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Seiveright urges ganja farmers to look beyond ‘so so weed’
“Jamaica is not too eager to ignore international treaty obligations like the bigger nations of this world”
Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
Thursday, January 19, 2017
Delano Seiveright, a director of the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), says that ganja growers should look beyond farming “so so weed” in seeking to benefit from the relaxation of legislation covering its use for business investment. Growers should, instead, “seriously take on the many value-added products and experiences that emanate from the herb”. He said that international pressure and resultant fear had been the biggest obstacle to reform, despite the hypocrisy of such pressures, given the fact that more than half the states in the United States have liberalised the use of ganja, with eight, including its capital city, Washington, DC, and its most populous state, California, legalising the product. -
Injecting drugs, under a watchful eye
90 supervised injection sites exist around the world
The New York Times (US)
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
It has been nearly 30 years since the first needle exchange program opened in the United States. America has another epidemic now: overdose deaths from opioids, heroin and fentanyl. A thousand people died of overdose in the city last year — three times the number who were killed in homicides. Nationally, drug overdose has passed firearms and car accidents as the leading cause of injury deaths. Yet there is a potent weapon that we’re ignoring: the supervised injection room. According to a report by the London-based group Harm Reduction International, 90 supervised injection sites exist around the world. -
The mistake most states made when legalizing marijuana
Legalization states with taxes based entirely on marijuana’s price have fiscal and political challenges ahead of them
The Washington Post (US)
Wednesday, January 18, 2017
The arrival of 2017 will bring many changes to the country, including falling marijuana prices in states that have legalized a recreational market. Cannabis users may cheer this news, but it heralds the start of an enduring budgetary headache for states that tax legal marijuana sales based solely on price. The marked descent of post-legalization prices was predicted by most marijuana policy experts. Colorado, like Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Massachusetts and Maine, taxes marijuana as a percentage of the drug’s price. For these six states, sinking prices translate automatically into sinking tax revenue per sale. -
Asia is still just saying no to drugs
Prohibition may be falling out of fashion in the West, but Singapore and its neighbours remain fierce advocates
The Economist (UK)
Saturday, January 14, 2017
Harsh penalties for drug offences are common across Asia. The sorts of alternatives now favoured in the West, such as diverting addicts to effective treatment programmes instead of trying them and saddling them with criminal records, are virtually non-existent. Several countries require drug offenders to enter rehabilitation programmes, but these are often like prison. Asia’s harsh anti-drug policies are falling out of step with the rest of the world. Heroin is available on prescription in several European countries. The rich world increasingly treats addiction as an illness rather than a crime. These trends have Asia’s drug warriors worried. (Cambodia: Drug campaign nets 1,000) -
Marijuana reforms flood state legislatures
The incoming Trump administration has sent signals that encourage, and worry, both supporters and opponents of looser pot rules
The Hill (US)
Friday, January 13, 2017
Legislators in more than a dozen states have introduced measures to loosen laws restricting access to or criminalizing marijuana, a rush of legislative activity that supporters hope reflects a newfound willingness by public officials to embrace a trend toward legalization. The gamut covered by measures introduced in the early days of legislative sessions underscores the patchwork approach to marijuana by states across the country — and the possibility that the different ways states treat marijuana could come to a head at the federal Justice Department, where Trump’s nominee to become attorney general is a staunch opponent of legal pot. -
Report spurs call to study marijuana’s potential in opioid-crisis fight
New research must now be funded to see whether cannabis can pare down the use of some opioids
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Thursday, January 12, 2017
A new U.S. government-funded report showing clear evidence cannabis is an effective remedy for those with chronic pain underscores the need for more research into how marijuana can help fight the deadly opioid crisis ravaging North America, according to one of Canada’s leading pain researchers. A report released by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine outlined nearly 100 conclusions about the benefits and harms of cannabis on a range of public health and safety issues. -
Canada’s marijuana industry needs innovation to thrive, not protection
Marijuana regulators face a trade-off between protecting inefficient producers and raising revenue
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
The Task Force on Marijuana Legalization and Regulation did not say, “create a marijuana marketing board.” Yet its recommendations would, if implemented, effectively impose a supply management system on cannabis. Suppliers would be licensed, and subject to production limits. These controls would be set so as to “align supply with likely demand.” A marijuana marketing board would protect existing producers, and keep prices high. For the Task Force, this was precisely the point. They wanted to encourage “market diversity,” create “a space for smaller-scale production” and prevent “the development of monopolies or large conglomerates.” -
Governor introduces bill to legalize recreational marijuana
The proposal would assess a sin tax of 15 percent and would make the age requirement 21 for the purchase, handling and consumption of cannibis
Pacific News Center
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
As promised and just in the second week into the new year, Governor Eddie Calvo of Guam has introduced legislation for the recreational use of marijuana. The governor is dubbing is the Marijuana Control Law which would regulate the use, production, sale and taxation of marijuana as well as decriminalize marijuana by removing it as a schedule 1 controlled substance under the Guam Uniform Controlled Substances Act. In a transmittal letter to Speaker BJ Cruz, the governor says, "I am introducing this bill, not because I personally support the recreational use of marijuana, but as a solution to the regulatory labyrinth that sprouted from the voter-mandated medical marijuana program." -
Why addicts take drugs in 'fix rooms'
Denmark opened its first fix room in 2012
BBC News (UK)
Monday, January 9, 2017
Britain could soon see its first "fix room" for drug users - a safe space where addicts can take illegal narcotics under medical supervision. But who uses such places and how do they work? Injecting rooms have been around for more than 30 years. Drug rooms exist officially in several European countries, including Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Spain, as well as in Canada and Australia. Recently a Paris hospital started housing France's first "shooting gallery". Glasgow is planning to open the UK's first drugs consumption room and those behind it have been looking to countries like Denmark for inspiration. (Canada: Suddenly, safe-injection sites are mainstream politics) -
Cannabis : 150 personnalités marseillaises demandent la "légalisation contrôlée"
Marseille souffre des dommages causés par la prohibition du cannabis
Journal du Dimanche (France)
Dimanche, 8 janvier 2017
Ils veulent la fin de la "prohibition du cannabis" qui est pour eux "un échec". 150 personnalités marseillaises, dont les députés socialistes Patrick Menucci et Marie-Arlette Carlotti, signent ce dimanche un appel pour une "légalisation contrôlée" de cette drogue. Parmi les signataires, on retrouve aussi des avocats, des magistrats et de nombreux médecins. Tous de Marseille. Car la deuxième ville de France est particulièrement touchée par les conséquences de cette prohibition.
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