The World Wide War on Drugs #9 - Legal Highs are Go!

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OM maakt zich zorgen over corruptie in Rotterdamse haven | NOS

Medewerkers van containerbedrijven, vrachtwagenchauffeurs en ook douanemedewerkers zijn een onmisbare schakel geworden bij de drugssmokkel in de Rotterdamse haven. Criminelen hebben hen nodig om de drugs van de haventerreinen af te krijgen en zijn bereid om daarvoor flink te betalen. Vandaag start een campagne tegen corruptie in de haven.

Om een haventerrein op te komen is tegenwoordig een pasje nodig. En dan moet je vervolgens nog weten waar de container met drugs staat en wat de code is om hem te openen. Vandaar dat drugscriminelen steeds meer de hulp inroepen van havenwerkers, tegen forse betalingen.

"Criminelen betalen wel vijfduizend euro voor het lenen van een pasje. Maar we kennen ook bedragen van een veelvoud daarvan, van zeventigduizend euro", zegt officier van justitie Loes van der Wees. Havenwerkers worden volgens haar in cafés in Rotterdam-Zuid door criminelen benaderd.

Het klinkt als een aantrekkelijke manier om snel veel geld bij te verdienen, maar eenmaal in handen van criminelen is er geen weg terug, waarschuwt Van der Wees. "Als je in hun tentakels verstrikt bent geraakt, kan je niet terug. Het is niet zo dat je na een of twee keer kan zeggen: ik doe het niet meer. We kennen de verhalen van mensen die wilden stoppen en vervolgens werden bedreigd."

Uiteindelijk is het risico groot om tegen de lamp te lopen. Afgelopen week stond een aantal medewerkers van overslagbedrijf ECT terecht. Het OM eiste celstraffen tot negen jaar. Eerder werden havenwerkers al veroordeeld totcelstraffen.

Criminelen werven niet alleen gewone havenwerkers. Ook andere mensen die toegang hebben tot informatie zijn interessant. Wanneer een container binnenkomt en waar die komt te staan is cruciale informatie voor criminelen. Helemaal bovenaan het wensenlijstje van criminelen staan medewerkers van opsporingsdiensten zoals de douane.

Dat de corruptie zelfs op dat niveau is doorgedrongen, bleek vorig jaar. Toen werd douanier Gerrit G. opgepakt en uit zijn dossier blijkt dat hij waarschijnlijk niet de enige 'platte' douanier is.

Hij zorgde ervoor dat containers met cocaïne niet werden gecontroleerd. Zijn loon: een percentage van de waarde van de drugs. Bij hem huis vond de politie in sporttassen bijna een miljoen euro aan bankbiljetten. Dit soort bedragen zijn volgens bronnen in het criminele milieu niet uitzonderlijk.

"Iemand die camerabeelden wist, krijgt 15.000 tot 20.000 euro. Iemand die een container op een bepaalde plaats zet: een ton. Maar zo iemand als de corrupte douanier krijgt tonnen per transport. Deze man heeft in totaal miljoenen verdiend, aldus de bron.

Hoe omvangrijk de corruptie in de Rotterdamse haven is, weet het OM niet. Ook niet hoeveel drugs er via de haven wordt gesmokkeld. "We pakken ieder jaar duizenden kilo's. Maar het is niet raar te veronderstellen dat een veelvoud daarvan wel doorgaat", zegt Van der Wees. Volgens bronnen in het criminele milieu staan er tegen elk onderschept drugstransport vier tot vijf geslaagde.

Een simpel rekensommetje leert dan dat er tientallen omgekochte havenwerkers betrokken moeten zijn bij de drugssmokkel. Dat wordt ook bevestigd door de bronnen in het criminele milieu. "Iedere organisatie heeft zo zijn eigen platte mensen in de haven. Dat is al jaren bekend", aldus de bron.

Overigens zijn havenwerkers niet alleen bij drugssmokkel betrokken. Ook bij de diefstal van waardevolle ladingen en mensensmokkel zijn ze onmisbaar voor criminelen. Het OM maakt zich zorgen over de verschuiving van mensensmokkel van havens in België en Frankrijk naar Rotterdam. '

"We zien al signalen dat dit gebeurt", zegt Van der Wees. Met de gezamenlijke campagne willen het OM, de gemeente en de havenbedrijven iedereen in de haven oproepen om corruptie te melden, desnoods anoniem. Burgemeester Ahmed Aboutaleb geeft vanmiddag het startsein voor de campagne.

Bron: nos.nl

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Paus noemt Mexicaanse drugscriminelen 'handelaren in de dood'

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Deze radicale drugsprofessor vindt verslaving flauwekul

Verslaving? Onzin, stelt drugsprofessor Peter Cohen. Drugs verdienen eenzelfde behandeling als wintersport, relaties en mooie muziek: leuke ervaringen waar je soms even bij op moet letten. Geldt dat wel voor iedereen? En alle drugs?

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How Economists Would Wage the War on Drugs

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Economics points to a fundamental mistake in the war on drugs. Most of the money spent tackling narcotics is directed toward disrupting supply—by uprooting coca bushes, battling cartels, locking up dealers and so on. In fact, focusing on demand would be more effective.

