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Drug death 'capital' Brighton to put treatment ahead of punishment
Green MP says the coalition's 'localism' policy enables seaside town to follow Portugal's decriminalisation strategy
The Guardian (UK)
Sunday, June 26, 2011Caroline Lucas, MP for Brighton Pavilion, has called for a new approach, having identified an unlikely ally. She wants to exploit the localism agenda of communities secretary Eric Pickles, the no-nonsense cabinet bruiser from Bradford, to decriminalise drug use in the city. If Lucas, the first Green MP in England, gets her way, a town which has gained a reputation as one of the most tolerant in the country will become a pioneer in liberal drugs policy as well.
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Bolivia to denounce and rejoin the 1961 UN Single Convention with respect to coca leaf chewing
Press conference by Pablo Solon, Permanent Representative of Bolivia
New York, Friday, June 24, 2011Press conference by H.E. Pablo Solon, Permanent Representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia on the theme, "denounce and rejoin the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, with respect to coca leaf chewing”.
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Bolivia to withdraw from drugs convention over coca classification
President Evo Morales says chewing coca leaves is a cultural heritage and ancestral practice
Mattia Cabitza in La PazThe Guardian
Friday, June 24, 2011.
Bolivia is set to withdraw from an international narcotics convention in protest at its classification of coca leaves as an illegal drug. President Evo Morales, who is also the leader of one of the country's main coca producers' unions, has asked Congress to pass a law that would take Bolivia out of the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The government says that the convention contravenes the Bolivian constitution, which states that the country is obliged to preserve and protect the chewing of coca leaves as a cultural heritage and ancestral practice. -
Analysis: Mexican ex-presidents lead debate on legalizing drugs
Reuters
Friday, June 24, 2011Once praised lavishly by the United States for waging a war on drugs, Mexico's last two presidents now say legalizing them may be the best way to end the rising violence the U.S.-backed campaign has unleashed. Though public support for some legalization is growing on both sides of the border, resistance is firmly entrenched in the U.S. government and analysts say Mexico is very unlikely to liberalize its drug laws without Washington's approval.
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Breaking the Taboo: A Global Drug War Film
The Huffington Post (US web)
Friday, June 24, 2011"If you can't control drugs in a maximum security prison, then how can you control drugs in a free society?" Those are my words that close Breaking theTaboo, a poignant new film about the global drug war. Breaking the Taboo is a stark and honest portrayal of the global war on drugs and its failure to resolve the many issues that derive from prohibition. The main character of the film is the former President of Brazil Fernando Henrique Cardoso.
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Barney Frank and Ron Paul Introduce Bill to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition
The bill would essentially treat marijuana like alcohol on the federal level
Rob KampiaAlterNet (US web)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
The bill introduced today would allow states to determine their own marijuana laws -- not just medical marijuana laws -- without federal interference. The bill would also remove marijuana from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. Since Congress and President Nixon placed marijuana in the strictest of five schedules in 1970, marijuana has been in the same category as heroin. -
Marijuana bill officially introduced to Congress by Ron Paul, Barney Frank
Los Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Marijuana laws should be set at the state, not federal, level, Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank argued in a bill they introduced Thursday. The goal of the bill, HR 2306 or the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, is not to legalize marijuana but to remove it from the list of federally controlled substances while allowing states to decide how they will regulate it. -
4 Hopeful Signs in the Fight Against Disastrous Drug War, Including a New Bill to End Federal Pot Prohibition
Although this new bill is largely symbolic, the fact that it's being introduced, and other small victories of late, bode well for a change in tone on this discussion
Sarah SeltzerAlterNet (US web)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
It's been forty years since President Nixon declared a "war on drugs." And we're not winning. In local communities, Black and Latino men are being singled out unfairly and fed into the prison system for minor drug offenses; in Mexico, an unspeakably brutal drug war continues with no signs of cessation; sick people continue to be denied legal access to medical marijuana that could ease their pain. But there are signs that things are changing. -
Closed shops
Why tourists in the Netherlands may have to stop smoking pot
The Economist (UK)
Thursday, June 23, 2011In a rolling process, Dutch "coffee shops", where cannabis is freely sold for private consumption, could soon become closed clubs. New government rules may force some 660 coffee shops that now sell cannabis over the counter to become members-only clubs with strict registration procedures, accessible only to Dutch residents. The government says the new policy is a bid to curb the "nuisance" of drug tourists and to fight organised crime.
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Legalize marijuana in Washington state
The Seattle Times editorial board supports the legalization, regulation and taxation of marijuana for Washington state adults
EditorialThe Seattle Times (US)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Marijuana should be legalized, regulated, taxed and made available for sale to adults. Prohibition has failed. It fuels criminal gangs. It fills the prisons in America and graveyards in Mexico. To end marijuana prohibition at the federal level, several states need to defy federal authority. That is how the politics works. The Legislature will not do it, nor will Gov. Chris Gregoire. But the people of Washington can, through a ballot initiative.
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