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‘It opens your heart’
Canada approves use of ecstasy in study into post-traumatic stress disorder
National Post (Canada)
Friday, December 28, 2012
Exactly a century after ecstasy was first patented, Health Canada has approved the drug’s import for the first Canadian study using the illegal substance in trauma survivors’ therapy. The Journal of Psychopharmacology reported that more than 83% of several PTSD patients treated with MDMA and therapy had completely recovered, “without evidence of harm.” A follow-up study published last month found that the patients still had virtually no symptoms two years later. -
Ex-president slams Brazil's tough anti-drug bill
Agence France-Presse (AFP)The Daily Star (Lebanon)
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
A bill calling for tougher sentences for drug possession and mandatory internment of addicts in Brazil has drawn fire from ex-president Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a strong advocate of drug decriminalization. "Treating drug use as a police case is useless and disastrous," he said in an interview with the daily O Globo. "Mandatory internment (of addicts) has been internationally condemned as inefficient, stigmatizing and a violation of human rights," said Cardoso who was in office from 1995 to 2002. -
Les coopératives de cannabis sans but lucratif aspirent à la légalité
Le Monde (France)
Mercredi, 26 decembre 2012
L'autoculture de cannabis croît et se multiplie. C'est la tendance observée par l'Observatoire français des drogues et des toxicomanies (OFDT) qui dénombre 200 000 cultivateurs particuliers de marijuana en France. Une culture domestique généralement pratiquée à l'abri des regards et sous les néons d'un appartement. Mais pas seulement. Depuis 2009, certains se réunissent dans des "cannabis social clubs". Des coopératives, calquées sur le modèle espagnol, au sein desquelles les adhérents font pousser et partagent leurs plants. -
Canada could learn from Colorado and Washington on pot
Globe editorialThe Globe and Mail (Canada)
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana represents a seismic shift in public attitudes. This historic reform will only add urgency to the message of a growing number of law enforcement experts, scientists and politicians: that a new approach to the failed war on drugs is desperately needed. The current punitive approach to marijuana is not effective and squanders valuable public resources that could be directed toward prevention and treatment. -
How to do drugs right
India’s repressive narcotics law has not served its own ends
The Indian Express (India)
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Recently, two states in the US, Washington and Colorado, liberalised their narcotics laws and decriminalised recreational marijuana. India though, is years away from even a debate on these lines — though our repressive position on narcotics has clearly not served us. India’s strict narcotics laws have been ineffective. Supply and demand for all narcotic and synthetic drugs has risen rapidly after the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS) in 1985. All the police does is arrest the most defenceless in the drug chain — drug users, and those who sell small quantities to pay for their addiction. -
Uruguay postpones vote on 'state as dealer' approach to drug regulation - but not for long?
Few think this postponement means the project is forever shelved
Christian Science Monitor (US)
Sunday, December 23, 2012
READ MORE...
Uruguay has been on the vanguard of drug policy reform in the Americas, proposing a state regulatory market for the cultivation and consumption of marijuana. (See Latin America reinventing the War on Drugs). But last week the project’s No. 1 proponent, President Jose Mujica, told Parliament to postpone the vote. Mujica always said he would not go forward with the proposal if a majority of Uruguayans did not accept it. A new poll by the firm Cifra shows 64 percent of those surveyed remain opposed. -
Legalise ganja to treat HIV, cancer, doctors tell gov't
‘Cannabis keeps viral progression down’
The Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Marcus Day of the Caribbean Drug and Alcohol Research Institute believes the time has come for regional governments to legalise marijuana to counteract the spread of HIV. "We encourage the crack smokers that we work with to substitute their crack for cannabis and to smoke cannabis instead. Even though it's probably not the best thing, it's much better than crack smoking." -
Reefer Madness Revisited
The Marijuana Policy Project's Rob Kampia on the recent victories for legal marijuana
The Austin Chronicle (US)
Friday, December 21, 2012
Rob Kampia, co-founder and executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), has co-authored most of the medical marijuana laws on the books. His group spent years laying the groundwork for the successful legalization initiatives in Washington and Colorado, and the MPP was – by far – the biggest financial backer of the successful campaign in Colorado. He is interviewed about the future of pot prohibition, the role of the feds ... -
Marijuana, not yet legal for Californians, might as well be
The New York Times (US)
Thursday, December 20, 2012
Let Colorado and Washington be the marijuana trailblazers. Let them struggle with the messy details of what it means to actually legalize the drug. Marijuana is, as a practical matter, already legal in much of California. No matter that its recreational use remains technically against the law. Marijuana has, in many parts of this state, become the equivalent of a beer in a paper bag on the streets. -
Battle over nation's largest pot dispensary heads to U.S. court
The outcome involving the Harborside Health Center sites in Oakland and San Jose could signal what lies ahead as more states approve legalization
Los Angeles Times (US)
Wednesday, December 19, 2012
A showdown over the fate of the country's largest medical marijuana dispensary heads to federal court, and the outcome could hint at what lies ahead as a growing number of states opt for legalization. This fall, Oakland became the first municipality to sue federal prosecutors in an attempt to block them from shuttering a medical cannabis facility.
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