On the Coast - Radio - Evan Wood - Vienna Declaration

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 | | 0 comments

 
Dr Evan Wood talks to CBC radio about the Vienna Declaration and the creation of a regulated market for currently illegal drugs.
Listen to the attached - sign the declaration - spread the word!
 
 

"Cocaine Nation": The argument for legal cocaine #drugpolicy #cocaine #legalization

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Salon.com
Jun 28, 2010

"Cocaine Nation": The argument for legal cocaine

The author of a new book explains why our attitude toward the white powder is wrong -- and how we can fix it By Justin Sullivan

Salon

According to Tom Feiling, a London-based journalist and human rights organizer and the author of the new book "Cocaine Nation: How the White Trade Took Over the World," the best solution to America's cocaine problem is simple: make the drug legal. For many people, that's going to be a hard sell. While public perception about marijuana seems to be changing, cocaine still conjures up images of high-class leisure and rock star debauchery -- associations with wealth and luxury that makes any argument for legalization considerably more thorny.

But his book makes a persuasive case: Feiling speaks with coca farmers, police officers, government officials, producers and even doctors -- and emerges with a dire portrait of America's "War on Drugs" (a term the Obama administration has already jettisoned). The U.S. is set to spend $40 billion and arrest 1.5 million citizens this year in a policy that three-fourths of the county sees as misguided. Feiling uses an evenhanded and well-research approach to the subject. His case for legalization, he argues, stems from practical concerns: "It's about more accountability, not less."

Salon talked with Feiling over the phone from London about the difference between cocaine and pot, the possible dangers of legalization, and the important lessons of "The Wire."

Marijuana-legalization efforts seem to be gaining steam in the United States. What about cocaine?

There are big differences. The campaign for decriminalizing marijuana is premised on medical marijuana, so they've found a medical use for what was until then a recreational drug. Cocaine does have medical uses, but not in the same way. And while there are a lot of recreational users, you also have a lot of problem cocaine users.

Cocaine is still seen as a recreational drug for the luxury class. It seems like there's a different kind of visceral reaction to the idea of legalizing cocaine.

One way to appeal to people whose gut instincts say this is a terrible idea, is to assert that this is about getting more control not less.
Prohibitionists find it hard to accept that the law is not functioning as a deterrent; that it's not functioning at all. The idea that you can stamp it out is the real pipe dream. We're going to have to live with this stuff. So, are we going to regulate and control it, as we do with other dangerous substances, and dangerous activities? Or are we going to leave it in the hands of cartels or whoever is wealthy enough to buy a kilo of cocaine? What I'm proposing isn't an ideal; it's a pragmatic solution.

The book makes a strong case that the system in place is already extremely impractical.

I don't see how it could get worse. People who are unable to control their intake are getting their drugs on the street in adulterated forms from people who are armed, with no provision or any kind of service to help them address their problems or take their drugs safely, This is the worst possible way to treat substance abuse. In any other social policy field, these things are subject to assessment: We see if these policies are working. But in the "War on Drugs" there's an overarching moral imperative, so any cost-benefit analysis that you would apply to any system regulating a potentially dangerous subject is out the window.

You argue that the combination of poverty and drug use is really the powder keg that leads to urban blight and destroyed communities. But if you legalize drugs without eliminating poverty aren't we going to create a dangerous situation (like the "Hamsterdam" experiment in "The Wire,"
in which a police commander created a safe area for drug use, and it backfired)?

That's the distinction between legalization and decriminalization.
"Hamsterdam" wasn't saying we're going to legalize the production and distribution of drugs; it was an example of not going after those who produce and distribute drugs outside the law, so you still have the same suspects. Legalization would be a situation where the same people who sell you 70-proof alcohol, or malt whiskey, those are the people who'd be selling you cocaine, perhaps with more stringent requirements for those who wanted access. I'm not suggesting we just leave off, and just let drug dealers sell their drugs.

If the drug trade were legalized in major drug-exporting countries like Mexico, Guinea Bissau, Jamaica and Colombia, wouldn't the drug profits and organization fall into the hands of pharmaceutical corporations?

Well, if we could start again, I think governments would realize that tobacco, for example, should never have been handed over to private corporations. And there are more and more restrictions on tobacco production and distribution now: You don't advertise it, you don't sponsor sporting events, we adulterate the product to make it less dangerous, we have well-funded programs to educate people on the danger of this stuff and we're making it harder and harder for tobacco companies to do their business. So perhaps in a future model for legal cocaine, production and supply would have this sort of middle ground.

Speaking of pharmaceuticals, there's little mention in the book of the abuse of legal, pharmaceutical drugs, some of which are becoming booming substitutes for cocaine.

As a British person with experience of Colombia, in those two countries, the mass abuse of legal drugs isn't as prevalent as I know it is in the States. But the phenomenon of the abuse of pharmaceutical drugs still leaves the questions I've tried to discuss in the book: What do you do with mass drug abuse? What do you do with all the problems driving it?
Mental health problems, community breakdown, family, breakdown, unemployment, poverty, all these things.

The book does seem to downplay the effects of cocaine: "Take too much cocaine and you're likely to become dis-inhibited, grandiose impulsive, hyper vigilant." That almost sounds like drinking a cup of coffee.

I hope I've made plain the dangers of it. People have learned the hard way just how awful a drug like crack and powdered cocaine can be. But let's ask the question: Why do some people get into a problem with it and some people don't? Take whiskey -- that stuff can kill you. It regularly does. British hospitals are full of people who are on the verge of death from drinking too much. So perhaps I'm being a bit polemical in saying that you at least have to make the distinction, which is lost on prohibitionists, between problematic and unproblematic use.

Have you encountered any seemingly unlikely critics or supporters thus far?

The whole critique of prohibition is not really a left-right issue, is it? We get allies from all sides. It is interesting that a lot of right-wingers are against the "War on Drugs," and more likely to question prohibition. The Libertarians in the States are keen on criticizing the "War on Drugs," but they don't acknowledge the problem of mass drug addiction and abuse. That's the big question: What to do about mass, chronic drug abuse? One of the criticisms was: "This book almost celebrates drug traffickers." I think anyone making the argument that I am runs a risk of hearing that you're downplaying the problems.
I've tried to tread carefully.

I think it is about treading carefully. For example, "The Wire," which you mention a lot, avoids glamorizing the drug trade.

Yeah, when I was really hunkering down writing the book, I'd always knock off and watch a couple of episodes of "The Wire."

That's doesn't really sound like a break.

(Laughs) That was my idea of a break.

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Did You Know: War on Drugs Edition

Tuesday, June 29, 2010 | | 0 comments

 
 
The International Centre for Science in Drug Policy does it again!  Watch the Youtube!!!!! 

Decriminalize drugs, urge B.C. groups ahead of AIDS conference

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Decriminalize drugs, urge B.C. groups ahead of AIDS conference
By Todd Coyne
Ottawa Citizen
June 28, 2010  
 
http://www.viennadeclaration.com/ sign the petition! 

please sign - Vienna Declaration - Experts call for new course on illegal drugs in fight against HIV

Monday, June 28, 2010 | | 0 comments

 
PLEASE log on and sign the Vienna Declaration!

 

Experts call for new course on illegal drugs in fight against HIV

VIENNA (June 28, 2010): A team of experts and health organisations on Monday called for a scientific approach to illicit drugs, arguing that their criminalisation has been costly and ineffective and has fuelled a high HIV infection rate among intravenous drug users. The experts made the appeal in the lead-up to the 18th International AIDS Conference, to be held July 18-23 in the Austrian capital Vienna. They are launching a global signature drive for a declaration on a "science-based" approach to illegal drugs.