Demand for drugs is inelastic—that is, when prices rise, people cut their consumption relatively little. (Given that most banned drugs are addictive, this isn’t surprising.) So even when governments can drive up prices, dealers continue to sell almost as much as they did before—only at higher prices, meaning that the value of the criminal market increases. Reducing demand, by contrast, triggers a fall in both the amount consumed and the price paid, cutting into the criminal market on two fronts.

Demand-side interventions are not only more effective, they’re also considerably cheaper than playing about with helicopters in the Andes. A dollar spent on drug education in U.S. schools cuts cocaine consumption by twice as much as spending that dollar on reducing supply in South America; spending it on treatment for addicts reduces it by 10 times as much. Rehab programs for prescription-painkiller users might seem costly, but they prevent those people from slipping into the colossally more expensive problem of heroin addiction. Where demand cannot be dampened, it can be redirected toward a legal source, as a few U.S. states have done with marijuana—a development that has inflicted bigger losses on the cartels than any supply-disruption policy.

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'Onderzoek naar 43 vermiste Mexicaanse studenten wordt gehinderd' | Buitenland | de Volkskrant

Bij het onderzoek naar een alternatieve verklaring ondervinden de internationale experts naar eigen zeggen grote hinder. Zo mochten ze er niet bij zijn toen de militairen die op de betreffende avond ter plaatse waren hun ervaringen deelden. Ook hebben zij video's die mogelijk interessante informatie bevatten niet gekregen.

Bron: www.volkskrant.nl

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'Meer Indonesische alcoholdoden door alcoholverbod' | NOS

Het ziet eruit als koffie in een zakje, maar het is vele malen sterker. 'Oplosan', is een mengsel van alcohol, koffiemelk, een smaakje naar keuze en honing. Het kan worden aangelengd met methanol, spiritus of zelfs muggenverdelger als een klant het alcoholpercentage van 40 procent niet voldoende vindt.

Het goedje wordt in Indonesië op straat verkocht om het alcoholverbod in winkels te omzeilen. Soms met desastreuze gevolgen. In Yogyakarta overleden onlangs 26 studenten in een weekend na het drinken van verkeerd gemengde 'oplosan'.

In januari 2015 werd van de ene op de andere dag de verkoop van alcohol in buurtwinkels en kleine strandtenten verboden. Dat verbod kostte Heineken-dochter Bintang het afgelopen jaar al zo'n 40 procent aan omzet en de onderneming moest de bouw van een nieuwe fabriek stilleggen.

Bier is nu alleen nog te koop in grote supermarkten en in café's De gemiddelde Indonesiër komt daar niet, dus die moet zijn toevlucht nemen tot de illegaal gestookte alcohol, de 'oplosan'.

In het parlement ligt nu een wetsontwerp klaar waarmee alcohol in Indonesië helemaal verboden wordt. Michael Chang, de topman van Multi Bintang probeert het parlement op andere gedachten te brengen. "Het probleem in Indonesië is de illegale alcohol, niet de legale", zegt hij.

Een verbod op bier zal volgens hem niet helpen. "Integendeel. De geschiedenis leert dat een verbod op alcohol automatisch leidt tot een toename van illegale alcohol. Het beste voorbeeld daarvan is de drooglegging in de jaren 30 in Amerika."

Volgens de parlementariër die de wet heeft ingediend, horen Indonesiërs helemaal niet te drinken. "Dat is een kwestie van geloof. 98 procent van de bevolking is gelovig en alle godsdiensten verbieden alcoholmisbruik."

Ook moet de jeugd beschermd worden tegen de gevolgen van alcohol. In Indonesië heeft 0,12 procent van de bevolking onder de 18 jaar ooit alcohol geproefd. Een heel laag percentage, maar op een bevolking van 250 miljoen mensen is dat toch een grote groep.

"Andere landen zouden voor zo'n cijfer hun handen dichtknijpen, maar de indieners van de wet noemen het een alcohol-noodtoestand", zegt Indonesië-correspondent Michel Maas. "Dus verbieden ze bier terwijl het echte gevaar, de 'oplosan', de markt overspoelt. 26 doden verandert daar niets aan."

Bron: nos.nl

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Grote politie-inval Eindhoven: 69 panden in beslag genomen | NOS

De politie heeft vanochtend een inval gedaan in een villa in Eindhoven. Het is onderdeel van een groot witwasonderzoek naar crimineel verkregen vermogen. Volgens Omroep Brabant is er beslag gelegd op 69 panden in Eindhoven en Helmond.

Behalve bij de villa, deed de politie ook onderzoek op acht andere locaties: zes in Eindhoven, één in Uden en één in Maastricht. De hoofdverdachte is een 42-jarige man uit Eindhoven.

Er werkten 110 mensen mee aan de actie. Er zijn geen verdachten aangehouden.

De villa is het huis van de 42-jarige voormalige eigenaar van coffeeshop The Grasshopper in Eindhoven. Die coffeeshop is sinds enkele jaren gesloten. Burgemeester Van Gijzel trok de vergunning in 2012 in omdat er aanwijzingen waren van drugshandel door een van de exploitanten en zijn broer.

Politiemensen en een specialistisch team van Defensie waren bij de inval in de woning aan de Vogelkerslaan betrokken. Militairen doorzochten het huis met speciale apparatuur. De kapitale villa werd afgeschermd met witte schermen. Ook werden speurhonden ingezet. Volgens omwonenden viel de politie de villa rond half tien binnen.

