The World Wide War on Drugs #6 -Is de zinloze "oorlog" over?

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Op dinsdag 29 oktober 2013 16:20 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Wat een politieagentje in het VK zegt lijkt me weinig relevant in een "oorlog" waar de VSAmerikaanse industrie van profiteert.

Helaas, dat wel.

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Op dinsdag 29 oktober 2013 17:44 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Latijns-Amerika vormt idd wel de sleutel omdat de landen sterk ontwikkelen en daardoor machtiger worden. Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazilie en in mindere mate Colombia verzetten zich tegen de bemoeienissen van de VS.

Maat ik denk dat het meer wensdenken is dan iets anders. De VS zijn afhankelijk van het militair-industriele complex en hebben daarom war zones nodig. Als de Russen ingrijpen in het M-O verhinderen (gelukkig!) dan verschuift de focus weer naar "die vreselijke drugs" (die de CIA/DEA zelf verhandelen)...

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Op dinsdag 29 oktober 2013 17:47 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Dat zal best, maar als Europese politici eens aandacht gingen besteden aan de belangen van hun eigen burgers, ipv hijgerig achter de VS aan te lopen, blijft er weinig van de VS over.

De VS is de facto een criminele organisatie met hun War on Drugs, en ze zullen veel inkomsten (minstens 250 miljard per jaar) mis lopen als drugs legaal zouden worden. All was het alleen maar in Europa.

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Op dinsdag 29 oktober 2013 17:51 schreef waht het volgende:

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Hoeveel zouden ze aan belasting op drugs kunnen innen dan?

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Op dinsdag 29 oktober 2013 20:52 schreef arucard het volgende:
Ze verdien nu ook al aardig wat met de heroine die ze produceren lijkt me
[ afbeelding ]

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'Bestrijding georganiseerde hennepteelt faalt'

Politie en Openbaar Ministerie slagen er niet in de georganiseerde hennepteelt in Nederland hard te raken. De bestrijding heeft topprioriteit, maar grote winst wordt er niet geboekt. Dat meldt RTL Nieuws zaterdag, op basis van eigen onderzoek.

Bij de politie is informatie over alle hennepruimingen gevraagd. Daaruit blijkt dat er vorig jaar 5424 kwekerijen zijn opgerold, ongeveer net zoveel als in 2011. Al jaren ligt het aantal opgerolde kwekerijen rond de 5500. Volgens RTL Nieuws wordt het totale aantal illegale hennepkwekerijen geschat op 30.000.

Minister Ivo Opstelten (Veiligheid en Justitie) zegt in een reactie dat het aantal onderzoeken naar grootschalige hennepteelt stijgt. Zo blijkt uit cijfers van Justitie dat er in 2009 nog 46 projectmatige onderzoeken liepen. In 2012 waren dat er 75.

twitter:

Farrah_Joon twitterde op zaterdag 02-11-2013 om 17:43:21 "Marijuana is a gateway drug. It's a gateway drug for men of color into the justice system" @GeeDee215 #codeswitch #warondrugs reageer retweet

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Op zaterdag 2 november 2013 22:13 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op zondag 3 november 2013 01:13 schreef Blue_Panther_Ninja het volgende:

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Epische faal

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Op zondag 3 november 2013 01:17 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Ja, lach maar. Het gaat wel om belastinggeld.

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Mexico gun battles leave many dead

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Kofi Annan: Stop 'war on drugs'

(CNN) -- Each year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from preventable drug-related disease and violence. Millions of users are arrested and thrown in jail. Globally, communities are blighted by drug-related crime. Citizens see huge amounts of their taxes spent on harsh policies that are not working.

But despite this clear evidence of failure, there is a damaging reluctance worldwide to consider a fresh approach. The Global Commission on Drug Policy is determined to help break this century-old taboo. Building on the work of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, our first report -- The War on Drugs -- demonstrated how repressive approaches to containing drugs have failed.

We called on governments to adopt more humane and effective ways of controlling and regulating drugs. We recommended that the criminalization of drug use should be replaced by a public health approach. We also appealed for countries to carefully test models of legal regulation as a means to undermine the power of organized crime, which thrives on illicit drug trafficking.

There is, at last, some evidence of change. Officials from Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico and Uruguay have assumed the lead in initiating reforms to drug policy in their own countries. These efforts have had knock-on effects across the neighborhood. In 2013, the Organization of American States (OAS) issued a landmark report on drug policy proposing alternative forms of drug regulation.

The findings of the Global Commission resonated across Europe as well. Many European states serve as a model for a health-oriented approach to drug policy. In several countries, evidence-based prevention, harm reduction and treatment are endorsed -- in sharp contrast to solely repressive approaches adopted in other parts of the world.

Drug policy reform is going viral. Other regions are joining the debate about new and progressive ways of dealing with drugs. For example, in New Zealand, proposals are being drafted to regulate synthetic drugs. In West Africa, where drug trafficking and organized crime is threatening democracy and governance, brave leaders have launched a West African Commission on drug trafficking and its consequences.

Even the United States, among the staunchest of all prohibitionist states, is enacting new approaches to drug policy. For the first time, a majority of Americans support regulating cannabis for adult consumption. And in the states of Colorado and Washington, new bills were approved to make this a reality. There are signs that these experiences could multiply further still.

All countries will have an opportunity to review the international drug control regime in a few years' time. The special session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2016 will provide a great opportunity for an honest and informed debate on drug policy. We hope that this debate will encourage drug policies that are based on what actually works in practice rather than what ideology dictates in theory.

This opportunity must not be lost. In Vienna, where the international community regularly assembles to review progress on drug control, we urge enlightened leadership to ensure that the world looks forward. We cannot remain locked into the old mantra that the war on drugs can be won only with more effort and expense.

With a complex issue like drug policy, of course, there is no single simple answer or one-size-fits-all solution. Countries must have the space to define and develop progressive, open-minded policies best tailored to their own realities and needs.

But today, we know what works and what does not. It is time for a smarter approach to drug policy. Putting people's health and safety first is an imperative, not an afterthought.

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The Wire creator David Simon on what's behind the US war on drugs - extended video interview

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Writer and ex-crime reporter David Simon, who created HBO TV drama The Wire, speaks to John Mulholland about capitalism, Margaret Thatcher and how anti-drug enforcement has evolved into social control. Simon features heavily in Eugene Jarecki's documentary The House I Live In, which explores the war on drugs in the US

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Op dinsdag 5 november 2013 20:09 schreef heiden6 het volgende:
POLICE SEARCH FOR NON-EXISTENT DRUGS BY FORCING MAN TO UNDERGO ENEMAS & CAVITY SEARCHES

4 On Your Side investigates traffic stop nightmare

Anaal verkracht worden door de politie. Ik ga liever meteen dood.

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Outrageous HSBC Settlement Proves the Drug War is a Joke

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If you've ever been arrested on a drug charge, if you've ever spent even a day in jail for having a stem of marijuana in your pocket or "drug paraphernalia" in your gym bag, Assistant Attorney General and longtime Bill Clinton pal Lanny Breuer has a message for you: Bite me.

Breuer this week signed off on a settlement deal with the British banking giant HSBC that is the ultimate insult to every ordinary person who's ever had his life altered by a narcotics charge. Despite the fact that HSBC admitted to laundering billions of dollars for Colombian and Mexican drug cartels (among others) and violating a host of important banking laws (from the Bank Secrecy Act to the Trading With the Enemy Act), Breuer and his Justice Department elected not to pursue criminal prosecutions of the bank, opting instead for a "record" financial settlement of $1.9 billion, which as one analyst noted is about five weeks of income for the bank.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.c(...)121213#ixzz2jtEsjtBt
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

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Maine's largest city approves recreational pot

PORTLAND, Maine — Maine's largest city legalized possession of marijuana for recreational use on Tuesday in a vote that has been eyed as an indicator of support levels in the Northeast following last year's votes out West.

The proposal, making it legal for adults 21 and older to possess up to 2½ ounces of pot in the city, received about 67 percent of the vote in unofficial citywide results. Buying or selling marijuana, or using it in public places, would remain illegal.

The vote in Maine, where medical marijuana has been legal since 1999, came a year after Washington and Colorado voters passed statewide referendums legalizing possession of up to an ounce of pot by adults 21 and over.

"Portland is just one domino in a series of dominoes that have been falling," said David Boyer, Maine political director for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. "With the overwhelming support that we got, you can definitely tell it's a mandate over here in Portland, that our current policies aren't working for marijuana and that they want change."

The group, which provided financing and organizational support for the Portland measure, says Maine is one of 10 states it has identified where it intends to support statewide legalization efforts in the next few years.

The vote was largely symbolic because it won't override state and federal laws that make it illegal to possess marijuana. Under Maine law, possessing 2½ ounces or less of marijuana is already a civil offense, where violators are issued a ticket and fined.

Critics say marijuana use carries with it a number of health risks and that legalizing it sends a bad message to young people. But supporters say that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and that a majority of Americans now support legalizing the recreational use of pot.
"This is truly a victory for science, for common sense and for liberty," Democratic Rep. Diane Russell of Portland said in a statement.

Boyer said that they intend to push legislation that would allow marijuana to be taxed and regulated, like alcohol. If the legislative route fails, they will seek to put it on the November 2016 ballot, he said.
- See more at: http://bostonherald.com/n(...)WER6Mk.svUlc7WI.dpuf

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Op dinsdag 5 november 2013 20:09 schreef heiden6 het volgende:
POLICE SEARCH FOR NON-EXISTENT DRUGS BY FORCING MAN TO UNDERGO ENEMAS & CAVITY SEARCHES

4 On Your Side investigates traffic stop nightmare

Anaal verkracht worden door de politie. Ik ga liever meteen dood.

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Op zaterdag 9 november 2013 21:54 schreef Bushalte het volgende:
Is het niet zo dat het hier voor 90% een oorlog is tegen Heroïne en Cocaïne? De 2 drugs die echt wel een verbod verdienen.

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Crimineel Whitey Bulger krijgt levenslange gevangenisstraf

De bejaarde Amerikaanse maffiabaas James 'Whitey' Bulger is donderdag tot tweemaal levenslang plus vijf jaar veroordeeld voor elf moorden en een reeks andere misdaden, van afpersing tot witwassen.

De 84-jarige Bulger, die tientallen jaren voortvluchtig was, werd afgelopen zomer al schuldig bevonden.

Bulger, die zijn bijnaam Whitey te danken heeft aan zijn spierwitte haar, groeide op in een ruige wijk in het zuiden van Boston.

Hij leidde samen met Stephen 'The Rifleman' Flemmi de gewelddadige Winter Hill Gang, een grotendeels Ierse bende die in Boston in drugs handelde en een grote vinger in de pap had in de gokwereld. Volgens justitie was het tweetal verantwoordelijk voor een twintigjarig 'schrikbewind dat bol stond van intimidatie en moord'.

FBI
'Whitey' sloeg in 1995 op de vlucht, na een tip van een FBI-agent dat vervolging aanstaande was. Bulger was zelf in die tijd een informant voor de FBI, die hij inlichtingen verstrekte over zijn rivalen van de New England Mob.

De FBI-agent die uit de school klapte werd in 2002 veroordeeld wegens gangsterpraktijken en het beschermen van Bulger en Flemmi. Tijdens de rechtszaak raakte de FBI in ernstige verlegenheid, omdat die aan het licht bracht dat de federale politie innige banden onderhield met Bulger en zijn trawanten.

Na zijn verdwijning werd Bulger een van de meest gezochte misdadigers in de VS. Zijn foto stond naast die van Osama bin Laden op de Most Wanted List van de FBI. Maar in het Ierse arbeidersmilieu van Boston en ook elders stond hij te boek als een ruwe bolster met een blanke pit.

Hij zou zich hebben bekommerd om de armen, deelde feestkalkoenen uit voor Thanksgiving en hield zijn wijk drugsvrij. Justitie maakte met gruwelijke bijzonderheden van de moorden van Bulger kerfstok korte metten met die Robin Hood-reputatie.

Bulger was het onderwerp van meerdere boeken. Ook stond hij model voor de capo in The Departed, de veelbekroonde film van Martin Scorsese.

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DUNSA war on drugs debate in Amsterdam with Tom Blickman

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On Monday 11 November, the Dutch United Nations Student Association (DUNSA) organised a War on Drugs debate at the Crea Theatre in Amsterdam. The guest of honour for the evening was Tom Blickman from the Transnational Institute and the focus was on recent developments in South America. Two associates from Sensi Seeds also attended.

DUNSA Chair Evaluna Mohrmann opened the evening, after which the floor was given to moderator Piter Pals. To set the tone, a clip from the documentary ‘Cocaine Unwrapped’ was shown. The clip, which can be viewed above, illustrates that the War on Drugs is failing to counter drug use and drug-related criminality. This was followed by an interview with Mr Blickman, who shared his perspective in relation to the international situation in general, and South America in particular.

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Co-operative Bank's former chairman 'seeking help' after drugs admission

Methodist minister Paul Flowers seen in video counting out money to buy substances, while texts discuss drug taking

The Co-operative Bank's former chairman Paul Flowers has apologised for his "stupid and wrong" behaviour and said he is seeking professional help after a video was published showing the Methodist minister handing over money to buy hard drugs.

The footage showed Flowers counting out £300 in cash and asking if he could also get hold of ketamine. The Mail on Sunday said a friend of Flowers handed over the footage, purportedly recorded days after the former Co-operative Bank chairman gave testimony to the Treasury select committee over the bank's £700m in losses and its abandoned bid to buy branches of the bailed-out Lloyds Bank.

Stuart Davies handed over the video and a series of incriminating text messages after becoming "disgusted by the hypocrisy" of a man who had chaired the anti-drugs charity Lifeline and written columns about the evils of drug use, the Mail on Sunday said.

After being confronted with the material, Flowers, 63, referred to the pressures of his job and dealing with a family bereavement.

"This year has been incredibly difficult, with a death in the family and the pressures of my role with the Co-operative Bank," he said. "At the lowest point in this terrible period I did things that were stupid and wrong. I am sorry for this and I am seeking professional help and apologise to all I have hurt or failed by my actions."

Davies also handed over text messages purporting to be from Flowers. One said: "I was 'grilled' by the Treasury select committee yesterday and afterwards came to Manchester to get wasted with friends." In others he said he was on "ket" and had the club drug GHB. Davies said he smoked cannabis with Flowers and witnessed him smoking crack cocaine.

The Co-operative Bank said it had no comment, while the Methodist church said a thorough investigation would take place.

"We expect high standards of our ministers and we have procedures in place for when ministers fail to meet those standards.

"Paul is suspended from duties for a period of three weeks, pending investigations, and will not be available to carry out any ministerial work. We will also work with the police if they feel a crime has been committed."

On 7 November, Flowers tried to spread the blame for the bank's woes, telling the select committee that politicians had actively encouraged the Co-op Bank's expansion spree involving an ill-fated attempt to buy 631 branches from the Lloyds Banking Group.

The bank also disastrously took over the Britannia building society, a deal that brought with it a raft of bad loans.

Flowers said he had resigned as chairman in June 2013 to take responsibility for a £1.5bn capital shortfall that left the Co-op group having to demutualise the 100-year-old bank and hand a 70% share in the British institution to a group of bondholders involving US hedge funds.

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Uruguay's likely cannabis law could set tone for war on drugs in Latin America

State control of marijuana market should be seen as part of long and pragmatic tradition of market intervention and nationalisation

Inhaling deeply from a large joint of unadulterated cannabis, Marcelo Vasquez grins at the imminent prospect of his outlawed passion becoming Uruguay's newest state-sanctioned industry.

This week, the country's senate is expected to pass the world's most far-reaching drug legalisation, which should transform Vasquez from a petty criminal into a registered user, grower and ultimately, he hopes, a respected contributor to society.

That would be quite a change. After a police raid earlier this year, Vasquez – whose home doubles as a marijuana nursery – was jailed and 70 of his plants were confiscated. But the court case that followed now looks likely to go down as one of the last cannabis trials in his country's history.

The marijuana regulation bill, which has been passed by the lower house of the Uruguayan parliament, will allow registered users to buy up to 40g a month from a chemist's, registered growers to keep up to six plants, and cannabis clubs to have up to 45 members and cultivate as many as 99 plants.

Vasquez, who smokes four joints a day, is delighted. "It's a great step forward that couldn't happen anywhere but here," he says. "There's a lot more to marijuana than smoking and getting high."

This is not just the spliff talking. With the new law, Uruguay will go further than any other nation in exploring the potential benefits and risks of marijuana. The government is designing a new set of legal, commercial and bureaucratic tools to supplant a violent illegal market in narcotics, improve public health, protect individual rights, raise tax revenues and research the medical potential of the world's most widely used contraband drug.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates that there are 162 million cannabis users – 4% of the world's adult population (pdf). Most countries have followed a policy of prohibition for decades, but there are signs of change.

Amsterdam's coffee shops still offer cannabis on their menus despite a recent tightening of the rules in the Netherlands. Dozens of US states have decriminalised or ceased penalising users of the drug. Washington and Colorado recently introduced a cannabis tax and California has steadily blurred the line between medical and recreational use. In the UK, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, has ordered a review of existing drug policies and is expected to recommend that Britain relaxes its controls.

But no government has put in place a structure as all-encompassing and supportive as that envisaged in Uruguay.

"We'll be the first country to have a regulatory framework for marijuana production, distribution, sale, consumption and medical research," says Julio Bango, one of the legislators who drafted the bill. "This is an experiment without a doubt and it will have a demonstrable effect. That could be important for the world because it could be the start of a new paradigm."

Uruguay is trying to bring the cannabis market under state control by undercutting and outlawing the traffickers. If the bill is passed, the government will arrange for a high-quality, legal product to be sold in a safe environment at a price that competes with that offered by illegal dealers.

"If one gram costs $1 in the black market, then we'll sell the legal product for $1. If they drop the price to 75 cents, then we'll put it at that level," says Julio Calzada, a presidential adviser and the head of the National Secretariat on Drugs.

Most cannabis sold in Uruguay is of poor quality and smuggled in from Paraguay. In future, the government will license firms to produce local products grown in monitored conditions, which will then be sold to registered users through pharmacies. As in the case of tobacco, cannabis suppliers will not be allowed to advertise their product. Following moves to legalise same-sex marriage and abortion, this measure is likely to reinforce Uruguay's growing reputation as a bastion of tolerance and progressiveness in Latin America. But President José Mujica dismisses talk of liberality. A reluctant advocate of marijuana regulation, he says that this is the only way to stem the tide of the illegal drug trade, which has had dire consequences for individuals and wider society across Latin America.

"This is not about being free and open. It's a logical step. We want to take users away from clandestine business," Mujica tells the Guardian. "We don't defend marijuana or any other addiction. But worse than any drug is trafficking."

Rather than liberalism, Uruguay's actions are better explained by a long and pragmatic tradition of market intervention and nationalisation. The state controls core energy and telecoms industries, it fixes prices for essentials such as milk and water, and it pioneered some of the tightest controls on tobacco in the world.

