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Cocaine, heroin and meth buyers' club gets Vancouver's approval to secure a safe supply
Thursday, 07 October 2021The City of Vancouver voted unanimously in favour of supporting a peer-led program that would help get a safe supply of drugs to individuals at high risk of overdose. Coun. Jean Swanson called for th ...
Labelssafe supply | activism | heroin | cocaine | methamphetamine | canada | harm reduction | decriminalization -
Cannabis legalisation will allow regulated associations and home growing of plants
Wednesday, 06 October 2021Under proposed cannabis legalisation in Malta, non-profit associations can grow cannabis to distribute among their members, Equality Minister Owen Bonnici said. The minister also said that people wou ...
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Graft, drug trafficking threaten Albania's chances of joining EU
Monday, 04 October 2021Researcher Fatjona Mejdini states that the drug problem had its roots in 1991, when Albania went from an isolated communist dictatorship straight to capitalism. "They were tough times for everyone," ...
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Owen Bonnici presents first reading on cannabis reform
Monday, 04 October 2021The minister for reforms Owen Bonnici has tabled the first reading of Malta's government proposed cannabis reform. Taking to Twitter, Bonnici said the bill “will establish a new legal framework gover ...
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‘Wall of shame’ built to block crack users sparks fury in Paris suburb
Thursday, 30 September 2021Paris authorities have bricked up a tunnel that connects Paris and the northeastern suburb of Pantin in the département of Seine-Saint-Denis, after moving dozens of crack smokers into the area, a mea ...
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UK drug laws used as tool of systemic racism, says ex-No 10 adviser
Wednesday, 29 September 2021Britain’s drug laws are racist and cause “high levels of mental health harm” among black people, a former No 10 race adviser has said. Simon Woolley said drugs legislation introduced 50 years ago had ...
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Drug decriminalization movement gaining momentum in Canada as overdose deaths surge
Wednesday, 29 September 2021As overdose deaths keep surging in Canada, the movement to decriminalize illicit drugs is gaining steam, with one of the country's largest mental health facilities joining national advocates and seve ...
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Stand for craft: How Canada’s craft cannabis cultivators are pushing for tax reform
Wednesday, 29 September 2021It’s been just three short years since cannabis was legalized in Canada, but it’s already clear the nation’s exorbitant taxation on cannabis cultivators is not only unsustainable; it’s killing craft ...
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Government allegedly backpedals on legalising cannabis
Tuesday, 28 September 2021Radio 100,7 reported that the government has apparently decided that the sale of recreational cannabis will remain illegal in the Grand Duchy. Only the cultivation of cannabis plants for private cons ...
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40 mayors call on next Dutch government to legalise marijuana
Thursday, 23 September 2021Almost 40 Dutch mayors, mainly from the south of the Netherlands, have signed a manifesto calling on the government to legalise soft drugs (cannabis) as part of a campaign to tackle organized crime a ...
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Italy will be first to light up Europe’s weed biz
Wednesday, 22 September 2021Italy may soon jump on the weed bandwagon. A nationwide referendum to legalise cannabis will likely take place early next year. If Italian voters embrace dope, it will spark a domino effect across Eu ...
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Warnings instead of prosecution for Class A drug users
Wednesday, 22 September 2021People caught with Class A drugs in Scotland could be given a police warning instead of facing prosecution. Officers can already issue a formal warning for possession of lower category drugs. Lord Ad ...
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Italy set for referendum on liberalising cannabis use, say weed advocates
Saturday, 18 September 2021Weed advocates in Italy said they had gathered enough signatures to trigger a referendum on liberalising the use of cannabis, setting the stage for a nationwide vote on the issue early next year. The ...
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Minister casts doubt over Luxembourg legal weed plan
Friday, 17 September 2021Justice Minister Sam Tanson on Friday refused to confirm Luxembourg will legalise cannabis for recreational use in an apparent U-turn over a government promise from 2018 that drew widespread internat ...
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International court backs probe into Philippines' 'war on drugs'
Wednesday, 15 September 2021Judges at the International Criminal Court approved a formal investigation into possible crimes against humanity allegedly committed under the leadership of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in th ...
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Zurich to launch recreational cannabis trial
Tuesday, 14 September 2021The three-and-a-half year pilot scheme, announced on Tuesday, takes advantage of a change in the law that was approved by parliament last year. This allows cities to conduct scientific studies on the ...
