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At least Bob Ainsworth dares to speak about drugs
Our leaders are too addicted to power to upset voters by demanding we have a proper debate about the possible legalisation of narcotics
Nick CohenThe Observer (UK)
Sunday, December 19, 2010People often say we have the prohibition of drugs in Britain. But illegal drugs are not prohibited, they are everywhere. What we have is a prohibition of political debate on what to do with them and that is the greatest drug crime of all.
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Court backs Dutch ruling on coffee shops
The European Court of Justice today upheld rules in the Netherlands preventing non-Dutch residents from entering coffee shops that sell soft drugs
European Voice
Thursday, December 16, 2010The European Court of Justice (ECJ) said that a municipal regulation imposed by the city of Maastricht prohibiting local coffee-shop owners from admitting non-residents of the Netherlands was justified as it aimed to reduce drug tourism and public nuisance.
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Ex-minister Bob Ainsworth: Make drugs legally available
BBC News (UK)
Thursday, December 16, 2010Bob Ainsworth, a Home Office minister under Tony Blair, said successive governments' approaches had failed, leaving criminal gangs in control. The MP wants to see a system of strict legal regulation, with different drugs either prescribed by doctors or sold under licence.
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One toke over the line
The assertion that Prop. 19 is contributing to a rise in teenage marijuana use is unfounded
EditorialLos Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, December 16, 2010After an annual survey of teen drug use nationwide found that marijuana smoking is on the rise among eighth- through 12th-graders, Kerlikowske attributed the uptick to California's Proposition 19 and other states' initiatives to legalize medical marijuana. "Mixed messages about drug legalization, particularly marijuana, may be to blame," he said in a news release. "Such messages certainly don't help parents who are trying to prevent kids from using drugs."
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Systems Overload: Drug Laws and Prisons in Latin America
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An unprecedented one-year comparative study of the drug laws and prison systems in eight Latin American countries – Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay – was released on Thursday, December 9, 2010, during a conference with high-level policy analysts and the study's country-researchers at the Universidad de Palermo in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by the Transnational Institute (TNI) and the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). -
Proposals for banning drugs are more draconian than they seem
Campaigners have spotted sub-clauses in the UK government's new bill that effectively remove respect for individual liberty when prohibiting particular drugs
Drevan HarrisThe Guardian (UK)
Wednesday, December 8, 2010The plan to remove the requirement for scientists or experts on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) as proposed in the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill is controversial for the reasons set out on this blog yesterday. But further study of the bill reveals more cause for concern. Another shocking proposal in its pages seeks to shift the target of selective drugs prohibition from a duty to protect society from the harmful effects of drugs, to the goal of directly limiting the freedom of the individual.
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David Nutt: 'The government cannot think logically about drugs'
The former government adviser on drugs explains why his latest research named alcohol as the most dangerous drug
Decca AitkenheadThe Guardian (UK)
Monday, December 6, 2010If someone were to invent a perfectly safe ecstasy pill, what would be done about it? It's the sort of scenario clubbers like to speculate about, usually at around 6am, a little the worse for wear after a big night out. It's less common to hear it from a neuropsychopharmacologist and former government scientist – but it is, Professor David Nutt says earnestly, "the key question". So what does he think the government would do?
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Government proposes to scrap need for scientific advice on drugs policy
Amendment removes requirement to appoint at least six scientists to Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs
Sunday, December 5, 2010Ministers will not be required to seek the advice of scientists when making drug classification policy in future, under new government proposals. The police reform and social responsibility bill, published last week, contains an amendment to the constitution of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) that would remove the requirement on the home secretary to appoint at least six scientists to the committee.
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Conquering Complexo do Alemão
A big step towards reclaiming Rio de Janeiro from the drug dealers
The Economist (UK)
Thursday, December 2, 2010It was a moment that residents of Rio de Janeiro thought would never come. For decades many of the city’s favelas have been ruled by drug traffickers or militias. Sporadic flare-ups would see the police go in to these self-built settlements seeking revenge, only to pull back leaving bodies scattered and the gangs to return to business. But last month when the city’s two main drug gangs began hijacking and torching vehicles at gunpoint, this time the authorities’ response was different.
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The only winner in the 'war on drugs'
The real effect of militarising drugs policy in Latin America has been to cement the hegemony of the US Southern Command
Juan Gabriel TokatlianThe Guardian (UK)
Thursday, December 2, 2010The outcome of this militarisation of drugs policy has been overwhelmingly negative. Military involvement in such an irregular war was not only unrealistic, but has also proved counterproductive. Every once in a while, a momentous triumph is announced in one or another country. But within a few years, the proliferation of front lines in the "war on drugs" reveals that such "success" was, at best, a pyrrhic victory. Meanwhile, democracy deteriorates, national insecurity spreads and human rights violations worsen.
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