This small country also boasts an impressive record for drug seizures, with an estimated 10% of the total market intercepted by law enforcement authorities, compared with a world average of less than 5%. Until recently, Uruguay had avoided the epidemic levels of illegal narcotic trafficking that are far more pronounced in Brazil, Colombia, Peru and Mexico.

The country is winning individual battles, says Mujica – but systematically losing the war.

The growing popularity of pasta base – a highly addictive, crack-like drug – and an increase in drug-related murders has prompted him to act against the dealers by destroying their competitiveness in the biggest illegal market: marijuana.

This is the heart of the drug problem, says Calzada.

"Ninety per cent of drug users in Uruguay and the world only use marijuana so illegal markets are structured around that even though there are other drugs with a better yield, such as cocaine and LSD. It's like an off-licence that earns its highest profits from selling whiskey, but makes much more money by selling beer because there are 100 beer sales for every one bottle of whiskey."

Marijuana also has the advantage of being less harmful, not accounting for even one of the 80 registered deaths linked to drug trafficking in Uruguay last year.

By opening the door to regulation of cannabis, Calzada says the government has an alternative to the "war on drugs" approach, which has created more problems than it has solved.

"For 50 years, we have tried to tackle the drug problem with only one tool – penalisation – and that has failed. As a result, we now have more consumers, bigger criminal organisations, money laundering, arms trafficking and collateral damage. As a control model, we're convinced that it is more harmful than the drugs themselves."

But critics say that Uruguay is taking a huge risk that could result in a wave of new addictions.

"If legalisation goes ahead, I think the social damage will be enormous," says Nancy Alonso, who runs the Manantiales Foundation, a private addiction treatment centre. "Marijuana may seem innocent, but it is addictive, 15 times more carcinogenic than tobacco and produces psychological disorders including depression, anxiety and occasionally schizophrenia."More importantly, she says cannabis is a gateway drug that leads users to harder narcotics. Juvenile residents at the treatment centre say their experience backs up such claims.

"I started with marijuana when I was 13 or 14 and then moved on to cocaine because I wanted something stronger," said Helen, a 15 year old. "If drugs are legalised, more people will consume them."

The public too have yet to be convinced. A Factum poll in October showed 29% approved of legalisation. Although sharply up from the 3% support levels of 10 years ago, this means the policy is still a potential vote loser.

Supporters of the measure hope hard data will win over the doubters. Once the marijuana business moves out of the shadows, its size will be clearer, monitoring will be easier and taxes can be levied and used to fund treatment of addicts and a more focused crackdown on harder drugs. Although the government is prepared to lose money to out-bid the traffickers in the initial stage, once the state has a monopoly, the potential revenues are considerable. The authorities estimate that 10% of adult Uruguayans – 115,000 people – smoke cannabis. Existing law permits consumption of "reasonable" amounts of marijuana, but forbids sales. The new law should clear up this legal contradiction.

The government will set up a Cannabis Research Institute, which will monitor the programme, handle approvals of seeds, establish policies for research and regulate the industry.

The market in Uruguay is estimated to be worth $30m a year, according to Martin Fernández, a lawyer working for the Association of Cannabis Studies, who says one in five Uruguayans have tried marijuana. But he admits the numbers are sketchy.

"It is hard to measure the illegal market, just as it is with human and illegal arms trafficking," he says. "But with legalisation, we should get a clear idea of the situation."

Many are eying new business opportunities. At street level, the passage of the bill is likely to boost shops selling growing kits. In downtown Montevideo, one such store, UruGrow, is already seeing a sharp rise in demand for soil, grow tents, fertiliser and other products.

"We're expanding fast," said one of the founders, Juan Andrés "Guano" Palese. "Six months ago, we sold 200 litres of soil a week, now it's more than 1,000 litres. Soon we'll need to move into bigger premises."

But the big money is more likely to come from the pharmaceutical industry, which will be freer to develop and test marijuana painkillers and other treatments in Uruguay than in any other country. According to Bango, several big international laboratories have visited Montevideo to discuss possible collaborations or investments.

"We have opportunities in the hemp industry and the spread of biotech and marijuana farming, I've just returned from a US conference on this subject. There are lots of potential products – creams, oils, sweets, capsules and products to treat multiple sclerosis and cancer. They all need scientific research to be validated. In other countries that is limited. We don't have that inconvenience," said Bango. "I think it will be a new industry for the economy."

Dope tourists could also be lured by cheap, legal, high-quality marijuana, but the authorities are adamant that they last thing they want is for Uruguay to end up as the "Amsterdam of Latin America". Only residents will be entitled to buy cannabis. Re-sales are prohibited. Coffee shop that put Indica, Sativa or Hash Browns on their menu will be closed down. "We are trying to learn from the mistakes made by other countries," Fernandez says.

Juan Vaz, a marijuana grower and long-time legalisation campaigner, hopes the regulation strategy can be applied to other narcotics.

"It would make a big health impact if we could do the same for cocaine, crack and other drugs so users could avoid accidental overdoses. That would also make a lot of profit for the government."

So far, however, Uruguayan officials have dismissed suggestions that they might use the same approach for harder drugs. They say the health risks posed by cocaine and heroin are far greater than those associated with marijuana so they require a different strategy.

Nonetheless if the senate passes the cannabis bill as expected, it won't only be the country's smokers who are delighted. Several Latin American leaders have also called for a shift from the current prohibition approach as the war on drugs takes a rising death toll with no sign of victory. Uruguay, once again, looks set to take the first step for the region.

Vaz, who spent 11 months in prison for marijuana growing, says he now feels responsible for making the policy a success. "I will celebrate. It will be a victory. For many years we have been asking for this. Now we can ask nothing more," he says. "Now it is up to us to make it work."

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Mexico Decriminalizes Cocaine, Heroin, Meth, Marijuana and LSD

MEXICO CITY — Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government’s grueling battle against drug traffickers. Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico’s corruption-prone police from shaking down casual users and offers addicts free drug treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.

“This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty,” said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general’s office.

The new law sets out maximum “personal use” amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.

Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges anyway. Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.

“We couldn’t charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way … because the person would claim they were an addict,” he said.

Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.

“The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion,” Espino del Castillo said.

Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.

The maximum amount of marijuana for “personal use” under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about 4 “lines.” For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.

Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.

But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.

Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, said the new law posed “a serious contradiction” for the Calderon administration.

“If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say ‘What are we doing’?” he said.

Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.

Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained — but only 12 to 15 percent of whom were ever charged with anything.

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'De Mexicaanse oorlog tegen drugs is een grote leugen'

Een afgehakte geitenkop en een paar dode kippen bij de voordeur. Welkom in het leven van Anabel Hernández. De 42-jarige Mexicaanse journaliste kreeg deze boodschap afgelopen juni nadat ze weer eens een kritisch artikel had geschreven over de Mexicaanse drugsoorlog en de rol van overheid daarin.

Sinds het verschijnen van haar boek Los Señores del Narco in 2010 (in het Engels verschenen onder de titel Narcoland: The Mexican Drug Lords And Their Godfathers) wordt Hernández 24 uur per dag beveiligd. Zelf zegt de alleenstaande moeder van twee kinderen bewijs te hebben dat niet de Mexicaanse drugsbendes maar de federale overheid achter de bedreigingen aan haar adres zit. 'Ik ben banger voor de politie dan voor de drugsbendes.'

Mexico is een van de gevaarlijkste landen ter wereld voor journalisten. Alleen dit kalenderjaar al werden zes journalisten op gruwelijke wijze vermoord nadat ze hadden bericht over de drugsoorlog. Hangend aan een brug, naakt, gewurgd, vastgebonden, doorzeefd met kogels of geboeid werden hun lijken teruggevonden. Niemand werd voor deze misdaden gearresteerd. 'Ze proberen ons stil te krijgen', zegt Hernández, die op uitnodiging van Free Press Unlimited een bezoek aan Nederland brengt.

Wie denkt dat de Mexicaanse overheid er alles aan doet om de drugsbendes te stoppen, heeft het volgens haar mis. De Mexicaanse onderzoeksjournaliste beweert dat de vorige twee regeringen, die van Vicente Fox (2000-2006) en die van de vorig jaar afgetreden Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), heulden met een van de grootste drugsorganisaties van het land: het Sinaloakartel. Volgens Hernández, die zich beroept op anonieme informanten, vochten zij onder het mom van 'de oorlog tegen drugs' gezamenlijk tegen de zeven andere grote drugbendes van het land.

'Hoe is het anders te verklaren dat de beruchte leider van het Sinaloa-kartel, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, beter bekend als El Chapo, nog geen maand na het aantreden van president Fox in 2001 op miraculeuze wijze uit de zwaarst beveiligde gevangenis van Mexico wist te ontsnappen?' Van de officiële versie van die gebeurtenis - dat Mexico's meest gezochte crimineel zich in een wasmand verstopte en zo uit de gevangenis kon worden gesmokkeld - gelooft de Mexicaanse onderzoeksjournalist geen woord.

'De oorlog tegen de drugs is een grote leugen', zegt Hernández terwijl ze met haar ranke vingers door haar korte haar woelt. Het is wel een oorlog die al aan meer dan 80 duizend mensen het leven heeft gekost, en waarvan het einde nog niet in zicht is. De situatie kan het best worden vergeleken met een gevecht tegen een zevenkoppig monster. Lijkt het ene gebied onder controle, dan bloeit het geweld in een andere regio net zo hard weer op.

Hoe nu verder? In de jaren tachtig bestond er een soort verbond tussen regering en drugsbendes - wij laten jullie met rust, als jullie ons niet lastig vallen - maar van deze pax mafiosi is weinig over. 'Zelfs al zou de regering een dergelijke overeenkomst willen sluiten, is het niet aan haar om de regels te bepalen.' De werkelijke bazen in Mexico zijn de narcos. 'De overheid is hun loonslaaf.'

Dat mechaniek ziet ze niet veranderen. Ook niet met de vorig jaar aangetreden president Enrique Peña Nieto. 'Hij heeft niet eens een strategie.' In haar ogen kan alleen met een vrije pers daadwerkelijk iets veranderen: mensen moeten weten hoe het zit.

Ondanks de illegale praktijken, het geweld en de enorme bedragen die erin omgaan, ziet Hernández de drugsorganisaties niet als Mexico's grootste probleem. 'Dat is de corruptie en de daarbij horende straffeloosheid.'

Iedere dag beseft de journaliste dat ze eigenlijk allang dood had moeten zijn. Maar de bedreigingen stoppen haar niet. 'Ik betaal een hoge prijs', zegt ze met een hapering in haar stem. Een van haar kinderen heeft sinds het voorval met de dode kippen en de geitenkop moeite om te slapen. 'Maar ze zullen me niet het zwijgen opleggen.'

Zelfs nu de Mexicaanse overheid dreigt haar niet langer te beschermen, houdt Hernández vol. 'Als wij journalisten onze mond niet langer opentrekken, wie doet het dan wel?'

quote:

Leaked paper reveals UN split over war on drugs

Latin American nations call for treatment strategy, claiming UN's prohibition stance plays into hands of paramilitary groups

Major international divisions over the global "war on drugs" have been revealed in a leaked draft of a UN document setting out the organisation's long-term strategy for combating illicit narcotics.

The draft, written in September and seen by the Observer, shows there are serious and entrenched divisions over the longstanding US-led policy promoting prohibition as an exclusive solution to the problem.

Instead, a number of countries are pushing for the "war on drugs" to be seen in a different light, which places greater emphasis on treating drug consumption as a public health problem, rather than a criminal justice matter.

It is rare for such a document to leak. Normally only the final agreed version is published once all differences between UN member states have been removed.

The divisions highlighted in the draft are potentially important. The document will form the basis of a joint "high-level" statement on drugs to be published in the spring, setting out the UN's thinking. This will then pave the way for a general assembly review, an event that occurs every 10 years, and, in 2016, will confirm the UN's position for the next decade. "The idea that there is a global consensus on drugs policy is fake," said Damon Barrett, deputy director of the charity Harm Reduction International. "The differences have been there for a long time, but you rarely get to see them. It all gets whittled down to the lowest common denominator, when all you see is agreement. But it's interesting to see now what they are arguing about."

The current review, taking place in Vienna at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, comes after South American countries threw down the gauntlet to the US at this year's Organisation of American States summit meeting, when they argued that alternatives to prohibition must be considered.

Countries such as Colombia, Guatemala and Mexico have become increasingly critical of the UN's prohibition stance, claiming that maintaining the status quo plays into the hands of the cartels and paramilitary groups.

The draft reveals that Ecuador is pushing the UN to include a statement that recognises that the world needs to look beyond prohibition. Its submission claims there is "a need for more effective results in addressing the world drug problem" that will encourage "deliberations on different approaches that could be more efficient and effective".

Venezuela is pushing for the draft to include a new understanding of "the economic implications of the current dominating health and law enforcement approach in tackling the world drug problem", arguing that the current policy fails to recognise the "dynamics of the drug criminal market".

Experts said the level of disagreement showed fault lines were opening up in the globally agreed position on drug control. "Heavy reliance on law enforcement for controlling drugs is yielding a poor return on investment and leading to all kinds of terrible human rights abuses," said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program. "The withdrawal from the most repressive parts of the drug war has begun – locally, nationally and globally."

Attacking the status quo is not confined to South American countries, however. Norway wants the draft to pose "questions related to decriminalisation and a critical assessment of the approach represented by the so-called war on drugs". Switzerland wants the draft to recognise the consequences of the current policy on public health issues. It wants it to include the observation that member states "note with concern that consumption prevalence has not been reduced significantly and that the consumption of new psychoactive substances has increased in most regions of the world". It also wants the draft to "express concern that according to UNAids, the UN programme on HIV/Aids, the global goal of reducing HIV infections among people who inject drugs by 50% by 2015 will not be reached, and that drug-related transmission is driving the expansion of the epidemic in many countries".

The EU is also pushing hard for the draft to emphasise the need for drug-dependence treatment and care options for offenders as an alternative to incarceration.

"Drug users should be entitled to access to treatment, essential medicines, care and related support services," the EU's submission suggests. "Programmes related to recovery and social reintegration should also be encouraged."

Ann Fordham, executive director of the International Drug Policy Consortium, said the draft revealed there was growing tension over the global drugs policy. "We are starting to see member states break with the consensus about how we should control drugs in the world. Punishment hasn't worked. All the money spent on crop eradication hasn't had the impact we would like to see."

quote:

Mass. activists push to fully legalize marijuana

BOSTON —
Pro-marijuana activists in Massachusetts have already succeeded in paving the way for dozens of medical marijuana dispensaries and decriminalizing possession of small amounts of the drug.

Now many of those same activists have set their sights on the full legalization of marijuana for adults, effectively putting the drug on a par with alcohol and cigarettes.

And those activists — as they have in the past — are again hoping to make their case directly to voters.

The group Bay State Repeal says it’s planning to put the proposal on the state’s 2016 ballot.

The group is first planning to test different versions of the measure by placing nonbinding referendum questions on next year’s ballot in about a dozen state representative districts.

Those nonbinding questions are intended to gauge voter support for possible variations of the final, binding question.

Bill Downing, a member of Bay State Repeal, said the state should legalize marijuana for many reasons, especially since the use of marijuana no longer carries the stigma it once did and many people smoke the drug despite laws against it.

“That’s the problem with the marijuana laws,” Downing said. “There’s no moral impact anymore because the laws don’t reflect our common values.”

The activists have some reason to be hopeful. Not only have Massachusetts voters twice supported past efforts to ease restrictions on marijuana, but other states and cities have also recently moved toward lifting prohibitions on the drug.

Last year, voters made Washington and Colorado the first states to legalize the sale of taxed marijuana to adults over 21 at state-licensed stores.

This month, voters in Portland, Maine, overwhelmingly passed a question making it legal for adults 21 and over to possess up to 2½ ounces of pot but not purchase, sell or use it in public.

In 2008, Massachusetts voters approved a ballot question decriminalizing possession of up to an ounce of pot, making it instead a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine. Some Massachusetts towns have given up trying to enforce the law, however, saying it has too many loopholes.

Not everyone thinks legalizing marijuana is a good idea.

Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett says marijuana use can lead young people to harder drugs and other harmful behaviors.

“I’m not saying everyone who tries marijuana becomes a heroin addict, but the medical information is irrefutable that kids who start smoking marijuana are more likely to have substance abuse problems as adults,” said Blodgett, who also serves as president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association.

Blodgett said one unintended consequence of the decriminalization law in Massachusetts is that it’s harder to get young people into treatment and diversion programs because they can’t be arrested for possession of the drug. He said many private health insurance plans don’t cover drug treatment.

“Unless and until we have treatment-on-demand, we shouldn’t be talking about legalizing marijuana or any other drugs,” Blodgett said.

Downing rejected the notion that marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs and said the ballot question would restrict the sale of marijuana to adults.

“This isn’t about getting pot for kids,” he said. “No one on my side says we are getting marijuana for kids.”

When asked recently about the push to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts, Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick declined to offer an opinion.

There are potential legal troubles that come when states legalize marijuana, including the fact that state legalization doesn’t remove risk from an industry that still violates federal drug law.

Last year, Massachusetts overwhelmingly approved a ballot question allowing for up to 35 medical marijuana dispensaries around the state. State health officials last week released a list of the 100 applicants that are seeking dispensary licenses. They said they hope to award the licenses early next year.

Backers of that question benefited from the deep pockets of Ohio billionaire Peter Lewis, who has funded marijuana initiatives in states around the country and served as chairman of the board of the auto insurer Progressive Corp. Lewis, who almost entirely bankrolled the Massachusetts medical marijuana question, died Saturday at 80.

Read more: http://www.heraldnews.com(...)ijuana#ixzz2mRWXWtWh
Follow us: @Hnnow on Twitter | HNNow on Facebook

quote:

Uruguay marijuana decision 'breaks internationally endorsed treaty'

International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says legalisation of drug contravenes the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs

Uruguay's decision to legalise marijuana is in violation of an international convention on drug control, a Vienna-based body set up to monitor government compliance with such treaties has said.

Uruguay became the first country to legalise the growing, sale and smoking of marijuana on Tuesday, in a pioneering experiment that will be closely watched by other nations debating drug liberalisation.

A government-sponsored bill approved in the senate provides for regulation of the cultivation, distribution and consumption of marijuana and is aimed at wresting the business from criminals in the small South American nation.

But the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said the legislation contravenes the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, to which it said Uruguay is a party.

"Cannabis is controlled under the 1961 convention, which requires states parties to limit its use to medical and scientific purposes, due to its dependence-producing potential," INCB president Raymond Yans said in a statement.

He was surprised, the statement added, that Uruguay's legislature and government "knowingly decided to break the universally agreed and internationally endorsed legal provisions of the treaty".

The INCB describes itself as an independent, quasi-judicial body charged with promoting and monitoring compliance with the three international drug control conventions, including the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Uruguay's attempt to quell drug trafficking is being followed closely in Latin America, where the legalisation of some narcotics is being increasingly seen by regional leaders as a possible way to end the violence spawned by the cocaine trade.

