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

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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.