• Clubbers mix former legal high mephedrone with ecstasy, despite ban

    Research shows that polydrug use is increasingly common
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, April 28, 2013

    Clubbers are regularly taking the former legal high mephedrone alongside ecstasy and cocaine, a trend that experts warn could have grave health implications. Research found that polydrug use was now the norm among clubbers, who are happy to mix legal, newly banned and established illegal club drugs. It indicates that criminalising drugs has little effect on consumption other than to provide new revenue streams for dealers selling established illicit substances. Experts say the findings are important because what happens on the club scene is often copied by wider society later on.

  • Councils increase pressure for legal cannabis production

    DutchNews (Netherlands)
    Saturday, April 27, 2013

    At least 10 of the Netherlands’ local councils have already or will soon submit plans to the justice ministry asking to be allowed to approve commercial marijuana growing. Newspaper Trouw showed councils are highly critical of official government policy on marijuana and say legalised production would remove organised crime from the equation. ‘Marijuana does not fall from the sky,’ said Heerlen mayor Paul Depla. (See also: Plan to ban strong marijuana unworkable, experts say)

  • The hidden dangers of legal highs

    In the last five years, the market for legal highs has exploded
    The Guardian (UK)
    Friday, April 26, 2013

    It's never been easier, or cheaper, to buy drugs online – but no one knows what's in them, or how dangerous they are. For most of the last decade, an average of four or five new legal drugs came on to the market each year. Then mephedrone appeared on the scene: cheap, legal and available online. By 2010, the drug had become the fourth most popular drug, after marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy. It was banned in April of that year, but not before a new market had emerged for online legal highs. In 2011, EU researchers found 49 new legal drugs for sale online. In 2012, 73 were identified; hundreds more were banned.

  • Colorado lawmakers discussing marijuana-legalization repeal effort

    The Denver Post (US)
    Friday, April 26, 2013

    A proposal that could lead to the repeal of marijuana legalization in Colorado has gained momentum at the state Capitol. The repeal would be linked to a measure on marijuana taxes that is expected to go before voters in November, according to legislators and advocacy groups involved in the discussions. The premise is that, if voters do not approve the taxes, then Amendment 64, the initiative passed just months ago to legalize marijuana, would be repealed.

  • Marijuana legalization in Colorado may not pay for itself, study finds

    The Denver Post (US)
    Friday, April 26, 2013

    Legal marijuana in Colorado may not bring in enough money to cover the societal costs of legalization, a study from a Colorado State University think tank concludes. The analysis also argues that revenue from marijuana taxes won't do much to help Colorado's budget and that money generated for new school construction won't reach the $40 million annual target that supporters of marijuana legalization set when campaigning for Amendment 64, the measure that legalized use, limited possession and commercial sale of marijuana for adults in Colorado.

  • The Next Step in Drug Treatment

    Editorial
    The New York Times (US)
    Friday, April 26, 2013

    The mandatory-sentencing craze that drove up the prison population tenfold, pushing state corrections costs to bankrupting levels, was rooted in New York’s infamous Rockefeller drug laws. These laws, which mandated lengthy sentences for nonviolent, first-time offenders, were approved 40 years ago next month. They did little to curtail drug use in New York or in other states that mimicked them, while they filled prisons to bursting with nonviolent addicts.

  • Class A drugs policy failing, say prison governors

    BBC News (UK)
    Thursday, April 25, 2013

    "The current war on drugs is successful in creating further victims of acquisitive crime, increasing cost to the taxpayer to accommodate a higher prison population and allowing criminals to control and profit from the sale and distribution of Class A drugs," PGA president Eoin McLennan-Murray. "A fundamental review of the prohibition-based policy is desperately required and this is why the Prison Governors Association are keen to support the Count the Costs initiative."

  • New law’s pot definition impairs criminal cases

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Wednesday, April 24, 2013

    Prosecutors and crime-lab scientists say a little-noticed provision in Washington’s new law legalizing recreational marijuana has jeopardized their ability to go after any pot crimes at all, and they’re calling for an immediate fix in the Legislature. The group is suggesting a change in the legal definition of marijuana.

  • Rival marijuana measures thrown into the electoral pot

    Three competing measures on the May 21 city ballot have divided L.A.'s medical cannabis industry
    Los Angeles Times (US)
    Sunday, April 21, 2013

    Dozens of medical marijuana activists rallied outside Los Angeles City Hall, declaring war on an enemy. Their target was not the federal government, whose agents raided several local dispensaries, or neighborhood groups trying to shut down the city's estimated 700 pot shops. The enemy was fellow medical marijuana advocates. Three competing measures on the May 21 city ballot have divided L.A.'s lucrative medical cannabis industry, with each side accusing the other of trying only to protect profits, not do what is best for patients.

  • The Issue: Discord between state, federal marijuana laws just crazy

    Is the grass turning greener for marijuana laws in the United States?
    UPI (US)
    Sunday, April 21, 2013

    In 21 states, consumers can legally buy marijuana for legal or recreational use even though the substance still is illegal under federal law. New laws legalizing recreational marijuana use in Washington and Colorado likely are under the states' "power to decide what is criminal and what is not," a report from the Congressional Research Service said. The report analyzed court precedent and presented what can be done to enforce federal law now that several states have marijuana laws that contradict it.

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