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Time for a truce in the war against drugs?
Swissinfo (Switzerland)
Monday, March 19, 2012Arguing that a drug-free society is unattainable, a commission of global figures – including former Swiss minister Ruth Dreifuss – are promoting a radical change in drugs policy. Two lawyers from Neuchâtel University have recently added their analysis to the case against the war on drugs proposing nothing less than the total legalisation of all illicit drugs.
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Drug policy in Latin America: Burn-out and battle fatigue
As violence soars, so do voices of dissent against drug prohibition
The Economist (UK)
Saturday, March 17, 2012
The illegality of the successful drug export business means that its multi-billion-dollar profits go to criminal gangs. Their battles for market control have a high cost: according to the UN, eight of the world’s ten most violent countries are in Latin America or the Caribbean. Drugs are not the only business of organised crime, but they account for the bulk of the gangs’ income and thus their firepower. Honduras, a strategic spot on the trafficking route, has the world’s highest murder rate, about 80 times that of western Europe. -
Bolivia defends coca consumption at U.N. meeting
Reuters
Monday, March 12, 2012
Bolivian President Evo Morales defended Bolivians' right to chew coca leaves, the main ingredient of cocaine, on Monday, saying it was an ancient radition and the world's No. 3 cocaine producer was working to fight drug trafficking. Holding up a coca leaf to help underline his message at a United Nations anti-drugs meeting in Vienna, the leftist leader, a former coca leaf farmer, said coca leaf producers were not "drug dealers" and it was not the same as cocaine. -
Effort to put marijuana legalization measure on ballot is in disarray
Los Angeles Times (US)
Saturday, March 10, 2012After Proposition 19 received 46% of the vote in 2010, proponents took heart. They vowed to put a measure to fully legalize marijuana on the 2012 ballot. Instead, four camps vie for funding. Just weeks before the deadline for state ballot initiatives, the effort to put a marijuana legalization measure before voters in the general election is in disarray as the federal government cracks down on medical cannabis and activists are divided on their goals.
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'This Debate Will No Longer be Suppressed'
Legalizing Drugs Breaks Into the Mainstream
Democracy Now! (US web)
Friday, March 9, 2012Latin American leaders are increasingly speaking out against prohibition. And public opinion in America, especially when it comes to legalizing pot, is shifting very rapidly. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has wrapped up a trip to Mexico and Honduras, where he held talks with Central American leaders on regional security efforts and drug trafficking. Biden’s visit comes amid an emerging rift between the Obama administration and its Central American allies on the drug war. There is a growing belief among Central American leaders that decriminalization and legalization of some drugs could help reduce the power of drug cartels and reduce the bloodshed connected to the drug war.
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Pat Robertson: Pot should be legal like alcohol
The Associated Press
Friday, March 9, 2012Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson says marijuana should be legalized and treated like alcohol because the government's war on drugs has failed. The outspoken evangelical Christian and host of "The 700 Club" on the Virginia Beach-based Christian Broadcasting Network he founded said the war on drugs is costing taxpayers billions of dollars. He said people should not be sent to prison for marijuana possession.
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Bid to have pot smokers fined not prosecuted
Swissinfo (Switzerland)
Wednesday, March 7, 2012Parliament has launched a new attempt to decriminalise the consumption of cannabis, four years after voters rejected a proposal for the full legalisation of the drug. The House of Representatives voted to impose a fine of SFr200 ($218) for the possession and consumption of up to ten grams of the substance instead of prosecuting the individuals. Supporters said a pragmatic, efficient and uniform sanctioning system was necessary to deal with a social reality.
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Spanish town wants to grow cannabis to pay off debt
Reuters
Wednesday, March 7, 2012A small town in northeastern Spain, believes it has found a novel way to pay of its debt: cultivating cannabis. Tucked in the hills of one of Spain's most picturesque regions, the Catalonian village of Rasquera has agreed to rent out land to grow marijuana, an enterprise the local authorities say will allow them to pay off their 1.3 million euro debt in two years. The mayor of Rasquera, with 900 inhabitants, said the project will not only benefit locals, but also eliminate organised crime and the tax evasion associated with the cannabis industry thanks to government supervision.
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Just say no
Joe Biden in Mexico and Honduras
The Economist (UK)
Tuesday, March 6, 2012Given the recent calls by several Latin American presidents for a debate on legalising drugs, would the United States show any flexibility in its stance on prohibition? “None,” was the answer of Joe Biden, America’s vice-president, who was in Mexico City on March 5th to meet the three main contenders in July’s presidential race. Mr Biden arrived under unprecedented pressure from regional presidents for the United States to give way on prohibition, which many in the region blame for generating appalling violence.
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Policing drug sales: Cleaning up the ’hood
Focusing on drug markets rather than users means less crime
The Economist (UK)
Saturday, March 3, 2012An approach known as drug-market intervention (DMI) was first used in High Point, North Carolina, in 2004 and since then has been tried in more than 30 cities and counties. It is the brainchild of David Kennedy, a criminologist at John Jay College in New York, who thinks that “the most troubled communities can survive the public-health and family issues that come with even the highest levels of addiction. They can’t survive the community impact that comes with overt drug markets”—by which he means markets that draw outsiders to the neighbourhood. Once these are entrenched, a range of problems follow: not just drug use and sales, but open prostitution, muggings, robberies, declining property values, and the loss of businesses and safe public spaces.
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