Rich countries debating legalisation of cannabis are also watching the bill, which philanthropist George Soros has supported as an "experiment" that could provide an alternative to the failed US-led policies of the long "war on drugs".

Other countries have decriminalised marijuana possession and the Netherlands allows its sale in coffee shops, but Uruguay will be the first nation to legalise the whole chain from growing the plant to buying and selling its leaves.

Yans, the INCB president, said Uruguay's decision "fails to consider its negative impacts on health since scientific studies confirm that cannabis is an addictive substance with serious consequences for people's health".

"Cannabis is not only addictive but may also affect some fundamental brain functions, IQ potential, and academic and job performance and impair driving skills. Smoking cannabis is more carcinogenic than smoking tobacco," the INCB statement added

quote:

Moms United Against the War on Drugs

quote:

Mothers, family members, healthcare professionals and individuals in recovery are joining together to bring focus to our country's failed drug policies and the havoc they have wreaked on our families. Moms United to End the War on Drugs is a growing movement to stop the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are the result of current punitive and discriminatory drug policies. We are advocating for therapeutic drug policies that reduce the harms of drugs and current drug laws.

quote:

Op zondag 15 december 2013 12:17 schreef LogiteX het volgende:
Cocaine minder schadelijk dan tabak of koffie? Dat betwijfel ik hevig.

quote:

Uruguay 'land van het jaar' door homohuwelijk en legalisering wiet

quote:

Uruguay is het land van het jaar, vindt The Economist. Het Britse blad heeft het Zuid-Amerikaanse land de eretitel donderdag toegekend, omdat het in 2013 het homohuwelijk heeft ingevoerd en besloten heeft de productie en verkoop van cannabis te legaliseren.

quote:

Op vrijdag 8 november 2013 01:24 schreef El_Matador het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]
Nog maar eens.

quote:

Op dinsdag 24 december 2013 20:29 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:
De waarheid is dat er in Nederland tienduizenden mensen/gezinnen hun inkomen halen uit de handel in drugs. Geld waar ze nauwelijks iets voor hoeven te doen, behalve risico lopen.
Zodra drugs legaal worden is er niets meer aan te verdienen en zullen deze figuren andere manieren zoeken om aan snel geld te komen.
Winkelovervallen, straatroof, autodiefstal en dat in aantallen die voor de staat totaal onbeheersbaar zijn.

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 03:42 schreef heiden6 het volgende:
Recreational Marijuana Shops Open In Colorado

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 08:19 schreef arjan1112 het volgende:

[..]

waarom zouden ze niet gewoon normale ondernemers , boeren en groothandelaren worden bij een legalisatie ?

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 08:19 schreef arjan1112 het volgende:

[..]

waarom zouden ze niet gewoon normale ondernemers , boeren en groothandelaren worden bij een legalisatie ?

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 16:58 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Omdat er veel minder geld in om zal gaan als het legaal is.
Er is dan simpelweg te weinig geld in de markt om iedere crimineel een eerlijk bestaan te geven.
Bovendien is het slechts een kwestie van tijd tot de legale drugs bij de drogist of de tabakswinkel te koop zijn.

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:05 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Als we nou banken verbieden en drugs legaliseren?

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:12 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Dan schieten ze jou kapot

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:33 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

De bankiers of de dealers?

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:44 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

De voormalige delers, die gaan geen wekker zetten om 's morgens naar de baas te gaan.
Die bellen 's avonds aan en nemen je geld en je dochter mee terwijl jij in de hal ligt te kreperen

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:49 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Dat is na de drooglegging ook niet gebeurd en ik heb toch geen dochters.

quote:

The Mafia took advantage of prohibition and began selling illegal alcohol. The profits from bootlegging far exceeded the traditional crimes of protection, extortion, gambling and prostitution. Prohibition allowed Mafia families to make fortunes

quote:

After prohibition ended in 1933, organized crime groups were confronted with an impasse and needed other ways to maintain the high profits they had acquired throughout the 1920s.

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Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:56 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Dat is nu precies wat er wel gebeurd is na de drooglegging.
Toen is de Amerikaanse mafia overgegaan van illegale drankhandel naar georganiseerde harde criminaliteit

[..]

[..]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Mafia

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 20:11 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Dus omdat een verbod de georganiseerde criminaliteit vooruit hielp, wil jij dat handhaven.

Duidelijk

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 20:21 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Lees je eigen beweringen nog eens na aub...

Bovendien, IK wil niets.

Mijn stelling is dat de overheid het verbod op drugs handhaaft om te voorkomen dat duizenden kleine drugshandelaren die alleen maar gewend zijn aan snel en makkelijk geld verdienen los gaan op "de brave burger" die totaal onvoorbereid is op een golf van harde criminelen.
Nu speelt dit circuit zich af in een beperkte kring die door de overheid te overzien is.
Na legalisatie knalt die kring uit elkaar en regent neer op de 'gewone' maatschappij.

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 20:40 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Net zoals na de drooglegging. Ik waag het er op. Ff Opstelten dumpen.

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 20:58 schreef popolon het volgende:
14 Ways Marijuana Legalization Could Boost The Economy

De voordelen zijn ZOVEEL groter dan de nadelen. Bring it on!

quote:

Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 20:21 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Lees je eigen beweringen nog eens na aub...

Bovendien, IK wil niets.

Mijn stelling is dat de overheid het verbod op drugs handhaaft om te voorkomen dat duizenden kleine drugshandelaren die alleen maar gewend zijn aan snel en makkelijk geld verdienen los gaan op "de brave burger" die totaal onvoorbereid is op een golf van harde criminelen.
Nu speelt dit circuit zich af in een beperkte kring die door de overheid te overzien is.
Na legalisatie knalt die kring uit elkaar en regent neer op de 'gewone' maatschappij.

quote:

China deploys 3,000 police, speedboats and helicopters in village drug raid

Police confiscate 3 tonnes of crystal meth and arrest 182 people working in clan-based drug industry in southern Guangdong village

Chinese authorities deployed helicopters, speedboats and paramilitary police to seize three tonnes of methamphetamine in a raid on a southern village notorious for illegal drug production.

Security forces surrounded and then entered the village of Boshe, where more than a fifth of the households were suspected to be involved in or linked to the production and trafficking of drugs, Guangdong province's police force said on its website.

Police and paramilitary forces from four cities were mobilised in Sunday's raid and they arrested 182 suspects who worked for 18 large drug gangs, the statement said.

Police said: "The village has made a criminal drug production a clan-based, industrialised operation with local protection."

"The offenders have for a long time been brazenly committing crimes, avoiding investigations and even ganging up to violently oppose law enforcement."

China routinely carries out operations targeting illicit drug rings but it is unusual for such wideranging law enforcement resources to be deployed at once against a single village.

An aerial photo posted on the police website showed dozens of police vans parked in rows outside a walled village of densely built old houses with traditional-style peaked, tiled roofs. Another photo showed a helicopter taking off and another one parked nearby. Speedboats were sent to prevent suspects from fleeing the coastal village by sea.

The Yangcheng Evening News, a local newspaper, said the raid involved 3,000 police officers who seized three tonnes of methamphetamine in the raid. Photos showed paramilitary officers in camouflage uniforms and holding rifles stood over large boxes filled with large packets of what is presumably crystal meth.

Boshe's villagers have resisted Chinese authorities for years, blockading the village entrance with motorcycles when word of a raid spread. The villagers would brandish replica AK-47s, lay nailboards on the road and hurl stones and homemade grenades at officers, said the paper.

The paper said police first captured the village party secretary, who allegedly was protecting the drug operations from authorities. Other officials captured included the police chief and some of his officers.

The provincial police said the city of Lufeng, which Boshe is in, has in the past three years become the source of a third of the country's total crystal meth supply.

The Boshe raid was part of Operation Thunder, which was launched in July 2013 and has resulted in the detention of 11,000 suspects and the seizure of eight tonnes of drugs.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 januari 2014 20:17 schreef waht het volgende:
Gratis crystal meth voor kleuters zal dit oplossen.

quote:

3000 liter drugsafval gevonden in Roermond

quote:

Sweden's justice chief left high and dry over spoof marijuana deaths story

Ruling Conservative's Beatrice Ask posts spoof article on Colorado marijuana overdoses to support anti-drug claims

Sweden's justice minister is facing ridicule for posting a spoof article about marijuana-linked deaths on her Facebook page along with comments about her zero-tolerance against drugs.

Beatrice Ask of Sweden's ruling Conservative party posted a link to the Daily Currant's satire article, which jokingly – and erroneously – claimed that marijuana overdoses killed 37 people in Colorado on the first day of legalisation.

Above the link she wrote: "Stupid and sad. My first bill in the youth wing was called Outfight the Drugs! In this matter I haven't changed opinion at all."

The comment quickly spread in social media, triggering widespread criticism.

Ask's press officer Per Clareus said the minister was aware the article was fake and was trying to criticise the website for joking about such a serious matter, but was misunderstood.

quote:

Op woensdag 8 januari 2014 20:21 schreef Probably_on_pcp het volgende:
Bill O'Reilly met zijn onzin, belachelijk gemaakt door Jon Stewart

http://www.thedailyshow.c(...)cebook_010814_tds_19

Neuroscientist Carl Hart: Science Says We Should Decriminalize Drugs

Drugs aren't the problem

quote:

Op woensdag 8 januari 2014 23:56 schreef heiden6 het volgende:

[..]

Carl Hart

Neuroscientist Carl Hart: Science Says We Should Decriminalize Drugs

Drugs aren't the problem

quote:

Bolivia wil cocablad legaliseren

De Boliviaanse president Evo Morales wil als nieuwbakken voorzitter van de Groep van 77 - een losse coalitie van ontwikkelingslanden - het platform gebruiken om cocabladeren, het basisingrediënt van cocaïne, te legaliseren. Dat heeft hij woensdag op een persconferentie gezegd.

Morales zei ook dat hij als G-77-voorzitter vrede en harmonie met de natuur wil bevorderen, af wil van monarchieën en economische hiërarchieën en sociale uitgaven wil bevorderen in plaats van het oppotten van rijkdom. Met gepaste trots zei hij dat vorig jaar erkenning is bewerkstelligd voor de traditionele consumptie van cocabladeren. In landen in en rond de Andes wordt vooral op de bladeren gekauwd om hoogteziekte te verminderen.

In 2011 trok Bolivia zich terug uit de antidrugsakkoord van de Conventie van Wenen, maar vorig jaar keerde het land terug op voorwaarde dat het kauwen van cocabladeren niet wordt vervolgd. Bolivia beschouwt dat als een internationale erkenning van de legaliteit van het traditionele sociale gebruik van cocabladeren. 'Onze volgende taak is het verwijderen van het cocablad van de lijst van verboden middelen', zei Morales. 'Cocaïne, waarvoor het cocablad wordt gebruikt, blijft natuurlijk illegaal.'

Bolivia is na Peru en Colombia de grootste teler van cocabladeren ter wereld. Meer dan veertigduizend Bolivianen zijn afhankelijk van de cocateelt voor hun levensonderhoud en het draagt volgens de Verenigde Naties ongeveer 1,5 procent bij aan de Boliviaanse economie. Uit een studie van de Europese Unie bleek vorig jaar dat 58 procent van de cocabladeren voor traditioneel gebruik is, wat betekent dat de rest tot cocaïne wordt verwerkt.

quote:

Op zaterdag 4 januari 2014 20:45 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Misschien beter dan Ritalin.

quote:

Op donderdag 9 januari 2014 10:17 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Nee, crystal meth is nooit door medische trials gekomen.

quote:

Op donderdag 9 januari 2014 10:17 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Nee, crystal meth is nooit door medische trials gekomen.

quote:

Politie zoekt getuigen dumping xtc-afval

De politie zoekt getuigen die iets gezien hebben van de massale dumping van xtc-afval in de nacht van vrijdag op zaterdag op vier plekken in Maasbree en Venlo. Daarbij werden vele tientallen vaten met duizenden liters chemisch afval in de bossen en in de Everlosebeek gedumpt.

'Het gaat om zulke grote hoeveelheden, je zou zeggen: iemand moet toch iets gezien hebben', zei een woordvoerster van de politie zondag. Brandweer, waterschap en gemeenten hebben zaterdag bijna de hele dag nodig gehad om de vaten op te ruimen. Een deel van de vaten lekte, maar het waterschap heeft geen hoge concentraties gif in de Everlosebeek aangetroffen.

De politie onderzoekt later deze week wat er precies in de vaten zit. Ook probeert de politie de herkomst van de vaten te achterhalen.

Het is de tweede grote dumping van gevaarlijk afval in Limburg in enkele dagen tijd. Afgelopen dinsdag werden op een parkeerplaats in Roermond drie pallets met in totaal 3000 liter drugsafval gevonden.

quote:

Insight: War turns Syria into major amphetamines producer, consumer

(Reuters) - Syria has become a major amphetamines exporter and consumer as the trauma of the country's brutal civil war fuels demand and the breakdown in order creates opportunity for producers.

Drugs experts, traders and local activists say Syrian production of the most popular of the stimulants, known by its former brand name Captagon, accelerated in 2013, outpacing production in other countries in the region such as Lebanon.

Reports of seizures and interviews with people connected to the trade suggest it generates hundreds of millions of dollars in annual revenues in Syria, potentially providing funding for weapons, while the drug itself helps combatants dig in for long, grueling battles.

Most other economic activity in Syria has ground to a halt in the past two years due to the violence, shortages and international sanctions.

Consumption of Captagon outside the Middle East is negligible, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), but it is a significant drug in the Arab Gulf, and nascent markets were detected in North Africa last year.

Sitting at a crossroads in the Middle East, Syria has long been a transit point for drugs coming from Europe, Turkey and Lebanon and destined for Jordan, Iraq and the Gulf.

The breakdown of state infrastructure, weakening of borders and proliferation of armed groups during the nearly three-year battle for control of Syria has transformed the country from a stopover into a major production site.

Even before the conflict, Saudi Arabia received about seven metric tons of Captagon in 2010, a third of world supply, according to UNODC figures.

A member of a prominent drug trading family in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, where much of that country's drug production and smuggling takes place, told Reuters that demand from the Gulf kingdom had increased since then, and Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates were also big consumers.

The trader said production in Lebanon fell 90 percent in 2013 from two years earlier, and wholly attributed the drop to a shift in production to Syria. He said some production might also have moved to Syria from Turkey during the past year.

Khabib Ammar, a Damascus-based media activist, said Syrian fighters involved with the drugs trade were buying weapons with the money they made, though Reuters could not independently verify claims that Captagon profits were being used to fund either side of the conflict.

Syrian government forces and rebel groups each say the other uses Captagon to endure protracted engagements without sleep, while clinicians say ordinary Syrians are increasingly experimenting with the pills, which sell for between $5 and $20.

REGULAR SEIZURES

The drug was first produced in the West in the 1960s to treat hyperactivity, narcolepsy and depression, but by the 1980s was banned in most countries because of its addictive properties and no longer has a legitimate medical use. Its active ingredient, fenethylline, is metabolized by the body into the stimulants amphetamine and theophylline.

Lebanese psychiatrist Ramzi Haddad said the drug had the typical effects of a stimulant. "It gives you a kind of euphoria. You're talkative, you don't sleep, you don't eat, you're energetic," he said.

Production is cheap and simple, requiring "only basic knowledge of chemistry and a few scales", he added. Syrian and Lebanese authorities regularly seize homemade laboratories used to make the pills.

National drug control offices in the region also report Syria's increasing role in the trade.

Colonel Ghassan Chamseddine, head of Lebanon's drug enforcement unit, told Reuters the pills are hidden in trucks passing from Syria to Lebanese ports where they are then shipped to the Gulf.

"It comes from Syria. Most of the Captagon production is there, according to our information," he said.

Official figures show Lebanon seized more than 12.3 million Captagon pills in 2013. Chamseddine said most of that came from a few large busts in the Bekaa Valley, which borders Syria. One seizure of 5.3 million pills implicated a Syrian family that he said has been smuggling drugs for 10 years.

The Lebanese trader said the main players in Lebanon's Captagon trade are established families in the Bekaa who started off smuggling hashish and cocaine decades ago. They either produce the pills themselves or provide the materials and equipment to partners inside Syria and then help smuggle the pills out of the country, he said.

Turkish authorities have also identified a rise in Captagon production in Syria. In May, they seized 7 million pills en route to Saudi Arabia, according to Saudi media. The head of Turkey's anti-drug-trafficking directorate said the pills were made in Syria with materials from Lebanon, but he couldn't confirm a connection to rebels there.

Dubai police also reported making a seizure of a record 4.6 million Captagon pills in December.

MUTUAL DENIALS

Syrian state media regularly mention Captagon pills as one of the items government forces seize alongside weapons when they capture rebel fighters or raid their bases.

A drug control officer in the central city of Homs told Reuters he had observed the effects of Captagon on protesters and fighters held for questioning.

"We would beat them, and they wouldn't feel the pain. Many of them would laugh while we were dealing them heavy blows," he said. "We would leave the prisoners for about 48 hours without questioning them while the effects of Captagon wore off, and then interrogation would become easier."

The opposition retorts that the government is aiming to sully its reputation and say it is the pro-government 'shabiha' gunmen that run the Captagon trade.

Opposition activist Ammar said consumption was limited to government supporters and fighters who use the cover of the revolution to pursue lucrative criminal activities.

"These days, the criminals and addicts do whatever they want," he said. "They've increased because of hunger, poverty and lack of work."

A psychiatrist named George said he treated Captagon users at his clinic in the government stronghold of Latakia.

"The use of Captagon and other pills increased after the revolution even among civilians because of psychological and economic pressures," he said.

He said the government exaggerated the drug's prevalence among opponents, but added that it was likely both the shabiha and rebel Free Syrian Army were users, "especially when they are assigned night duty or other long missions".

A resident of the central city of Homs said the use of Captagon and hashish had become widespread and open in the past year in his neighborhood, an area populated mostly by Alawites, the same Muslim sect that President Bashar al-Assad belongs to.

"It's young people in general, and most of them are in the National Defence Force and shabiha organizations," he said.

(Additional reporting by a reporter in Syria whose name is withheld for security reasons; Editing by Will Waterman)

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Mexicaanse burgers schieten drugsbende provincie uit

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In de Mexicaanse deelstaat Michoacan, op nog geen vijfhonderd kilometer van Mexico Stad, nemen gewapende burgers in rap tempo de macht over. Ze verwijten de regering geen actie te ondernemen tegen een gewelddadige drugsbende die de deelstaat terroriseert, en nemen het heft in eigen handen.

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Comment: The Home Office admits it has no idea if the war on drugs is working

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They sneaked it out in December.

The Home Office report is called 'Drug Strategy 2010 Evaluation Framework – evaluating costs and benefits'. It is not the sort of title which seduces the attention, but inside you can find a fascinating, topsy-turvy, down-the-looking-glass world of hopeless causes.