"As scientists, we are committed to raising our collective voice to promote evidence-based approaches to illicit drug policy that start by recognizing that addiction is a medical condition, not a crime," Julio Montaner, conference chairman and president of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.

The failure by law enforcement to prevent the availability of illegal drugs where there is demand "is now unambiguous," the so- called Vienna Declaration says. The declaration - drafted by 32 medical doctors and leading specialists - appeals to governments, the United Nations and other international organisations to review the effectiveness of current drug policies, increase "evidence-based" drug addiction treatments and abolish compulsory drug treatments that violate human rights.

The declaration also calls for an increase in funding for drug treatment and "harm reduction" measures.

The consequences of failed drug-enforcement efforts are manifold, the declaration says, pointing to HIV epidemics fuelled by the unavailability of sterile needles, HIV outbreaks among prisoners and record incarceration rates in many countries.

The massive market for illicit drugs, worth some 320 billion dollars annually, has also destabilised entire countries, such as Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan. Outside sub-Saharan Africa, intravenous drug use accounts for roughly one in three new cases of HIV, the declaration says. In some areas where HIV is spreading most rapidly, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as many as 80% of those infected with HIV are intravenous drug users.

Alternative approaches to illicit drug use - such as those implemented in the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries - have proven effective, conference organisers said

http://www.viennadeclaration.com/

 


FW: Decriminalize drugs, urge B.C. groups ahead of AIDS conference

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Decriminalize drugs, urge B.C. groups ahead of AIDS conference

 

 http://www.timescolonist.com/health/Decriminalize+drugs+urge+groups+ahead+AIDS+conference/3209885/story.html

 

By Todd Coyne, Canwest News ServiceJune 28, 2010

 

 VANCOUVER — Two Vancouver-based health policy groups are urging international officials to decriminalize drug use.

The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS and the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy partnered with the International AIDS Society to release a report Monday arguing that criminalizing drug users spreads violence and infectious diseases including HIV/AIDS.

The Vancouver-based groups were instrumental in drafting the Vienna Declaration ahead of the 2010 AIDS conference scheduled for Vienna next month.

Dr. Evan Wood, an author of the declaration and the founder of the Centre for Science in Drug Policy, said the paper urges political leaders to put ideology aside and treat drug-use as a public-health crisis rather than a law enforcement issue.

"It makes the case quite forcefully that not only has drug-law enforcement failed to achieve its stated objectives in terms of reducing drug supply . . . but there is also a range of unintended consequences," said Wood. "If you look at countries that rely more on law enforcement to deal with drugs, you also see higher HIV rates among drug users."

Wood said HIV rates increase as intravenous drug users are literally forced into the shadows, where they are increasingly difficult to reach with public-health education and social services.

While Wood and his fellow researchers named in the declaration are hesitant to call their public health model "legalization," they advocate regulation of the drug trade and the decriminalization of the drug user, he said.

"I don't think your average person knows that marijuana is more accessible to young people than alcohol," said Wood, noting that Portugal has the lowest rate of marijuana use of all European Union countries after decriminalizing all drug use in 2001.

"Maybe all this emphasis on law enforcement just serves to glamorize these drugs . . . but, if we deal with this as a health issue, like we have with alcohol and tobacco, maybe we can have an impact on this problem."

Wood and his colleagues plan to track what influence the declaration has on world drug policy in preparation for next year's global AIDS conference in the United States.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

 

 

 

 

IDPC Special Alert - please sign -The Vienna Declaration: A global call to action for science-based drug policy

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IDPC : International Drug Policy Consortium

The Vienna Declaration: A Global Call to Action for Science-based Drug Policy

In lead up to XVIII International AIDS Conference, scientists and other leaders call for reform of international drug policy and urge others to sign-on

28 June 2010 [Vienna, Austria] – The International AIDS Society, the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS today launched a global drive for signatories to the Vienna Declaration, a statement seeking to improve community health and safety by calling for the incorporation of scientific evidence into illicit drug policies. The Vienna Declaration is the official declaration of the XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010), the biennial meeting of more than 20,000 HIV professionals, taking place in Vienna, Austria from 18 to 23 July 2010. 

The Vienna Declaration describes the known harms of conventional “war on drugs” approaches and states: “The criminalisation of illicit drug users is fuelling the HIV epidemic and has resulted in overwhelmingly negative health and social consequences. A full policy reorientation is needed… Reorienting drug policies towards evidence-based approaches that respect, protect and fulfill human rights has the potential to reduce harms deriving from current policies and would allow for the redirection of the vast financial resources towards where they are needed most: implementing and evaluating evidence-based prevention, regulatory, treatment and harm reduction interventions.”

The Vienna Declaration calls on governments and international organizations, including the United Nations, to take a number of steps, including:

  • undertake a transparent review the effectiveness of current drug policies;
  • implement and evaluate a science-based public health approach to address the harms stemming from illicit drug use;
  • scale up evidence-based drug dependence treatment options;
  • abolish ineffective compulsory drug treatment centres that violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and
  • unequivocally endorse and scale up funding for the drug treatment and harm reduction measures endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations.
The Declaration also calls for the meaningful involvement of people who use drugs in developing, monitoring and implementing services and policies that affect their lives.

Those wishing to sign on may visit the official website for the Vienna Declaration, where the full text of the declaration is available in Chinese, Dutch, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, along with a list of authors. The two-page declaration references 28 reports, describing the scientific evidence documenting the effectiveness of public health approaches to drug policy and the negative consequences of approaches that criminalize drug users.

About AIDS 2010
The XVIII International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2010) is the biennial meeting of researchers, implementers and diverse leaders involved in the global response to HIV. It is convened by the IAS in partnership with international, regional and local partners. Click here for more information and to register for the conference, which is taking place from 18 to 23 July 2010 in Vienna, Austria.

International AIDS Society  
The International AIDS Society is the world's leading independent association of HIV professionals, with 14,000 members from 190 countries working at all levels of the global response to AIDS. Our members include researchers from all disciplines, clinicians, public health and community practitioners on the frontlines of the epidemic, as well as policy and programme planners.

International Centre for Science in Drug Policy  
ICSDP aims to be a primary source for rigorous scientific evidence on illicit drug policy in order to benefit policymakers, law enforcement, and affected communities. To this end, the ICSDP conducts original scientific research in the form of systematic reviews, evidence-based drug policy guidelines, and research collaborations with leading scientists and institutions across diverse continents and disciplines.

BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS  
The BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS (BC-CfE) is Canada’s largest HIV/AIDS research, treatment and education facility. The BC-CfE is based at St Paul’s Hospital, Providence Health Care, a teaching hospital of the University of British Columbia. The BC-CfE is dedicated to improving the health of British Columbians with HIV through developing, monitoring and disseminating comprehensive research and treatment programs for HIV and related diseases.

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Vienna Declaration - Experts call for new course on illegal drugs in fight against HIV #drugpolicy #unitednations #vienna

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Experts call for new course on illegal drugs in fight against HIV

VIENNA (June 28, 2010): A team of experts and health organisations on Monday called for a scientific approach to illicit drugs, arguing that their criminalisation has been costly and ineffective and has fuelled a high HIV infection rate among intravenous drug users. The experts made the appeal in the lead-up to the 18th International AIDS Conference, to be held July 18-23 in the Austrian capital Vienna. They are launching a global signature drive for a declaration on a "science-based" approach to illegal drugs.