Op de meeste plaatsen heeft de politie administratie en gegevensdragers zoals mobiele telefoons en computers in beslag genomen. Van de 69 panden waar beslag op is gelegd, staan er 65 in Eindhoven, voornamelijk in het centrum van de stad. Vier panden staan in Helmond. De panden zijn eigendom van de 42-jarige Eindhovenaar en/of zijn bedrijven.

Bron: nos.nl

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California Town Ditches Prison Economy, Embraces Cannabis Farms

A tiny California desert town is making a drastic change to reverse its downward spiral and embrace an enlightened future. For 24 years, Adelanto tried unsuccessfully to sustain its economy through prisons, but now it will be hosting a very different kind of business—cannabis cultivation.

The town became only the second city in California to permit commercial cultivation of medical cannabis, after a year of heated debate in the City Council. The persistence of John “Bug” Woodard, Jr. paid off in a 4-1 vote on Nov. 23 to allow cultivation.

“I had nothing to lose,” said Woodard. “The city could not get in any worse shape than it was. It was broke.”

Brooke Edwards Staggs of The Orange County Register describes Adelanto’s declining prison economy and the land rush that is now taking place after their decision to go to pot.

Its first prison was built in 1991, as the city braced itself for the closure of nearby George Air Force Base.

That didn’t stop Adelanto’s long slide into high unemployment and depressed property values. More than a third of the city’s nearly 33,000 residents now live below the poverty line. So it kept welcoming more prisons, banking on the promise of jobs and steady revenue in the form of an annual bed tax.

The town sold one of its four prisons to a private firm in 2010 for $28 million, and that cash is about to run out. Solar energy developers also had an interest in Adelanto, but only four projects have been constructed, producing a handful of jobs.

Now, a new kind of developer is flocking to the town.

One commercial real estate firm says they went from one call a week to five calls a day about purchasing land in Adelanto. Real estate prices have skyrocketed as “investors, cultivators, doctors, architects and record executives” fly across the country to see about getting in on the budding industry.

Twenty-seven companies have been permitted to set up grow operations in Adelanto, with two more pending. The first crop is expected to be produced by summer, and when it reaches full capacity, the town will be producing about 50,000 pounds of cannabis six times a year for the medical industry.

Since California approved medical cannabis use in 1996, it has finally gotten around to creating a licensing program for cannabis businesses under the Medical Marijuana Regulations and Safety Act. The state is expected to legalize recreational use this November, which will greatly increase demand for legitimate operations.

The trend of cities allowing commercial-scale cannabis cultivation is a relief for those concerned about the environmental impact of illegal grow operations. Last year we reported how many growers are carelessly polluting aquatic ecosystems with rat poison and other toxic chemicals, while drying up already stressed streams.

As more towns and cities in California permit large-scale cannabis cultivation, demand will shift to these responsible growers, which should begin to reduce the pressure on the state’s fragile aquatic ecosystems.

Adelanto, which means “progress” in Spanish, will indeed prove to be a model of progress as it transitions from a depressing economy of prisons to one that actually helps human and environmental health.

“Tomorrow, they’ll be on the correct side of history and be recognized as a city that actually embraced safety and embraced something that heals people,” said Randall Longwith, an attorney representing investors.

Not only will cannabis businesses be producing exclusive strains for distribution, but Adelanto will also serve as a hub of medical research for ailments such as pediatric epilepsy, brain tumors, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Cannabis is showing great promise in all of these areas.

As a bonus, the medical cannabis research company Ecologies Laboratories will be pushing out a merchant of death. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which makes the Predator drone, will have to give up its storage facility in Adelanto as the landlord has decided to lease it to Ecologies Laboratories instead.

Adelanto joins another California city, Desert Hot Springs, to become a new kind of western pioneer. It will save its economy by making millions in tax revenue and securing hundreds of jobs, and, more importantly, is embracing a future where cannabis will prove to be a medical wonder.


Bron: www.mintpressnews.com

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Fmr UN Secretary General Speaks Out, “The War on Drugs is a War on People” — Legalize It All | The Free Thought Project


In the age of instant information transfer and social media, something as illogical and ludicrous as the War on Drugs cannot be sustained. Government prohibition of psychoactive substances triggers the unrealistic drive to “eradicate” their presence and just ends up being a war on people.

Some of those in government are realizing this and, under public pressure, are decriminalizing aspects of the drug war, most notably seen in cannabis legalization sweeping across the U.S. More politicians and officials are speaking out to say we must change course.

On Monday, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan penned an essay in Spiegel Online where he called for the legalization of drugs. He reiterated many long-known truisms, describing how prohibition brings a far worse danger to humanity than drugs themselves.

“I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more. We all want to protect our families from the potential harm of drugs. But if our children do develop a drug problem, surely we will want them cared for as patients in need of treatment and not branded as criminals.”

The essay comes two months before the UN General Assembly holds a special session on drugs, where Annan says “the world will have a chance to change course.”

He admits that the UN played a pivotal role in encouraging prohibition 50 years ago. The UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs in 1961 had the stated purpose to protect the “health and welfare of mankind,” but instead showed how centralized efforts to control behavior bring destruction and misery.

