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Legal high drug 'mexxy' banned under new government powers
Methoxetamine banned for up to 12 months pending decision on whether it should be permanently controlled
The Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
A so-called legal high used as an alternative to ketamine will be the first drug to be banned under new government powers. Methoxetamine, or mexxy, will be made illegal for up to 12 months while the government's drugs advisers decide whether it should be permanently controlled. It follows concerns that two people whose bodies were found in February may have taken some form of the drug after buying it over the internet. Anyone caught making, supplying or importing the drug will face up to 14 years in prison and an unlimited fine. -
Salvadoran leader: I wasn't involved in gang truce
The Associated Press
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
President Mauricio Funes of El Salvador denied that his government had rewarded his country's two largest street gangs for striking a truce credited with a dramatic drop in the staggering national homicide rate. Funes said his administration had not negotiated with the gangsters. He did say that the government responded to news of the truce by transferring 30 gang leaders to lower-security jails so they could order their underlings to stop attacking each other.
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The Return of the Underground Retail Cannabis Market?
Attitudes of Dutch coffeeshop owners and cannabis users to the proposed ‘cannabis ID’ and the consequences they expect
Dirk J. Korf, Marije Wouters and Annemieke BenschopRozenberg Quarterly
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
The sale of cannabis to persons aged 18 or older is permitted in the Netherlands under certain conditions in commercial establishments called coffeeshops. The present Dutch government has proposed that access to coffeeshops be restricted to persons holding a cannabis ID, a mandatory membership card known colloquially as a ‘weed pass’ (wietpas). Recent interviews with 66 Amsterdam coffeeshop owners reveal that they expect mainly detrimental effects from the proposed measure. -
Central American drug summit inconclusive
Los Angeles Time (US)
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A conclave of Central American presidents meeting in Guatemala to discuss a major overhaul of their drug laws — including legalization or decriminalization — failed to arrive at a consensus Saturday and agreed to meet again soon in Honduras. Some sort of policy declaration was expected after the meeting, yet at day's end there was no reason given for its absence. But a disappointing turnout may have been a factor: Panama's Ricardo Martinelli and Costa Rica's Laura Chinchilla attended; the presidents of Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua stayed home. -
Cannabis: Legal high
Quietly, cannabis has in effect been decriminalised in Britain
The Economist (UK)
Saturday, March 24, 2012The police and the courts can neither keep up with the surge in small-scale production, nor are they desperately keen to do so. Last month the government published new sentencing guidelines that advised judges to treat small cultivators less strictly. Attitudes to smokers are softening, too. The reclassification of cannabis in 2009, from class C to the more stringent class B, was oddly accompanied by a more liberal approach to policing consumption. Users caught on the street are rarely arrested; rather, they are issued “cannabis cautions” (a reprimand which doesn’t appear on a criminal record) or fined.
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Guatemala sets out plans to shake up anti-drug policy
Reuters
Saturday, March 24, 2012Guatemalan President Otto Perez on Saturday set out a raft of proposals to tackle rampant drug-fuelled violence in Central America, including decriminalization of narcotics or establishing a regional court to try traffickers. "The proposal is decriminalization," Perez said at a regional summit to address security throughout the region. "We are talking about creating a legal framework to regulate the production, transit and consumption of drugs."
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How many pot patients Calif. has is anyone's guess
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 24, 2012The reality is that no one knows how many people are legally using marijuana in California because the state — with hundreds of pot stores and clinics that issue medical marijuana recommendations — does not require residents to register as patients. Of the 16 states that allow the medicinal use of cannabis, it is one of only three without such a requirement. A state lawmaker has recently introduced legislation that would give authorities a much clearer count of the drug's bona fide consumer base.
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Attorney tells more Colorado medical pot centers to close
Reuters
Friday, March 23, 2012
Colorado's top federal prosecutor has ordered 25 medical marijuana shops located near schools to close in an escalating pot clampdown, as the state gears up for a battle at the ballot box over broader recreational use of the drug. Attorney John Walsh warned owners of the centers in letters that they have 45 days to shut down or "action will be taken to seize and forfeit their property," his office said. -
Guatemalan president leads drug legalization debate
CNN (US)
Friday, March 23, 2012
READ MORE...
On the campaign trail, Otto Perez Molina vowed to rule his country with an iron fist. The retired general said he would send troops into the streets to fight drug violence. Analysts summed up his political platform with three words: law and order. Now – just two months after taking office – the Guatemalan president is pushing a controversial proposal that has come under fire from U.S. officials and earned praise from people who were once his critics. Last year's law-and-order candidate said he wanted to legalize drugs. -
New wrinkle in pot debate: stoned driving
The Associated Press
Monday, March 19, 2012Angeline Chilton says she can't drive unless she smokes pot. The suburban Denver woman says she'd never get behind the wheel right after smoking, but she does use medical marijuana twice a day to ease tremors caused by multiple sclerosis that previously left her homebound. "I don't drink and drive, and I don't smoke and drive," she said. "But my body is completely saturated with THC." Her case underscores a problem that no one's sure how to solve: How do you tell if someone is too stoned to drive?
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