"As scientists, we are committed to raising our collective voice to promote evidence-based approaches to illicit drug policy that start by recognizing that addiction is a medical condition, not a crime," Julio Montaner, conference chairman and president of the International AIDS Society, said in a statement.

The failure by law enforcement to prevent the availability of illegal drugs where there is demand "is now unambiguous," the so- called Vienna Declaration says. The declaration - drafted by 32 medical doctors and leading specialists - appeals to governments, the United Nations and other international organisations to review the effectiveness of current drug policies, increase "evidence-based" drug addiction treatments and abolish compulsory drug treatments that violate human rights.

The declaration also calls for an increase in funding for drug treatment and "harm reduction" measures.

The consequences of failed drug-enforcement efforts are manifold, the declaration says, pointing to HIV epidemics fuelled by the unavailability of sterile needles, HIV outbreaks among prisoners and record incarceration rates in many countries.

The massive market for illicit drugs, worth some 320 billion dollars annually, has also destabilised entire countries, such as Colombia, Mexico and Afghanistan. Outside sub-Saharan Africa, intravenous drug use accounts for roughly one in three new cases of HIV, the declaration says. In some areas where HIV is spreading most rapidly, such as Eastern Europe and Central Asia, as many as 80% of those infected with HIV are intravenous drug users.

Alternative approaches to illicit drug use - such as those implemented in the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries - have proven effective, conference organisers said

http://www.viennadeclaration.com/

 

Charity calls for better policy to fight drugs #drugpolicy #unitednations

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The Daily Star
Saturday, June 26, 2010

Charity calls for better policy to fight drugs

'Incarceration is not treatment; it only perpetuates the problem' - Skoun

By Patrick Galey
Daily Star staff

BEIRUT: Better awareness and a shift in prosecution practices are needed to counter a worrying rise in drug availability, the head of a leading addiction charity said on the eve of the United Nations' World Drug Day.

Nadya Mikdashi, executive director of the Lebanese Addictions Center (Skoun), told The Daily Star that while progress was being made on the way users and addicts were treated by authorities, a far greater effort was required from government to curb mounting drug abuse.

"The 'war on drugs' we have seen in recent years has been shown to be ineffective," she said in reference to failed counter-narcotic operations. "This whole policy of abstinence only or of thinking that no one will take drugs if we tell them not to doesn't work.

"We take a more pragmatic policy toward drug use and addiction: bring people into the public health system and not think that sending people to rehab or prison will work. Incarceration is not treatment; it only perpetuates the problem. There are drugs in prison," Mikdashi added.

Lebanon revised its drug laws in 1998 to reclassify addiction as a non-criminal offense. Nine years later a 2007 project saw collaboration with NGOs, judicial and security officials to adopt a new approach to tackling drugs.

According to the Association of Justice and Mercy (AJEM), an NGO which deals with imprisoned drug addicts, 30 percent of incarcerated Lebanese are there on of drug charges. Mikdashi called for a radical shift in thinking to stop treating drug addicts as criminals.

"We want to see the government make strategic decisions ... to increase the capacities of treatment providers who are already functioning and concentrate efforts on providing detox centers in government hospitals,"
she said. "The government is slowly starting to understand the intricacies of what drug addiction needs. It is still a basic understanding, but [politicians] are coming around."

Lebanon, with its Mediterranean location, Arab identity and proximity to main smuggling routes, was unfortunately positioned as a prime spot for drug users, Mikdashi added.

"Because we are open in Beirut, we have a lot of drugs but one good thing is we don't deny that there is a problem. Other Arab countries don't talk about it," she said.

"What worries me is availability and the idea that drugs are a recreational activity. Young people here are disenchanted, disempowered and don't believe they have bright futures. Poor kids are using [drugs] and rich kids are using, the only difference is price."

Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar recently called for the reactivation of a drug addiction committee, "a big step forward," according to Mikdashi.
In addition, the government has legalized a series of substitute compounds used to treat drug addiction, such as prescribing methadone for heroin addicts.

"More than 60 percent of people seeking treatment in Lebanon are addicted to heroin. [Methadone substitution] treatment has been shown to work," Mikdashi said.

She said that the levels of drug production in Lebanon and Asia were still cause for concern, with more crops lowering street level prices in Beirut and other main cities.

"I'm sure there is still opium growing going on but we are very close to Afghanistan so that makes [heroin] here very cheap," she said. "A gram can be as little as LL20,000 ($12.5)."

Skoun will have an information booth in Gemmayzeh on Saturday night to mark the United Nations' World Drug Day, where partygoers can get better educated on drugs, their risks and where to get help for addiction as part of its "Know More, Risk Less" campaign.

Read more:
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=116409#ixzz0s9Jy3ZQR
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

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Shutting down injection site just political dopiness #drugpolicy #insite

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Shutting down injection site just political dopiness
By Andrew Hanon
Edmonton Sun
June 25, 2010

Medical marijuana clubs mount court challenge #cannabis #medicalmarijuana #drugpolicy

Friday, June 25, 2010 | | 0 comments

 

Medical marijuana clubs mount court challenge
CBC News
June 23, 2010

Supreme Court to hear appeal over Insite supervised-injection clinic #insite #drugpolicy

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Supreme Court to hear appeal over Insite supervised-injection clinic
By Janice Tibbetts
The Province
June 24, 2010

Our indefensibly blood-soaked drug laws #drugpolicy #legalization

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Our indefensibly blood-soaked drug laws
By Chris Selley
National Post
June 24, 2010

a legalization debate #drugpolicy #legalization

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legalization debate - stossel 

http://www.theagitator.com/2010/06/24/stossel-drug-war-video-1-in-which-a-drug-warrior-extracts-facts-from-his-bum/

US CA: County Allots Medical Pot Sales Sites #cannabis #drugpolicy #legalization

Thursday, June 24, 2010 | | 0 comments

Pubdate: Thu, 24 Jun 2010
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)

COUNTY ALLOTS MEDICAL POT SALES SITES

San Diego became the 10th county in the state to regulate medical marijuana dispensaries Wednesday, joining a new wave of governments choosing to limit, but still allow, pot sales within their boundaries.

In restricting dispensaries to an estimated 16 sites in unincorporated parts of the county, supervisors ignored a plea from one speaker who wanted a ban and many who complained the regulations amounted to one.

Increasingly, California cities and counties are faced with two options on pot shops: regulate or refuse.

Nine of California's 58 counties ban medical marijuana dispensaries outright, up from two a year ago. Thirteen have temporary moratoriums in place as they consider permanent options, according to Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group for medical marijuana.

Among cities, 35 have ordinances regulating dispensaries, 101 have temporary moratoriums and 132 have bans.

Although a voter initiative legalized marijuana for medical use in 1996, federal law still bans it and local government preferences have made access to it a patchwork across the state.

In San Diego County, the cities of El Cajon, Escondido, San Marcos and Vista ban medical marijuana dispensaries. Chula Vista, Imperial Beach, National City, Oceanside and Santee have temporary moratoriums barring new ones from opening, according to a June 7 county grand jury report.

Forewoman Victoria Stubblefield said the grand jury has recently fielded more citizen complaints about the lack of clear guidelines for medical marijuana dispensaries than for any other subject. It's one reason the grand jury is recommending the county and each city license, regulate and inspect medical marijuana dispensaries.

"We need to be very clear about what the process is because of the proliferation of the new storefronts that are springing up right and left that might not be legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries,"
Stubblefield said. "No one wants that except for the illegal operators."

