• Pot legalization: Canada doesn’t need another profit-seeking drug industry

    Cannabis law reform provides an opportunity to introduce an approach that truly places the priority on social justice and public health over revenue
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Tuesday, March 28, 2017

    When Canadians have expressed concerns about upcoming cannabis legalization, the government has assured them that the legal cannabis industry will be strictly regulated to protect public health. This promise raises important questions: Has legalization of our other drug industries – alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals – prevented harm from their misuse? Have these drug industries effectively balanced the pursuit of revenue with protection of public health? Has government regulation of drug industries been effective? Canadians have far more to fear from a revenue-obsessed, poorly regulated cannabis industry than they do from cannabis itself. (See also: Marijuana stocks ‘a bubble ready to burst’ | The wild west of weed: will legalisation work for Canada?)

  • Ottawa's plans for cannabis legalization may be slowed by provinces

    Other contentious aspects of legalization included how much people should be allowed to possess, whether edibles should be sold and how to tackle drug-impaired driving
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Monday, March 27, 2017

    Ottawa’s plan to legalize marijuana by next year could hit serious roadblocks across the country, as provinces and territories are expected to have different approaches to solving complicated policy issues such as where to sell cannabis and how much to tax the drug. The government expects to roll out legislation before April 20 and that the recreational use of the drug would be legalized by July 1, 2018. But the federal government has indicated that it will leave the contentious issues of regulating the wholesale distribution and retailing of cannabis up to the provinces and territories, a move that could make next year’s target seem too ambitious for some jurisdictions, according to several industry insiders and academics.

  • Israel seeks piece of projected $50 billion medical marijuana market

    Over 500 Israeli companies have applied for licenses to grow, manufacture and export cannabis products as U.S. market booms
    Haaretz (Israel)
    Monday, March 27, 2017

    Israel, a leader in marijuana research and health technology, is attracting international investment as it tries to position itself as a cutting-edge exporter in the rapidly growing market for medical cannabis. With estimates that the global market for medical marijuana could reach $50 billion by 2025, the Israeli government is set to allow the local industry to start exporting and projects annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars. The government gave the go-ahead in February to legislation that would allow export. (See also: Israel's medical marijuana pioneers look to cash in on $20bn market)

  • Liberals to announce marijuana will be legal by July 1, 2018

    Provinces will have right to decide how marijuana is distributed and sold
    CBC (Canada)
    Sunday, March 26, 2017

    The Liberal government will announce legislation next month that will legalize marijuana in Canada by July 1, 2018. CBC News has learned that the legislation will be announced during the week of April 10 and will broadly follow the recommendation of a federally appointed task force that was chaired by former liberal Justice Minister Anne McLellan. Bill Blair, the former Toronto police chief who has been stickhandling the marijuana file for the government, briefed the Liberal caucus on the roll-out plan and the legislation during caucus meetings this weekend. (Read more: Ottawa rushing to draft marijuana legalization bill ahead of 4/20: sources)

  • Trafficked and enslaved: the teenagers tending UK cannabis farms

    Vietnamese teens are tending Britain’s makeshift drug factories in empty buildings from suburban homes to a nuclear bunker
    The Guardian (UK)
    Saturday, March 25, 2017

    An international network of traffickers brings teenage boys from Vietnam to become enslaved gardeners in British suburbs. Yet every few weeks, another farm is discovered and new arrests are made. Police estimate that a significant chunk of British cannabis is produced this way. The NSPCC is so concerned by the exploitation of trafficked Vietnamese children that staff refer to UK-produced cannabis as "blood cannabis". More children are trafficked into the UK from Vietnam than from any other country; of all the identified trafficking victims who were forced into cannabis cultivation in 2012, 96% were from Vietnam, and 81% were children.

  • Medical marijuana – high time the Dutch got their message straight

    The Netherlands had been at the forefront of medical cannabis policy but has now been overtaken by many other countries
    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Friday, March 24, 2017

    medical marijuana flosThe Netherlands is a major exporter of medical marijuana, even though it has never been formally approved here as a treatment for Dutch patients. And this year, the majority of Dutch health insurance companies stopped paying for it as well. Medical cannabis has been allowed on prescription in the Netherlands since 2003 and until recently was often covered by health insurers, if patients could show no other medication gave adequate relief of symptoms. Meanwhile, patients who have found benefit from medical cannabis are left dealing with the change in insurers positions.

  • De-schedule dagga to create jobs, says community

    Cannabis should be de-scheduled and treated as a herbal medicine
    IOL (South Africa)
    Thursday, March 23, 2017

    As the deadline for public comment on the guideline documents for cultivation of cannabis for medical use looms, an Eastern Cape community is calling for de-scheduling of the plant as a way of exercising total control of the lucrative “green gold” industry. The Medical Innovations Bill, aimed at legalising the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes, was introduced by the late MP Mario Oriani-Ambrosini in 2014. Prince Phumezile Dinwayo, of the Amantlane Traditional Council, at Lusikisiki in Eastern Cape, said this represented opportunities for rural communities as that could lead to job creation, economic stability and growth of the critical agricultural sector, among others. (See also: Dagga farming: few will be able to fulfil requirements)

  • How the opioid epidemic became America’s worst drug crisis ever

    Drug overdoses now kill more Americans than HIV/AIDS did at its peak
    Vox (US)
    Thursday, March 23, 2017

    America is in the middle of its deadliest drug crisis ever. In 2015, more than 52,000 people died of drug overdoses, nearly two-thirds of which were linked to opioids like Percocet, OxyContin, heroin, and fentanyl. That’s more drug overdose deaths than any other period in US history — even more than past heroin epidemics, the crack epidemic, or the recent meth epidemic. And the preliminary data we have from 2016 suggests that the epidemic may have gotten worse since 2015.

  • Task-force leader on legalizing marijuana urges prohibition, for now

    All dispensaries and compassion clubs across Canada still operate outside the federal government’s medical-marijuana program
    The Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Thursday, March 23, 2017

    Anne McLellan, head of an official task force that submitted recommendations to Ottawa on how best to legalize cannabis, said police everywhere should enforce the existing prohibition of marijuana, despite several communities in British Columbia choosing to regulate – not raid – illegal pot shops. Vancouver crafted Canada’s first municipal marijuana bylaw in response to what was a "growing difficult situation for them." The former minister of public safety, health and justice, said other cities should not follow suit before the current laws change, echoing what the federal government has repeatedly said when asked about the rise of illegal dispensaries.

  • Expert not expecting Trump to crack down on legal marijuana

    If it ends up on the chopping block, it's not something that a lot of Americans are going to stand up and scream about
    Las Vegas Sun (US)
    Wednesday, March 22, 2017

    With millions of dollars hanging in the balance, supporters of Nevada’s marijuana industry have been watching Jeff Sessions with wary, worried eyes since he was confirmed as U.S. attorney general. At issue is whether Sessions, a vehement opponent of marijuana, will attack the industry by aggressively enforcing federal pot laws. John Hudak, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has been watching Sessions carefully, too. Shortly after Sessions’ confirmation, Hudak wrote a report examining what could be in store for the marijuana industry under the new A.G.’s administration. (See also: What would a federal marijuana crackdown look like? | America’s pot industry shrugs off Donald Trump’s harder line on drugs)

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