Prohibition has created a “vast, international criminal market in drugs that fuels violence, corruption and instability,” as Annan acknowledges, which amounts to a $330 billion per year industry. The drug war has no effect on the availability of drugs or the demand, yet $100 billion a year is spent on this consistent failure.

Punishment of drug users and overcrowded prisons are just some of the ways in which this manifests. Wherever the criminal drug trade is concentrated, violence, and corruption ensue. In 2013 Mexico saw 16,000 murders, many directly linked to drug trafficking.

“The tendency in many parts of the world to stigmatize and incarcerate drug users has prevented many from seeking medical treatment. In what other areas of public health do we criminalize patients in need of help? Punitive measures have sent many people to prison, where their drug use has worsened. A criminal record for a young person for a minor drug offence can be a far greater threat to their well-being than occasional drug use.”

Accepting that drugs are a reality and that some, like cannabis and psychedelics, have real and proven medical benefits, is necessary for governments to end their war on people.

“First, we must decriminalize personal drug use. The use of drugs is harmful and reducing those harms is a task for the public health system, not the courts. This must be coupled with the strengthening of treatment services, especially in middle and low-income countries.

Second, we need to accept that a drug-free world is an illusion. We must focus instead on ensuring that drugs cause the least possible harm. Harm reduction measures, such as needle exchange programs, can make a real difference. Germany adopted such measures early on and the level of HIV infections among injecting drug users is close to 5 percent, compared to over 40 percent in some countries which resist this pragmatic approach.”

Annan goes on to discuss regulation, public education, and taxation as the next steps, pointing to the decline in cigarette smoking in many countries. He mentions the always-tempting carrot of revenue collection through taxation of drugs, such as the $135 million collected by Colorado last year.

Ideally, these things should not be necessary, but in one sense it provides a real benefit. Instead of buying from an unknown source through unknown middle-men, consumers can purchase from reputable vendors and know exactly what is in their product, as well as the risks.

The story of cannabis shows that fears of wildly increased use after legalization are unfounded.

“Initial trends show us that where cannabis has been legalized, there has been no explosion in drug use or drug-related crime. The size of the black market has been reduced and thousands of young people have been spared criminal records.”

Instead of exacerbating problems, legalization alleviates them.

“Scientific evidence and our concern for health and human rights must shape drug policy. This means making sure that fewer people die from drug overdoses and that small-time offenders do not end up in jail where their drug problems get worse. It is time for a smarter, health-based approach to drug policy.”

Let’s hope that Kofi Annan’s message resonates with those attending the UN special session on drugs April 19-21. The war on drugs is a failure, an affront to human rights, and a catalyst for violence. The war on people must end.

Bron: thefreethoughtproject.com

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Cheers! Drinking More Coffee May Undo Liver Damage From Booze.

Drinking more coffee might help reduce the kind of liver damage that’s associated with overindulging in food and alcohol, a review of existing studies suggests.

Researchers analyzed data from nine previously published studies with a total of more than 430,000 participants and found that drinking two additional cups of coffee a day was linked to a 44 percent lower risk of developing liver cirrhosis.

“Cirrhosis is potentially fatal and there is no cure as such,” said lead study author Dr. Oliver Kennedy of Southampton University in the U.K.

“Therefore, it is significant that the risk of developing cirrhosis may be reduced by consumption of coffee, a cheap, ubiquitous and well-tolerated beverage,” Kennedy added by email.

Cirrhosis kills more than one million people every year worldwide. It can be caused by hepatitis infections, excessive alcohol consumption, immune disorders and fatty liver disease, which is tied to obesity and diabetes.

Kennedy and colleagues did a pooled analysis of average coffee consumption across earlier studies to see how much adding two additional cups each day might influence the odds of liver disease.

Combined, the studies included 1,990 patients with cirrhosis.

In eight of the nine studies analyzed, increasing coffee consumption by two cups a day was associated with a significant reduction in the risk of cirrhosis.

In all but one study, the risk of cirrhosis continued to decline as daily cups of coffee climbed.

Compared to no coffee consumption, researchers estimated one cup a day was tied to a 22 percent lower risk of cirrhosis. With two cups, the risk dropped by 43 percent, while it declined 57 percent for three cups and 65 percent with four cups.

But the results still leave some unresolved questions.

One study, for example, found a stronger link between coffee consumption and reduced cirrhosis risk with filtered coffee than with boiled coffee.

And, while the studies accounted for alcohol consumption, not all them accounted for other cirrhosis risk factors like obesity and diabetes, the authors note in the journal Alimentary Pharmacology and Therapeutics, online Jan. 25.

Patients also shouldn’t take the findings to mean loading up on frothy caramel lattes packed with sugar and topped with whipped cream is a good way to prevent liver disease, Kennedy cautioned. It’s also not clear exactly how coffee might lead to a healthier liver, or whether the type of beans or brewing method matter.

“Coffee is a complex mixture containing hundreds of chemical compounds, and it is unknown which of these is responsible for protecting the liver,” Kennedy said.

It’s also important to note that coffee isn’t powerful enough to counteract lifestyle choices that can severely damage the liver, said Samantha Heller, a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York who wasn’t involved in the study.

