• VP Biden goes to Latin American amid drug debate

    The Associated Press
    Saturday, March 3, 2012

    Vice President Joe Biden heads to Latin America Sunday amid unprecedented pressure from political and business leaders to talk about something U.S. officials have no interest in debating: decriminalizing drugs. Presidents of Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia and Mexico, all grappling with the extremely violent fallout of a failing drug war, have said in recent weeks they'd like to open up the discussion of legalizing drugs. Argentina, Uruguay, Peru and Mexico already allow the use of small amounts of marijuana for personal consumption, while political leaders from Brazil and Colombia are discussing alternatives to locking up drug users.

  • Whither a Progressive Pot Policy?

    Ignoring lessons from the regulation of tobacco and alcohol, the federal government chooses questionable morals over sound policy
    Neil Boyd
    The Mark (Canada)
    Saturday, March 2, 2012

    Cannabis has been taking centre stage in recent weeks. Former attorneys-general and Vancouver mayors in British Columbia have called for regulation and taxation of the industry in an attempt to stop the violence of the illegal trade. At the same time, the Harper government continues to push for the passage of legislation that will mandate a six-month minimum term of imprisonment for anyone growing six plants or more.

  • Let the qat out of the ban

    A debate over outlawing a herbal high is really about multiculturalism
    The Economist (UK)
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    khatOver half of EU countries, as well as the United States and Canada, ban the stimulant qat, a sort of mild amphetamine. But attempts to do so in Britain, most recently in 2005, left experts unconvinced that the stuff was so harmful to mind, body or society that dealing in it should be made a crime. Thinking may now be changing. Is banning qat the right move? Probably not. It has not broken into the mainstream.

  • Dutch to ban sale of strong hashish cannabis

    Reuters
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    coffeeshopThe Netherlands moved to ban the sale of potent hashish cannabis eroding 40 years of liberal drug policy, over fears that the proceeds were flowing to organised crime gangs. A parliamentary proposal to prohibit the sale of hashish resin in the Netherlands' famous coffee shops had the backing of both parties in the Liberal-Christian Democrat coalition. The sale of marijuana, the dried bud and leaves of the cannabis plant, will not be affected.

  • Spanish town of Rasquera leases land for marijuana plantation

    Town's mayor says scheme, which is legal, is chance to bring in money and create jobs
    The Guardian (UK)
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    A tiny Spanish country town believes it has found a way to make unemployment, debt and economic crisis disappear in a puff of smoke – by leasing out its land for marijuana plantations. The town hall of Rasquera in Catalonia on Wednesday voted to sign a €1.3m agreement with a cannabis association in nearby Barcelona to plant marijuana for its 5,000 members. Spain's cannabis clubs argue that if growing and possessing marijuana for personal consumption is legal, then there is nothing illegal about forming a club to that end.

  • Stephen Harper repeating same old mistakes with tougher pot laws, global group says

    Toronto Star (Canada)
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    The Global Commission on Drug Policy says it’s “very weird” that Canada is taking a tougher line on marijuana when governments across the globe are reconsidering the war on drugs. In an open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the commission calls on Canada to stop pursuing the “destructive, expensive and ineffective” prohibition of pot. Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Court of Canada judge, former Brazilian president Fernando Cardoso, former Swiss president Ruth Dreifuss and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson are among the signatories to the letter that warns Canada is repeating “the same grave mistakes as other countries.”

  • Spanish village to raise funds with marijuana

    The Associated Press
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    A tiny Spanish village has voted to lease land for growing marijuana as a source of desperately needed revenue — a unique but legally questionable way of battling an economic crisis highlighted by staggering unemployment and a looming recession. A government official with the National Drug Plan said such planting would in fact be against the law and that prosecutors would intervene as soon as the first pot seed was sown.

  • The War On Drugs Hurts Businesses and Investors

    Eric Sterling
    Forbes (US)
    Thursday, March 1, 2012

    “The drug war is weakening state institutions, infiltrating judicial systems and undermining rule of law,” all of which is bad for business, César Zamora, Nicaraguan businessman and vice president of the Association of American Chambers of Commerce in Latin America (AACCLA) told the Christian Science Monitor on February 16, 2012. The business community needs a complete economic analysis of the impact of drug policy to fully understand how American drug policy plays with their profits. Every investor should analyze how much the costs of drug policy shrink return on investment.

  • The UN International Narcotics Control Board Releases 2011 Annual Report

    Accuses Bolivia of Threatening Integrity of the Global Drug Control System by Reserving the Right to Use Coca Leaf
    TNI/WOLA Press release
    February 28, 2012

    tni_wola2The UN’s International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), which monitors implementation of the global drug treaties, has trained its fire on Bolivia, this time accusing the country of threatening the integrity of the entire international drug control regime by defending traditional uses of the coca leaf.

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  • Recreational marijuana measure makes Colorado ballot

    Reuters
    Tuesday, February 28, 2012

    Colorado voters will be asked to decide whether to legalize the recreational use of marijuana in a November ballot measure, setting up a potential showdown with the federal government over America's most commonly used illicit drug. The measure, which would legalize possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults, is one of two that will go to voters in November after a Washington state initiative to legalize pot earned enough signatures last month to qualify for the ballot there.

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