The grand jury report estimated there are at least 5,000 medical marijuana patients in San Diego County, and it's probable there are considerably more. Medical marijuana advocates say there could be 60,000.

Getting a handle on how many dispensaries have opened is no easier, but websites link to dozens countywide. For example, Weedmaps.com lists 13 in East County, 31 in North County and 25 in downtown San Diego.

In El Cajon, Mayor Mark Lewis said his city is right to bar dispensaries.

"I don't think our citizens will put up with it," Lewis said. "If anybody wants it, they certainly can find it in another community, either that or out on the street."

Since voters legalized medical marijuana, state regulation has caused confusion, as has prosecution. Some of the ensuing clashes have been highly publicized. Locally, prosecutions of medical marijuana collective operators ended with acquittals in December and March.

Statewide, people familiar with the issue are watching a legal challenge of Anaheim's ban on dispensaries. An appeals court ruling is expected this summer and could have far-reaching effects on how governments handle medical marijuana in California.

In San Diego, the county's attorney said Wednesday that Anaheim's ban won't hold up in court, and supervisors voted 4-1 to allow dispensaries in industrial zones at least 1,000 feet from homes, churches, schools parks and other dispensaries.

Some critics complained the sites left open to dispensaries weren't practical and that the oversight and enforcement of the operating regulations by the Sheriff's Department amounted to an invasion of privacy for each patient.

At San Diego City Hall, a proposal to regulate dispensaries is progressing with the help of a citizens' task force chaired by associate professor Alex Kreit, who teaches classes on criminal law and drug crimes at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. He said cities and counties are starting to realize that regulations work.

One reason, Kreit said, is that 1,000 dispensaries opened in Los Angeles as it waited to address the issue.

"I think that cities and counties, especially the larger ones, are gravitating toward regulations, and I think that's where they should be," Kreit said. "The vast majority of people in the state support medical marijuana. They don't think that patients should become criminals to get the medicine they need."

Medical marijuana was the subject of a forum for Democratic candidates for state attorney general in February. Every candidate said it has gotten out of hand.

"There are more marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles than there are Starbucks," candidate Chris Kelly said.

Last month, the city of Los Angeles told more than 400 medical marijuana dispensaries they had to shut down by June 7.
Representatives of 174 dispensaries have since filed paperwork with the city to stay open.

Meanwhile, in California's third-largest city behind Los Angeles and San Diego, the San Jose City Council took its first steps to regulate dispensaries this week, imposing a 500-foot setback from schools and homes.

At Wednesday's Board of Supervisors meeting in San Diego, two dozen speakers railed against the regulations being considered and only a few said they support the restrictions.

Roger Morgan, executive director of Coalition for a Drug-Free California, said dispensaries should be banned. He said government's two largest responsibilities are protecting people and managing tax dollars.

"Neither is possible by legalizing or proliferating the use of marijuana for any purpose," he said.

Lawyer Anthony Silvia said the county's decision to limit the sites amounted to a ban, offering "symbolic access" to unusable sites.

When county supervisors weighed in on the policy, Chairwoman Pam Slater-Price noted that with so few sites available, the dispensaries would be out of the way for many patients.

"Hopefully, they would take their medicine after they arrive back home, for the safety of everyone on the road," she said.

Alone in his opposition, Supervisor Ron Roberts said the policy reduced the number of sites to "next to none."

But Supervisor Greg Cox told the crowd, "If there are not sufficient medical marijuana distributors in the county area, there are still other options available to you because there are 18 cities that are dealing with this issue."

===
All private messages posted to this list are considered confidential - not to be forwarded or redistributed without prior permission of the original author.

GHB vs Alcohol: which is more dangerous #drugpolicy #drugclassification

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An interesting paper from NZ which exposes more idiocy about the international classification of drugs

Worth reading, disseminating and using

best wishes,

Alex

Legalising v decriminalising pot #cannabis #legalization #drugpolicy

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Legalising v decriminalising pot
The Economist
June 18, 2010

World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets

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-----Original Message-----
From: dd-world-bounces@lists.tni.org [mailto:dd-world-bounces@lists.tni.org] On Behalf Of Drugs & Democracy
Sent: 24 June, 2010 1:31 AM
To: dd-world@tni.org
Subject: UN: World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets

UNODC
23 June 2010

World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets

Today, at the National Press Club in Washington, UNODC launched the World Drug Report 2010. Taking part in the launch were UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, Viktor Ivanov, Director of the Federal Drugs Control Service of the Russian Federation, and Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Report shows that drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets. Drug crop cultivation is declining in Afghanistan (for opium) and the Andean countries (coca), and drug use has stabilized in the developed world. However, there are signs of an increase in drug use in developing countries and growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and prescription drugs around the world.

The Report shows that the world's supply of the two main problem drugs - opiates and cocaine - keeps declining. The global area under opium cultivation has dropped by almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the past two years, and opium production looks set to fall steeply in 2010 due to a blight that could wipe out a quarter of Afghanistan's opium poppy crop. Coca cultivation, down by 28 per cent in the past decade, has kept declining in 2009. World cocaine production has declined by 12-18 per cent over the period 2007-2009.

Global potential heroin production fell by 13 per cent to 657 tons in 2009, reflecting lower opium production in both Afghanistan and Myanmar.
The actual amount of heroin reaching the market is much lower (around 430 tons) since significant amounts of opium are being stockpiled. UNODC estimates that more than 12,000 tons of Afghan opium (around 2.5 years'
worth of global illicit opiate demand) are being stockpiled.

The World Drug Report 2010 shows that in the past few years cocaine consumption has fallen significantly in the United States, where the retail value of cocaine declined by about two thirds in the 1990s and by about one quarter in the past decade.

To an extent, the problem has moved across the Atlantic: in the last decade, the number of cocaine users in Europe has doubled, from 2 million in 1998 to 4.1 million in 2008. By 2008, the European market
($34 billion) was almost as valuable as the North American market ($37 billion). The shift in demand has led to a shift in trafficking routes, with an increasing amount of cocaine flowing to Europe from the Andean countries via West Africa, causing regional instability. "People snorting coke in Europe are killing the pristine forests of the Andean countries and corrupting governments in West Africa", said Mr. Costa.

Globally, the number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants - estimated at around 30-40 million - is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs. "We will not solve the world drugs problem if we simply push addiction from cocaine and heroin to other addictive substances - and there are unlimited amounts of them, produced in mafia labs at trivial costs", warned Mr. Costa.

The market for amphetamine-type stimulants is harder to track because of short trafficking routes (manufacturing usually takes place close to the main consumer markets) and the fact that many of the raw materials are both legal and readily available. Manufacturers are quick to market new products (like ketamine, piperazines, mephedrone and Spice) and exploit new markets. "These new drugs cause a double problem. First, they are being developed at a much faster rate than regulatory norms and law enforcement can keep up. Second, their marketing is cunningly clever, as they are custom-manufactured so as to meet the specific preference in each situation", said Mr. Costa.

The number of clandestine laboratories involved in the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants is reported to have increased by 20 per cent in 2008, including in countries where such labs had never been detected before.

Manufacture of "ecstasy" has increased in North America (notably in
Canada) and in several parts of Asia, and use seems to be increasing in Asia. In another demonstration of the fluidity of drug markets, "ecstasy" use in Europe has plummeted since 2006.

