• New cannabis rules not working

    Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW)
    Monday, July 9, 2012

    street-dealingThe new rules affecting the sale of cannabis in coffeeshops in three southern Dutch provinces are having an adverse effect according to a new study. The "weed pass" was introduced in the regions on May 1 this year. The introduction of an obligatory membership card for coffeeshop customers has resulted in a sharp increase in the illegal street sale of cannabis and the emergence of a large and elusive network of telephone numbers that can be called for the supply of the drug.

  • Oregon likely to put pot legalization to voters, proponents say

    Reuters
    Friday, July 6, 2012

    Oregon will soon qualify as the third U.S. state to ask voters in November to legalize marijuana for recreational use in a move that could put the state on a collision course with the federal government. Backers of the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act said they have collected 165,000 signatures on petitions seeking to put the measure on the ballot, nearly double the 87,000 they were required to submit by Friday's deadline to qualify.

  • A Quiet Revolution

    Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe
    Ari Rosmarin & Niamh Eastwood
    Release
    July 2012

    'A Quiet Revolution: Drug Decriminalisation Policies in Practice Across the Globe' is the first report to support Release's campaign 'Drugs - It’s Time for Better Laws'. This report looks at over 20 countries that have adopted some form of decriminalisation of drug possession, including some States that have only decriminalised cannabis possession.

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  • Study: The ‘gateway drug’ is alcohol, not marijuana

    Stephen C. Webster
    The Raw Story (US web)
    Thursday, July 5, 2012

    A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate for some drug users, but shifts the blame for those addicts’ escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American life: alcohol.

  • Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War

    Eduardo Porter
    The New York Times (US)
    Wednesday, July 4, 2012

    retail-cocaineWhen policy makers in Washington worry about Mexico these days, they think in terms of a handful of numbers: Mexico’s 19,500 hectares devoted to poppy cultivation for heroin; its 17,500 hectares growing cannabis; the 95 percent of American cocaine imports brought by Mexican cartels through Mexico and Central America. They are thinking about the wrong numbers. (Graphic: The Price of Failure)

  • Medical marijuana growers uninspected by Health Canada

    Police cite trafficking abuses, but licensed growers face no oversight
    CBC News (Canada)
    Wednesday, July 4, 2012

    More than 15,000 people are licensed to grow medical marijuana in Canada, but Health Canada has no record of staff ever inspecting any of the growers. Health Canada implemented its medical marijuana access regulations in 2001. Under the program, people with "grave and debilitating illnesses" can be granted legal access to marijuana for medicinal purposes. People seeking a permit apply in writing to Health Canada, with a supporting document from a medical practitioner. (See also: Medical marijuana growth rules to change)

  • Mexico's President-Elect: Legalization Should Be Part of Drug Strategy Debate

    PBS Newshour
    Tuesday, July 3, 2012

    pena-nietoThe president-elect of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, said Mexico should have a debate about legalizing and regulating, an approach advocated by other Latin American leaders to take marijuana sale profits out of the hands of the drug cartels. While insisting he was not in favor of legalizing drugs, he said, "I'm in favor of opening a new debate in the strategy in the way we fight drug trafficking. It is quite clear that after several years of this fight against drug trafficking, we have more drug consumption, drug use and drug trafficking. That means we are not moving in the right direction. Things are not working."

  • Supreme Court ruling stokes Colorado pot debate

    Marijuana opponents in Colorado are using a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling to gird their argument against making pot legal
    Associated Press
    Tuesday, July 3, 2012

    please-card-sonThey're not talking about the landmark health care ruling. They're talking about last week's Arizona immigration ruling, in which the court reiterated a foundation of American law - that states can't buck the federal government. "Arizona may have understandable frustrations" with federal inaction on immigration, the justices wrote, "but the state may not pursue policies that undermine federal law."

  • Most Canadians firmly in favour of decriminalizing marijuana: poll

    Most Canadians are at odds with the Harper government's firm stance against marijuana decriminalization
    The Vancouver Sun (Canada)
    Monday, July 2, 2012

    canada-pot-flag3Two-thirds of Canadians think the law should be changed so that people caught with small amounts of marijuana no longer face criminal penalties or fines, a new poll has found. The nationwide survey for Postmedia News and Global TV, which examined the state of Canadian values, revealed that the public is distinctly offside with the Harper government on the issue.

  • Colombia Decriminalizes Cocaine and Marijuana

    As Latin American Momentum for Drug Policy Reform Continues
    Ethan Nadelman
    The Huffington Post (US web)
    Monday, July 2, 2012

    Colombia's Constitutional Court approved the government's proposal to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of cocaine and marijuana for personal use. Anyone caught with less than 20 grams of marijuana or one gram of cocaine for personal use may receive physical or psychological treatment depending on their state of consumption, but may not be prosecuted or detained, the court ruled.

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