• The war on the truth about drugs

    So sentencing for some offences will be reduced – but we're still left with an unscientific drug policy obsessed with 'the message'
    The Guardian (UK)
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012

    What's the smallest unit of celebration? A whooplet? I need one to mark the news that sentencing for drug offences, in some cases, will be shortened. Following new guidelines from the sentencing council from the end of February those found to have bought drugs to share with friends rather than to profit from them, and those found to have imported drugs under duress, can expect to be locked up slightly less often, and for slightly less long.

  • Drugs mule terms cut in new sentencing guidelines

    BBC News
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012

    People who smuggle drugs will face more lenient sentences if they have been exploited, under new guidelines. The change in approach on "drug mules" forms part of new comprehensive rules on drugs offences from the Sentencing Council for England and Wales. The council said judges should distinguish between those who have been exploited by gangs and criminals heavily involved in the drugs trade. But it said large-scale drugs producers should expect longer jail terms.

  • Cannabis taxation: a win-win all round, Richard Branson tells MPs

    The Guardian (UK)
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012

    The market for cannabis in Britain should be regulated and taxed, and responsibility for drug policy moved from the Home Office to the health department, Sir Richard Branson has told MPs. The Virgin Group head said the 20% of police time and £200m spent on giving criminal sentences to 70,000 young people for possession of illegal drugs in Britain each year would be better spent going after the criminal gangs at the centre of the drugs trade. "It's win-win all round,'' he told the Commons home affairs select committee.

  • Drug guidelines suggest lighter sentences for 'social dealers'

    People who buy drugs to share with friends could avoid prison under guidance that also recognises medical use of cannabis
    The Guardian (UK)
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012

    Recreational drug users who naively buy small quantities to share with their friends could avoid jail under sentencing guidelines for drug offences. The sentencing council also spells out explicitly, for the first time, that the medical use of cannabis for serious conditions should be recognised by the courts as a mitigating factor when sentencing offenders. The official guidance for the courts, which comes into force next month, also recommends a less draconian approach to the sentencing of "drug mules". (See also: Response from IDPC to the Sentencing Council for England and Wales Consultation on the Drug Offences Guideline)

  • 100 years of the war on drugs

    The first international drug treaty was signed a century ago this week. So what was the war on drugs like in 1912?
    BBC News Magazine (UK)
    Tuesday, January 24, 2012

    opium-poppyHundred years ago, narcotics passed from country to country with minimal interference from the authorities. That all changed with the 1912 International Opium Convention, which committed countries to stopping the trade in opium, morphine and cocaine. Then, as now, the US stood in the vanguard against narcotics. While the UK's position is unequivocal today, a century ago it was an unenthusiastic signatory.

  • It’s time to end the failed war on drugs

    Treating addicts as criminals has done absolutely nothing to address this crisis, writes Richard Branson
    Richard Branson
    The Telegraph (UK)
    Monday, January 23, 2012

    After 50 years of the failed drug war, it is time for today’s leaders to find the courage to speak out. For all the successes I’ve had in business, I’ve also learnt to accept when things go wrong, work out why, and try to find a better way. The war on drugs is a failed enterprise. We need to have the courage to learn the lessons and move on. (See also: Richard Branson expected to tell MPs: it's time to end the war on drugs)

  • Marijuana-based prescription drug looks toward FDA's approval

    U.K.-based GW Pharma is in advanced clinical trials for the world's first pharmaceutical developed from raw marijuana — a mouth spray it hopes to market in the U.S. as a treatment for cancer pain
    The Associated Press
    Sunday, January 22, 2012

    A quarter-century after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first prescription drugs based on the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, additional medicines derived from or inspired by the cannabis plant itself could soon be making their way to pharmacy shelves, according to drug companies, small biotech firms and university scientists.

  • European Drug Policy at Crossroads

    European institutions are taking a wrong turn with simplistic messages and priorities of the failed policies of the past
    IDPC Advocacy Note
    January 2012

    idpc-europeIn recent years of global debate on policies and strategies on controlled drugs, the European institutions (European Commission and Council, and the EMCDDA) and member states have broadly been a progressive and civilizing factor in pushing for balanced, evidence based and humane drug policies and programmes. However, just when the wider global debate is shifting in accordance with these principles, and there are real political opportunities to create more balanced, humane and effective drug policies, there are worrying signs that the European institutions are taking a wrong turn – the vision and leadership on this issue is notably absent, and some of the more recent positions taken seem to indicate a return to the simplistic messages and priorities of the failed policies of the past.

    application-pdfDownload the advocacy note (PDF)

    READ MORE...

  • Policy pitfalls could quickly kill buzz around Liberal pot proposal

    Globe and Mail (Canada)
    Thursday, January 19, 2012

    canada-pot-flagIf Liberals are serious about presenting voters with a credible plan to legalize and regulate cannabis in the next federal election, they have a lot of work to do. Even some of the most passionate advocates of an end to pot prohibition acknowledge that legalization is a much more complicated public policy than the “just say no” criminalization model that critics say is such an abject failure.

  • Peru’s New Drug Chief: Country “Let Down Its Guard” in Eradication

    Peruvian Times (Peru)
    Wednesday, January 18, 2012

    The outspoken Ricardo Soberon was head of Devida for about five months and was in favor of a stronger intervention in drug policies by his institution, changing the focus from interdiction and forced crop eradication to a more comprehensive program to incorporate active participation of coca growers in the changes. His proposals clashed with U.S. and U.N. drug policies, which concentrate on forced eradication.

Page 426 of 471