“Unfortunately, although coffee contains compounds that have antioxidant effects and anti-inflammatory properties, drinking a few cups of coffee a day cannot undo the systematic damage that is the result of being overweight or obese, sedentary, excessive alcohol consumption or drastically mitigate an unhealthy diet,” Heller said by email.


Bron: www.entrepreneur.com

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Australia is about to start a major discussion on decriminalizing drugs - Quartz

In 2001, Portugal, facing a scourge of heroin addiction, eliminated criminal penalties for personal drug use or possession. Fifteen years later, Australia, which has one of the world’s worst drug problems, will consider doing the same.

On March 2, senator Richard Di Natale, leader of the Australian Greens party, will host the National Drug Summit, to be held at the Parliament House in the nation’s capital. Last year, Di Natale went on a fact-finding mission to Portugal. He believes its approach to addressing drug abuse has been effective, and will present the case that Australia should follow a similar path.

Australia faces a “national menace,” as former prime minister Tony Abbott called it, in the form of crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice. Last year a “National Ice Taskforce” found that Australians were among the world’s biggest users of crystal meth, with the number of addicts doubling to over 200,000 in the past eight years.

The highly addictive drug, which can be produced in makeshift labs, has a devastating effect on its users. About a quarter of the nation’s meth users take the drug once a week, and the nation is plagued by a ice-related crimes.

Di Natale and others contend that Australia should shift possession of drugs away from the criminal-justice system and into the public health and counseling sphere, as Portugal has done. Heroin use in the European nation has been halved since decriminalization, as has death from overdose.

But as with Portugal, the selling and distributing of drugs would still be a crime, meaning the nation’s history of bizarre drug-smuggling attempts would likely continue. Border police have found drugs hidden in everything from car parts to printer cartridges. In February, authorities in Sydney discovered liquid methamphetamine inside thousands of gel pads inserted into push-up bras.

Other nations are moving away from criminalization for drug users. Norwegian courts were recently given the power to sentence convicted drug users to rehabilitation instead of sending them to prison. Ireland aims to decriminalize heroin and cocaine for personal use—and even offer treatment rooms—while keeping punishments for dealers.

And legislators in Australia itself appear close to passing a bill legalizing the cultivation of marijuana grown for medicinal purposes.

Lawmakers from the nation’s two main parties—Sharman Stone of the ruling Liberals and Melissa Parke of the Labor party—are co-convening the summit called by Di Natale.

Bron: qz.com

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[Updated] Elite 'African Group' in Vienna undermines AU drug policy | Health-e

A small group of African countries with missions in Vienna decided to submit their own document on new drug policy to the UN, despite being given a more enlightened African Union position.

drugs sliderSouth Africa’s diplomatic mission in Vienna submitted a reactionary position on drug policy to the United Nations, despite African Union member states having worked for months to draft a far more progressive stance.

This emerged at a drug policy conference in Cape Town last week, at which outraged delegates demanded an explanation for why a document from the minority “African Group” (AG) in Vienna was submitted instead of the AU’s “Common African Position” (CAP).

One of the most controversial clauses of the “AG” document is its support for stronger control over ketamine, used as an anaesthetic in places without electricity or oxygen supplies.

China is lobbying for ketamine to become a scheduled medicine because of some abuse of it in its country, but this will drastically limit its availability in rural and war-torn areas.

“Hundreds of thousands of people who need emergency surgery will die or suffer intense pain if ketamine becomes a scheduled medicine that can only be prescribed by a doctor,” said Dr Liz Gwyther, CEO of the Hospice Palliative Care Association of SA.

Ketamine is on the World Health Organisation’s essential medicine list, and WHO official Marie-Paule Kieny says “controlling ketamine internationally could limit access to essential and emergency surgery, which would constitute a public health crisis in countries where no affordable alternatives exist”.

“Something else drafted by Egypt was given to South Africa to submit. Africa needs to speak out. Why shelve the right document, which came out of the consultative process?”

“Something else drafted by Egypt was given to South Africa to submit. Africa needs to speak out. Why shelve the right document, which came out of the consultative process?”

A UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs is being held in April and there is intense lobbying for policy change. The world is completely polarised, with some countries executing drug users and others legalising many drugs.

South Africa, as chair of the African Group in Vienna – comprised of only 15 African countries including Morocco, which is not an AU member – submitted the AG position ahead of UNGASS without the knowledge of the AU.

The AU had submitted the “CAP” document to SA Ambassador in Vienna Tebogo Seokolo, and thought this had been submitted to UNGASS on behalf of the continent.

“What went wrong?” asked Maria-Goretti Ane, a Ghana-based consultant for the International Drug Policy Consortium, at the Run2016 Cape Town conference hosted by the TB/HIV Care Association. “Something else drafted by Egypt was given to South Africa to submit. Africa needs to speak out. Why shelve the right document, which came out of the consultative process?”

Ironically, South Africa’s Deputy Minister of Social Development, Henrietta Bogopane-Zulu,* chaired the technical committee that drafted the CAP.

An African Union source* confirmed that Seokolo had been sent the CAP for submission to the UN in Vienna. On hearing that CAP had not been forwarded to UNGASS, the AU sent a delegation to Vienna in December to find out what had happened explanation, but had not received a satisfactory answer.

“As the AU, we can only engage in diplomacy. Member countries are our bosses, and it is only member states that can take up this issue,” said the source.