The purpose of the document is to set out the kind of evidence you'd need if you wanted to work out whether the government was getting value for money with its anti-drugs programme.

On its own, that's a creditable aim. The more we look into the spending on anti-drug programmes the more we highlight the chasm of financial and human waste which constitutes prohibition.

What we get, of course, is nothing of the sort. Instead, lodged innocuously in the middle of the report and couched in impenetrable language, there is a startling admission.

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When Transform tried to gets its hands on the Home Office's value for money study in 2010, officials discussed keeping it out the public eye because it would help those campaigning to end prohibition.

Luckily - and with the Home Office's usual capacity for incompetence they accidentally sent the internal memo to BBCs Martin Rosenbaum. It read:

. The release of the report entails the risk of Transform, or other supporters of legalisation, using information from the report to criticise the government's drug policy, or to support their call for the legalisation of drugs and the introduction of a regulated system of supply. These risks should be considered in reaching a decision on whether to release the report, as recommended.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 08:59 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
Beter legaliseren dan dit soort situaties.

[ afbeelding ]

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 10:02 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Dat komt door die drugsverslaafde yanks, die zijn bereid miljarden te betalen.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 10:02 schreef waht het volgende:

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Dat komt door die drugsverslaafde yanks, die zijn bereid miljarden te betalen.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 10:02 schreef waht het volgende:

[..]

Dat komt door die drugsverslaafde yanks, die zijn bereid miljarden te betalen.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 10:40 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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Niet precies, wat er in Michoacan aan de hand is weer wat anders.

Dit zijn autodefensas, bevolking die het niet ingrijpen van de regering zat zijn en zelf op de georganiseerde misdaad jagen. Massa-vigilantisme

Het grote probleem hier is eerder afpersing en kidnappings waar sommige bendes zich mee bezig houden.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 11:50 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:

Als drugs legaal is dan kun je met je gewelddadigheid en gewetenloosheid daar geen geld aan verdienen. Dan zou je het van je groene vingers moeten hebben of zo.

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DEA admits marijuana legalization 'scares us'

A top official at the US Drug Enforcement Administration has said that legalizing marijuana, a drug that a majority of Americans are now in favor of decriminalizing, is “reckless and irresponsible.”

James L. Capra, the chief of operations at the DEA, was responding to a question from a senator Wednesday when he admitted authorities are nervous about the prospect of legalization measures, which are becoming more popular throughout the US after decriminalization initiatives passed in Colorado and Washington.

“I have to say this…going down the path to legalization in this country is reckless and irresponsible,” he said. “I’m talking about the long term impact of legalization in the United States. It scares us.”

Cannabis remains illegal under federal law, which trumps conflicting state law. Yet US President Obama has said his administration will not enforce federal marijuana restrictions in states where it has been decriminalized.

Were that not the case, the DEA would be responsible for cracking down on pot shops. The agency, in fact, has sustained heavy criticism because it continues to harass grow operations in California, Montana, and elsewhere where the drug is now legal for medicinal purposes.

Sales in Colorado began on January 1 and will begin in Washington within the coming months.

“There are more dispensaries in Denver than there are Starbucks,” Capra said, as quoted by the Washington Post. “The idea somehow people in our country have that this is somehow good for us as a nation is wrong. It’s a bad thing.”

An October Gallup poll found that more Americans than ever admitted they are in favor of legalizing marijuana. The number, which stands at 58 percent, has slowly increased in the decades since Gallup first asked the question in 1969, when a mere 12 percent were in favor of legalization.

Along with Colorado and Washington, 21 states have laws protecting medical marijuana for citizens with serious illnesses. Yet even more are poised to join the fray, with lawmakers in California, New York, and elsewhere suggesting in recent weeks that pot will become more accessible in their state in some form within the next 12 months. A Washington Post poll compiled this week found that Washington DC residents favor decriminalization by a 2:1 ratio.

Yet Capra made it clear on Wednesday that he remains unconvinced.

“This is a bad experiment,” he said. “It’s going to cost us in terms of social costs.”

He went on to describe an international drug conference in Moscow, where officials from around the world wondered if the US is easing its hardline stance in the War on Drugs.

“Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this, you’re pointing a finger at us as a sources state,” he said. “I have no answer for them. I don’t have an answer for them.”

Lawmakers and cannabis advocates alike expect legalization measures to help boost struggling government budgets by attracting tourism dollars and tax revenue. Yet dozens of current and former law enforcement officials from around the nation have spoken out against the changes as the conversation has gone on. One reason, critics say, is because marijuana arrests and seizures indirectly provide resources for the DEA.

Last year, for instance, marijuana lobbyists attacked Bensinger, DuPont & Associates – a company founded by anti-pot crusaders under US President Nixon that now specializes in corporate drug testing – penned an open letter to a Senate committee criticizing the Obama administration’s stance on marijuana.

The letter, as quoted by US News & World Report, advised that cannabis is “a dangerous and addictive drug” which “significantly impacts” society as a whole – and worker productivity in particular.

Robert DuPont was the White House drug czar under Nixon and then President Ford, and Peter Bensinger was a high-ranked DEA official through the 1970s. Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New York, said that the issue is both professional and personal for people like DuPont, Bensinger, and others who currently serve in the DEA.

“They realize they are going to suffer the fate of the people who ran the bureau of prohibition [of alcohol] in the ‘20s and ‘30s, and that must be a little demoralizing,” Nadelman said. “So they are trying to justify their life’s work.”

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Op vrijdag 17 januari 2014 09:53 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Was Operation Fast And Furious Really Part Of A Secret Deal Between The DEA And Mexico's Sinaloa Drug Cartel?

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According to Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a highly placed member of the Sinaloa cartel and the son of top Sinaloa leader Ismael El Mayo Zambada, the deal involved the cartel providing information about rival Mexican drug gangs to the DEA in exchange for the U.S. government agreeing not to interfere with Sinaloa shipments into the United States and the dismissal of criminal charges against cartel participants.

In a series of court fillings in a criminal case against Zambada-Niebla filed in the federal court in Chicago, it is alleged that the U.S. efforts were part of a strategy previously employed by the U.S. government in combatting Colombian drug cartels whereby the government would divide and conquer by making sweetheart deals with one cartel in order to gain information to be used in destroying the cooperating cartels rivals.

The El Universal report is based not only on interviews with DEA and cartel memberssome currently incarcerated in Mexican jailsbut additionally based on the above-referenced court filings in the U.S. District Court.

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Honduras keurt neerhalen drugsvliegtuigen goed

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Het parlement van Honduras heeft gisteren een wet goedgekeurd die het mogelijk maakt om drugsvliegtuigen neer te schieten. In de wet staat dat geweld is toegestaan om een verdacht vliegtuig te laten landen. Op bevel van de minister van Defensie mag een toestel zelfs worden neergehaald.

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Op zaterdag 18 januari 2014 10:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Burgemeester Heerlen vindt drugslab in wijk 'schandalig'

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'Schandalig dat op deze manier onschuldige mensen in gevaar worden gebracht. Je moet er niet aan denken wat er gebeurd zou zijn als de zaak was ontploft.'

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Depla nam zondag een kijkje bij het pand. 'Je ziet dit de laatste tijd steeds vaker in het zuiden van Nederland', zei de burgemeester. 'De resten worden vervolgens in de natuur gedumpt.'

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Dertig doodstraffen in Vietnam wegens drugssmokkel

Een Vietnamese rechter heeft vandaag dertig mensen ter dood veroordeeld wegens het smokkelen van heroïne. Dat heeft de Vietnamese staatstelevisie bekendgemaakt. 21 mannen en negen vrouwen stonden de afgelopen drie weken terecht in een massaproces.

De veroordeelden maakten deel uit van een netwerk dat via Vietnam bijna twee ton heroïne van Laos naar China smokkelde.

Vietnam heeft zeer strenge drugswetten. Het bezitten of verhandelen van zeshonderd gram heroïne kan iemand al de doodstraf opleveren. In Vietnamese cellen zitten bijna zevenhonderd ter dood veroordeelden.

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As Uruguay moves to legalise cannabis, is the ‘war on drugs’ finished?

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‘We know prohibition has never worked, whilst demand remains,’ said Rolles. ‘So we have a choice: either responsible governments can take control of the drugs market or we leave it in the hands of violent criminal profiteers. There’s no third option in which drugs magically disappear.

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Gevangenbewaarder vast voor hennepteelt

Een 41-jarige cipier van de gevangenis in Roermond is vandaag aangehouden voor hennepteelt. De man uit Brunssum zit vast, bevestigde zijn advocaat Serge Weening naar aanleiding van een bericht van De Telegraaf.

De schoonvader en schoonmoeder van de man werden vorige week al aangehouden voor handel in hennep. De politie wilde de aanhouding van de 41-jarige maandag niet bevestigen.

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Christie Calls for Alternatives to Incarceration and Expanded Drug Treatment

Trenton, NJ—Governor Chris Christie today took the oath of office for a second term and delivered his inaugural address at the War Memorial in Trenton. During his inaugural address he called for an end to the drug war and compassion for those suffering from drug addiction.

“We will end the failed war on drugs that believes that incarceration is the cure of every ill caused by drug abuse. We will make drug treatment available to as many of our non-violent offenders as we can and we will partner with our citizens to create a society that understands this simple truth: every life has value and no life is disposable,” Christie said during his inaugural speech this morning.

The governor expressed desire to help those struggling with drug addiction in a bipartisan manner. “And, while government has a role in ensuring the opportunity to accomplish these dreams, we have now learned that we have an even bigger role to play as individual citizens. We have to be willing to play outside the red and blue boxes the media and pundits put us in; we have to be willing to reach out to others who look or speak differently than us; we have to be willing to personally reach out a helping hand to a neighbor suffering from drug addiction, depression or the dignity stripping loss of a job,” said Christie.

Governor Christie’s inaugural remarks are being applauded by drug policy reform advocates.

“I was delighted to be present for the Governor’s swearing in and to hear him make such promising remarks surrounding drug policy reform in our state,” says Roseanne Scotti, New Jersey State Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “Legislation is desperately needed to reverse the counterproductive and discriminatory consequences of the failed war on drugs. The Drug Policy Alliance and advocates throughout New Jersey look forward to working with the Christie administration to address the unacceptable and unjust consequences of the drug war.”

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Op donderdag 23 januari 2014 07:01 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
http://m.volkskrant.nl/vk(...)avigationItemId=2664

Dodelijk vanwege hoge gehalte aan MDMA?

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Hennepteelt in Tilburg levert zo’n 800 miljoen per jaar op

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In Tilburg wordt jaarlijks tussen de 728 en 884 miljoen euro verdiend met de illegale teelt van hennep. Dat meldt NRC Handelsblad vandaag. De omzet van de lokale drugshandel is daarmee even groot als de totale begroting van deze Brabantse gemeente van 200.000 inwoners.

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Volgens de onderzoekers bewijst de studie naar de situatie in Tilburg dat de hennephandel zo omvangrijk is dat er sprake is van een serieuze bedreiging voor de veiligheid en integriteit van de samenleving. De drugshandel is uitgegroeid tot een criminele industrie die steeds meer de legale en economische en juridische infrastructuur corrumpeert.

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Noordanus zegt dat de hennep uit zijn gemeente wel voor de export bestemd móét zijn. Iedere Tilburger zou zich de hele dag suf zou moeten blowen om het op te krijgen.


Burgemeester: export wiet is het echte probleem

De burgemeester is op zichzelf niet tegen het initiatief van gemeenten voor gereguleerde wietteelt om te zorgen dat coffeeshops legaal kunnen worden bevoorraad, maar hij vindt de omvang van de export het echte probleem. De opsporing en bestraffing van illegale hennepteelt moet nog krachtiger worden aangepakt. Een internationale aanpak is nodig.

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Op woensdag 15 januari 2014 08:59 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
Beter legaliseren dan dit soort situaties.

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Honderd vaten drugsafval gedumpt bij Tilburg

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Mexico's 'vigilante monster'

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Mexico's army and federal police were recently deployed to the Mexican state of Michoacan to deal with the ongoing battle between the Knights Templar drug cartel and vigilante groups known as "autodefensas".

Formed in February 2013 as a response to the state's unwillingness and inability to safeguard its people, these self-defense forces have succeeded in "liberating" a number of areas from cartel control, and have refused to comply with orders to disarm.

According to an AP report titled "Mexico Gov't Faces Vigilante Monster It Created", the US State Department "said that the warring between vigilantes and the cartel is 'incredibly worrisome' and [that it is] 'unclear if any of those actors have the community's best interests at heart'".

This is a curious assessment coming from an entity that prefers to showcase its concern for Mexican community interests by destroying Mexico's agriculture and industries via free trade schemes and by converting the country into a battlefield in the war on drugs.

Since drug war operations were outsourced to the Mexican administration in 2006, over 77,000 persons have reportedly been killed in related violence, while the US has exploited attendant opportunities for imperial meddling in Mexico's national security and other arenas.

Incidentally, Michoacan is the very site of the launching of the 2006 edition of the drug war, which has been characterised by rampant corruption including high-level collaboration between cartels and members of the army, police force and political scene.

The reign of near-total impunity in Mexico means that state security forces are not held accountable for crimes committed in the name of the ostensible war on organised crime, such as torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

The reign of near-total impunity in Mexico means that state security forces are not held accountable for crimes committed in the name of the ostensible war on organised crime, such as torture, forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Indeed, had the AP wanted to paint an unambiguous picture of just how the alleged "vigilante monster" was created, some reference might have been made to relevant monstrous behavior on the part of representatives of the state.

Instead, the article simply notes that the autodefensas have enjoyed "months of unofficial tolerance" and that they have been "more successful than the government" in combating the Knights Templar.

The recent confirmation of an alliance between the US government and Mexico's notorious Sinaloa cartel meanwhile renders US offers of assistance in Michoacan even more tragically hilarious.

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Prestigious ‘Scientific American’ calls on U.S. to open doors to LSD, MDMA, pot research

Cannabis, LSD, psilocybin (“magic mushrooms”), MDMA (the “ecstasy” drug) and other psychedelic drugs all have significant potential medical uses, as illustrated in the limited research organizations like the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Science have facilitated over the years. But the war on drugs and resulting classification of those psychoactive substances as Schedule I—meaning with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration—has caused a national research blockade and left that medical potential almost completely untapped.

The editors of Scientific American—the 168-year-old magazine to which scientists like Albert Einstein have contributed—this week called for an end to the national ban on psychoactive drug research, noting that LSD, psilocybin, MDMA and cannabis all “had their origins in the medical pharmacopeia.”

More than 1,000 scientific publications chronicled the uses of LSD for psychotherapy during the mid-’60s, and MDMA similarly complemented talk therapy through the ‘70s, the article points out. And “[m]arijuana has logged thousands of years as a medicament for diseases and conditions ranging from malaria to rheumatism.”

Scientific American lamented the fact that since the Controlled Substances Act of 1970 declared these psychoactive drugs void of any medical use—and three United Nations treaties extend similar restrictions to much of the world—a catch-22 has arisen: “these drugs are banned because they have no accepted medical use, but researchers cannot explore their therapeutic potential because they are banned.”

The article notes that the few privately funded studies that have looked at these compounds have “yielded tantalizing hints that some of these ideas merit consideration. Yet doing this research through standard channels … requires traversing a daunting bureaucratic labyrinth that can dissuade even the most committed investigator.”

As a result, psychologists are left wondering “whether MDMA can help with intractable post-traumatic stress disorder [as work with combat veterans has shown], whether LSD or psilocybin can provide relief for cluster headaches or obsessive compulsive disorder and whether the particular docking receptors on brain cells that many psychedelics latch onto are critical sites for regulating conscious states that go awry in schizophrenia and depression,” the article notes.

Additionally, while doctors in 20 states (and counting) can recommend medical marijuana, researchers aren’t allowed to properly study its effects. Scientific American notes that this leaves “unanswered the question of whether the drug might help treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, nausea, sleep apnea, multiple sclerosis and a host of other conditions.”

Like many researchers, therapists and drug policy activists have been saying for decades, it is time to allow scientific researchers to do their jobs and find out what these substances can actually do—and in order for that to happen, the U.S. needs to reschedule these substances and effectively lift its research blockade.

As the Scientific American article concludes, the endless obstructions to research caused by current scheduling have meant a research standstill for Schedule I drugs.

“This is a shame. … If some of the obstacles to research can be overcome, it may be possible to finally detach research on psychoactive chemicals from the hyperbolic rhetoric that is a legacy of the war on drugs. Only then will it be possible to judge whether LSD, ecstasy, marijuana and other highly regulated compounds—subjected to the gauntlet of clinical testing for safety and efficacy—can actually yield effective new treatments for devastating psychiatric illnesses.”

The more trusted publications like Scientific American come out and call for change, the closer we will be to medical research and scientific facts that liberate us from the medical Dark Ages when it comes to psychoactive drugs.

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Op donderdag 30 januari 2014 16:53 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Burgemeesters eisen gereguleerde wietteelt

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Tientallen burgemeesters en andere vertegenwoordigers van 35 gemeenten, daarin vooropgegaan door VVD-coryfee Frits Bolkestein, hebben vrijdag in Utrecht een manifest ondertekend om het reguleren van wietteelt mogelijk te maken. Ze willen dat het Rijk ook de productie van wiet gedoogt, net zoals nu al de verkoop ervan gedoogd wordt. Minister Ivo Opstelten van Veiligheid en Justitie weigert dit tot nog toe.

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Minister Opstelten van Justitie liet vandaag nog maar eens weten helemaal niets te zien in gereguleerde wietteelt. 'Ook al komen er tien manifesten, het antwoord blijft vol overtuiging nee', zei hij voorafgaand aan de ministerraad tegen de NOS. Volgens de minister zullen de gemeenten het daarmee moeten doen. Hij gaat over het drugsbeleid in Nederland, en niet de gemeenten, zo benadrukte hij.

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:38 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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We wisten al dat Opstelten niet iemand is van de feiten en argumenten. Hij heeft slechts een overtuiging.

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:43 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

Wietteelt blijft illegaal

"Blowen is heel slecht".

Kan iemand deze mongool uit zijn lijden verlossen, alstublieft?!

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:38 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]


[..]


[..]

We wisten al dat Opstelten niet iemand is van de feiten en argumenten. Hij heeft slechts een overtuiging.

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:43 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

Wietteelt blijft illegaal

"Blowen is heel slecht".

Kan iemand deze mongool uit zijn lijden verlossen, alstublieft?!

quote:

Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:43 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

Wietteelt blijft illegaal

"Blowen is heel slecht".

Kan iemand deze mongool uit zijn lijden verlossen, alstublieft?!

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Congress debates Obama’s “schizophrenic” marijuana policies

A administration official confirmed to Congress on Tuesday that, in spite of President Obama’s recent comments, the administration still opposes state-based efforts to legalize marijuana.

The administration has been “consistent in its opposition to attempts to legalize marijuana and other drugs,” Michael Botticelli, the deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the House Oversight Committee’s Government Operations subpanel.

