• Caricom creates commission to study legalization of medical marijuana

    Associated Press (US)
    Thursday, July 3, 2014

    The Caribbean trade bloc Caricom has created a commission to study whether the region's roughly 15 million people should be allowed to use medical marijuana and how courts should handle possession of small amounts of the drug. Leaders said that the commission is expected to submit reports by Caricom's next summit, scheduled for February 2016. A recent preliminary report from Caricom found that decriminalizing medical marijuana could help boost the region's economy. (See also: Opposition says Jamaica does not need Caricom ganja comm)

  • Infographic: Legal weed's consequences

    Six months later, how have recreational pot shops affected Colorado?
    Al Jazeera (US)
    Tuesday, July 1, 2014

    When recreational marijuana stores first opened their doors in the US state of Colorado on January 1, opponents predicted dire consequences: an influx of drug traffickers, a spike in fatal car accidents, and more crime. For their part, supporters claimed that legal weed could raise millions of dollars in tax revenue. Six months later, what have the results been? (See also: Six months after legalizing marijuana, two big things have happened in Colorado)

  • The real reason pot is still illegal

    Opponents of marijuana-law reform insist that legalization is dangerous—but the biggest threat is to their own bottom line
    The Nation (US)
    Tuesday, July 1, 2014

    The Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America (CADCA), one of the largest anti-legalization organizations in the US has a curious sponsor: Purdue Pharma, the manufacturer of Oxy-Contin, the highly addictive painkiller that has been linked to thousands of overdose deaths nationwide. A familiar confederation of anti-pot interests have a financial stake in the status quo, including law enforcement agencies, pharmaceutical firms, and nonprofits funded by federal drug-prevention grants.

  • Colorado recreational marijuana industry begins major transformation

    The Denver Post (US)
    Monday, June 30, 2014

    Only six months old, Colorado's recreational marijuana industry starts a transformation that could add hundreds of new pot businesses to the state and reconfigure the market's architecture. Previously, only owners of existing medical marijuana shops could apply to open recreational stores, and all businesses had to be generalists, growing the pot that they sold. Now, newcomers to the industry can apply for recreational marijuana business licenses. When these new businesses begin opening in October, all recreational marijuana companies will be allowed to specialize — for instance as stand-alone stores that don't grow their supply.

  • Golding tables ganja Bill in Senate

    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Monday, June 29, 2014

    Minister of Justice, Senator Mark Golding, tabled the much-anticipated Bill proposing the automatic expungement of convictions for certain minor ganja-related offences in the Senate. The Bill, officially titled An Act to Amend the Criminal Records (Rehabilitation of Offenders), also provides that conviction for a minor offence of ganja possession, which involves a fine of $1000 (or such other amount as may be prescribed), or for smoking ganja, shall not be entered into the criminal record of the offender.

  • Shortages, high prices expected for state’s first pot stores

    The state’s Liquor Control Board has been warning of shortages when the first stores open in July
    The Seattle Times (US)
    Saturday, June 28, 2014

    The Liquor Control Board has been warning of shortages when the first stores open in Washington state. The board plans to issue the first 15 to 20 retail licenses July 7, with shops allowed to open the next day. It’s not clear how many stores that will be. Board staff said at a meeting last week that just one store in Seattle is ready for its final inspection. Only 79 of the more than 2,600 people who applied for marijuana-growing licenses last fall have been approved as growers, and many of them aren’t ready to harvest. (See also: Everything you want to know about legal pot in Washington)

  • Khat and mouse

    Banning the east African stimulant may backfire
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, June 28, 2014

    On June 24, 2014, the sale of khat was prohibited in Britain, almost a year after home secretary Theresa May told the House of Commons that she intended to ban it. The government argues that since the leaf has been banned elsewhere, Britain risks turning into a distribution point if it remains legal; that khat is a dangerous intoxicant that harms its users and that the “marfashes” where men go to chew are breeding radicalism. Both the government’s advisory council on the misuse of drugs and the House of Commons Home Affairs Committee advised against the crackdown.

  • A half-smoked joint

    Decriminalising drugs leaves the crooks with the cash. Legalise drugs instead
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, June 28, 2014

    Decriminalisation is only half the answer. As long as supplying drugs remains illegal, the business will remain a criminal monopoly. Jamaica’s gangsters will continue to enjoy total control over the ganja market. They will go on corrupting police, murdering their rivals and pushing their products to children. People who buy cocaine in Portugal face no criminal consequences, but their euros still end up paying the wages of the thugs who saw off heads in Latin America. For the producer countries, going easy on drug-users while insisting that the product remain illegal is the worst of all worlds.

  • A puff of logic

    Genes, cannabis and schizophrenia. Correlation is not necessarily causation
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, June 28, 2014

    That cannabis and schizophrenia are linked is widely accepted. Several studies suggest the drug can set off short-term psychotic episodes in those already suffering from the condition. Other research, though, does more than this. It shows that people with schizophrenia are twice as likely as others to use cannabis. This leads some to argue that the drug is actually a cause of schizophrenia rather than just a trigger—a line of evidence sometimes employed by those who wish to keep it illegal.

  • Labour senators won't cooperate with tough line on marijuana

    Dutch News (Netherlands)
    Friday, June 27, 2014

    Labour senators are refusing to cooperate with the Dutch government's tough line on marijuana and want to sanction regulated production trials. Senator Guusje ter Horst told television show Nieuwsuur that the entire soft drugs strategy needs to be overhauled. In particular, efforts need to be made to remove marijuana from organised crime. Justice minister Ivo Opstelten has said he will not give in to pressure to allow controlled marijuana growing, despite calls for change from dozens of mayors.

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