Cannabis remains the world's most widely produced and used illicit
substance: it is grown in almost all countries of the world and is smoked by 130-190 million people at least once a year - though these parameters are not very telling in terms of addiction. The fact that cannabis use is declining in some of its highest value markets, namely North America and parts of Europe, is another indication of shifting patterns of drug abuse.

UNODC found evidence of indoor cultivation of cannabis for commercial purposes in 29 countries, particularly in Europe, Australia and North America. Indoor cultivation is a lucrative business and is increasingly a source of profit for criminal groups. Based on evidence gathered in 2009, Afghanistan is now the world's leading producer of cannabis resin (as well as of opium).

The World Drug Report 2010 exposes a serious lack of drug treatment facilities around the world. "While rich people in rich countries can afford treatment, poor people and/or poor countries are facing the greatest health consequences", warned the head of UNODC. The Report estimates that, in 2008, only around one fifth of problem drug users worldwide had received treatment in the previous year, which means that around 20 million drug dependent people did not receive treatment. "It is time for universal access to drug treatment", said Mr. Costa.

He called for health to be the centrepiece of drug control. "Drug addiction is a treatable health condition, not a life sentence. Drug addicts should be sent to treatment, not to jail. And drug treatment should be part of mainstream health care."

He also called for greater respect for human rights. "Just because people take drugs, or are behind bars, this doesn't abolish their rights. I appeal to countries where people are executed for drug-related offences or, worse, are gunned down by extrajudicial hit squads, to end this practice".

Mr. Costa highlighted the dangers of drug use in the developing world.
"Poor countries are not in a position to absorb the consequences of increased drug use. The developing world faces a looming crisis that would enslave millions to the misery of drug dependence". He cited the boom in heroin consumption in East Africa, the rise of cocaine use in West Africa and South America, and the surge in the production and abuse of synthetic drugs in the Middle East and South-East Asia. "We will not solve the world drug problem by shifting consumption from the developed to the developing world", said Mr. Costa.

The World Drug Report 2010 contains a chapter on the destabilizing influence of drug trafficking on transit countries, focusing in particular on the case of cocaine. It shows how underdevelopment and weak governance attract crime, while crime deepens instability. It shows how the wealth, violence and power of drug trafficking can undermine the security, even the sovereignty, of States. The threat to security posed by drug trafficking has been on the agenda of the Security Council several times during the past year.

While drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the northern triangle of Central America, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, is even more seriously affected, with murder rates much higher than in Mexico. The Report says that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to Europe: between 2006 and 2008, over half of all detected maritime shipments of cocaine to Europe came from that country.

The Report highlights the unstable situation in West Africa, which has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. It notes that "traffickers have been able to co-opt top figures in some authoritarian societies", citing the recent case of Guinea-Bissau.

Mr. Costa called for more development to reduce vulnerability to crime and increased law enforcement cooperation to deal with drug trafficking.
"Unless we deal effectively with the threat posed by organized crime, our societies will be held hostage - and drug control will be jeopardized, by renewed calls to dump the UN drug conventions that critics say are the cause of crime and instability. This would undo the progress that has been made in drug control over the past decade, and unleash a public health disaster", he warned. "Yet, unless drug prevention and treatment are taken more seriously, public opinion's support for the UN drug conventions will wane".

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Kerlikowske said: "The United States recognizes, as a major drug consuming nation, our responsibility to reduce American drug use and global consequences of that use. For this reason, the Obama Administration released last month its first National Drug Control Strategy emphasizing community-based prevention, early intervention, integration of drug treatment into our health-care system, and evidence-based prevention and treatment, combined with innovations in the criminal justice system. These new efforts will complement our continuing efforts at home and abroad to disrupt drug trafficking organizations, interdict currency and weapons before they get in the hands of drug cartels, and assist our partners around the world to reduce drug production, trafficking and use."

# World Drug Report 2010
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2010/World_Drug_Report_2010_lo-res.pdf
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Mobile injecting room backed #supervisedinjection #harmreduction

Wednesday, June 23, 2010 | | 0 comments

 
 

Mobile injecting room backed

A mobile supervised injecting van should be considered for Melbourne due to the city's geographic spread of drug markets, experts say [The Age, Australia]

World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets #drugpolicy #Unitednations

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UN Office on Drugs and Crime
Stories from UNODC
23 June 2010

World Drug Report 2010: drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets

23 June 2010 - Today, at the National Press Club in Washington, UNODC launched the World Drug Report 2010. Taking part in the launch were UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa, Viktor Ivanov, Director of the Federal Drugs Control Service of the Russian Federation, and Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

The Report shows that drug use is shifting towards new drugs and new markets. Drug crop cultivation is declining in Afghanistan (for opium) and the Andean countries (coca), and drug use has stabilized in the developed world. However, there are signs of an increase in drug use in developing countries and growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and prescription drugs around the world.

The Report shows that the world's supply of the two main problem drugs - opiates and cocaine - keeps declining. The global area under opium cultivation has dropped by almost a quarter (23 per cent) in the past two years, and opium production looks set to fall steeply in 2010 due to a blight that could wipe out a quarter of Afghanistan's opium poppy crop. Coca cultivation, down by 28 per cent in the past decade, has kept declining in 2009. World cocaine production has declined by 12-18 per cent over the period 2007-2009.

Global potential heroin production fell by 13 per cent to 657 tons in 2009, reflecting lower opium production in both Afghanistan and Myanmar.
The actual amount of heroin reaching the market is much lower (around 430 tons) since significant amounts of opium are being stockpiled. UNODC estimates that more than 12,000 tons of Afghan opium (around 2.5 years'
worth of global illicit opiate demand) are being stockpiled.

The World Drug Report 2010 shows that in the past few years cocaine consumption has fallen significantly in the United States, where the retail value of cocaine declined by about two thirds in the 1990s and by about one quarter in the past decade.

To an extent, the problem has moved across the Atlantic: in the last decade, the number of cocaine users in Europe has doubled, from 2 million in 1998 to 4.1 million in 2008. By 2008, the European market
($34 billion) was almost as valuable as the North American market ($37 billion). The shift in demand has led to a shift in trafficking routes, with an increasing amount of cocaine flowing to Europe from the Andean countries via West Africa, causing regional instability. "People snorting coke in Europe are killing the pristine forests of the Andean countries and corrupting governments in West Africa", said Mr. Costa.

Globally, the number of people using amphetamine-type stimulants - estimated at around 30-40 million - is soon likely to exceed the number of opiate and cocaine users combined. There is also evidence of increasing abuse of prescription drugs. "We will not solve the world drugs problem if we simply push addiction from cocaine and heroin to other addictive substances - and there are unlimited amounts of them, produced in mafia labs at trivial costs", warned Mr. Costa.

The market for amphetamine-type stimulants is harder to track because of short trafficking routes (manufacturing usually takes place close to the main consumer markets) and the fact that many of the raw materials are both legal and readily available. Manufacturers are quick to market new products (like ketamine, piperazines, mephedrone and Spice) and exploit new markets. "These new drugs cause a double problem. First, they are being developed at a much faster rate than regulatory norms and law enforcement can keep up. Second, their marketing is cunningly clever, as they are custom-manufactured so as to meet the specific preference in each situation", said Mr. Costa.

The number of clandestine laboratories involved in the manufacture of amphetamine-type stimulants is reported to have increased by 20 per cent in 2008, including in countries where such labs had never been detected before.

Manufacture of "ecstasy" has increased in North America (notably in
Canada) and in several parts of Asia, and use seems to be increasing in Asia. In another demonstration of the fluidity of drug markets, "ecstasy" use in Europe has plummeted since 2006.

