De War on Drugs in Mexico #4 - Hoe lossen we de oorlog op?

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Op maandag 23 januari 2012 15:35 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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Inderdaad, het dumpen van een berg lijken of schietpartijen met meerdere doden zijn dan ook aan de orde van de dag.
Veracruz was tot mei vorig jaar echter erg rustig en toen is het ineens zeer geweldadig geworden. Nu is het weer rustig gelukkig.
Zolang de cartels elkaar afmaken is er niet zo veel aan de hand.

Zielig incident in Veracruz van de zomer was wel een granaat die op straat werd gegooit voor het Aquarium (een toeristenattractie van de stad) een vader van een familie die op bezoek was in de stad gooide zich op de granaat om zijn familie te beschermen.

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Op maandag 23 januari 2012 20:43 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
Door de huidige onveilige situatie in Veracruz heeft onze gouverneur noodzakelijke maatregelen getroffen tegen deze crisissituatie.
Hij heeft namelijk bevolen de verkeersborden te laten veranderen. Een good moment voor alle

Zona de descarga > laad en los zone

topes pelligrosos > gevaarlijke drempels

precausion ejecutados > let op! lijken op de weg

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The war on the truth about drugs

So sentencing for some offences will be reduced – but we're still left with an unscientific drug policy obsessed with 'the message'

What's the smallest unit of celebration? A whooplet? I need one to mark the news that sentencing for drug offences, in some cases, will be shortened. Following new guidelines from the sentencing council from the end of February those found to have bought drugs to share with friends rather than to profit from them, and those found to have imported drugs under duress, can expect to be locked up slightly less often, and for slightly less long. One whooplet, certainly, is the council's to share.

I do hope the grudging tone comes across however: giving a year and a half of prison time to a clubber who bought 20 ecstasy pills and split them with a friend (the guideline "starting point" the council recommends) remains an act of stupidity. In all but the most minuscule number of cases, those pills would have done nothing more harmful than inflict some loss of sleep.

What is welcome, though, is that the new guidelines go some way to recognising the variety of behaviour that constitutes "dealing" or "trafficking". Those words have grim associations they often don't deserve. For instance, it's rather difficult for six friends to buy the exact amount of cocaine, in advance, that each of them wants to take that evening. So they usually split some, which means that at least one of them ends up being a "supplier". I don't know if it's ever been tested in court, but wouldn't even passing a joint around a room constitute a series of acts of "supply"?

Drug "mules", who carry small-to-medium-sized quantities of something through an airport in their luggage (or sometimes in their stomach), have often been coerced into doing so, and this is now rightly being seen as a mitigating factor too. So is low purity – a very knotty problem. Which is the greater crime? Selling a large quantity of diluted cocaine powder, or a small quantity of pure cocaine? And if it's been diluted, what was it diluted with? And did whoever sold it know? Mephedrone became so popular at one time that – even while it was still legal – quantities of it were being cut with other illegal substances. Some people were dealing drugs, in other words, without realising it.

"Drug offending has to be taken seriously," Lord Justice Hughes, the council's deputy chairman explains. "Drug abuse underlies a huge volume of acquisitive and violent crime and dealing can blight communities." But people don't commit crimes because they're on drugs – they commit them because they want money to buy drugs. You might as well say that nice houses blight communities just because some people commit crimes to pay for them.

Britain is not a police state. For the most part, it's a fair and decently run country. Yet our drug policy is like some import from a totalitarian regime. The risks associated with drug use remind me of that trusty threat of "foreign terrorists" dictators use to consolidate their power.

The Conservative MP Priti Patel told the Daily Mail: "These people are not just dealing drugs – they are destroying people's lives." Patel should have a word with some of her colleagues. Louise Mensch admits that it is "highly probable" she took drugs in the 1990s, and she's done all right. Or perhaps it is the tragic case of Barack Obama that Patel has in mind? As a teenager, he made the fatal error of experimenting with marijuana, which led on to cocaine and then – with sad inevitability – to a legal career, and the presidency of his nation.

To be fair to Patel, if you don't take this "destroying lives" line, you'll be forever labelled "soft on drugs" (as even the sentencing council are in the Mail). "Drugs are illegal because they are harmful – they destroy lives and cause untold misery," said a Home Office statement in response to demands for decriminalisation from a group including three chief constables and a former drugs minister last year.

Poor Ed Miliband could only agree, using another favourite formulation. "I worry about the effects on young people," he said, "the message that we would be sending out." When a politician says their policy is based on "sending out a message" you can be sure that what they really mean is that it's wrong, but politically necessary.