Congress deemed marijuana a harmful drug under the Controlled Substances Act, he said, and “the Department of Justice’s responsibility to enforce the Controlled Substances Act remains unchanged.”

The comments follow Mr. Obama’s assertion that it is “important” to let the experiments with legalization in Colorado and Washington state proceed, and that marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the subpanel, suggested the president’s attitude may contribute to the growing use of marijuana among adolescents.

“Given the recent statements... the president may, in fact, be a major contributor now to some of the declines we see in the perception of risk” associated with the drug, Mica said. “We’re going from ‘Just say no,’ to ‘I didn’t inhale,’ now it’s 'Just say maybe.’”

Obama: Marijuana not "more dangerous" than alcohol
Synthetic marijuana use down, but real pot use up among teens

Mica added, “We have the most schizophrenic policy I have ever seen.”

Botticelli insisted that the administration is attempting to take a “balanced” approach that rejects the so-called “war on drugs” but also rejects legalization efforts.

“The president has indicated this is a public health challenge and that we need to deal with it as a public health challenge,” he said.

Nevertheless, the White House and Congress are left in an awkward spot, now that two states have legalized the drug for adults, while 20 states and the District of Columbia have approved the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

In fact, while the subpanel discussed the matter, the D.C. city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of decriminalizing marijuana possession. The D.C. vote puts Congress on the spot, since the federal legislative body technically has authority over all Washington, D.C., municipal laws.

Before the new law goes into effect, it must go through a 30-day period during which Congress could pass a resolution “disapproving” of it. Congress could also use the power of the purse as leverage over the District.

While Congress in recent years has shown more deference to the District’s lawmaking, it has a history of intervening on this issue -- the District approved medical marijuana use in 1998, but it took more than 10 years for Congress to let the city implement the new rules. This year, however, Congress doesn’t seem inclined to get involved.

A committee aide for Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Tom Carper, D-Del. -- whose committee has jurisdiction over D.C. issues -- said Carper has yet to take a position on whether Congress should intervene or not.

Mica said in a statement to CBS News that the city council vote is “just one more example of the conflict between state and federal law... This is a discussion that is long overdue.”

While Mica criticized the president’s recent remarks, some Democrats at Tuesday’s hearing defended them.

“I think the president was exactly right,” Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, said with respect to Mr. Obama’s point that poor kids, along with minorities, are more likely to get “locked up” for smoking pot.

Cummings said he has “serious questions about the disparate impact of federal government’s enforcement policies on minorities.”

Those concerns are exacerbated, he said, by the divergent laws at the state level.

“It’s one thing when you have equal enforcement, but it's another thing when some people are engaged in purchasing marijuana in the streets and other ones in the suites.” he said. “You have many African-American young men... spending long sentences sitting in prison while others law enforcement don’t even touch.”

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Britain's war on drugs 'unwinnable', says Nick Clegg

Deputy Prime Minister says Liberal Democrats will publish alternative strategy this year after completing study of decriminalisation in Uruguay and some US states

Nick Clegg has said that the war on drugs is "unwinnable" and that Britain must end the "conspiracy of silence" surrounding the issue.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that the Liberal Democrats will publish an alternative strategy this year after completing a study of the impact of decriminalisation of marijuana in Uruguay and some US states.

Mr Clegg, while stopping short of calling for full decriminalisation, favours a health-based approach to treating drug users.

He told the BBC that for too long politicians have refused to consider alternatives to the war on drugs because it is "all too controversial".

"If you are anti-drugs, you should be pro-reform," he told the BBC.

During a visit to Colombia he said that the war on drugs has led to "terrible conflict" and cost tens of thousands of lives.

Liberal Democrat calls for a Royal Commission to investigate Britain's drug policy have been rejected by the Conservatives.

Mr Clegg told The Sun newspaper that the war on drugs is ultimately "unwinnable".

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Obama, Who Evidently Has Not Read the Controlled Substances Act, Denies That He Has the Power to Reclassify Marijuana

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In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that aired last night, President Obama tried to dodge responsibility for eliminating the contradiction between his recent comments about marijuana and its classification as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act:

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Instead of answering that question, Obama started talking about a "public health" approach to marijuana (a subject I address in another post). But notice that Obama at first denied that the executive branch has the power to reschedule drugs, saying "what is and isn't a Schedule I narcotic is a job for Congress." As Tapper pointed out, that's not true.

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The DEA argues that marijuana satisfies the first criterion because people like to consume it for nonmedical purposes, which according to the DEA qualifies as abuse. It's illegal, after all. According to that definition of abuse, prohibition justifies itself, which hardly seems fair. A more reasonable view defines abuse as harmful, excessive, or problematic use. Regardless of which definition you prefer, it is hard to see in what meaningful sense marijuana has a higher abuse potential than, say, the barbiturates and benzodiazepines on Schedule III. According to the DEA, even dronabinol has a lower abuse potential than marijuana. What is dronabinol? A synthetic version of THC—the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

The DEA says marijuana meets the second criterion—no currently accepted medical use—not because the drug is ineffective at treating symptoms such as nausea, pain, and muscle spasms (in fact, the Obama administration concedes the medical utility of cannabinoids) but because such uses have not gained wide enough acceptance within the medical community. Given the subjectivity of that judgment, it amounts to saying that marijuana has no accepted medical use because the DEA deems medical use of marijuana unaccceptable. The agency likewise does not accept that marijuana can be used safely, although it obviously can, as Obama conceded when he observed that alcohol is more dangerous.

The DEA clearly is bending over backward to keep marijuana on Schedule I, and nothing in the CSA requires it to do that. It could easily apply the CSA's criteria in a way that would make marijuana less restricted, and the decision not to do so is ultimately Obama's. He is the one who appointed the current DEA administrator, a hardline holdover from the Bush administration who is so committed to prohibitionist orthodoxy that she recoils in horror at the thought of a hemp flag flying over the Capitol and could not restrain herself from openly criticizing Obama, notionally her boss, for his scientifically uncontroversial statement about the relative hazards of marijuana and alcohol. He is the one who, despite his avowed commitment to sound science and his own statements to the contrary, allows the DEA to insist marijuana is so dangerous that it must be more tightly restricted than cocaine, morphine, oxycodone, and methamphetamine.

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Joanne Csete: Why the US needs to change its drug policy

As the world mourns the loss of the exceptional talents of Philip Seymour Hoffman, perhaps one fitting tribute to his passing from a suspected drug overdose would be to focus on how such deaths can be averted in the future.

Such a focus means shedding a light on ways in which US drug policy—not uniquely, but very unfortunately—sets the stage for deaths such as this in its intransigent focus on being “clean” above being safe.

People of Hoffman’s generation who grew up and went to school in the United States were the beneficiaries of billions of dollars’ worth of government “drug prevention” programs that were based on the standard oldies of the “drug free society” songbook. The refrains became familiar as they were repeated in classroom drug education, slick and widely disseminated “public service” ads, and pronouncements of policy makers:

Using any drugs was a sign of weak character and something to be ashamed of.
There are only two kinds of people in the world with respect to drugs—clean and unclean.
All use of all drugs—ALL—is equally evil and would ruin your life.

Hoffman’s peers who became teenagers in the 1980s in the Netherlands would have benefited from the policies of a government which concluded that young people were inclined to try cannabis and unlikely to be completely stopped from doing so, and it would be good to give them a way to get it without having to interact with a heroin dealer. Thus were born the famous “coffeeshops” of Dutch cities. But that kind of policy requires a realistic idea about the futility of “eradicating” drug use as well as a nuanced idea of the relative harms of various kinds of drugs. Hoffman and his American friends wouldn’t have been exposed to such notions.

Young people struggling with opiate use in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Switzerland and Germany would have had good access to non-judgmental services that would have offered information and support for minimizing the worst consequences of drug use, including illness and linked to overdose death. The state would even have offered the possibility of medically supervised use of heroin of known doses and known purity, virtually eliminating overdose risk. And young people would have known that if they were worried about the toxicity of drugs or about problems with injection, there were places where they could go to inject under the eyes of medical professionals.

Those services require a policy that values people’s ability to keep themselves alive while they are struggling with problematic drug use. In the United States, such an idea is heresy because the priority is to eradicate the unclean and condemn the moral weakness of people who consume drugs.

Even without knowing the details of the rehabilitation services that Hoffman and other privileged Americans have access to, one can know that the culture of the shame of drug use is always hard to overcome. Indeed, an important benefit of the kinds of services and support for drug related harm reduction that remain out of reach in the United States is that they send a radically different message from the prohibitionist standard—that everyone has the right to information and other means of not just staying alive, but having a good quality of life.

When governments recognize that drug dependence is, as the World Health Organization puts it, a chronic relapsing condition, the persistent characterization of addiction as a moral flaw is seen for the harmful and stigmatizing rant that it is. In addition to driving people to keep their drug problems hidden, this culture of stigma constrains resource allocation for policies, programs, reality based educational materials, and social support that would address overdose risk and other drug-related harms at many levels.

It is impossible to know how much people struggling with drug dependence, famous or otherwise, can rise above the image of drug use in the public mind as a social scourge. The American tragedy is that they even have to try.

I declare that I have read and understood the BMJ group policy on declaration of interests and I have no relevant interests to declare.

Joanne Csete is the deputy director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program. Prior to joining the Open Society Foundations, she was associate professor at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health in New York, where her research focused on health services for marginalized and criminalized populations, especially people who use illicit drugs, sex workers, prisoners and detainees, and people living with HIV.

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Forgive and Forget

On drug sentencing, a growing number of Republicans are ready to shed the party’s law-and-order image in favor of reform.

Rand Paul had been talking for 20 minutes, strumming all the familiar chords. He was the gala keynoter for the annual American Principles Project, a 5-year-old social conservative group best known recently for running TV ads against Liz Cheney. (The ads, funded by APP’s political arm, attacked Cheney’s advocacy for “government benefits for gay couples.”) Paul had criticized the New York Times, defended the now-lapsed cuts of sequestration, and warned that a “Republican-lite” party was doomed to lose. Standard stuff.

So he started challenging the crowd. “As Christians, we believe in forgiveness,” said Paul. “I think the criminal justice system should have some element of forgiveness.” There are, sure, human terrors who need to be locked up. “But there are also people who make youthful mistakes who I believe deserve a second chance. In my state, you never vote again if you’re convicted of a felony. But a felony could be growing marijuana plants in college. Friend of mine’s brother did 30 years ago. He has an MBA. But he can’t vote, can’t own a gun, and he’s a house-painter with an MBA, because he has to check a box saying he’s a convicted felon.”

Paul’s audience, consisting of social conservatives, congressional candidates, and radio hosts, listened or nodded along.

“These are ideas not many Republicans have talked about before,” Paul said. “I think if we talk about these ideas, we take them to the minority community, often the African-American and sometimes the Hispanic community—3 out of 4 people in prison are black and brown! But if you look at surveys on who uses drugs, whites and blacks and Hispanic use at about the same rate. You don’t have as good an attorney if you don’t have money. Some of the prosecution has tended to go where it’s easier to prosecute people.”

The crowd stayed with him.

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 13:43 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

Wietteelt blijft illegaal

"Blowen is heel slecht".

Kan iemand deze mongool uit zijn lijden verlossen, alstublieft?!

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Nick Clegg: Britain must join debate on new approach to war on drugs

Deputy PM angry at Tory refusal to debate alternatives and says: 'If you are anti-drugs, you should be pro-reform'

Nick Clegg has dragged the case for reforming the drugs laws to the centre ground of British politics, saying that blanket prohibition has seen cocaine use triple in less than 20 years, a trend that has helped perpetuate conflict and violence in South America.

Writing in today's Observer, after a week in which he visited Colombia to learn first-hand the devastating effects that Europe's enthusiasm for cocaine has had on the country, Clegg said the UK needed to be at the heart of the debate about potential alternatives to blanket prohibition and that he wanted to see an end to "the tradition where politicians only talk about drugs reform when they have left office because they fear the political consequences".

The deputy prime minister said such an approach "has stifled debate and inhibited a proper examination of our approach. Put simply, if you are anti-drugs, you should be pro-reform".

His comments will be seen by some observers as politically expedient, designed to distance the Lib Dems from the Tories in the runup to the next election. In his article, Clegg expresses his frustration "at my coalition partner's refusal to engage in a proper discussion about the drugs problem".

In some of the most outspoken comments on the issue by a serving British politician, Clegg laments the current situation in which "one in five young people have admitted taking drugs in the last year", and "cocaine use has more than trebled since 1996" and claims that "every time someone dies of an overdose it should shame our political class".

Looking to 2016, when the UN is due to hold a meeting to discuss potential reform of its prohibitionist drug conventions, Clegg states: "The UN drug conventions badly need revising. I want European countries to work together to agree a common position in favour of reform to take to that discussion in 2016. The UK can lead the debate in Europe and Europe can lead the debate in the world. But we must be prepared to start afresh with a new mindset and be prepared to do things differently."

His intervention comes as a growing number of US states move towards a regulated trade in marijuana, and at a time when increasing numbers of Latin American countries have stated that the war on drugs doesn't work and are demanding that the world consider alternative approaches.

During his visit, Clegg met the country's president, Juan Manuel Santos, as well as former paramilitaries, guerrillas and human rights representatives. "All were clear about the central role of the drugs trade in perpetuating conflict and violence and the need to build a better future," Clegg says. "Many people in Britain and the rest of Europe will be unaware of the impact drug use in western nations has on countries on the frontline of the drugs trade."

Reiterating his call for a royal commission on Britain's drugs laws, Clegg says future legislation should be based on "what works, not guesswork". The Lib Dems are conducting a review of international alternatives which will produce what Clegg claims is "the first proper UK government report examining different approaches in other countries".

It is clear the deputy prime minister believes there is a need for politicians of all parties to confront an issue in a non-partisan way if the harm caused by drugs is ever to be tackled successfully.

"If Britain were fighting a war where 2,000 people died every year, where increasing numbers of our young people were recruited by the enemy and our opponents were always a step ahead, there would be outcry and loud calls for change," Clegg says. "Yet this is exactly the situation with the so-called "war on drugs" and for far too long we have resisted a proper debate about the need for a different strategy."

His comments, which will dismay those who believe change will encourage drug taking, were warmly received by pro-reform campaigners.

"Bad drug policies have an international impact, whether it's black market related violence or borderless health crises," said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Foundation. "So charting a new course is the job of every country. A number of European countries developed great health services for people who use drugs but far less attention has been paid to the issues faced by producer and transit countries."

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Mexican vigilantes drive out religious drug cartel from gang-held city

Dozens of vigilantes, who wear white T-shirts for identification, work with government forces to clear out cartel gunmen

Vigilantes who have driven a quasi-religious drug cartel from a series of towns in western Mexico entered a gang-held city on Saturday and were working with government forces to clear it of cartel gunmen, a leader of the movement has said.

Dozens of vigilante group members, who wore white T-shirts to identify themselves, were seen by an Associated Press journalist speeding into Apatzingan in the back of pickup trucks. The city of 100,000 in Michoacan state has been under effective control of the Knights Templar cartel for several years.

"Federal forces are working with self-defense groups," vigilante leader Hipolito Mora said over telephone from the centre of Apatzingan. "Guys from the self-defence groups are moving around the city, co-operating in certain ways with the federal government. Many, many people have been detained."

Mora said federal police controlled security in the city and both armed and unarmed members of the "self-defense" movement were working with them to identify Knights Templar hideouts. He said approximately 200 gang members were arrested, including the brother of one of its leaders, Enrique "Kiki" Plancarte. The government made no immediate comment.

The vigilantes' presence in the city is both a symbolic and tactical boost for the movement.

The control of the Knights Templar group was once so complete that it would have been unthinkable for any rival to enter Apatzingan. The Knights Templar often travelled in vehicles marked with its symbol, a red cross, and sponsored demonstrations calling for the federal police to leave the city.

The cartel promotes itself as a mystic Christian order dedicated to protecting the population from abuse at the hands of the military and police. It ran "training schools" including one in Apatzingan, that taught courses in leadership portraying cartel members as clean-living men of honour, steeped in Asian religion alongside Catholicism. Its members not only lived off methamphetamine and marijuana smuggling and extortion, but controlled much of the local economy.

In October, vigilantes tried to march into Apatzingan but were turned back by soldiers who said they couldn't enter with weapons. A convoy of hundreds of unarmed self-defence patrol members returned the next day and successfully entered the city, where they were met by gunfire, presumably from the Knights Templar.

In apparent retaliation to the attempted incursion, suspected cartel members mounted co-ordinated attacks on vigilante positions, killing five, according to police. They also destroyed government electrical facilities, including power distribution plants and electrical sub-stations, in 14 towns and cities around Michoacan, cutting power to hundreds of thousands of people.

Mora said on Saturday that this latest incursion was "a triumph".

The vigilantes' knowledge of the city is already boosting government operations against the Knights Templar, according to Mora, who said self-defense force members were going door-to-door pointing out suspected cartel members to federal police and helping police man checkpoints on the roads in and out of the city.

"They're all around the city watching to see if members of the Knights Templar are coming or going," he said.

Mexico legalised the growing "self-defence" movement in Michoacan late last month, saying they would be incorporated into quasi-military units called Rural Defense Corps. Vigilante groups estimate their numbers at 20,000 men under arms.

Mora said vigilantes who have been formally incorporated into the Rural Defence Corps were armed, while those not yet registered had no weapons. He said he and his close associates were unarmed, and were there primarily to attend an afternoon rally for peace and the rule of law called by an Apatzingan clergyman who has opposed the Knights Templar.

Vigilantes began rising up last February against the Knights Templar reign of terror and extortion after police and troops failed to stop the abuses. Vigilante leaders have been asked to submit a list of their members to the Defense Department and are being allowed to keep their weapons as long as they register them with the army.

The military is giving the groups "all the means necessary for communications, operations and movement," according to the agreement.

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Time for Britain and the rest of Europe to join the drugs debate

With America rethinking its policy on drugs, our MPs and MEPs need to make their own feelings known

It was with great foresight that a Conservative backbench MP stood up during a parliamentary debate in the House of Commons in 2002 and pleaded with the then Labour government to rethink its commitment to the "war on drugs". "I ask the Labour government not to return to retribution and war on drugs. That has been tried and we all know that it does not work."

Contributions like this have been all too rare from British politicians, particularly at a time when the debate about the merits of prohibition has changed so radically in recent years. That is most evident in the Americas, both North and South.

Over the past five years, Latin American support for the "war on drugs" has ebbed away. The so-called "drug-producing" nations have tired of bearing the brunt of the violence as they attempt to eliminate the supply of drugs to the "drug-consuming" nations to the north.

In Latin America the war on drugs presents a different order of threat than that posed in the US and Europe. The threat is an existential one because prohibition has the effect of driving profits and power into the hands of murderous cartels. They corrupt, challenge and often destroy the institutions of the state – the police, the judiciary and the body politic. Colombia very nearly succumbed to the cartels during a decade when drug-related violence tore the heart out of the institutions of the state and left many civilians dead. Politicians, public prosecutors and members of the judiciary were ruthlessly targeted. Many of the politicians who escaped death only did so because they were in the pay of the cartels. Welcome to the war on drugs.

