• Should kratom use be legal?

    The Scientific American (US)
    Monday, September 30, 2013

    kratomThe leaves of kratom, a native of Southeast Asia in the coffee family, are used to relieve pain and improve mood as an opiate substitute and stimulant. The herb is also combined with cough syrup to make a popular beverage in Thailand called "4x100." Because of its psychoactive properties, kratom is illegal in Thailand, Australia, Myanmar (Burma) and Malaysia. Thailand is considering legalizing kratom as a safer alternative for meth addicts, and U.S. researchers are studying its potential to help opiate abusers kick the habit without withdrawal side effects.

  • CND Intersessional Meeting

    Wednesday 25th September 2013
    CND Blog
    Thursday, September 26, 2013

    cnd-intersessional-250913The intersessional meeting was intended as the first day of formal negotiations on the draft of the Joint Ministerial Statement (JMS) for the 2014 High Level Segment. However, the Peruvian Chair stated at the opening that the original plan – to produce a collation of member state comments/proposals, then work through them systematically in three intersessional meetings – had not worked, and had attracted criticism from many member states. He therefore asked that this session be a general ‘brainstorming’ where member states could propose the broad issues and perspectives.

  • Guatemala president to UN: Reform global drug policy

    Perez Molina says a new drug strategy must emerge from an inclusive global discussion
    Aljazeera America
    Thursday, September 26, 2013

    PerezMolina-UN2013Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina rose to power in 2011 on the promise of crushing organized crime. The former army general pledged high-security prisons, an increased police force and the deployment of soldiers in the fight against drug gangs, which have transformed Guatemala into one of the most violent places in the world.

  • Le Maroc songe à légaliser la culture du kif

    Le Monde (France)
    Mercredi, 25 septembre 2013

    cannabis-cultivation-moroccoDes associations et, désormais, de plus en plus de partis politiques marocains convergent vers un même objectif: changer la nature du kif dans le Rif. Une proposition de loi, en cours de rédaction, pourrait être débattue au Parlement de Rabat pour légaliser la culture du cannabis à des fins médicales et industrielles sur la base d'un document rédigé en 2012 intitulé "Appel pour l'instauration d'une politique juste et efficiente concernant la culture du kif et son usage".

  • Police targeting cannabis users

    While police target cannabis users in effort to crack down on the illegal trade, the mayor says legalised trade would make greater hit on criminal earnings
    The Copenhagen Post (Denmark)
    Wednesday, September 25, 2013

    hash-catch-denmarkPolice in Copenhagen have cannabis users in their crosshairs as they struggle to close the illegal drug trade in Copenhagen commune Christiania. Task Force Pusher Street, the police’s Christiania unit, has been active since September 2012 and claims to have cut the cannabis trade there by 30 percent and announced that they intend to step up efforts against cannabis. Copenhagen mayor Frank Jensen said that he would rather see the sale of cannabis legalised.

  • Colombian president tells U.N. the drug war has not been won

    Reuters
    Tuesday, September 24, 2013

    The "war on drugs" has not been won, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos told the United Nations, exhorting the world body to add teeth to the Special Session on Drugs in 2016, proposed by Mexico and accepted by the world body. The Organization of American States was commissioned to study new approaches to combating illegal drugs. The studies were delivered in May proposing that the United Nations give them serious consideration in time for the special session on drugs.

  • Jamaica lawmakers debate pot decriminalization

    Associated Press
    Tuesday, September 24, 2013

    Lawmakers in Jamaica debated a proposal to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use by adults, where many islanders are expressing weariness with current drug policy. There is no bill drafted or vote scheduled, however, and various government administrations have talked about the issue for decades.

  • Spliffs and butts

    It is high time for a new debate on drug policy but politicians remain wary
    The Economist (UK)
    Saturday, September 21, 2013

    cannabis-bust-britainIn 1952, Donald Macintosh Johnson, later the Conservative MP for Carlisle, published a study entitled “Indian Hemp: A Social Menace”. Even small doses of the drug could lead to violence and mental-health problems, he fretted. More than 60 years later, politicians from all Britain’s major parties are just as worried and resist legalisation. Yet the evidence in favour of making pot legal is as persuasive as ever.

  • The strange politics behind a Berlin neighborhood's plan to legalize pot dealing

    It's the latest Northern European city to see pro- and anti-marijuana forces face off
    The Atlantic Citylab (US)
    September 19, 2013

    First Copenhagen, now Berlin. As a new wave of debate on Cannabis legalization sweeps across Northern Europe, the German capital has become the next city where pro- and anti-cannabis liberalization forces are going head to head. The Green Party's Monika Herrmann, who became mayor of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough, announced that she wants to set up a coffeeshop selling cannabis. Using the word coffeeshop, perhaps shows up the current limits of the legalization lexicon, as Herrmann insists that what she has in mind will be nothing like the social hubs selling coffee and grass that Amsterdam is known for.

  • Thailand’s cure for meth addiction? A leafy jungle stimulant

    Seen as an emerging threat in the US, 'Kratom' could wean addicts off meth, Thailand’s justice minister argues
    Global Post
    Tuesday, September 17, 2013

    4x100users-thailandThe legal status of kratom is under review in Thailand. Options include making kratom available only by prescription, decriminalizing small amounts and total legalization. “There’s never been a single death associated with kratom,” said Pascal Tanguay, who investigated kratom use for the Transnational Institute. “People have been chewing this for thousands of years with no cases of overdose, psychosis, murder, violent crime. Never in all of recorded history.”

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