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Serotonin helps curb cocaine addiction
Friday, 10 September 2021The team has revealed a brain mechanism specific to cocaine which triggers a massive increase in serotonin (the ‘happy’ hormone) in addition to the increase in dopamine (the neurotransmitter that cau ...
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Antwerp and Rotterdam are new epicentre of European cocaine trade
Thursday, 09 September 2021The increased use of shipping containers to conceal drugs has made the high volume ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Hamburg the new epicentre of the European cocaine market, according to a new report ...
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Italy set to decriminalise cultivation of cannabis plants for personal use
Thursday, 09 September 2021Italy is to decriminalise the growing of cannabis plants at home for personal use. The measure, adopted by the country’s Lower House's justice committee, approves the cultivation of up to four cannab ...
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Teen use of marijuana does not increase with legalization, U.S. top drug researcher admits
Wednesday, 08 September 2021Few individuals have as much influence on drug policy in the United States as Nora Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), whose tenure at the head of the federal government’ ...
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South Africa’s cannabis master plan will finally establish a regulated industry
Tuesday, 07 September 2021South Africa’s new master plan is a bright spark for those dismayed by lawmakers’ previous attempts to reform the country’s cannabis laws. Introduced in 2018, the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill l ...
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New regime, same old drug myths in Myanmar
Tuesday, 07 September 2021In the late 1980s as well as in Myanmar today, the military (or Tatmadaw) and the police could hardly be described as anti-drug crusaders. On the contrary, Myanmar’s security forces have a long histo ...
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‘Swazi gold’: grandmothers in Eswatini growing cannabis to make ends meet
Thursday, 02 September 2021In Nhlangano, in the south of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), the illegal farming of the mountainous kingdom’s famous “Swazi gold” is a risk many grandmothers are ready to take. In what is known local ...
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‘Protect our local dagga strains from intellectual property theft,’ Parliament told
Wednesday, 01 September 2021The Eastern Cape government is calling for the protection of the local cannabis industry in South Africa. Dohne Agricultural Development Institute research director Dr Mfundo Maqubela said in a virtu ...
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We should hand out free heroin to drug users
Thursday, 26 August 2021Let’s give out heroin, for free, to anyone who wants it. This is not a provocation meant to make you gasp or to elicit angry clicks—rather, it’s a proven strategy for reducing the harm of opioids tha ...
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Safehouse takes its battle over a Philly supervised drug injection site to the U.S. Supreme Court
Thursday, 26 August 2021Seven months after a federal appellate court delivered a major setback to plans to open the nation’s first supervised injection site in Philadelphia, the nonprofit behind the endeavor is returning to ...
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This overdose awareness day, activists will again hand out safe drugs
Tuesday, 24 August 2021In the midst of a federal election campaign, a group of activists plan to again hand out tested, untainted heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in a push to put the need for regulated, wide-reaching s ...
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Decriminalisation of kratom hailed by rights advocates
Tuesday, 24 August 2021The decriminalisation of kratom, long used as a herbal remedy but which some health regulators around the world have criticised as potentially unsafe, was welcomed by human rights advocates. Kratom i ...
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Drugs Commissioner: Possession of six grams of cannabis should no longer be a criminal offence
Monday, 23 August 2021The Federal Commissioner on Narcotic Drugs, Daniela Ludwig (CSU), advocates that in future the possession of cannabis up to a personal use limit of six grammes should be prosecuted nationwide as an a ...
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Socialdemokratiet mayoral candidate to legalise cannabis sales
Friday, 13 August 2021Socialdemokratiet’s leading mayoral candidate for Copenhagen, Sophie Hæstorp Andersen, has big plans concerning the decriminalisation of cannabis. Should the votes in the upcoming election this Novem ...
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8,000 to be cleared after kratom's removal from narcotics list
Tuesday, 10 August 2021More than 8,000 convicted people and suspects will be cleared of legal charges when kratom (Mitragyna speciosa) is removed from the narcotics list on Aug 24, Office of Narcotics Control Board secreta ...
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The War on Drugs and the denial of indigenous rights
Monday, 09 August 2021As a colonial construct, the global drug control regime has undermined the rights of indigenous peoples (including the right to self determination, and to practice and revitalize their cultural tradi ...
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What do you do with a billion grams of surplus weed?
Thursday, 05 August 2021Back in 2018, during those months before Canada legalized recreational cannabis, things were good for the pot industry. Companies were being hyped as pioneers in “the green frontier” and “proof that ...
