• St Kitts-Nevis to establish national commission on marijuana

    Harris reminded all that the use of marijuana in St Kitts and Nevis is still illegal and called on citizens and residents to abide by the laws of the land
    Caribbean News Now
    Saturday, April 8, 2017

    Chief Medical Officer, Dr Hazel Laws (L), with Prime Minister Dr Timothy HarrisSt Kitts and Nevis prime minister, Timothy Harris, announced the establishment of a National Commission on Marijuana, to be headed by acting chief medical officer Dr Hazel Laws. The establishment of the national commission is a follow through of a commitment made by his administration to facilitate national engagement on the issues surrounding the production and use of marijuana in St Kitts and Nevis. The other members of the commission will be named publicly after discussions have been held with them. Membership is expected to be drawn from education, health, law enforcement, the banking association, religious bodies, the Rastafarian community and youth, among other stakeholders. (See also: St Kitts-Nevis to launch marijuana decriminalization dialogue)

  • Uruguay to sell cannabis in pharmacies from July

    The marijuana sold will come from state-supervised fields
    BBC News (UK)
    Friday, April 7, 2017

    Uruguay will begin selling cannabis in pharmacies from July, the final stage in the country's pioneering regularisation of the drug. "Cannabis will be dispensed in pharmacies starting in the month of July," presidential aide Juan Andres Roballo told a press conference. The law requires buyers to sign up to a national registry, which Mr Roballo said would be up and running by 2 May. The price will be US$1.30 (£1) per gram. Registrants - who must be Uruguayan citizens or permanent residents - can purchase up to a maximum of 40 grams (1.4 ounces) per month.

  • Mexico opens up its heroin fight to U.S., U.N. observers

    The shift by the army coincides with high-level bilateral talks between Mexico and the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump about how to stem the flow of heroin
    Reuters (UK)
    Friday, April 7, 2017

    For the first time in at least a decade, Mexico's army is allowing the United States and the United Nations to observe opium poppy eradication, a step toward deeper cooperation to fight heroin traffickers, three sources in Mexico said. The opening could bring Mexico more in line with other drug producing countries like Afghanistan, Colombia and Peru that have been heavily involved with the United Nations in cultivation studies and eradication efforts. The Mexican army hopes to gain more credit at home and abroad for its work and address doubts in Washington about the quality of its data and the success of the eradication program, the officials said.

  • Toronto pot shop raids: Huge success or costly attack?

    Toronto’s law-and-order approach has been either a victory for safe neighbourhoods, or a hypocritical attack on pot pioneers to enable a corporate takeover of their lucrative industry
    The Toronto Star (Canada)
    Friday, April 7, 2017

    Shut down, Mayor John Tory told marijuana shop owners, or face “whatever enforcement mechanisms” the city can muster to extinguish the “wildfire” spread of pot shops across Toronto. Almost a year and many raids, seizures, arrests and court dates later, the federal government is poised to clear the legal haze as early as next week. Police, meanwhile, continue playing whack-a-mole with storefront pot vendors numbering, at the moment, 52. Depending on who you talk to, Toronto’s law-and-order approach has been either a qualified success and victory for safe neighbourhoods, or a hypocritical, costly attack on pot pioneers to enable a corporate takeover of their lucrative industry.

  • B.C. mulls framework for expanded heroin-assisted treatment

    Injectable treatments are the highest-intensity option available for opioid addiction and require patients to visit a clinic two or three times a day
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Thursday, April 6, 2017

    Prescription heroin, a last-resort treatment for severe addiction currently restricted to only one clinic in all of North America, could one day be dispensed at pharmacies much as methadone is. The dispensation model is one of three proposed in a draft of B.C. guidelines for the expansion of supervised injectable opioid-assisted treatment (siOAT). The document, being prepared by the nascent BC Centre on Substance Use (BCCSU), is a first-of-its-kind in North America and reflects the centre’s push to provide a wide range of options for people struggling with substance use.

  • “High Time” for Bio-Cannabis in Morocco

    The plant is grown in indoor cannabis green houses
    Morocco World News (Morocco)
    Tuesday, April 4, 2017

    The Moroccan cannabis industry seems to have no immediate plans of cutting back on its productivity. In fact, there’s a new seed in town. Cultivators are now planting “bio-cannabis.” The golden age of the cannabis trade is back on track. This is due to “special” seeds imported exclusively from Afghanistan, known for their “high quality,” revealed hashish growers to the daily Assabah. North African and European mafias are grappling to get hold of Moroccan bio-cannabis, which according to Assabah, is as expensive as MAD 250 in the local black market.

  • Over-regulation impeding bloom of Jamaican cannabis industry

    Despite the change in law, convincing farmers to actually register with the CLA is proving complicated for the state for various reasons
    Talking Drugs (UK)
    Tuesday, April 4, 2017

    Over-regulation of Jamaica’s cannabis industry is deterring farmers from entering the legal market, and impeding development - indicating why drug policies must be tailored to a country’s socioeconomic needs. The vast rules and pricy prerequisites for entering Jamaica’s legal cannabis market are deterring farmers from seeking cultivation licenses. In addition to these regulations, “there is little knowledge, understanding or engagement with the new scheme by farmers”, according to author Simon Jones, who has published two pieces on the Jamaican cannabis industry for the International Journal of Drug Policy.

  • Big Pharma's anti-marijuana stance aims to squash the competition, activists say

    Pharmaceutical company Insys spent $500,000 to block legalization in Arizona. Five months later it won approval for a cannabis-derived medical drug
    The Guardian (UK)
    Monday, April 3, 2017

    As marijuana legalization swept the US in November, Arizona was alone in its rejection of legal weed. There, a pharmaceutical company called Insys was a major backer of the successful campaign to stop the state’s recreational cannabis measure, publicly arguing that pot businesses would be bad for public health and endanger children. But to marijuana activists, the motive of Insys was clear – to squash the competition. Confirming those suspicions, Insys has now received approval from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to develop its own synthetic marijuana, the latest case of Big Pharma battling small cannabis growers.

  • Understanding Judge Davis' dope judgment

    While a step towards decriminalisation, there’s a way to go before you can light up a joint without fear of arrest
    Ground Up (South Africa)
    Sunday, April 2, 2017

    south africa daggaOn 31 March 2017, Justice Dennis Davis handed down a judgment in the Western Cape High Court that declared sections of the Drugs and Drug Trafficking Act, 1992 invalid and unconstitutional. The applications brought by Gareth Prince, Jeremy Acton and Jonathan Ruben argued that the criminalisation of dagga use and possession was a violation of the right to equality, dignity and freedom of religion. Interestingly, however, Davis instead chose to address their challenge almost solely within the context of the right to privacy. (See also: Dagga ban goes up in smoke - and so do some cases)

  • Thousands dead: the Philippine president, the death squad allegations and a brutal drugs war

    Now in a safe house, a former police officer fears for his life after allegedly exposing Rodrigo Duterte’s role in extrajudicial killings when mayor of Davao
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, April 2, 2017

    “Throw them in the ocean or the quarry. Make it clean. Make sure there are no traces of the bodies.” The words are shocking. That they allegedly came from the man who is now president of the Philippines makes them explosive. It is claimed that Rodrigo Duterte gave the orders to his first death squad in Davao, in the southern island of Mindanao, in 1989 when he was ‘“mayor Rudy”. Arturo Lascanas, a retired police officer, made the accusations of Duterte’s campaign of extrajudicial killings under oath to the country’s senate last month.

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