• Inside Denmark's 'fixing rooms', where nurses watch as addicts inject in safety

    Away from public view, this safe haven for drug users has 1,000 regulars. Crime is down, the streets are safer. Could it work in Britain?
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, May 5, 2013

    fixerum-vesterbroSince the launch of the room, the quantity of drug paraphernalia collected from gutters, playgrounds, stairwells and doorways in the area has halved. Vesterbro also appears to be a place where the desperate are seemingly becoming a little less desperate. Burglaries in the wider area are down by about 3%, theft from vehicles and violence down about 5%, and possession of weapons also down. "From the police perspective, I can see the benefits," says Superintendent Henrik Orye. "It feels calmer."

  • In Latin America, U.S. focus shifts from drug war to economy

    The New York Times (US)
    Saturday, May 4, 2013

    Relationships with countries racked by drug violence and organized crime should focus more on economic development and less on the endless battles against drug traffickers and organized crime capos that have left few clear victors. The countries, Mexico in particular, need to set their own course on security, with the United States playing more of a backing role. That approach runs the risk of being seen as kowtowing to governments more concerned about their public image than the underlying problems tarnishing it.

  • Legalize marijuana and other ways U.S.-Mexico can win drug war

    Tim Padgett
    Time Magazine (US)
    Friday, May 3, 2013

    obama-pena-nieto2There was a lot of drug-war hand-wringing in the U.S. leading up to President Obama’s visit to Mexico. That’s because Mexican President Peña Nieto is in change-the-conversation mode: he wants Washington to focus less on his country’s awful drug violence – some 60,000 narco-related murders in the past seven years, with little sign of abating – and more on its robust economic potential. The fear in some Washington circles is that Peña Nieto's Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which in its dictatorial 20th-century heyday was every drug lord’s cuate, or best buddy, is putting the fight against Mexico’s vicious cartels on the back burner.

  • Maine panel hears case for marijuana legalization

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Friday, May 3, 2013

    maineWith other states already starting to allow the legal use of marijuana, Maine needs to get ahead of the issue and legalize, regulate and tax the sale of the drug, lawmakers were told. LD 1229, the Act to Tax and Regulate Marijuana, was introduced by State Rep. Diane Russell (D-Portland). "This issue is coming to our state," Russell told the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee as it took up the bill she sponsored. It has 35 co-sponsors in the 186-member Legislature.

  • Le Cannabis social club va-t-il être dissous ?

    Le procureur de la République de Tours, Philippe Varin, estime que l’objet du Cannabis social club est illicite
    La Nouvelle République (France)
    Vendredi, 3 may 2013

    Le bras de fer entre le Cannabis social club et les autorités judiciaires a connu un nouvel épisode. Le 4 mars dernier, les membres fondateurs du Cannabis social club français s'étaient rendus à la préfecture d'Indre-et-Loire pour déposer les statuts de cette association dont le but officiel est de fédérer les Cannabis social clubs qui devaient être créés un peu partout en France. Lors d'une audience civile, le procureur de la République de Tours, Philippe Varin, a demandé la dissolution de cette fédération. (Lire aussi: Les Cannabis Social Club assignés à Tours)

  • NDP, Green party okay with research trial of marijuana use

    The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
    Friday, May 3, 2013

    B.C.’s New Democratic and Green parties say they would not oppose a research trial to evaluate the regulation of adult marijuana use, which would be a step towards taking pot use out of the criminal realm, according to Stop the Violence BC. The B.C. Liberals said a research trial would have to be initiated by the federal government and only then would they give the proposal “serious consideration.”

  • Maastricht mayor to clamp down on cannabis cafe foreign sales

    DutchNews (Netherlands)
    Thursday, May 2, 2013

    onno-hoesMaastricht mayor Onno Hoes has warned the city's 13 cannabis cafes that he will take legal action if they go ahead with plans to sell marijuana to non-residents on Sunday. The local cannabis cafe association issued a statement earlier saying that all outlets will sell to people who do not live in the Netherlands when the Netherlands celebrates the end of World War II. (See also: Maastricht to get less strict on cannabis sales to foreigners?)

  • A rising marijuana reform tide at the Statehouses

    Drug War Chronicle (US)
    Wednesday, May 1, 2013

    In the wake of the marijuana legalization victories in Colorado and Washington last November, and buoyed by a series of national public opinion polls showing support for pot legalization going over the tipping point, marijuana reform legislation is being introduced at state houses across the land at levels never seen before. According to a legislative activity web page maintained by the Marijuana Policy Project, decriminalization bills have been introduced in 10 states.

  • DEA: Warning letters to 11 pot dispensaries don’t signal war on state law

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Wednesday, May 1, 2013

    The Drug Enforcement Administration sent cease-and-desist letters to 11 medical-marijuana dispensaries because they are within 1,000 feet of schools or other prohibited areas. The DEA maintains that the crackdown does not signal a federal war on Washington state’s new legal-pot law. Despite Washington state’s new legal recreational-pot law, enacted by voter-approved Initiative 502, all forms of marijuana remain illegal under federal law.

  • Colorado House gives initial approval to marijuana tax measure

    The Denver Post (US)
    Monday, April 29, 2013

    Colorado lawmakers tried to find the Goldilocks level for recreational marijuana taxes — an amount neither too high to discourage voters from approving it nor too low to pay the costs of pot legalization. At the end of the debate, the state House gave initial approval to a bill that proposes a 15 percent excise tax and an initial 10 percent special sales tax on recreational marijuana, over the objection of Republicans who said the tax rates are too much.

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