Meanwhile, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) rejected claims that Seokolo had “betrayed” the African Union.

Between June and December last year, Seokolo was chairperson of the African Group, which “enjoys the formal and official negotiating status within various United Nations organisations and other international organisations based in Vienna,” DIRCO spokesperson Nelson Kgwete told Health-e News.

“The Chairperson of the African Group is accountable to the African Group in Vienna and promotes the agreed positions and interests of the Group. There is no formal relationship between the African Group in Vienna and the African Union Commission,” he added.

According to DIRCO, there was a parallel process with both the AG in Vienna and the AU in Addis Ababa developing positions on drugs independently.

On receiving the CAP, AG members who are also AU members (i.e. everyone except Morocco) “collectively decided that the draft CAP could not be forwarded to the UNGASS Board because the Group felt that there were was a need for further consultation on some of the elements contained in the CAP”, said Kgwete.

While UNGASS has published a new draft policy of drugs based on the submissions, there is still time for lobbying ahead of the April meeting. – Health-e News.

Bron: www.health-e.org.za

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Iran executed all adult men in one village for drug offences, official reveals | World news | The Guardian

UN anti-drug agency urged to stop funding Iran’s war on narcotics until Tehran ends use of death penalty for drug offences


The entire adult male population of a village in southern Iran has been executed for drug offences, according to Iran’s vice-president for women and family affairs.

The matter came to light earlier this week after Shahindokht Molaverdi revealed it during an interview with the semi-official Mehr news agency in rare comments from a senior government official highlighting the country’s high rate of executions of drug traffickers.

“We have a village in Sistan and Baluchestan province where every single man has been executed,” she said, without naming the place or clarifying whether the executions took place at the same time or over a longer period. “Their children are potential drug traffickers as they would want to seek revenge and provide money for their families. There is no support for these people.”

Molaverdi said the administration of President Hassan Rouhani has brought back previously axed family support programmes as part of the country’s national development plan. “We believe that if we do not support these people, they will be prone to crime, that’s why the society is responsible for the families of those executed,” she said.

According to Amnesty International, Iran remains a prolific executioner, second only to China. In 2014, at least 753 people were hanged in Iran, of whom more than half were drug offenders. In 2015, Amnesty said it had recorded “a staggering execution rate” in the Islamic republic, “with nearly 700 people put to death in the first half of the year alone”.

Maya Foa, from the anti-death penalty campaigning group Reprieve, said: “The apparent hanging of every man in one Iranian village demonstrates the astonishing scale of Iran’s execution spree. These executions – often based on juvenile arrests, torture, and unfair or nonexistent trials – show total contempt for the rule of law, and it is shameful that the UN and its funders are supporting the police forces responsible.”

Activists have repeatedly urged the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to stop funding Iran’s anti-narcotics campaign until Tehran ends its use of capital punishment for drug-related offences. It emerged last year that the UN anti-drug agency was finalising a multimillion-dollar funding package, including European money, for Iran’s counter-narcotics trafficking programmes, despite the country’s high execution rate of drug offenders. The new $20m (£14.4m) UNODC programme for Iran was signed at the start of 2016, Reprieve said.

After Molaverdi’s comments, Foa renewed the organisation’s demands, saying: “UNODC must urgently make its new Iran funding conditional on an end to the death penalty for drug offences.”

Amnesty is particularly concerned about Iran’s execution of juveniles. In a report published in January, the group said Iran had carried out 73 executions of juvenile offenders between 2005 and 2015.

Sistan and Baluchestan, where the unnamed village is situated, “is arguably the most underdeveloped region in Iran, with the highest poverty, infant and child mortality rates, and lowest life expectancy and literacy rates in the country,” according to Ahmed Shaheed, the UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran. “The province … experiences a high rate of executions for drug-related offences or crimes deemed to constitute ‘enmity against God’ in the absence of fair trials.”

Iran is a neighbour to Afghanistan, a leading producer and supplier of the world’s drugs, and faces big challenges at home with a young population susceptible to a variety of cheap and abundant addictive drugs. Critics, however, say Iran’s use of the death penalty in this regard has done little, if anything, to address the issue.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Belgische agenten doen aangifte na wilde achtervolging op A27 | NOS

Twee Belgische agenten hebben in Nederland aangifte gedaan van poging tot doodslag. Bij een achtervolging probeerde de verdachte hen gistermiddag een paar keer met een rotgang van de weg te rijden, laat de politie weten.

Toen de twee agenten bij een verkeerscontrole een bestelbusje lieten stoppen, vonden ze in de laadruimte een heleboel dozen, maar ook drie mensen. Om die wat wonderlijke situatie op te helderen, zou de bestuurder achter de agenten aan meerijden naar het bureau.

Maar toen de agenten de snelweg wilden verlaten ging het mis. De bestuurder van het bestelbusje gaf vol gas en ging er vandoor.

Toen het de Belgische agenten was gelukt om voor het busje te komen, trapte de bestuurder nog wat harder op het gaspedaal en reed recht op hen af. Door ook gas bij te geven is een aanrijding voorkomen die door de hoge snelheid ernstige gevolgen had kunnen hebben, aldus de politie in een verklaring.