Cannabis remains the world's most widely produced and used illicit
substance: it is grown in almost all countries of the world and is smoked by 130-190 million people at least once a year - though these parameters are not very telling in terms of addiction. The fact that cannabis use is declining in some of its highest value markets, namely North America and parts of Europe, is another indication of shifting patterns of drug abuse.

UNODC found evidence of indoor cultivation of cannabis for commercial purposes in 29 countries, particularly in Europe, Australia and North America. Indoor cultivation is a lucrative business and is increasingly a source of profit for criminal groups. Based on evidence gathered in 2009, Afghanistan is now the world's leading producer of cannabis resin (as well as of opium).

The World Drug Report 2010 exposes a serious lack of drug treatment facilities around the world. "While rich people in rich countries can afford treatment, poor people and/or poor countries are facing the greatest health consequences", warned the head of UNODC. The Report estimates that, in 2008, only around one fifth of problem drug users worldwide had received treatment in the previous year, which means that around 20 million drug dependent people did not receive treatment. "It is time for universal access to drug treatment", said Mr. Costa.

He called for health to be the centrepiece of drug control. "Drug addiction is a treatable health condition, not a life sentence. Drug addicts should be sent to treatment, not to jail. And drug treatment should be part of mainstream health care."

He also called for greater respect for human rights. "Just because people take drugs, or are behind bars, this doesn't abolish their rights. I appeal to countries where people are executed for drug-related offences or, worse, are gunned down by extrajudicial hit squads, to end this practice".

Mr. Costa highlighted the dangers of drug use in the developing world.
"Poor countries are not in a position to absorb the consequences of increased drug use. The developing world faces a looming crisis that would enslave millions to the misery of drug dependence". He cited the boom in heroin consumption in East Africa, the rise of cocaine use in West Africa and South America, and the surge in the production and abuse of synthetic drugs in the Middle East and South-East Asia. "We will not solve the world drug problem by shifting consumption from the developed to the developing world", said Mr. Costa.

The World Drug Report 2010 contains a chapter on the destabilizing influence of drug trafficking on transit countries, focusing in particular on the case of cocaine. It shows how underdevelopment and weak governance attract crime, while crime deepens instability. It shows how the wealth, violence and power of drug trafficking can undermine the security, even the sovereignty, of States. The threat to security posed by drug trafficking has been on the agenda of the Security Council several times during the past year.

While drug-related violence in Mexico receives considerable attention, the northern triangle of Central America, consisting of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, is even more seriously affected, with murder rates much higher than in Mexico. The Report says that the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has emerged as a major departure point for cocaine trafficked to Europe: between 2006 and 2008, over half of all detected maritime shipments of cocaine to Europe came from that country.

The Report highlights the unstable situation in West Africa, which has become a hub for cocaine trafficking. It notes that "traffickers have been able to co-opt top figures in some authoritarian societies", citing the recent case of Guinea-Bissau.

Mr. Costa called for more development to reduce vulnerability to crime and increased law enforcement cooperation to deal with drug trafficking.
"Unless we deal effectively with the threat posed by organized crime, our societies will be held hostage - and drug control will be jeopardized, by renewed calls to dump the UN drug conventions that critics say are the cause of crime and instability. This would undo the progress that has been made in drug control over the past decade, and unleash a public health disaster", he warned. "Yet, unless drug prevention and treatment are taken more seriously, public opinion's support for the UN drug conventions will wane".

Speaking at the launch, Mr. Kerlikowske said: "The United States recognizes, as a major drug consuming nation, our responsibility to reduce American drug use and global consequences of that use. For this reason, the Obama Administration released last month its first National Drug Control Strategy emphasizing community-based prevention, early intervention, integration of drug treatment into our health-care system, and evidence-based prevention and treatment, combined with innovations in the criminal justice system. These new efforts will complement our continuing efforts at home and abroad to disrupt drug trafficking organizations, interdict currency and weapons before they get in the hands of drug cartels, and assist our partners around the world to reduce drug production, trafficking and use."

----------------------------------
World Drug Report 2010:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/WDR-2010.html

--
Drugs & Democracy Info <drugs@tni.org>
Transnational Institute (TNI)
De Wittenstraat 25 | 1052 AK Amsterdam (The Netherlands) Tel +31-20-6626608 | Fax +31-20-6757176 http://www.tni.org/drugs http://www.ungassondrugs.org/ _______________________________________________
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https://lists.tni.org/mailman/listinfo/dd-world

International drug crime measures 'lead to executions' | World news | The Guardian #capitalpunishment #drugpolicy #humanrights

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Subject: International drug crime measures 'lead to executions' | World news | The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/20/international-drug-crime-executions

Drug dealers 'can be beneficial' and heroin use can be controlled, claims academic #drugpolicy #controlledheroinuse #drugdealers #drugmarket #policing

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 | | 0 comments

VANDU Fundraising Dinner

| | 0 comments

 

  lPLease Join Us!!

VANDU Fundraiser Dinner for the  BC/Yukon Association of Drug War Survivors

When:
 Wednesday June 30, 2010

Time: 7:00pm to 10:00 pm                                       

Location:
 VANDU, 380 East Hastings St.

Program: 7:00pm-8:00pm Drinks & Appetizers

                 8:00pm-10:00pm Dinner & Program

Price: $50.00/ticket             Ticket Payment: Either by cheque or cash at the door

Please RSVP to Nicole at nicole@vandu.org or 604-726-4077

*Space is limited so please RSVP*


Thank You, 

Nicole Latham

Community Organizer/Volunteer Coordinator

VANDU (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users)

380 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6A 1P4
Phone (cell): 604-726-4077
Phone (office): 604-683-6061
Fax: 604-683-6199
Email: nicole@vandu.org

Ritter - illicit drugs policy through the lens of regulation

Monday, June 21, 2010 | | 0 comments

Title: Illicit Drugs Policy Through the lens of Regulation
Author: Alison Ritter
Journal: International Journal of Drug Policy
 
See attached article
 

Berlin Set to Relax Cannabis Laws #drugpolicy #cannabis #germany

| | 0 comments

Der Spiegel
May 18, 2010

High Times in the German Capital

Berlin Set to Relax Cannabis Laws

It could soon be legal to posses up to 15 grams of cannabis in Berlin -- a street value of more than €120.

A new marijuana policy could make it legal for individuals to posses up to 15 grams (0.5 ounces) of the drug in the German capital. The regulation would make Berlin among the most cannabis-friendly in Europe.

Berliners have long enjoyed their city's soft stance on marijuana. It's not uncommon to see someone taking a deep drag on a joint in a city park or rolling one in the back of a café.

Now, though, the German capital may take a further step toward becoming one of the most weed-tolerant in Europe. The city-state's top health official told SPIEGEL that she plans to raise the amount of marijuana and hashish one can possess to 15 grams (0.5 ounces).

German federal law prohibits the possession of marijuana beyond a "small amount" but leaves it up to the states to determine exactly what that amount should be. Most states, including Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, define a "small amount" as 6 grams. Until now, Berlin has allowed the possession of 10 grams.

With the regulation set to expire, Katrin Lompscher, the city's top health administrator, is soon to sign a new regulation increasing the amount. She says the success of the 10-gram rule warrants an increase, though her office, despite repeated requests, have declined to characterize that success.