Guatemala and Honduras are the new battle spaces, facing exactly the same challenges as Colombia did. No wonder Latin Americans are tired of paying such a high price. In recent years the presidents of Colombia and Guatemala – and international bodies and reports such as the Organisation of America States and the Global Commission on Drug Policy – are speaking with one voice: the war on drugs can never be won; we need to look at alternatives.

And while prohibition in the west poses its own challenges and creates its own misery, it is not a threat to the very fabric of the state. But since their citizens – largely – create the demand that fuels the war on drugs they have a moral responsibility that they have shamefully failed to acknowledge.

But the debate is changing in North America – as Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch makes clear in other pages today – and public opinion is driving significant policy changes. American states are introducing – or considering – a licensed, regulated market for marijuana. Since January, people can buy marijuana in Colorado for recreational purposes. Washington State will soon follow suit.

An indication of the new direction of travel came last month at the World Economic Forum when the Republican Texas governor Rick Perry said: "After 40 years of the war on drugs, I can't change what happened in the past. What I can do as the governor of the second largest state in the nation is to implement policies that start us toward a decriminalisation and keeps people from going to prison and destroying their lives, and that's what we've done over the last decade."

Last October, the head of the US Justice Department, Eric Holder, said: "As the so-called 'war on drugs' enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective… Today, a vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many Americans and weakens too many communities."

But in Britain we have heard nothing from frontline political figures. Until now, which is why Nick Clegg's intervention is a welcome one and may start a debate on the merits or otherwise of the war on drugs.

The onus is on those who support prohibition to make the case for prolonging a war that has evidently failed. Political figures in the UK and Europe need to engage with the changing tide of public opinion in the Americas and investigate whether market alternatives may provide a better solution than prohibition.

Perhaps the Conservative backbencher who entered the debate in 2002 and declared the war on drugs a failure would care to re-enter the debate? Especially as he is now the prime minister.

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Why Mexico's 'drug war' is not about drugs

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TIERRA COLORADA, Mexico — Major events these days in Mexico's seven-year-long criminal conflict have precious little to do with a war on drugs.

In the past year, the capture of town after town by volunteer police and citizen militias in the Pacific coast states of Michoacan and Guerrero has roiled and embarrassed President Enrique Pena Nieto's government.

Officials have dispatched thousands of troops and militarized police to contain the “self-defense” groups, which claim they're filling a vacuum left by incompetent or corrupt officials.

But many of the civilians taking on the gangs that control the region say they care little about illicit narcotics, which have been supplying US and Mexican consumers for decades. They just want the criminals to leave ordinary residents in peace.

“Drug trafficking is always going to continue,” says Neftali Villagomez, a 66-year-old butcher who now commands nearly 400 armed vigilantes in Tierra Colorada, a rural market town 35 miles north of the gang-ravaged resort of Acapulco.

“We aren't against drug traffickers,” he says. “We are against organized crime.”

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Drug laws may be debated in Commons as petition passes 100,000 threshold

MPs may be forced to discuss the reform of Britain's drug laws after a petition calling for a Parliamentary debate on the issue collected more than 100,000 signatures

Reform of Britain’s drug laws could be debated in Parliament after a petition backed by Russell Brand and Richard Branson collected more than 100,000 signatures.

The e-petition was led by Green MP Caroline Lucas to urge the Government to review the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 within the next 12 months.

Her campaign was boosted when a number of celebrities, including Sir Richard Branson, Sting, Dame Joan Bakewell and Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians, backed the call for a rethink over drugs policy.

Brighton Pavilion MP Ms Lucas said that, with the Government is spending £3 billion a year on its drug policy, it was worth " checking whether Britain's current approach is value for money or money wasted".

As the petition has surpassed the required 100,000 signatures, it must now be considered for debate by the Backbench Business Committee.

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Op dinsdag 24 december 2013 20:29 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:
De waarheid is dat er in Nederland tienduizenden mensen/gezinnen hun inkomen halen uit de handel in drugs. Geld waar ze nauwelijks iets voor hoeven te doen, behalve risico lopen.
Zodra drugs legaal worden is er niets meer aan te verdienen en zullen deze figuren andere manieren zoeken om aan snel geld te komen.
Winkelovervallen, straatroof, autodiefstal en dat in aantallen die voor de staat totaal onbeheersbaar zijn.

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Op vrijdag 14 februari 2014 22:21 schreef heiden6 het volgende:

[..]

Ik heb zelden zoiets onzinnigs gelezen als deze post.

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Op vrijdag 14 februari 2014 22:26 schreef Nieuwschierig het volgende:

[..]

Prima argument.
Jij moet wel een junk zijn.

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UN says Afghan opium production reaches new high

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Cultivation of opium in Afghanistan has reached a record peak, despite international efforts to curb the trade. The UN has warned that the withdrawal of foreign troops next year is expected to exacerbate the situation.

Afghan production of opium rose to record levels in 2013, according to a report issued by the United Nations' drugs control agency on Wednesday.

The harvest in May was recorded as amounting to 5,500 metric tons, 49 percent higher than last year and more than the net output of the rest of the world.

The UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)'s regional representative in Kabul said the withdrawal of foreign troops was expected to make matters worse.

Pending withdraw prompts surge

Jean-Luc Lemahieu warned that the Afghan government would become increasingly reliant on illicit sources of income as international help waned and international troops withdrew.

"The short-term prognosis is not positive," said Lemahieu. "The illicit economy is establishing itself, and seems to be taking over in importance from the licit economy."

UNODC said some regions that had seen a decline in cultivation in the past were now seeing an increase. Lemahieu said that farmers' uncertainty about the future was fuelling the rise in poppy cultivation.

The report said the area under opium poppy cultivation in 2013 rose to 209,000 hectares from the previous year's total of 154,000. That figure represented a rise on the previous peak of 193,000 hectares, in 2007.

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Afghanistan opium crop cultivation rises 36 per cent, production up 49 per cent

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Melin challenges cops on pot opposition

Medical marijuana bill sponsor says police agencies are hooked on drug-enforcement dollars

In her push to legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota, Rep. Carly Melin expected there would be tough negotiations and, inevitably, some compromise on the fine points of the proposal. That seemed a reasonable assumption, given the hard line opposition from many of the state’s law enforcement leaders and Gov. Mark Dayton’s insistence that lawmakers need to get those top cops on board before he signs on.

The negotiations haven’t been tough, she said, they have been virtually non-existent: “It’s like negotiating with a brick wall. All along I have said that I am willing to amend the bill. But they won’t move at all.”

The second-term DFLer from Hibbing said she was particularly frustrated after she met in November with representatives of the powerful Minnesota Law Enforcement Coalition, a group that includes the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, Minnesota Sheriffs Association, Minnesota County Attorneys Association, and Minnesota State Association of Narcotics Investigators.

“They wouldn’t discuss any specific provisions and said they had a blanket opposition to medical marijuana,” Melin recalled. She took note of one objection voiced at the meeting but not mentioned in the coalition’s 10-page, bullet-point laden white paper: concern about the impact the measure might have on police budgets.

According to Melin, Dennis Flaherty, the executive director of the MPPOA, explicitly told her that he was worried that legalization — in any form — could lead to harmful reductions in the federal grants that are an important funding source for many police agencies.

Efforts to reach Flaherty for comment were not successful.

To date, most questions about the policy positions of law enforcement and its financial stake in upholding current drug law have received little attention at the Capitol. “I don’t think it’s part of the debate because they wouldn’t publicly admit that it’s even an issue,” Melin said. In addition, she said, “Nobody wants to question the motives or honesty of law enforcement.”

Melin took pains to acknowledge that many in law enforcement have legitimate public safety concerns related to medical marijuana. But the uncompromising posture of the top leaders, she added, makes it “pretty obvious that something else is going on here.”



Federal grants bring millions to state

Whether or not money is a motivating factor, there is no question that federal crime-fighting funds have become increasingly important to local law enforcement. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice distributes between $300 million and $500 million annually through a program called the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant.

Byrne grants are especially critical to the operations of inter-agency drug task forces, which don’t have the same dedicated funding sources as municipal police departments. In 2012, 23 such task forces in Minnesota received a total of approximately $4.2 million from Byrne grants. The money is spent on everything from military-grade hardware to officer overtime.

Critics contend that Byrne grants effectively encourage police to pursue relatively low-level drug offenses, including marijuana possession. Mainly, they say, that’s because the performance measures used in determining awards are based on such factors as numbers of arrests or new task force investigations, with little regard paid to the quality of the arrest or the outcome of the court case.

“The agencies that are successful have to demonstrate a commitment to drug enforcement. The nature of that enforcement is much less important,” said Norm Stamper, a former chief of police in Seattle who now serves on the board of the drug reform advocacy group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “Those who develop a dependency on federal funds such as Byrne grants are likely going to oppose any kind of initiative to legalize anything that’s been a cash cow for them.”

Stamper, who testified before the Minnesota Legislature during the last big medical marijuana push in 2009, said law enforcement has another big stake: preserving its haul from assets seized in the course of drug investigations.

During his tenure with the San Diego Police Department, Stamper said he felt “a real sense of justice” after the department seized two helicopters owned by high level drug dealers and then converted them to the department’s use. “I have since come to view seized assets with a very jaundiced eye,” Stamper said. “I think there is a really twisted set of priorities that cause too many in law enforcement to go after the money and that becomes the mission, rather than public safety.”



Forfeiture proceeds bolster budgets

For those police who see medicinal marijuana as gateway legislation, the financial implications of change are real. In Washington, where recreational marijuana is legal, police are already complaining they’ve been forced to slash budgets because they can no longer rely on any revenue from marijuana-related asset seizures. A drug task force in one county cut its budget by 15 percent to compensate for the lost revenue.

In 2012, police in Minnesota seized approximately $8.3 million of cash and property under the state’s forfeiture law, according to a report from the Office of the State Auditor. About 47 percent of those forfeitures were related to controlled substance violations, with most of the rest associated with drunk driving.

The auditor’s report does not differentiate between marijuana and other drugs, so it is hard to know how a change to legalized medical marijuana might affect the cash haul, said Sen. Ron Latz. Latz said he suspects most asset forfeitures are connected to drugs such as crack and meth, where the felony threshold is low.

Not all agencies use the forfeiture law in the same way. The St. Paul Police Department netted more than $582,000 from asset seizures in 2012. It was the second-biggest haul of any police agency in the state — a fact made more notable since the proceeds were derived exclusively from controlled-substance cases.

According to Lee McGrath, an attorney with the libertarian Institute for Justice, Minnesota law enforcement agencies netted nearly $30 million between 2003 and 2010 through the use of forfeiture.

“What is most offensive in Minnesota is that you can be acquitted in criminal court and still lose your car or your cash in civil court,” McGrath said. “The only people defending the current law are in law enforcement. Everybody else is offended by the idea.”

While forfeiture was sold to the public as a good way to hit drug kingpins and gang leaders in the wallet, McGrath said, Minnesota law enforcement mostly use forfeiture to target small game. “No Colombian drug lords are being busted under this law. The average seizure in Minnesota is worth $1,253,” he said.

McGrath, as well as some liberal and libertarian-minded lawmakers, want to prohibit the use of forfeiture in the absence of a criminal conviction or admission of guilt. Rep. Susan Allen and Sen. Dave Thompson have proposed such legislation.



Police defend revenue streams

That move is not winning friends in law enforcement circles. In December, the members of the state’s Violent Crime Coordinating Council — an oversight body created in 2010 after the now-defunct Metro Gang Strike Force failed to account for more than $18,000 in seized cash — voted to oppose “proposed legislation limiting the use of asset seizure and forfeiture.”

Dodge County Sheriff Jim Jensen, the VCCC chair, passed on those objections to Allen and Thompson in a Feb. 7 letter. The same day, Jensen also wrote Rep. Melin and Sen. Scott Dibble to formally express the VCCC’s opposition to the medical marijuana legislation, as well.

The letters irked Melin enough that she fired off her own letter to the House Research Department inquiring as to whether the VCCC over-stepped its statutory authority in advancing policy positions. The answer: yes, probably.

In a sharply worded letter to Public Safety Commissioner Mona Dohman and the members of the VCCC, Melin made her frustrations clear:

“The public has long questioned law enforcement’s motivation behind its staunch opposition to medicinal marijuana, and suspected that a threat to the law enforcement’s revenue stream through forfeiture laws creates an inherit conflict. The fact that the VCCC opposed both medical marijuana and a restructuring of forfeiture laws at the same meeting raises a red flag that needs further exploration.”

In addition, Melin wrote that “it is especially concerning to me that the VCCC flew in a law enforcement officer from Colorado to address the Council on medical marijuana laws in the State of Colorado.”

Melin said the incident further highlighted the outsized role that law enforcement has assumed in a debate she would prefer be defined by doctors and patients. But, she said, Gov. Dayton invited law enforcement to the table. “It would be very helpful for us if the governor asked law enforcement to negotiate in good faith,” she added.

Read more: http://politicsinminnesot(...)ition/#ixzz2tggOMo00

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Hyperbole Hurts: The Surprising Truth About Methamphetamine

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Alberto Gonzales, George W. Bush’s attorney general, called it “the most dangerous drug in America.” A physician quoted by The New York Times described it as “the most malignant, addictive drug known to mankind.” A police captain told the Times it “makes crack look like child’s play, both in terms of what it does to the body and how hard it is to get off.”

Meanwhile, doctors routinely prescribe this drug and others very similar to it for conditions such as narcolepsy, obesity, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). If these drugs are as dangerous as Gonzales et al. claim, how can millions of Americans—including schoolchildren—safely consume them on a regular basis?

Columbia neuropsychopharmacologist Carl Hart explores that puzzle in a new report that aims to separate fact from fiction on the subject of methamphetamine. Hart and his two co-authors—University of North Carolina at Wilmington philosopher Don Habibi and Joanne Csete, deputy director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program—argue that hyping the hazards posed by meth fosters a punitive and counterproductive overreaction similar to the one triggered by the crack cocaine panic of the 1980s, the consequences of which still afflict our criminal justice system. “The data show that many of the immediate and long-term harmful effects caused by methamphetamine use have been greatly exaggerated,” Hart et al. write, “just as the dangers of crack cocaine were overstated nearly three decades ago.”

The report, published by the Open Society Foundations, begins by considering the addictive potential of methamphetamine. Despite all the talk of a “meth epidemic,” the drug has never been very popular. “At the height of methamphetamine’s popularity,” Hart et al. write, “there were never more than a million current users of the drug in the United States. This number is considerably lower than the 2.5 million cocaine users, the 4.4 million illegal prescription opioid users, or the 15 million marijuana smokers during the same period.” Furthermore, illicit methamphetamine use had been waning for years at the point when Newsweek identified “The Meth Epidemic” as “America’s New Drug Crisis.”

Although methamphetamine is commonly portrayed as irresistible and inescapable, it does not look that way when you examine data on patterns of use. Of the 12.3 million or so Americans who have tried it, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), about 1.2 million (9.4 percent) have consumed it in the last year, while less than half a million (3.6 percent) have consumed it in the last month (the standard definition of “current” use). In other words, more than 96 percent of the people who have tried “the most addictive drug known to mankind” are not currently using it even as often as once a month. A 2009 study based on NSDUH data found that 5 percent of nonmedical methamphetamine consumers become “dependent” within two years. Over a lifetime, Hart et al. say, “less than 15 percent” do.

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Laboratory research also has found that “d-amphetamine and methamphetamine produce nearly identical physiological and behavioral effects,” Hart et al. write. “They both increase blood pressure, pulse, euphoria, and desire to take the drug in a dose-dependent manner. Essentially, they are the same drug.” That observation helps put methamphetamine’s risks in perspective, since d-amphetamine, a.k.a. dextroamphetamine, is one of the main ingredients in Adderall, a stimulant widely prescribed for ADHD. Hart et al. note that methamphetamine, like dextroamphetamine, increases heart rate and blood pressure, but “well below levels obtained when engaged in a rigorous physical exercise.”

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What about long-term effects? Shocking as it may be to anyone who has accepted at face value the gruesome images featured in anti-meth propaganda, the drug does not make you ugly. “Meth mouth”—the extreme tooth decay supposedly characteristic of heavy users—is said to be caused by meth-induced dry mouth. Yet widely consumed prescription stimulants such as Adderall produce the same side effect, Hart et al. note, and “there are no published reports of unattractiveness or dental problems associated with their use.” Allegedly meth-related physical characteristics such as rotten teeth, thinning hair, and bad complexions, they say, “are more likely related to poor sleep habits, poor dental hygiene, poor nutrition and dietary practices.”

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Over-the-top warnings about methamphetamine—encapsulated in the slogan “Meth: Not Even Once”—aim to scare people away from a drug that might harm them (but probably won’t). By contrast, Hart argues, exaggerating the hazards posed by methamphetamine causes definite damage by encouraging harsh criminal penalties (such as a five-year mandatory minimum for five grams), fostering distrust of accurate warnings about drugs, suppressing useful information that could reduce drug-related harm, driving users toward more dangerous routes of administration (as efforts to reduce meth purity, if successful, predictably would do), and justifying ineffective policies that impose substantial costs on large numbers of people for little or no benefit (such as restrictions on the methamphetamine precursor pseudoephedrine, a cheap, safe, and effective decongestant that is now absurdly difficult to obtain). In other words, hyperbole hurts.

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Steve Rolles from Transform; Winning the War on Drugs (interview)

Flying to South America to provide expert advice to Uruguay’s iconic marijuana legalisation guru President Jose Mujica in 2012, British drugs expert Steve Rolles played a significant role in helping the President draw up plans for full legalisation.

Talk to Al Jazeera - Jose Mujica: 'I earn more than I need'

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'Legale wietkwekerijen doelwit van extreem geweld'

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'De criminaliteit wordt door regulering niet aangepakt', aldus Bik. 'Het is voorstelbaar dat de georganiseerde criminaliteit zich gaat toeleggen op het 'rippen' van de 'legale' hennepkwekerijen. Het rippen van oogstbare planten is een fenomeen dat nu al geregeld voorkomt en vaak gepaard gaat met - extreem - geweld en hoge veiligheidsrisico's voor de personen in en nabij de betreffende hennepkwekerij (mishandeling, gijzeling, liquidatie). De legale hennepkwekerijen moeten - om het veiligheidsdoel te realiseren - 24 uur worden beveiligd.'

Ook is hij bang voor het 'verweven raken' van hennepteelt en andere vormen van zware criminaliteit, wat de aanpak 'extra complex' maakt. 'Het aantal illegale kwekerijen zal niet direct verminderen', aldus Bik. 'Er vindt waarschijnlijk slechts een verschuiving van de afzetmarkt plaats, van binnen- naar buitenland.'

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Op dinsdag 24 december 2013 12:11 schreef Deeltjesversneller het volgende:
Uruguay's buurlanden Argentinie en Chili overwegen nu ook cannabis te legaliseren

wanneer volgt nl?