De bestuurder probeerde nog een paar keer de politie van de weg te rijden. Op dat moment waren de auto's de grens al over met Nederland.

De bestuurder van het bestelbusje haalde nog meer gevaarlijke capriolen uit: hij naderde een file in de richting van de A27, maar dat weerhield hem er niet van om met 140 kilometer per uur over de vluchtstrook langs het verkeer te rijden.

Uiteindelijk werd de bestuurder, een 30-jarige inwoner van Arnhem, met hulp van de Nederlandse politie klemgereden en aangehouden. In het busje zaten verder twee mensen op de voorbank en drie mensen in de laadruimte. Alle vijf zijn van Aziatische afkomst. Ook zij zijn gearresteerd.

Het mogelijke motief voor de vluchtpoging bleek bij nadere inspectie: het voertuig bleek vol te liggen met genoeg spullen om een volledige hennepkwekerij op te zetten.

Bron: nos.nl

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Duitse Groenen verwikkeld in drugsrel | NOS

De Duitse politieke partij Die Grünen is in verlegenheid gebracht, nu een prominent lid van de partij van harddrugsbezit wordt verdacht. Het gaat om Volker Beck, die al sinds 1994 voor de Groenen in de Duitse Bondsdag zit.

Hij werd gisteren aangehouden, toen hij het huis van een door de politie bewaakte dealer verliet. Volgens media had hij 0,6 gram chrystal meth bij zich.

Kort nadat het nieuws naar buiten was gekomen, kondigde Beck op zijn Facebookpagina aan dat hij zijn post als fractiewoordvoerder binnenland en religie neerlegt. Over de beschuldigingen laat hij zich niet uit. Wel schrijft hij "dat hij altijd een liberale drugspolitiek heeft uitgedragen".

Het voorval komt op een ongelukkig tijdstip, over anderhalve week zijn er belangrijke deelstaatverkiezingen in drie Duitse deelstaten. Zijn partijgenoten nemen dan ook razendsnel afstand van hem.

Winfried Kretschmann, minister-president van Baden-Württemberg, hoopt dat dit geen negatief effect heeft op het stemresultaat. "Het gaat toch om een zwaar delict. Laten we hopen dat we niet allemaal verantwoordelijk worden gehouden voor het wangedrag van één persoon", aldus Kretschmann in ARD Morgenmagazine.

Op internet worden veel grappen gemaakt over Beck. Met de hashtag #BreakingBeck wordt verwezen naar de populaire tv-serie Breaking Bad, waarin een scheikundeleraar bijklust als methproducent en -dealer.

Bron: nos.nl

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Tabloid papers are “main enemies” of drug policy reform | The Prohibition Post

Tabloid newspapers have been described as “our main enemies” in the fight for drug policy reform in the United Kingdom, during a parliamentary meeting on narcotic legislation. Molly Meacher, a cross-bench life peer in the House of Lords, asserted that reform is being hindered by the vitriolic support for drug prohibition in the country’s most widely read newspapers.

Brian Paddick, a former Police Commander for the London Borough of Lambeth and a current life peer, corroborated Meacher’s point, stating that “we absolutely have to get over stigma and hysteria around drug taking that we see in tabloid papers; we have to focus on reducing harm”. The fear of negative press coverage, Paddick claimed, is a primary reason why policymakers are hesitant to alter the status quo of drug prohibition.

Paddick was on the receiving end of the tabloid press’ opposition to drug reform in 2003, when his opposition to the criminalisation of cannabis users was seized upon by the Daily Mail, and used to attack his character – as well as his position as police chief.

In 2010, the UK Drug Policy Commission undertook a content analysis of newspaper coverage of drug users. The report found that “drug users were more likely to be condemned than empathised with in all newspapers, but were most likely to be condemned in the tabloid press, where around a fifth of users were condemned”.

The report also contrasted the differing headlines produced by broadsheets and tabloids in response to the same stories, highlighting the melodramatic rhetoric used by the latter during a 2009 debate over the use of methadone for heroin addicts. The Daily Express – a tabloid paper – published two stories on the subject, the first entitled “Alarm at drugs for convicts”, and the second with the headline “Jail drug bill soars to £40m”. Conversely, the Independent – a broadsheet – avoided hysteria by asking “The Big Question: Is methadone being over-prescribed as a treatment for drug addiction?”

Methadone, a controlled drug used to treat opiate addicts, is utilised to reduce the harm posed by heroin and similar substances. The staunch opposition to its provision voiced by the Daily Express is indicative of the tabloid’s hostility to drug policy reform and harm reduction.

Professor David Nutt – former chairman of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) – described allegations that Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, had exerted influence over British drug policy. Professor Nutt, in an interview with the British Journal Review said, “The rumour is that [Prime Minister Gordon] Brown did a deal with Paul Dacre. Dacre said there are three things you must do to get Mail support, one of which is to reclassify cannabis”. Indeed, within one year of becoming PM, Brown reclassified cannabis from Class C to Class B – a category in which possession and supply can garner up to five or fourteen years imprisonment, respectively.

Professor Nutt was sacked from the ACMD less than a year after the cannabis classification, and two months after writing a research paper that described cannabis as safer than alcohol.

