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State Dems back marijuana-legalization initiative
The Seattle Times (US)
Monday, September 19, 2011The Washington State Democratic Central Committee threw its support behind a marijuana legalization initiative this weekend, calling the continuing prohibition against the state's second-biggest cash crop a waste of public money. The Democrats cited law enforcement costs -- "simple marijuana possession charges now account for fully half of all drug arrests in Washington" -- and the potential to raise $215 million in new tax revenue each year if Initiative 502 passes, among other things.
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Lib Dems vote overwhelmingly to set up panel to consider decriminalising drugs
Motion also offers show of support for Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, following high profile resignations from body
The Guardian (UK)
Sunday, September 18, 2011The Liberal Democrat party conference have voted to establish a panel to consider decriminalising the use of all drugs. The panel would also consider a less radical alternative: that possession would remain illegal, but those caught would have to appear before a panel and made to undertake "appropriate education, health or social interventions", replacing the existing fines and jail sentences on the statute book. Any money made available by these reforms would be used for education, treatment and rehabilitation.
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Medical pot OK in Seattle, in trouble in Spokane
The Seattle Times (US)
Sunday, September 18, 2011
The largest federal crackdown in the 13-year history of the state medical-marijuana law has sent Spokane's once-open medical-marijuana businesses diving deep underground. Most of the 50-some dispensaries abruptly closed. Those that remain are mostly word-of-mouth secrets. Contrast that to Seattle, where the city's embrace of medical marijuana encourages a flourishing business for storefront dispensaries, bakers, growers and lawyers. An unofficial count, based on Seattle business licenses and advertising websites, finds at least 75 storefront dispensaries open. -
Mobile injection room rolls out
Private initiative challenges government ban on injection rooms
The Copenhagen Post (Denmark)
Thursday, September 15, 2011Two out-of-service ambulances have been put back into service as mobile injection rooms for drug addicts in Copenhagen (Denmark). The vehicles will be used to transport a team of volunteer doctors and nurses and a stock of clean needles in the Vesterbro district.
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Czech Health Ministry signals steps to legalize medical marijuana
The Czech Health Ministry says it will take steps to change the law to allow medical marijuana on prescription for the first time
Czech Position
Wednesday, September 14, 2011The Czech Ministry of Health has indicated that it will take marijuana off the list of banned substances and allow it to be prescribed by doctors for its medical effects. “By the end of this year we will submit to parliament an amended law on addictive substances which will move marihuana from the list of banned substances to the list of those which can be prescribed,” Deputy Health Minister Martin Plíšek pledged.
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Experts back Liberal Democrat calls for drugs decriminalisation
Drugs Policy Commission says proposal to scrap criminal penalties for personal possession would not increase use
The Guardian (UK)
Tuesday, September 13, 2011Experts have backed calls to be made at the Liberal Democrats conference this weekend for the decriminalisation of all drugs, saying it would not lead to a surge in drug use. The UK Drugs Policy Commission, which includes Professor Colin Blakemore, former chief executive of the Medical Research Council, and Dame Ruth Runciman, former chair of the Mental Health Act Commission, among its membership, says it backs the broad thrust of the Lib Dem motion to be debated on Sunday.
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Tackling Violence in Mexico
A translation of an article by Eduardo Guerrero in Nexos
Eduardo Guerrero GutiérrezNexos (México)
June, 2011
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The Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) translated the article La raíz de la violencia by Eduardo Guerrero Gutiérrez that was originally published in Spanish in the June 2011 edition of the Mexican magazine Nexos. Guerrero’s article, "At the Root of the Violence," deserves as wide an audience as possible. The author makes a compelling case for shifting to a strategy of "deterrence" to reduce the horrific violence that has been spreading in Mexico. -
Possession of drugs for personal use to be decriminalized
E Kathimerini (Greece)
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Criminal charges will only be brought against individuals caught growing or manufacturing drugs or using them in public, according to a draft law presented by the Justice Ministry on Wednesday, which says that the possession of a small quantity of drugs for personal use will be decriminalized. (See also: Drug law reform in Greece) -
Bring back the free crack pipes
Jeremy KlaszusThe Calgary Herald (Canada)
Monday, September 5, 2011
When you hear that your government is helping addicts shoot up or smoke crack, it's normal to wonder: how can this possibly be good? Until recently, Alberta Health Services did similar work, distributing free, clean crack pipes to Calgary addicts through the Safeworks Harm Reduction Program. But when local media publicized the existence of the pipe arrangement last month, things went sideways. -
America’s prisons: A catching sickness
The Economist (UK)
Saturday, September 3, 2011Harsh laws for selling or possessing of drugs are a public-policy disaster. Ernest Drucker, an epidemiologist, uses the tools of his trade to examine the laws and their consequences. He writes that America is suffering “a plague of prisons”, and the Rockefeller laws in New York were the outbreak of that plague. None of Mr Drucker’s statistics is new, but they bear repeating because they are unjust, unintended and easily remedied. Treating drug addiction as a public-health problem (emphasising treatment and harm-reduction) rather than a crime would go a long way towards making America’s poor and minority communities stabler and better. It would also save taxpayers money. All that is lacking is political will.
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