Which, of course, has always been the problem with drugs. There are risks associated with their use; but there are very serious risks associated with alcohol, serving in the army or eating badly that we accept. And when the former government adviser Professor David Nutt, pointed out – accurately, in a scientific paper – that alcohol and tobacco were in many ways more harmful than LSD or ecstasy, he was sacked by Alan Johnson because his comments might "damage efforts to give the public clear messages about the dangers of drugs".

As a country, we look back in horror now at the delusions of other eras – when it was illegal to be gay, for instance, or when women could not vote. Yet we do not stop and see that we are living through another one. Decriminalisation would end the violent illegal drug trade; drug treatment and prescription for addicts would prevent them from committing crime. Both measures would make gigantic savings on the cost of policing and imprisoning offenders, and on clearing up the consequences of their actions. They would also end the outrage of people being locked up for the crime of seeking mostly harmless fun. It's our laws that are destroying lives.

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Cocaine seized at UN in New York

Drugs placed in a white bag in apparent attempt to disguise shipment as an official diplomatic pouch posted from Mexico

A shipment containing 16 kilograms of cocaine was seized last week at the United Nations's mail intake centre, a New York Police Department spokesman said on Thursday.

Paul Browne, NYPD's chief spokesman, said the drugs were in a white bag evidently masquerading as a diplomatic pouch that raised suspicions when it was being scanned because it was stamped with what looked like a poorly copied version of the UN logo.

Browne said here was no name or address on the shipment sent from Mexico City through Cincinnati.

UN security officials called the NYPD and Drug Enforcement Administration, which confirmed the substance inside the shipment intercepted on 16 January was cocaine, the police spokesman said.

The UN undersecretary general for safety and security, Gregory B Starr, told reporters on Thursday evening that "there is nothing to indicate that this had anything to do with anybody at the United Nations."

Starr said the drugs were actually stashed in two bags that were stamped with the sky-blue UN logo of a world map in an apparent effort to disguise them as diplomatic pouches, which are not supposed to be inspected. Inside the bag, the drugs were hidden in hollowed-out notebooks, he added.

The UN official showed journalists a photograph of the bags that were seized, and compared them with a real diplomatic pouch used by the UN, which is larger and made of a different material.

"This did not come from a United Nations facility," Starr said of the shipment.

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Police increasingly targeted in Mexican city

Drug gangs in Ciudad Juarez vow to kill an officer per day in response to crackdown in nation's most violent city.

Police in Mexico's most violent city are finding themselves increasingly under target.

After a renewed crackdown on violence began having an effect in Ciudad Juarez, located on the border with the US, drug cartels have struck back, promising to kill a police officer each day.

Colin Harding, a specialist in Latin American politics, told Al Jazeera the police in Ciudad Juarez "are under tremendous pressure".

"Far from limiting and restricting the violence, if anything, the highly militarised policy that President Calderon has been following has spread it and the body count is going up all the time," he said.

Al Jazeera's Rachel Levin reports from Ciudad Juarez on the steps police are now taking to protect themselves.

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Mexicanen vermoorden musici tijdens optreden

Een bende gewapende mannen heeft zaterdag in Mexico minstens negen mensen gedood, onder wie vijf leden van een muziekband die net aan het optreden was.

De bendeleden waren de bar in Chihuahua binnengestapt en schoten eerst in de lucht. Daarna mikten ze op de groep, genaamd La 5a banda.
De musici speelden nortena, een muzieksoort die het drugsgeweld in het noorden van Mexico verheerlijkt.

Naast de musici zijn ook een politieagente en drie gasten omgekomen, aldus de aanklager van Chihuahua zaterdag. De politie telde circa 100 kogelhulzen in de bar Far West.

In Mexico zijn sinds 2006 naar schatting 50.000 mensen vermoord door drugsbendes.

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Op zondag 5 februari 2012 00:19 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Op zondag 5 februari 2012 19:06 schreef dikkebroekzak het volgende:
Dodental drugsoorlog Mexico nadert de 50.000

Agenten bewaken in de plaats Zitacuaro enkele lijken voordat ze worden vervoerd naar het mortuarium. Dertien mensen kwamen daar enkele dagen geleden om bij een moordpartij. © EPA
Het aantal doden als gevolg van de drugsoorlog in Mexico nadert de 50.000, of is dat aantal al gepasseerd. Dat hebben de Mexicaanse autoriteiten gemeld.