Reforms to UK drug legislation are few and far between, and when they do occur they seem to further entrench prohibition within policy. The most prominent drug law to be passed by Parliament in recent times is the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, due to come into force on April 6th. This authoritarian piece of legislation will ban “any substance intended for human consumption that is capable of producing a psychoactive effect”, while excluding so-called “legitimate substances”, such as alcohol and tobacco.

Paddick claims that the Psychoactive Substances Act sets a dangerous precedent, as it is essentially the government insisting that “people are not allowed to do something unless [they] say that its OK”. Mike Trace, Chair of the International Drug Policy Consortium, denounced the legislation; “[the Act] says that a whole swathe of human behaviour is banned”. Such legislation has already been proved to have negative consequences; a similar law instituted in Ireland effectively reduced the number of ‘head shops’ while considerably increasing the number of drug-induced deaths”. However, as the tabloid press continues to blame drug deaths on users – rather than failed government policies – it is easy for policymakers to ignore the correlation between prohibition and drug deaths.

As the three most widely read newspapers in the UK – the Sun, the Daily Mail, and the Evening Standard – remain firmly opposed to most aspects of drug policy reform, it seems unlikely that policymakers will consider legislative change. Experts suggest that politicians are fully aware of the drug war’s failure, but continue to stay silent to avoid acknowledging the ineffectiveness of prohibition. Essentially, as Mike Trace asserted, “the UK government really doesn’t want to talk about drug policy”.

Copyright © 2016 The Prohibition Post.
Bron: theprohibitionpost.com

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Legal marijuana is finally doing what the drug war couldn’t

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Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn't: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels' profits.

The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009.

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Canadians Can Grow Their Own Medical Marijuana, Court Says in Bombshell Ruling

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Canadian medical marijuana patients have won the right to grow their own bud in a landmark court ruling released Wednesday.

Federal Judge Michael Phelan has ruled in favor of four British Columbia residents, declaring the country's medical marijuana regime, known as the Marijuana for Medical Purposes Regulations (MMPR), unconstitutional. This means that the federal law passed by the former Conservative government of Stephen Harper has no force and effect.

The judge ordered the ruling suspended for six months, giving the Liberals, who campaigned on legalizing and regulating pot, time to revise the legislation. In the meantime, the judge has upheld a previous injunction that allows patients to continue growing their own cannabis.

"It's pretty darn exciting, that for sure," said Sandra Colasanti, a BC resident who helped organize funding to bring the case. "This took a lot of work from all the patients. There were patients who were on permanent disability and still put it five dollars."

Introduced in 2013, the MMPR required that patients buy their pot from a government regulated and licensed producer, rather than growing their own or purchasing it from a dispensary. Doctors serve as the gatekeepers under this system, but lack of guidance from Health Canada has made those willing to prescribe pot few and far between. Following today's ruling, attorney for plaintiffs Kirk Tousaw called for the government to act swiftly."Health Canada must move to immediately allow new entrants to production and address changes. Anything less is unjust," Tousaw wrote on Twitter.

The court's decision is subject to appeal by the Canadian government, but if it stands it will send the Liberals back to the drawing board in their effort to develop a regulatory regime for medical marijuana.

Related: Justin Trudeau's Battle for Legal Weed in Canada Is Going to Be a Total Mess

The MMPR replaced earlier legislation that was drafted in response to an Ontario Court of Appeal decision in 2000, which said banning a patient from growing marijuana for medical purposes "deprived him of his rights to liberty and security of the person.

Today's ruling leaves a regulatory vacuum if there is no action within the six month stay. That the MMPR is unconstitutional does not validate the earlier Marihuana Medical Access Regulations, which was repealed with the enactment of the 2013 law.

"It basically creates a big void, where there's no regime," Hugo Alves, a partner with Toronto law firm Bennett Jones, told VICE News. "If you were a patient under the MMPR, you've got nothing now, because there's no underlying regime."

For those patients growing their own weed, this will create a problem if there's no legislative movement or further court rulings in the next six months.

"Absent a replacement or exemption, those in need of medical marihuana — and access to a Charter compliant medicine marihuana regime is legally required — face potential criminal charges," wrote Judge Phelan in his ruling.

The decision to throw marijuana regulation back to the legislature came as a surprise to some licensed pot producers and doctors who work within the regulatory framework.

Ronan Levy, the director of Canadian Cannabis Clinics, said that he thought the MMPR had done a good job balancing patient's interests in "safe, legal, properly produced cannabis" with mitigating public nuisances and fire risks that the government's attorneys argued accompany home growing. Levy — whose company connects patients with doctors willing to prescribe pot as appropriate — also said that the variability of home-grown weed is one of the factors that makes many physicians wary.

"I think you're going to find less doctors feeling comfortable with cannabis, and if that's the result, the increased access by allowing home growing is going to be offset by fewer doctors feeling like prescribing," said Levy. For Canada's 29 licensed pot producers that operate under the MMPR, this decision creates serious uncertainty. Stock prices for Tweed, Canada's first publicly-traded marijuana producer, dropped significantly after the court ruled this afternoon. John Fowler, the president of Supreme, another licensed producer, said that he hopes the government won't appeal the ruling, but take it as a message that better regulations need to be developed.

"I hope the Liberals look at the political issue here, at the fact that some Canadians can't afford any medical marijuana, and come up with balance between the interest of the [licensed producers] and the health interest of Canadians," said Fowler.