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Class A drugs 'should be decriminalised,' says former drug advisor Professor David Nutt
The Independent (UK)
Thursday, may 31, 2012
Drugs such as LSD and MDMA should be decriminalised and sold in pharmacies, the government's former chief drug advisor has said. Professor David Nutt said that many substances currently banned are no more toxic than alcohol and that the potential penalty and criminal record which go with them amount to more harm than the drugs themselves. He added that he was not in favour of full legalisation and "selling heroin in supermarkets" but said a system whereby drugs - including Class A substances - were sold in pharmacies could work. -
Most California voters don't support legalizing pot, poll finds
Los Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, May 31, 2012
In California, cradle of the marijuana movement, a new poll has found a majority of voters do not support legalization, even as they overwhelmingly back medicinal use for "patients with terminal and debilitating conditions." Eighty percent of voters support doctor-recommended use for severe illness, a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found. But only 46% of respondents said they support legalization of "general or recreational use by adults," while 50% oppose it. -
Should Latin America End the War on Drugs?
The New York Times (US)
Thursday, May 31, 2012After decades of war with drug cartels, Latin America faces sickening levels of violence and corruption that have spread throughout the region. At a summit meeting of Western Hemisphere leaders in Cartagena, Colombia, last month, several leaders urged that there be a wide-ranging discussion that even considered drug legalization as an alternative to the militarized war on drugs. Is it it time for Latin America and the United States to abandon the war on drugs and deal with the issue as a matter of public health rather than combat? See: Stop Following a Failed Policy, by Otto Pérez Molina, president of Guatemala.
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Marijuana compound treats schizophrenia with few side effects
Clinical trial
Time Magazine (US)
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
A compound found in marijuana can treat schizophrenia as effectively as antipsychotic medications, with far fewer side effects, according to a preliminary clinical trial. Unlike the main ingredient in marijuana, THC, which can produce psychotic reactions and may worsen schizophrenia, cannabidiol (CBD) has antipsychotic effects, according to previous research in both animals and humans. -
Pot shop ban advances in L.A. City Council
L.A. council committee also moves forward a counterproposal that would ban most dispensaries but refrain from taking action against about 100 others
Los Angeles Times (US)
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
A City Council committee moved forward with a ban on medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday, approving a recommendation to outlaw storefront pot shops in Los Angeles while allowing small groups of patients and their primary caregivers to grow the drug on their own. The proposed ban comes after years of legal wrangling over how the city should regulate distribution of the drug. In 2007, the city imposed a moratorium on dispensaries, but a loophole allowed hundreds of new pot shops to proliferate. -
A User's Guide To Smoking Pot With Barack Obama
Gavon LaessigBuzzFeed Politics (US)
Friday, May 25, 2012
Barry was quite the accomplished marijuana enthusiast back in high school and college. Excerpts from David Maraniss' Barack Obama: The Story dealing with the elaborate drug culture surrounding the president when he attended Punahou School in Honolulu and Occidental College in Los Angeles. He inhaled. A lot. -
Poll shows strong support for legal marijuana: Is it inevitable?
A national Rasmussen Reports poll found that 56 percent of Americans back legal marijuana regulated like tobacco or alcohol. Trends show support on the upswing
The Christian Science Monitor (US)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A new national poll shows a clear majority of Americans in favor of legalizing and regulating marijuana – "the strongest support ever recorded," according to one pro-marijuana activist. The Rasmussen poll found that 56 percent of respondents favored legalizing and regulating marijuana similar to the way alcohol and tobacco cigarettes are currently regulated. Thirty-six percent were opposed. Critics dismissed the survey, saying its questions were asked in a leading fashion – a charge Rasmussen contests. Experts who track the issue say the poll is consistent with the overall trend of steadily rising acceptance of marijuana use. -
U.S. says drug abuse needs treatment, not just jail
Reuters
Wednesday, May 23, 2012The United States sees drug abuse as a public health problem as much as a crime issue and is seeking to learn from countries in Europe and elsewhere about how to treat addiction as a disease, Barack Obama's drugs policy chief Gil Kerlikowske said. He noted what he described as a "somewhat successful" fresh approach in Portugal, where since 2001 authorities have dispensed with arrests, trials and prison for people carrying a personal supply of any drug from marijuana to heroin and focused their efforts on prevention messages and treatment.
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Drugs: The Rebellion in Cartagena
Alma GuillermoprietoThe New York Review of Books (US)
Thursday, June 7, 2012
The startling, unprogrammed, and rebellious discussion about drugs that took place among hemispheric leaders in April at a summit in Cartagena, Colombia, barely mentioned addiction, because it’s too late for that. The discussion that for the first time in forty years challenged the United States’ dominance on drug issues focused urgently instead on the ways that the financial health, political stability, and national security of virtually every country in the Americas has been undermined by the drug trade. -
Majority relaxed about cannabis use
Australians have for many years now shown a very humane approach when it comes to the personal use of illicit drugs
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
More than half of Australians support reduced legal penalties for use of drugs such as cannabis and ecstasy, an analysis of a federal government survey shows. The findings contrast with the Herald/Nielsen poll released after the recent report of the think tank Australia 21 – urging to reopen the national debate on drug use, regulation and control – which showed that two-thirds of people opposed decriminalisation. But that is explained by the different way the poll questions were structured, said Alison Ritter, who heads a drug policy modelling program at the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW.
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