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Op donderdag 2 januari 2014 18:05 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Als we nou banken verbieden en drugs legaliseren?

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Op zaterdag 18 januari 2014 10:56 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op vrijdag 31 januari 2014 18:30 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:

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Dat is al gebeurd, maar telkens warmen ze hem weer op en dan laat hij een reeks euhs en hier en daar nog wat andere geluidjes ontsnappen.

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Op donderdag 27 februari 2014 20:41 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Talk to Al Jazeera - Jose Mujica: 'I earn more than I need'

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Mexican drug trafficking in the US: the Sinaloa cartel's vast empire - Interactive

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El Chapo: drug lord's arrest sparks apprehension from Mexico to Chicago

Sinaloa cartel leader’s capture leaves Mexicans fearing more bloodshed, while few in US believe the flow of drugs will slow

Looking out on the spectacular mountain slopes that hide his marijuana field, a Mexican farmer says he will be able to sell his harvest provided the army doesn’t go on an eradication spree. A restaurant owner lets slip her fear of war while serving breakfast, but quickly assures herself the cartel will adjust.

“It feels like we are children left alone in the house by our father,” said Conrado Lugo, a record producer who sums up the mood in the state of Sinaloa, heartland of the drug cartel run by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán until his arrest a week ago. “It is worrying, sure, but we are still in the house.”

Parading the world’s most wanted man for the cameras, authorities in Mexico and the US hailed a major victory in the war on drugs. That the arrest occurred in a blaze of publicity rather than gunfire was greeted as a surprisingly positive sign by many.

But a week on, from the Sierra Madre, where Chapo rose from a childhood of poverty, to the streets of US cities where his product made him millions, it is hard to find anyone sharing the authorities’ enthusiasm.

Residents carry on as if nothing significant has happened, between outbursts of concern for what might happen if they are wrong. “It is an uncomfortable calm,” said Javier Valdez, a prominent author on the “narco” world.

And while it may spell more problems in New York and Chicago – where cocaine bought by Chapo’s men in South America for $2,000 a kilo retails for $100,000, and is said to comprise more than half the market – even US agents who hunted him say nervous Sinaloans have little to fear.

“Chapo’s arrest will have no effect on drug trafficking,” said a former senior Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) official under presidents Bush and Obama. “If you are making a car and suddenly 15 people on the production line die, it is going to take a while to train new people. But if the CEO dies, it is actually no big deal – the machine is going to continue.”

Valdez agreed: “The arrest is a serious blow to the organisation. It is not a mortal one. Everything else is still intact.”

The cartel’s integration into the local economy is evidenced across Sinaloa, from the smart cars parked outside humble rural homes to the commercial buzz in Culiacán, the state capital. All this boosts the sense that Chapo’s “federation” is too big to be allowed to fail.

“You don’t have to be involved in drug trafficking to depend on the money it brings into Sinaloa,” said a metal worker, who, like many in Sinaloa, will only talk if his name is withheld. “Almost everybody relies on the organisation in some way, and without it lots of people will have trouble putting food on their tables.”

Yet the hopes expressed by many that the cartel can carry on as before is also rooted in terror. Few forget the war unleashed when an alliance between Chapo and the Beltrán Leyva brothers broke down in 2008. Since Chapo won, gun battles still rattle the state but no longer last for hours. It has become rare, too, for children to come across headless corpses on their way to school.

“Chapo is a terrible man, but I think it was a mistake to arrest him,” said a retired salesman. “The politicians let his organisation grow and now it is the only thing that protects us from other cartels, like the Zetas, who are even worse.”

With this in mind, many await signs of a new leadership that can send the message to their rank-and-file and rivals alike that “no pasa nada” in Sinaloa. “If there seems to be a lack of continuity and outward signs of weakness, it would be like a wolf seeing a limping lamb,” said Bob Mazur, a former senior undercover DEA agent.

Most experts point to Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, a longstanding major figure in a cartel that has always operated as a kind of alliance of major traffickers, to ensure a smooth leadership transition in the part of the organisation that Chapo controlled directly. “He and Chapo have been working together for 20 or 30 years,” said Sylvia Longmire, a former US military special agent who focused on trafficking. “They have a unique working relationship in that it hasn’t been plagued by betrayals like others in the narco world. They finish each other’s sentences – that’s how tight these guys are.”

However, “Mayo is 66-years-old, and allegedly in poor health,” said Alejandro Hope, a former senior officer in Cisen, Mexico’s version of the CIA. “The guy was recently talking about retirement. So he may contain some of the fallout, but he is not the future of the organisation.”

Still, those hopeful the federation will remain strong also cite questions about Chapo’s arrest itself. The capo was overpowered without a fight after navy special forces stormed a modest fourth-floor apartment in the resort city of Mazatlán, where he was sleeping with his young wife. Their twin baby daughters and a nanny were in an adjacent room and just one bodyguard was in the hall.

Authorities say Chapo fled to Mazatlán five days before, after narrowly escaping capture at one of his safe houses in Culiacán by fleeing into a tunnel below a bathtub that led into the city’s rainwater drains and, eventually, a getaway car. “It doesn’t make sense that he allowed himself to be taken so easily,” says an agricultural worker from Culiacán. “He must have made a deal.”

True or false, the notion of a deal helps bridge the gap between the mythology of the man who built a global empire and $1bn personal fortune trafficking marijuana, heroin and cocaine after escaping from a high-security jail 13 years ago, and the portly, middle-aged detainee with died hair they saw on TV being marched towards a Blackhawk, his head bowed.

Many in the US, where Chapo faces seven criminal indictments in several states, fear that deal or none, he may none the less be guaranteed protection against deportation. Aides to Obama moved swiftly last week to lower expectations of extradition, while regional law enforcement officials scrambled to stake their claims.

“I think we have the strongest case,” special agent Jack Riley, Chicago’s DEA boss, told reporters. “I fully intend for us to have him tried here.” After declaring that they wanted him, too, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn were promptly told to shut up by their bosses at the Justice Department in Washington.

Charges in Brooklyn alone allege that between 1990 and 2005, Chapo and his deputies conspired to import more than 120 tonnes of cocaine into the US. Chicago prosecutors detail how the cartel smuggled hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and heroin a time across the Mexican border using a panoply of methods such as “cargo aircraft, private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor-trailers and automobiles.”

More than $15bn of the estimated $65bn in drugs bought by Americans each year are estimated to have been supplied ultimately by the Sinaloa cartel, and special agent Riley estimates that Chapo controlled as much as 80% of the market in his city.

The Americans crave the prospect of transforming Chapo into the biggest supergrass in its 40-year “war on drugs” in return for a reduced sentence, bringing an end to years of flimsy boasts of having seriously weakened the cartel by making arrests of figures who actually turned out to be low-level operatives, which Hope dismisses as “pure propaganda”.

Records unearthed by the Guardian indicate that one such high-publicity operation, in which agents in Brooklyn found almost 200 kilograms of cocaine in a Brooklyn warehouse, much of it hidden in statues of the Virgin Mary, did not live up the DEA’s boasts to have “dismantled all levels of criminal activity” involved. Of eight people arrested at the East New York site in 2006, half were convicted of crimes and only one remains in jail.

“The standard statement is ‘this is dealing a tremendous blow to the organisation,’” said Longmire. “But you later find the majority of the people who have been rounded up are back on the street because there was not enough evidence and they were selling dime bags on the corner.”

Court records in Illinois detail how Pedro Flores, a 32-year-old who served with his twin brother Margarito as Chapo’s principal lieutenants in Chicago, helped DEA agents lure a string of dealers below him in the food chain to their arrests in the car parks of Holiday Inns, Outback Steakhouses and dollar stores, after he was turned into a star witness. About a dozen have been jailed, but officials know they must set their sights higher.

Two alleged senior Sinaloa traffickers, Vicente Zambada-Niebla and Alfredo Vasquez Hernandez, have in fact been extradited, and are in federal custody awaiting trial in Chicago. An attorney for Hernandez said this week that he intends to plead guilty in court next week, but stressed that his client had made no deal with prosecutors.

No one is particularly optimistic that their boss will follow them, however. “There is not a snowball’s chance in the Sonoran desert that Chapo will be handed to the US,” said George W Grayson, a professor and Mexico specialist at the centre for strategic and international studies. “He might spill the beans on the hundreds, maybe thousands, of military, police and political figures to whom he has given generous bribes over the years.”

Banners against extradition abounded at a boisterous march protesting the detention that burst into Culiacán’s centre on Wednesday night, accompanied by a brass band and young men throwing tamales into the jiggling crowd to shouts of “Viva El Chapo.”

The marchers may well find their wish granted. “Even if he gets sentenced to a Mexican prison, eventually he will take over that prison,” said the former senior DEA official. “He will have a laptop, it will turn into a hotel, and he will return to running the cartel from there. That is not something he has to build – it is something he already has.”

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Fifteen Years Smoking Crack

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I’m not particularly interested in “bottoming out” or destroying my life in exchange for whatever temporary benefit I get from smoking cocaine. On the other hand, the path I’ve taken over the last 15 years indicates that I’m not motivated to achieve total abstinence. That’s why I have tried to find a middle way, hopefully reducing the amount of harm I inflict upon myself. That is another reason why I’m sharing my story here, and why I don’t hide my drug use from those who are close to me. I need my friends and loved ones to help keep me in check.

It’s not hard to imagine a starker alternative, one in which I was ostracized based on the decades-old perception of the crack user as an out-of-control, devious individual. If family members and friends had forced me to choose between total sobriety and being out on the streets, I can imagine myself traveling down darker and more self-destructive roads.

In my experience and observation, putting a user in rehab is often a way of avoiding, not treating, drug addiction. I understand that there is enormous value in recovery programs, abstinence, and maintaining sobriety. But I also believe the implied choice between abstinence and rock bottom presents users with two options that are equally unsustainable and unreasonable.

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Top U.S. General Says Marijuana Legalization Makes Latin American Officials Less Eager to Join the Futile War on Drugs

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Kelly claimed "countries that have decriminalized or legalized drugs are all now trying to figure out ways to turn back the clock," because "legal or decriminalized drugs bring crime, bring higher addiction rates, bring higher, you know, substance abuse problems." He did not cite any specific examples, which is not surprising, since no country has ever "legalized drugs" in the sense of eliminating penalties for production, distribution, and possession. The closest example is Uruguay, which has approved a plan to make marijuana legally available but has not implemented it yet.

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UN: cannabis law changes pose 'very grave danger to public health'

International Narcotics Control Board calls US and Uruguay moves on cannabis 'misguided initiatives'

The UN has launched a counter-offensive against moves to liberalise drug laws around the world, warning that cannabis legalisation poses a grave danger to public health.

The UN body for enforcing international drug treaties, the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), voiced concern over "misguided initiatives" on cannabis legalisation in Uruguay and the US states of Colorado and Washington that fail to comply with international drug conventions.

The INCB annual report published on Tuesday claims that the introduction of a widely commercialised "medical" cannabis programme in Colorado has led to increases in car accidents involving "drug drivers", cannabis-related treatment admissions, and positive drug tests for cannabis.

"Drug-traffickers will choose the path of least resistance, so it is essential that global efforts to tackle the drug problem are unified," said Raymond Yans, INCB president.

"When governments consider their future policies on this, the primary consideration should be the long-term health and welfare of the population."

He said the UN was concerned about some initiatives aimed at the legalisation of the non-medical and non-scientific use of cannabis that posed "a very grave danger to public health and wellbeing" – the very things international drug conventions had been designed to protect.

The UN's warning follows the vote by Uruguay's parliament in December to approve a bill to legalise and regulate the sale and production of marijuana.

The sale of cannabis by licensed suppliers to adults aged over 21 became legal in Colorado in January, and is due to follow this summer in Washington state. This is despite it remaining illegal under US federal law to cultivate, sell or possess cannabis.

Uruguay's president, José Mujica, has said his country's initiative was an attempt to undermine the black market, and find an alternative to the "war on drugs", which he says has created more problems than it solves.

But the INCB report argues against such "alternative drug regimes", claiming legalisation would not collapse "underground markets", but instead would lead to much greater use of such drugs and higher levels of addiction.

Pointing to the history of alcohol and tobacco markets, the report says that despite legalisation there is still a thriving black market for cigarettes in many countries. It says up to 20% of Britain's domestic cigarette market consists of smuggled cigarettes, while they represent 33% of all domestic cigarette consumption in Canada.

Alcohol, despite being legal, is also responsible for far more arrests than illegal drugs. In the US there were 2m alcohol-related arrests in 2012 compared with 1.6m related to illegal drugs.

"One reason for those higher alcohol-related costs is that in many countries alcohol abuse is far more prevalent than the abuse of substances under international control," the report says.

The UN remains most concerned about the scale of illicit opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan, which set records in 2013 reaching 209,000 hectares, a 36% increase compared with 154,000 hectares in 2012.

"The country remains the centre of the illicit manufacture of heroin and its importance as a source of cannabis resin for the world markets is growing. The situation seriously endangers the aims of the international drug control treaties," the INCB report says.

It repeats its warnings on legal highs or new psychoactive substances as they are officially known, and says unprecedented numbers and varieties of these synthetic chemical substances are being sold in the developing world as well as Europe.

The UN drugs report also highlights the significance of widespread prescription drug abuse in the US and says that "takeback" days promoting their safe disposal are not enough to tackle this growing trend

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6. stigmatising language
The risk posed by detention centres and the ambiguity of the Board on its view of such abusive measures is exacerbated by the Boards consistent use of stigmatising language throughout the report. The word abuser appears almost a hundred times, sometimes up to three times in single sentences, to describe people who use drugs. The phrase drug abuser is dehumanising and contributes to the stigma and related discrimination faced by people experiencing drug dependency. It is a term that should drop from the UN lexicon. Lessons must be learned from the HIV/AIDS field where the value and importance of language and its influence on stigma and related discrimination has been long understood. The phrase more commonly used, and as recommended by UNAIDS, is people who use drugs to reflect the fact the first and foremost we are talking about people, who are not the sum total of their drug use.

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War of Words: The International Narcotics Control Board vs. A Changing World [FEATURE]

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"This is very much the same old stuff," said John Collins, coordinator of the London School of Economics IDEAS International Drug Policy Project and a PhD candidate studying mid-20th Century international drug control policy. "The INCB views its role as advocating a strict prohibitionist oriented set of policies at the international level and interpreting the international treaties as mandating this one-size-fits-all approach. It highlights that INCB, which was created as a technical body to monitor international flows of narcotics and report back to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs, has carved out and maintains a highly politicized role, far removed from its original treaty functions. This should be a cause for concern for all states interested in having a functioning, public health oriented and cooperative international framework for coordinating the global response to drug issues," Collins told the Chronicle.

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The INCB should get out of the way on marijuana and concentrate on its pain relief function, said Collins.

"The INCB should stay out if it," he said bluntly. "It is a technocratic monitoring body. It should not be involving itself in national politics and national regulatory systems. So it doesn't need to be either a help or hindrance on issues regarding cannabis reform. It has no reason to be involved in this debate. It should be focusing on ensuring access to essential pain medicines. These debates are a distraction from that core function and I would argue one of the reasons it is failing to meet this core function."

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Washington DC council votes to decriminalise marijuana possession

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Possession of less than one ounce of marijuana would no longer be a criminal offense in the nation’s capital under a bill approved by the DC Council.

If the bill becomes law, the District of Columbia would join the 17 states that have decriminalized pot possession. Mayor Vincent Gray plans to sign measure, and Congress is not expected to intervene.

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'Heroïnehert' terroriseert Indiase boeren

Antilopes in India hebben de smaak van opium te pakken. De dieren laten zich niet weerhouden door hekken of bewakers om op de velden van papaververboeren in de deelstaat Madhya Pradesh te komen. Dat schrijft de krant Times of India maandag. Op de velden doen zij zich tegoed aan de zaadbol van de papaver. Die levert opium, waar morfine en heroïne van kunnen worden gemaakt.

'Vroeger aten deze dieren geen opium, maar twee jaar geleden begonnen een paar ermee en nu zijn ze verslaafd', vertelt een gedupeerde boer. 'Normaal zijn ze in groepen van 50 tot 100, maar als ze opium komen eten, komen ze alleen. Daarna rennen ze als een gek rond en vernielen ze de gewassen.'

De afgelopen jaren is het aantal antilopes in de deelstaat flink toegenoemen. Er zijn er inmiddels duizenden.

India is een van de landen waar de teelt van papaver onder strikte voorwaarden is toegestaan voor medische doeleinden.

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'Belgisch-Limburg overspoeld door Nederlandse hennepplantages'

De politie in de Belgisch-Limburgse grensstreek luidt de noodklok over de toename van hennepplantages.

Volgens de politie Lanaken-Maasmechelen wordt Belgisch-Limburg overspoeld door wiettelers uit Nederland. In de eerste tien weken van dit jaar werden meer dan 45 wietplantages opgerold. 'Slechts het topje van de ijsberg', zegt commissaris Vincent Loyens. “Vinden we er een op tien,” dan hebben we goed gewerkt,” zegt hij.

De Belgische politie zegt te weinig capaciteit te hebben om het probleem aan te pakken.

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Kamer wil opheldering over deal witwassen drugsgeld

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Staatssecretaris Fred Teeven van Justitie heeft in 2000 een deal gesloten waarmee meer dan vijf miljoen gulden (bijna 2,3 miljoen euro) van drugscrimineel Cees H. werd witgewassen. Teeven was toen officier van justitie. Dat meldde het tv-programma Nieuwsuur gisteravond. Minister Opstelten (Justitie) verklaarde dat alles volgens de regels is gegaan. CDA en VVD hebben om opheldering gevraagd.

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Op woensdag 12 maart 2014 13:27 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Ons eigen kartel en onze eigen corrupte overheid!

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U.N. anti-drugs chief praises Iran fight despite executions

(Reuters) - The U.N. anti-drugs chief has praised Iran's fight against narcotics trafficking despite what human rights groups describe as a surge in executions in the country, many of people convicted of drug-related offences.

Yury Fedotov, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), said the Vienna-based agency opposes the death penalty and he planned to raise the issue again with Iranian officials later this week.

"But on the other side, Iran takes a very active role to fight against illicit drugs," he told reporters before a international meeting in Vienna on March 13-14 on global efforts to combat narcotics.

In 2012, Iran seized 388 tonnes of opium, the equivalent of 72 percent of all such seizures around the world.

"It is very impressive," Fedotov said.

Because of a large number of executions, some countries - including Britain and Denmark - have in recent years stopped providing funding for UNODC drug control programmes in Iran, diplomats say.

But Fedotov made clear the UNODC was not considering halting

support for Iran.

"I don't believe that the international community would welcome this because it would mean, as a possible reaction from Iran, that all these huge quantities of drugs, which are now being seized by Iranians, would flow freely to Europe," he said.

