some medical marijuana patients oppose that, saying it's an arbitrary limit and they'd never be able to drive. (See also: Legalize marijuana? Like this?)

  • Once a model, crisis imperils Portugal's drug programme

    Portugal's liberal drug policy held up as a model, but budget cuts and increased heroin use imperil it
    Reuters
    Monday, August 13, 2012

    Portugal's famously liberal drug policy has been held up as a model for other countries - Norway is considering adopting parts of it and countries as far afield as Argentina have expressed interest. But experts warn that budget cuts and the threat of more cuts to come - combined with an increase in hard drug abuse - risk turning it into a shadow of its former self. "We have a certain responsibility to maintain the essential despite the recession," said Joao Goulao, the national drugs agency chief. "Other countries do look at us and seek our expertise."

  • Chilean president signs drug prevention law into effect

    President breaks silence amid drug decriminalization debate, likening drugs to ‘death’
    The Seattle Times (US)
    Monday, August 13, 2012

    President Sebastián Piñera signed the new Drug and Alcohol Prevention Act into law on Monday, which sets up an educational program to warn schoolchildren against the dangers of drugs and alcohol. The president took the opportunity to break his silence over the renewed debate over drug decriminalization, taking a decidedly anti-decriminalization stance. "At a time when some are promoting the legalization of drugs, this administration is committed to fighting against it, not only for children but also the entire population," Piñera told reporters.

  • Legalizing marijuana could bring windfall to state, if feds don't object

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Saturday, August 11, 2012

    initiative-502

    The initiative to legalize, tax and regulate marijuana in Washington, Initiative 502, was estimated on Friday to raise up to $1.9 billion in new tax revenue over five years — or zero. The wild swing, included in an analysis by the state Office of Financial Management, reflects broad uncertainty about the potential federal intervention in an initiative that would set up the nation's first regulated market for recreational marijuana use.

  • Uruguay ponders making government legal pot dealer

    Associated Press
    The Seattle Times (US)
    Thursday, August 9, 2012

    A plan by Uruguay's leaders to turn the government into the nation's marijuana dealer has been presented to Congress, where the idea faces an uncertain fate. President Jose Mujica's entire Cabinet signed onto the proposed law, which aims to take over an illegal marijuana trafficking business estimated to be worth $30 million to $40 million a year. The law would have government control marijuana imports, production, sale and distribution, creating a legal market for people to get pot without turning to riskier illegal drugs.

  • Officials in Uruguay and Chile Submit Marijuana Legalization Bills

    InSight Crime
    Thursday, August 9, 2012

    While the Uruguayan president has endorsed a bill which would create a legal, state-run marijuana industry, congressmen in Chile are pushing a bill to legalize the cultivation of marijuana for personal use. Uruguayan President Mujica sent congress a proposal for a bill that would establish a legal, state-run monopoly on marijuana cultivation and sales. Two Chilean lawmakers submitted bill that would legalize small-scale cultivation of marijuana for personal and therapeutic use.

  • Majority supports legal cannabis

    While the government turned down Copenhagen's bid to legalise marijuana in May, public support for decriminalising the plant remains strong
    The Copenhagen Post (Denmark)
    Monday, August 6, 2012

    A majority of Danes believe that sales of cannabis should be controlled by the state, according to a Gallup poll for metroXpress. According to the poll, 53 per cent of those asked fully agreed or agreed that cannabis should be state-controlled; 22 per cent had no view on the issue while 23 per cent disagreed or fully disagreed. Social Democratic Justice Minister Morten Bødskov recently rejected the idea of a trial arrangement in Copenhagen.

  • Yammouneh rises: Hashish is our livelihood

    Al Akhbar (Egypt)
    Saturday, August 4, 2012

    Clashes erupted in the town of Yammouneh in the Bekaa valley between local hashish farmers and security forces. The farmers in the largely marginalized region are fiercely defending their crops as they are their only source of income. Hash farmers decided to “defend their livelihoods” using all necessary means, including light and medium weapons. “We will continue the confrontation until they stop destroying,” they say. At the same time, it seems that the security forces are determined to destroy the fields of illegal crops at any price. Following several hours of negotiations, an agreement was reached by mid-morning to allow a “limited” operation to wipe several fields on the outskirts of Yammouneh.

  • “In Portugal, We Fight the Illness, Not the People Who Suffer from It”

    IPS
    Tuesday, July 31, 2012

    joao-goulaoPortugal’s anti-drug policies have been gaining international visibility since this country's 2001 decision to eliminate all criminal penalties for personal possession of drugs. Decriminalisation of drug consumption, still opposed by political sectors like the right, was made possible by “favourable public opinion…it arose from society,” where virtually every family had a member or friend with a drug abuse problem, says João Goulão president of this country’s Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction.

Page 405 of 471