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Canadian cannabis producers have sold less than 20% of output since adult-use legalization
Wednesday, 28 July 2021Cannabis producers in Canada have sold less than 20% of their production since the country launched adult-use sales in October 2018, according to an MJBizDaily analysis. The newest data – which runs ...
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Snap vote to decriminalize marijuana fails in Knesset due to Ra’am opposition
Wednesday, 28 July 2021A bill to decriminalize recreational marijuana use failed to clear a vote in the Knesset plenum due to opposition from lawmakers in the coalition’s Ra’am party. New Hope MK Sharren Haskel hoped to ha ...
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Barcelona cannabis clubs face closure in new legal setback
Tuesday, 27 July 2021Barcelona’s 200 cannabis clubs face closure after the supreme court shut a legal loophole that has seen the city become Spain’s marijuana capital. It is the latest in a series of setbacks for the aso ...
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Fact or fable: Will cannabis be Africa’s economic saviour?
Sunday, 18 July 2021In recent years several African governments have changed their stance and implemented policies that legalise cannabis cultivation, manufacturing and processing, mostly for the export market. In south ...
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Coming out about illicit drug use: ‘The hush-hush attitude has to end’
Saturday, 17 July 2021The ultimate goal of a campaign by charity Unharm called Let’s be honest/Change the story, is to decriminalise all drug use in Australia by 2030. One of the major tactics Unharm is mimicking the stra ...
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Is the Czech Republic on the cusp of a cannabis boom?
Saturday, 17 July 2021Czech legislation of marijuana is “more benevolent” than most other countries in Europe. Possession of fewer than 10 grams of marijuana and growing five plants at home has been decriminalised since 2 ...
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Will Berlin make good on a promise to legalise cannabis?
Wednesday, 14 July 2021Despite opposition from federal drug regulators, the Berlin Senat is reportedly pushing ahead with a pilot project to sell cannabis legally in pharmacies. The city-state government plans to fight the ...
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Ministerial committee advances cannabis decriminalization
Monday, 12 July 2021Just over a year after the last government passed two now-defunct draft bills to legalize and decriminalize recreational cannabis, the Ministerial Committee on Legislation voted to advance a bill tha ...
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Morocco moves to legalise some cannabis cultivation
Saturday, 10 July 2021Few countries produce more cannabis than Morocco, where locals mix it with tobacco and call it kif, meaning “supreme happiness”. The pleasure extends to Europe, where much of the cannabis ends up. Fa ...
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Treat illegal drug use as health issue, says UK government review – here’s why
Thursday, 08 July 2021The scale of the illicit drug trade in the UK is immense. Last year, the first part of an independent review of the drugs trade found the market in the UK was estimated to be worth £9.4 billion a yea ...
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MPs accuse Cannabis Licensing Authority of ignoring small farmers
Thursday, 08 July 2021The Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) and the State have been accused of having no real interest in ensuring that small farmers get their fair share of the legal marijuana pie, as pilot cultivation ...
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Majority of Swiss support the legalisation of cannabis
Thursday, 01 July 2021Most Swiss accept the idea of legalising cannabis for recreational purposes provided there are rules to protect minors, according to a survey. Nearly two-thirds of people surveyed want the minimum ag ...
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Licenced marijuana experiment may be delayed: NOS
Thursday, 01 July 2021A Dutch experiment involving the licenced production and sale of cannabis which is due to start this autumn is likely to be delayed, broadcaster NOS reported. Arnhem mayor Ahmed Marcouch has told the ...
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Massachusetts cannabis workers unionize, part of a national movement
Thursday, 01 July 2021Many cannabis cultivation workers share common challenges. They frequently lack a living wage, benefits (like health care and retirement plans) or pathways for professional development. Workers and a ...
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‘Movie-plot’ cocaine case highlights shipping industry drug problem
Monday, 28 June 2021On June 17, 2019, US law enforcement agents boarded a shipping vessel in Philadelphia and seized 19.75 tons of cocaine with a street value of over $1 billion. It was one of the largest drug seizures ...
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Mexico supreme court strikes down laws that ban use of recreational marijuana
Monday, 28 June 2021Mexico’s supreme court has struck down laws prohibiting the use of recreational marijuana, moving the country toward cannabis legalisation even as the country’s congress drags its feet on a legalisat ...
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Germany: Cannabis legalization becomes election campaign issue
Saturday, 26 June 2021With watershed elections looming in Germany, some politicians are talking about a new approach to drug control. The opposition Free Democrats (FDP), for whom civil liberties are a major issue, have c ...
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