Not everyone in Berlin is pleased with the plan. Lompscher's far-left Left Party is the junior coalition partner in the Berlin city-state, paired with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). The Left Party has long advocated a legalization of cannabis, but Stephanie Winde, a spokeswoman for the Berlin SPD, told SPIEGEL ONLINE that the Left Party hadn't discussed the 15-gram policy before going public. The SPD, she says, would prefer to be part of a joint decision on cannabis policy.

Easier for Dealers?

If Lompsher's new measure goes into law, it would also seemingly stand in contradiction to stepped-up efforts to combat drug-dealing in Berlin over the past year. In one instance, dozens of police officers, supported by a helicopter, combed Hasenheide, a 50-hectare (125-acre) park in central Berlin, for 13 hours in search of dealers. Other parks have likewise been targeted.

Some have wondered aloud whether Lompsher's proposal will just make it easier for drug dealers to carry their goods and be covered by the law.
"Dealers will exploit the liberal regulation and carry no more than the legal amount," the Berliner Zeitung newspaper wrote in a recent editorial.

A European Leader

If the proposed measure goes into effect, Berlin's marijuana laws would be among the most liberal in Europe. In the Netherlands, individuals are allowed to possess just 5 grams for personal use without fearing prosecution. In Belgium, it is 3 grams. The Czech Republic recently passed the most liberal drug laws in Europe, allowing individuals to grow up to five cannabis plants or be in possession of as many as 20 marijuana "cigarettes."

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Cannabis policy - time to move beyond the psychosis debate

Friday, June 18, 2010 | | 0 comments


See attached: Cannabis policy - time to move beyond the psychosis debate

From Danish national television

Thursday, June 17, 2010 | | 0 comments

Danish police officer says legalize drugs on national television. For subtitles in English: click on  link 

Liese Recke, The Danish Streetlawyers

Ottawa's war on medical marijuana #cannabis #medicalmarijuana

| | 0 comments

 

Ottawa’s war on medical marijuana
By Bradley Doucet
National Post
June 16, 2010

Doctor took the law into his own hands - Alex Wodak

Wednesday, June 16, 2010 | | 0 comments

Alex Wodak - Doctor took the law into his own hands

http://www.smh.com.au/national/doctor-took-the-law-into-his-own-hands-20100613-y64t.html

Public Panel Discussions

| | 0 comments





Bruce Alexander
alexande@sfu.ca
Website: http://globalizationofaddiction.ca

Hi to All,
I thought you all might be interested in this public panel discussion. It is part of a 3 day academic conference on "Objectivity in Science" that is being held at UBC this weekend. The conference is quite academic in its orientation. Although the participants are all friendly to harm reduction, I thought it might be a very good venue to get some information from the trenches introduced into what might be an otherwise superficial academic discussion of the philosophy of science. Sorry for the late notification. I just received the poster yesterday. The organizer of this session is Jon Tsou, who graduated from SFU but is now a philosopher of science at Iowa State University.

>

Al Qaeda in north Africa helps drug traffickers #drugpolicy

| | 0 comments

Agence France-Presse
June 15, 2010

Al Qaeda in north Africa helps drug traffickers

Nouakchott - Al-Qaeda's north African operation is not above offering protection to drug traffickers moving into the region, say experts despite Islam's condemnation of drugs.

The well-armed, well-connected members of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) are in a position to guarantee the safe passage for the convoys of heroin and cocaine bound for Europe, several sources told AFP.

For while Islamic values might so far have prevented them from taking a more direct role in the trade, that did not mean that there was no crossover between the Islamists and the traffickers.

For the moment however, they were not themselves getting directly involved in drug trafficking itself, an activity condemned by Islam.

Active in Algerian, Mali and Mauritania for nearly 15 years now, AQIM's fighters have a hand in all the trafficking in the region, particularly in cigarettes.

Drug trafficking, particularly in cocaine from Latin America, has now opened up the prospect of a far more lucrative trade.
Because of their Islamists beliefs however, it is one that poses a moral dilemma for the group.

"In fact, they are very divided on drugs," said one Mauritanian jurist familiar with the problem but asked not to be named.
"There are those for whom drugs are 'haram' (taboo) and who won't touch it," he said.

"And then there are those who protect the traffickers, who escort their convoys..."

This second group was happy to let the trafficking go on, especially since the drugs were on route to "poison western youth", he said.

Figures from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggest that between 50 and 60 tonnes of cocaine from Latin America and 30 to 35 tonnes of Afghan heroin that has come up through east Africa reaches Europe via west Africa, the Sahel and the Sahara.

In February, the Mauritanian army intercepted a drug convoy escorted by armed Islamists.

"It is the proof of a connection between them and the traffickers," a source in the Mauritanian military told AFP.

"You have terrorist networks, smuggling networks, human trafficking networks, and there are points of contact, coordination between all these nice people," said one diplomatic source in the Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott.

"We know that AQIM people have been involved in the drug trade, but as freelancers," he added.

"Some are members of AQIM and of criminal gangs at the same time. Some are there for an ideal, but some are finding there a way of channelling their criminal activities."

This is what Michael Braun, the US Drug Enforcement Administration's former head of operations, calls "the witches brew".
"The Colombian cartels have established business relations with AQIM,"
he told AFP.

"They are using long-established AQIM smuggling routes to North Africa and Southern Europe, moving tons of arms or tons of cocaine: it's the same route."

Nor was it the first time the Colombians had set up this kind of route, he said.

"The Colombians are very good at this. It's the exactly the kind of relations they developed with Mexican traffickers 25 years ago, when we managed to close down almost entirely the Caribbean corridor to Miami.

"They turned to the Mexicans because they knew that they had smuggling routes into the US for hundred years," he said.
And he warned: "If nothing is done about it, we're soon going to have in Africa the same kind of problems we have in Mexico."

For beyond the issue of financing terrorism, the destabilising power of drug trafficking, particularly cocaine, is worrying many observers.

They hold that the poor and poorly equipped administrations across north Africa face an uneven battle against the rich traffickers and their well-organised allies in AQIM.

The smuggling routes being used go back to the the ancient routes once used to smuggle salt, said one Paris-based specialist in the region, who asked not to be named.

"They are part of the landscape," he added.

"But with cocaine, you are changing the scale. The sums involved are enormous. They can corrupt everything."

And as had already happened elsewhere in Africa, he said, it was already clear that the drug money had reached high up into certain countries in the region.

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Mexico's deadly drug violence claims hundreds of lives in past 5 days #drugpolicy #mexico

| | 0 comments

 

Illegal drugs on table at G8 meeting #drugpolicy

Tuesday, June 15, 2010 | | 0 comments

 

Illegal drugs on table at G8 meeting
Smuggling linked to al-Qaida spinoff
By Juliet O'Neill
Edmonton Journal
June 14, 2010

weed goes mainstream #cannabis

| | 0 comments


North America: 'Prince of Pot' Is at a Low #cannabis #marcemery

| | 0 comments

Pubdate: Sat, 12 Jun 2010
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Page: Front Page, continued on page A14 and A15
Copyright: 2010 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://mapinc.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Kim Murphy, reporting from Vancouver, Canada
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery

Column One

'PRINCE OF POT' IS AT A LOW

The Canadian Thought His Profitable Seed Sales Could Upend the U.S.
War on Drugs. But Now He Is Stuck Behind Bars in Seattle.

For years, his seed catalogs were scrutinized by discerning cannabis cultivators across the U.S. and Canada, much like the ladies of Cumbria might fuss over Chiltern's inventories of sweet peas and heirloom tomatoes.