Iran shares a long border with Afghanistan, which supplies about 90 percent of the world's opium, from which heroin is made. Iran says it has lost many security personnel in skirmishes with drug traffickers in volatile regions bordering also Pakistan.

On February 21, the United Nations said at least 80 people and perhaps as many as 95 had been executed in Iran so far this year.

Possession or transport of drugs, "even in relatively small amounts" of less than 500 grams, frequently leads to execution, Roya Boroumand, director of the U.S.-based Abdorrahman Boroumand Foundation that tracks executions in Iran, said at the time.

Amnesty International said in mid-January that Iran had carried out 40 executions since the beginning of the year and that most of those executed had been convicted of alleged drug-related offences.

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Arrestaties bij politieactie Christiania


^{_{De politie doet een inval in Christiania in Kopenhagen}}.

In de vrijstad Christiania in Kopenhagen zijn tachtig inwoners gearresteerd bij een grote politieactie. Ook zijn 1500 kilo marihuana, geld, auto's en wapens in beslag genomen.
De totale waarde van de spullen is omgerekend meer dan 12 miljoen euro.

De politie doorzocht meer dan 150 huizen. Een deel van de arrestanten wordt verdacht van grootschalige drugshandel.

Hasjverkoop

Een paar keer per maand valt de politie de stad binnen op zoek naar softdrugs, met wisselend succes. Deze actie was groots opgezet en weken voorbereid.
Christiania staat bekend om de drugshandel.
Toeristen konden er lange tijd hasj kopen in de bekende Pusherstreet.

De Deense regering heeft enkele jaren geleden die straatverkoop verboden. De drugshandel is daardoor minder zichtbaar geworden, maar vindt nog steeds plaats.

'Sociaal experiment'

Christiania werd in 1971 gesticht door een grote groep hippies, die een oud militair terrein kraakten. De Deense regering probeerde de krakers te verwijderen, maar dat had weinig effect. Vanaf eind jaren 70 wordt Christiania min of meer gedoogd als een 'sociaal experiment'. Er wonen ongeveer duizend mensen.

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Op donderdag 13 maart 2014 19:14 schreef Tism het volgende:

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Figures for deaths from legal highs 'inflated', say former drugs advisers

Prof David Nutt and Dr Les King say UK data includes deaths caused by substances that are not legal highs

Figures for the number of deaths caused by legal highs are misleading and hampering attempts to formulate a sensible drugs policy in the UK, former government advisers warn on Friday.

Prof David Nutt and Dr Les King say that the number of deaths, recorded as having risen 600% between 2009 and 2012, have been inflated by the inclusion of fatalities linked to substances that do not meet the definition of legal highs, or "new psychoactive substances".

In a letter published in the Lancet, the scientists from the Independent Scientific Committee on Drugs say that the figure of at least 68 deaths recorded by the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (NPSAD) in 2012 included deaths from substances that are already illegal, not new and/or not psychoactive.

Writing in the Guardian, they claim that just 11 of the 68 deaths cited by NPSAD were from current legal highs. "What is certain is that if the current government review of legal highs is to be taken seriously and lead to health improvements then there must be a proper definition of terms and improved data collection," they say. "Moreover the data must be properly and independently audited so the effects of any change in the law can be properly evaluated."

They attribute 20 of the deaths in the NPSAD figures to p-methoxyamphetamine (PMA) and p-methoxymethyl- amphetamine (PMMA), which have been controlled drugs in the UK since 1977. Other substances implicated in deaths that the scientists say do not meet the definition of "legal high" include khat, which is not new, and anabolic steroids, which are not psychoactive.

They also claim that there are problems in data published by the Office for National Statistics on deaths related to drug poisoning in England and Wales. These included 52 deaths associated with new psychoactive substances in 2012, with 13 of them linked to γ-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), which was made illegal in 2003.

Nutt was sacked as the government's senior drugs adviser in 2009 after criticising its decision to toughen the law on cannabis, and King resigned his role as a government expert in protest at the treatment of his colleague. They have set themselves up for another clash over drugs policy by questioning whether the published figures represent "sloppy science or whether there has been some attempt to massage figures to justify the current political focus and new review on legal highs".

NPSAD accepted some of the criticism and said it welcomed contributions to help improve its data, but it maintained that legal highs were a legitimate concern because more people are dying "than ever before". "Unfortunately, there is neither a universal definition of novel psychoactive substances (NPS) nor publicly available list of such drugs for researchers to work from," a spokesman said. "We would agree that there is an urgent need for a debate on this issue and clear definitions established and formally adopted."

"The section on NPS in our recent annual report describes trends over the period 2009 to 2012 in a range of emerging substances including former pharmaceutical or therapeutic drugs which could be misused and substances which have subsequently become controlled drugs."

An spokesman for the Office for National Statistics said: "ONS does not classify any drugs as 'legal highs'. The ONS annual bulletin makes this clear … ONS has not 'massaged' the figures for political purposes. It is an impartial organisation and subject to a strict code of practice."

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Government approves medical marijuana research

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration handed backers of medical marijuana a significant victory Friday, opening the way for a University of Arizona researcher to examine whether pot can help veterans cope with post-traumatic stress, a move that could lead to broader studies into potential benefits of the drug.

For years, scientists who have wanted to study how marijuana might be used to treat illness say they have been stymied by resistance from federal drug officials.

The Arizona study had long ago been sanctioned by the Food and Drug Administration, but under federal rules, such experiments can use marijuana only from a single, government-run farm in Mississippi. Researchers say the agency that oversees the farm, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, has long been hostile to proposals aimed at examining possible benefits of the drug.

"This is a great day," said the Arizona researcher, Suzanne A. Sisley, clinical assistant professor of psychology at the university's medical school, who has been trying to get the green light for her study for three years. "The merits of a rigorous scientific trial have finally trumped politics.

"We never relented," Sisley said. "But most other scientists have chosen not to even apply. The process is so onerous. With the implementation of this study and the data generated, this could lead to other crucial research projects."

Backers of medical marijuana hailed the news as an indication that the government had started coming to terms with one of the more striking paradoxes of federal drug policy: Even as about 1 million Americans are using marijuana legally to treat ailments, scientists have had difficulty getting approval to study how the drug might be employed more effectively.

"The political dynamics are shifting," said Rick Doblin, executive director of the Multidisciplinary Assn. for Psychedelic Studies, or MAPS, a group based in Santa Cruz that is raising money to help fund studies such as Sisley's. The group counts several prominent philanthropists among its backers, including two Pritzkers and a Rockefeller.

Government officials said the approval did not represent a change in underlying policy — just a recognition that Sisley's proposal meets official standards for research using illegal drugs. The research still requires approval of one more agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration, but Sisley and Doblin expressed confidence that that would prove a lesser hurdle.

In its letter approving the application, a government review panel noted what it called "significant changes" in the study that justified approving it now. Doblin said the changes did not affect the "core design" of the study.

Federal restrictions on pot research have been a source of tension for years. Researchers, marijuana advocates and some members of Congress have accused the National Institute on Drug Abuse of hoarding the nation's only sanctioned research pot for studies aimed at highlighting the drug's ill effects. They had pointed to Sisley's experience as a prime example of what they called an irrational and disjointed federal policy.

"You have impossible burdens," said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who has enlisted other members of Congress to lobby the administration to give researchers more access to the drug.

"These are not people who are going to be involved with some clandestine production of the drug or do something nefarious. They are trying to do scientific research that will add to the body of knowledge and safety," he said.

Blumenauer likes to recount the story of a doctor who works with children who have violent epileptic seizures. The children's parents "have found that the use of marijuana has reduced the frequency and intensity of these horrific episodes. But because of our stupid research policies, it is easier for the parent to get medical marijuana than for a researcher," he said.

Scientists say more research could help determine more precisely which ailments the drug can treat and could eventually lead to regulation by the FDA as a prescription drug. That would allow patients to know what they are consuming. Currently, users of medical marijuana often have little information about the potency and purity of the pot they buy. Physicians who prescribe the drug do so on the basis of evidence that is largely anecdotal.

At the core of the debate is an issue that has implications for both research and the movement to legalize marijuana for recreational use, as Colorado and Washington have done. Currently, federal law classifies pot as more dangerous than cocaine and methamphetamine. As a "Schedule 1" drug, marijuana is designated as having "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," as well as being a drug that puts users at risk of "severe psychological or physical dependence."

Researchers say that classification needs to change for science to proceed uninhibited. Making the change, though, would be a retreat in the war on drugs. The Obama administration could reschedule the drug without congressional action, but has shown no inclination to wade into that fight.

In the last 10 years, the government had approved just one U.S. research center to conduct clinical trials involving marijuana use for medical purposes — a UC San Diego facility created by the California Legislature.

The scientist who runs that center, Igor Grant, said his success in getting Washington's sign-off was due in large part to something other scientists do not have: the full force of the state. Blocking his work would have been a direct affront to lawmakers in Sacramento, he noted.

Grant's studies looked at such questions as whether pot could help ease the nausea and vomiting associated with cancer treatment or the severe appetite suppression experienced by those with HIV, which causes AIDS.

"Every one of those studies showed, in the short term, a beneficial effect," Grant said. "There is very good evidence cannabis is helpful."

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Terugblik 57e VN drugstop in Wenen: lichtpuntjes en dwaallichten

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Vandaag is de laatste dag van de 57e sessie van de Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) van de Verenigde Naties in Wenen. Bij de activisten die deelnamen aan deze jaarlijkse drugstop waren ook vier VOC’ers.

VOC’ers Derrick Bergman, Myranda Bruin, Kid de Winter en Joep Oomen reisden naar Wenen om onder de paraplu van Encod, de Europese coalitie voor rechtvaardig en Effectief drugsbeleid, te demonstreren, verslag te doen en binnen de muren van de VN te lobbyen voor een einde aan de oorlog tegen drugs.

Voor Nederland was het belangrijkste nieuws van deze 57e sessie waarschijnlijk een uitspraak van Yury Fedotov, voorzitter van de UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).

Tijdens zijn persconferentie vroeg de Nederlandse journalist Steven Kompier (International Cannabis News, De Achterdeur) wat Fedotov vindt van de Nederlandse regering, die blijft zeggen dat regulering van cannabis onmogelijk is vanwege de VN verdragen. Fedotov’s antwoord: ‘De Verenigde Naties zijn geen dwangbuis voor de lidstaten. En de drugsverdragen bevatten geen mogelijkheid om lidstaten sancties op te leggen.’

Met andere woorden: Nederland kan, net als Uruguay, Colorado en Washington, gewoon zijn gang gaan met het verder reguleren van cannabis. De achterdeur kan open. Fedotov’s uitspraak was één van de lichtpuntjes van de afgelopen week. Dat gold zeker ook voor de verfrissende bijdragen van Zuid Amerikaanse landen als Uruguay, Ecuador, Mexico, Colombia en Guatemala. Hun boodschap: de oorlog tegen drugs is een fiasco en lidstaten moeten meer vrijheid krijgen om te experimenteren met regulering en legalisering.

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Opstelten: Hennepteelt reguleren kan juridisch niet

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De uitkomsten van het onderzoek vormen voor Opstelten een bevestiging van zijn standpunt: hij heeft altijd al gezegd dat het reguleren van de hennepteelt onder meer niet kan vanwege internationale verplichtingen. De bewindsman had vorig jaar de Tweede Kamer toegezegd een onafhankelijke externe partij nogmaals grondig naar de juridische argumenten te laten kijken.

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Op zaterdag 22 maart 2014 06:59 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Report: Germans seize cocaine on its way to Vatican

BERLIN -- The drug haul was unremarkable, but the destination raised eyebrows.

German weekly Bild am Sonntag reported Sunday that customs officials intercepted a cocaine shipment destined for the Vatican in January.

Officers at Leipzig airport found 12 ounces of the drug packed into 14 condoms inside a shipment of cushions coming from South America.

The paper says the package was simply addressed to the Vatican postal office, meaning any of the Catholic mini-state's 800 residents could have picked it up.

Citing a German customs report, the paper adds that a sting operation arranged with Vatican police didn't lure a possible recipient. The drugs would have a street value of several tens of thousands of euros (dollars).

Neither German customs nor the Vatican could be immediately reached for comment.

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Russia cannot rely on NATO in fight against drug trafficking — drug control service chief

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Viktor Ivanov regards the liquidation of the G8 format as NATO’s unwillingness to bear responsibility for the growth of drug production in Afghanistanе.

“Our expert meeting initially was being prepared in a format of consultations of top experts on the issue of alternative development for addressed expert provision of Russia’s presidency in G8. However, upon the G8 partners’ initiative this format has been unilaterally destroyed, and, as you already know, yesterday at a reduced G7session in The Hague, US and NATO focus on Russia’s isolation has been confirmed,” Ivanov noted at an expert community meeting organized for preparing the ministerial meeting of heads of drug control watchdogs.

Ivanov drew attention to the fact that the liquidation of the G8 format by western countries occurred at the same moment when Russia within the framework of its G8 presidency named the issue of fighting drug trafficking as the main priority.

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The Most Important UN Drugs Summit for Decades Was Depressing

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Fedotov is an odd choice as the world’s drug czar. His country is widely accepted as having one of the most barbaric anti-drug regimes in the world, with rocketing levels of HIV infection, a ban on methadone and regular abuse of heroin addicts in the national media, as well as a treatment programme that has sometimes led to people being beaten, raped and tortured in custody, then left to rot in correctional drug gulags.

Regardless, Fedotov tells UN member states that it’s best if they can avoid jailing drug addicts, and instead respect their human rights and provide them with the best treatment available. This kind of doublethink is another popular trend here, with many of the world’s most extreme "tough on drugs" proponents also gabbing on about the huge importance of human rights, individual freedom and their citizens’ right to health.

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The majority of these meetings are just speakers from different countries and various organisations droning on about how drugs are bad. So Ill cut to the interesting stuff, and the only thing stopping these hundreds of delegates from abandoning the extraterritorial zone and heading into Vienna to eat sausages and look at statues of historical military generals.

In one corner, leading the pantomime villains of global drug policy, is Russia. Russias main allies are Iran (whose speaker was surrounded by four bodyguards at all times, for fear of being attacked by drug-crazed liberals), Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Thailand, China and Singapore all of whom are hardcore prohibitionists and fans of such policies as tying addicts to bed posts, refusing them medical treatment, locking them up or, in some cases, just straight-up executing them. Their spiel is that, despite the death penalty for drug offences being against international law, its no one elses business what they do to their drug users. Which doesn't sound like a very UN-ey thing to say.

In the other corner sit the pro-reform countries: Ecuador, Uruguay, Mexico, Portugal, Germany, Czech Republic and Switzerland. They use this meeting as a chance to express their disapproval of the UNs reluctance to condemn the worst excesses of the drug war. With a growing tide of liberal drug laws being adopted, these countries plead with the UN to acknowledge the fact that there are alternatives to the old school War on Drugs, which was set in stone over half a century ago at the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961.

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Op dinsdag 25 maart 2014 12:36 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
, Germany,

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Op dinsdag 25 maart 2014 12:50 schreef Basp1 het volgende:

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Heb ik ergens iets gemist dat zelfs duitsland nu ook als pro reform te boek staat in dat laatste artikel.

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Op dinsdag 25 maart 2014 12:53 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Zal me niks verbazen. Als je er niets over hoort kan alles. Spanje hoor je nooit iets over, daar mag je in veel clubs gewoon blowen. Ik was een paar jaar geleden op een Hennep-beurs in Barcelona. Een compleet beursgebouw stijf van de rook, daar kan de Jaarbeurs een puntje aan zuigen.

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[url=http://www.irinnews.org/report/99851/calls-for-a-ceasefire-in-the-war-on-drugshttp://www.irinnews.org/r(...)e-war-on-drugs]Calls for a ceasefire in the war on drugs[/url]

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NEW YORK, 28 March 2014 (IRIN) - Despite growing acknowledgement that the war on drugs has failed, global consensus on the way forward remains elusive. Nevertheless, some detect a “paradigm shift” among many players at the forefront of the debate.

At a panel discussion in New York on 25 March, hosted by the Open Society Foundation’s (OSF) Global Drug Policy Program, experts from Switzerland and the Czech Republic offered some pointers by showcasing their countries’ successes in adopting harm-reduction approaches that treat drug abuse as a public health problem rather than a crime.

In 2016 the UN General Assembly Special Session is scheduled to adopt a consensus on drug control. As the deadline draws nearer, NGOs and policy groups are intent on broadening the debate and exploring new options on drug policy.

Meanwhile, after months of negotiations at the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in Vienna, the governing body of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the resolutions recently adopted do not reflect the emerging opposition to the status quo of several Latin American and European countries. Media reports suggested a major split emerging between countries on “the war on drugs” approach and whether it should be abandoned or not.

Speakers at the panel discussion expressed hope that the demonstrable successes in their countries (Switzerland and the Czech Republic) will motivate other nations to experiment with similar programmes.

Experts sense a “sea change” in the direction that top-level discussions are taking, with many countries in agreement that current policies are failing, and Latin American countries - worn down by the drug wars playing out in their territories - applying increasing pressure on the USA and other countries to adopt new approaches. However, experts also fear that those countries that continue to link drugs to criminalization and even the death penalty - Russia, China, Malaysia and Iran to name some - will try to block any significant amendments to the UN’s drug policy.

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Experts are watching the path of decriminalizing recreational marijuana that Uruguay and two US states - Washington and Colorado - are pursuing. Director of OSF’s Global Drug Policy Program and panel moderator Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch said while the US may be resistant to change at the federal level, the fact that two states had legalized marijuana, with others likely to follow suite, meant that “it can’t be taken seriously pushing prohibition if it has these states in its borders”.

Bém added: “We smell a paradigm shift. We are at the beginning of change. We don’t know how long it will take and what it will be at the end but we can see that it is changing,” he said.

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Politie Colombia vindt 2000 kilo drugs

De politie in Colombia heeft ruim 2000 kilo drugs aangetroffen in een scheepslading bananenkisten. Het ging om chloorhydraat, een tussenproduct van cocaïne. De drugs hebben een straatwaarde van ongeveer 40 miljoen euro, meldden Colombiaanse media.

De drugs zaten verstopt in een container in de noordelijke haven van Santa Marta. De gewapende bende Los Urabeños wilde de cocaïne via Midden-Amerika naar de Verenigde Staten smokkelen, maar met de hulp van speurhonden is dat voorkomen. De bende is een van de machtigste partijen in de Colombiaanse drugshandel.

De Colombiaanse politie heeft dit jaar al 25 ton drugs in beslag genomen. Eerder deze week werd 240 kilo cocaïne opgespoord die voor België was bestemd.

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Op zondag 30 maart 2014 05:24 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Een lading die niet goedgekeurd was door de autoriteiten? De prijs opdrijven door deze "acties"?

Een druppeltje op een enorme gloeiende plaat.

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Op zondag 30 maart 2014 05:28 schreef El_Matador het volgende:

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Ik kan, als ik het zou willen, wat ik niet doe, het kopen voor zo'n 8 euro. Maar het kan (veel) goedkoper.