There was Blue Heaven pot, capable of producing a "euphoric, anti-anxiety high," or Crown Royal, whose "flower tops come to a flat golden crown, sparkling with gems of THC," or Hawaiian Sativa, with its "menthol flavor that tingles the taste buds and tickles the brain."

The difference between Marc Emery's pot seeds and countless others on the market was that if you bought Emery's, he'd use the money to launch a cannabis tsunami across North America that would set the war on drugs adrift like a cork on a massive sea of weed.

"Plant the seeds of freedom, overgrow the government," Emery urged his clients. With a pot plant on every patio, he declared, violent drug gangs would see their livelihoods disappear and police would be reduced to "running around ... chasing all these marijuana plants."

Sooner or later, he promised, "they will simply give up and change the laws."

Well, not yet. Emery, who U.S. authorities fingered in 2005 as one of the top 46 international drug trafficking targets, was ordered extradited by the Canadian minister of justice last month and relinquished to federal marshals in Seattle. He now faces a likely five years in U.S. federal prison.

"In fact I have done these things, so I admit my guilt," Emery said in an e-mail after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. "We are winning, especially in the United States, and I can take a lot of credit for that.... When I am gone, or even locked up here in the U.S., my historical legacy is secure."

Here in "Vansterdam," where cannabis cafes, head shops and even a supervised needle-injection site are prominent features of downtown, pot is a multibillion-dollar industry. And Emery, a longtime fixture at political forums and downtown street rallies, is widely seen as one of its titans.

The extradition of the 52-year-old self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot"
has sparked a sovereignty outcry across Canada, where supporters, civil rights advocates and even several members of parliament have demanded to know why he was handed over to the U.S. for an offense that Canada seldom prosecutes.

"It seems like the American war on drugs is just reaching its arm into Canada and saying, 'We're going to scoop you up,'" said Libby Davies, a member of parliament from Vancouver. "The whole thing has struck people as being over the top, harsh, unwarranted - and at the end of the day, what are they trying to prove?"

Canada and the U.S. have been on strangely opposite political trajectories when it comes to the war on drugs.

As early as 2003, the Canadian government appeared poised to decriminalize marijuana, which is regulated only federally in Canada, but backed down under U.S. threats to throw up punitive border controls.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Conservative Party since 2006 has backed a series of bills, one now pending in parliament, that would mirror widely criticized U.S. policies and impose for the first time a mandatory six-month jail term on anyone convicted of growing six or more marijuana plants.

The U.S., meanwhile, is moving under the Obama administration toward a stronger focus on prevention and treatment. Fourteen states now allow medical use of marijuana, and California voters will decide in November on an initiative that would decriminalize adult possession of up to an ounce of marijuana and allow small-scale cultivation for personal consumption.

Emery became a target for police in both nations - in Canada because his frequent appearances on international television shows was an irritant to police; in America because his seed business, which at one point reached revenues of $3 million a year, was supplying marijuana-growing operations in at least nine states.

"Marc Emery happened to be the largest supplier of marijuana seeds into the United States," said Todd Greenberg, the assistant U.S.
attorney in Seattle who is prosecuting Emery's case.

Emery believes he caught the eye of the Drug Enforcement Administration not because of his seeds but because of what he did with his revenue. Living in a rented apartment with no car and few personal possessions, Emery channeled most of the millions he earned into marijuana legalization and defense efforts across North America.

The Prince of Pot's seed money has helped start "compassion clubs"
for medical-marijuana users across Canada, launch the Pot-TV Internet network, and fund lobbying organizations and political parties in North America, Israel and New Zealand.

Many of the state campaigns to legalize the medical use of marijuana in the U.S. did so with donations from Emery. He ran for mayor of Vancouver in 1996, 2002 and 2008, finishing a perennial fourth or fifth.

"When Marc was arrested, he had $11 in his bank account," said his wife, Jodie, 25, who has co-edited Emery's magazine, Cannabis Culture, and served as his deputy in the Marijuana Party of British Columbia, which he founded. The party took 3.5% of the vote in the 2000 elections and made cannabis a must-address issue in every election since.

Emery won few friends in President George W. Bush's administration when former drug czar John Walters, apparently seeking to stamp out rumblings of marijuana decriminalization among Canada's then-ruling Liberal Party, addressed the Vancouver Board of Trade in 2002.

Emery surreptitiously bought a table at the event, and along with fellow activists David Malmo-Levine and Chris Bennett, heckled Walters mercilessly. The next day, activists blew marijuana smoke in Walters' face during a tour of downtown

Not long after that, they figure, is when the U.S. investigation of Emery was launched. But his friends say that only increased his sense of mission - and self-esteem.

"A lot of people take great offense when he gets compared to people like Martin Luther King and Gandhi, and they say, 'Marc, you can't compare yourself to someone like that.' And he says, 'These are men who stood up for things ... who suffered for what they represented, and to many, many people, they were the leader of their movement,'" Jodie said.

"Marc does have a gigantic ego," she said.

"Majestic," said Malmo-Levine.

Cannabis has been Emery's holy grail, but it would be a mistake, his friends say, to think of him as a pothead weaned on tree-hugging and the Grateful Dead. To the contrary, he is a libertarian capitalist whose politics lean free-market, individual-rights Republican.

"A lot of people think he's a leftie, but he's really a true conservative. He wants to get the government out of people's lives,"
his wife said.

As a 17-year-old high school dropout in London, Ontario, he opened his own bookstore, City Lights, in 1975, and clashed with the authorities there for selling banned copies of High Times magazine and the rap group 2 Live Crew's forbidden CD "As Nasty as They Wanna Be."

Emery was arrested not only for selling banned material but for repeatedly defying the province's Sunday closure laws; after years of conflict, he moved to Vancouver, where he hooked up with local hemp activists who shared his growing fascination with the history of cannabis and the governmental campaigns against it.

"'Where, oh where, are the hemp professionals?' He totally slammed all these guys in dreadlocks," Bennett recalled. "I'd say, 'Who are you to criticize anybody? Are you going to get pot legalized?' And he said, 'Just watch me.'"

Emery opened his pot paraphernalia store, BC Hemp, in 1994 and started up his seed business later that year. Over the years he has been arrested more than a dozen times, whether for selling seeds in Vancouver or passing a joint in Saskatoon, but hasn't faced serious jail time until now.

His seed business, he has argued, did more good than harm by undermining the criminal cartels that have turned marijuana trafficking into a corrupt and violent international business.

"What I did was make it possible for small home growers to produce their own made-in-the-U.S.A. marijuana," he said. "I stopped millions of American dollars from flowing to terrorists, cartels, thugs and gangs."

The mainstream marijuana legalization movement in the United States, however, has been largely silent since his arrest, not lending their voices, for example, to the rallies in nearly 80 cities around the world that followed Emery's transfer to the U.S.

It was largely alone that Emery sat in a Seattle courtroom late last month, with only a handful of supporters on the benches.

He had agreed to plead guilty to the single count of conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, Jodie said, largely to ensure that his two employees also charged in the indictment would not have to serve jail time.

"It was the most preferable of all the alternatives," a subdued Emery told Judge Ricardo S. Martinez, who asked why he was admitting to the charge.

"Sometimes there are no alternatives, you're right," the judge said.
"There are only bad and worse."

Emery was led away not long after that, but nobody really expected he'd go quietly.

The Prince of Pot's blog posts from the SeaTac detention center go out regularly on the Internet to his supporters. What he wants to do next, though his attempt to get a recorded phone call out has so far only gotten him stuck in solitary confinement: Potcasts.

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