In de eerste negen maanden van 2011 registreerde het Openbaar Ministerie 12.903 moorden die te maken zouden hebben met de bendeoorlogen. Cijfers over het laatste kwartaal van vorig jaar worden op een later moment bekendgemaakt.

Sinds eind 2006 is het drugsgerelateerde geweld in Mexico explosief toegenomen. Criminele netwerken leveren een strijd op leven en dood om de beste smokkelroutes richting afzetmarkten in de Verenigde Staten. Tot september vorig jaar zouden 47.515 mensen om het leven zijn gebracht.

In het verkiezingsjaar 2012, waarin president Felipe Calderon een tweede ambtstermijn in de wacht wil slepen, zal het geweld volgens misdaaddeskundigen nog erger worden. Nabij de grens met de Verenigde Staten is het aantal moorden weliswaar iets afgenomen, maar deze trend wordt tenietgedaan door een toenemend aantal levensdelicten in andere delen van Mexico.

http://www.volkskrant.nl/(...)dert-de-50-000.dhtml

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Police attack journalists in Mexico

The breakdown of law and order in certain Mexican cities means that journalists can not only not count on police protection but are also coming under attack from police officers.

The latest example of police assaults on reporters happened last Friday, 3 February, in the border city of Ciudad Juarez.

Joel González, a reporter with El Diario, was arrested and beaten by officers while attempting to report on the arbitrary arrest of a citizen in front of the newspaper's offices.

He has since filed a complaint with the attorney general for abuse by the authorities.

El Diario also reported that on 31 January, police threatened and attacked reporters trying to photograph and film a police search of a home where three people were arrested and drugs and arms were seized.

The day before, police pointed their rifles at two journalists from the newspaper Norte, forcing them to delete photos they had taken.

The Association of Journalists of Ciudad Juarez urged the state governor to institute controls over the city's police.

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Mexico authorities seize $4bn of methamphetamine – video

Methamphetamine worth $4bn (£2.5bn) was discovered on Wednesday by authorities in Guadalajara, the largest seizure of its kind in Mexico. Some 15 tonnes of the drug were found on a ranch. No arrests have been made, and police have yet to establish the owner of the property

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President Guatemala wil drugs legaliseren

De president van Guatemala, Otto Perez Molina, heeft vandaag gezegd dat hij de regeringsleiders van Centraal-Amerika binnenkort zal voorstellen collectief drugs te gaan legaliseren.

Perez Molina wil zijn voorstel presenteren tijdens de volgende politieke top in de regio. Hij zei volgens persbureau AP in een radio-interview dat legalisering ook de decriminalisering van drugssmokkel inhoudt. Zijn opmerkingen zijn extra opvallend, omdat hij tijdens de verkiezingen vorig jaar juist nog een keiharde aanpak van drugsbendes bepleitte.

Centraal-Amerika (en niet in de laatste plaats Guatemala) gaat zwaar gebukt onder de criminaliteit van rivaliserende drugskartels. Die smokkelen cocaïne vanuit Zuid-Amerika naar de Verenigde Staten en produceren daarnaast op grote schaal drugs als methamphetamine (een versterkte vorm van speed) in de regio zelf. Ook deze drugs is bedoeld voor de export naar de VS.


Perez Molina: al het geld voor war on drugs heeft niets uitgericht

Perez Molina zei in het radio-interview dat al het geld dat in de war on drugs is gestopt niets heeft kunnen doen om de drugssmokkel te verminderen. Net zo min als de meest geavanceerde technologie die hierbij wordt gebruikt. Hij pleit daarom nu voor een radicaal andere aanpak.

Het soort wanhoopsplan dat Perez Molina nu voorstelt, is een reactie op het enorme moordcijfer in zijn land. Per 100.000 inwoners zouden in Guatemala volgens cijfers van persbureau AP jaarlijks maar liefst 45 mensen worden vermoord. Dat is meer dan tijdens de burgeroorlog in de tweede helft van de vorige eeuw die in totaal aan zon 200.000 mensen het leven kostte.

Bijna nergens ter wereld worden relatief zo veel mensen omgebracht. Slechts in zes landen ligt het moordcijfer nog hoger. Dat zijn bovendien allemaal landen in Centraal-Amerika en de Cariben.


Perez Molina wil plannen maandag al bespreken met leider El Salvador

President Perez Molina wijt dat hoge moordcijfer aan de strijd tussen verschillende drugskartels in zijn land, die elkaar met veel geld en wapens naar het leven staan. In heel Centraal-Amerika zorgt de strijd tussen drugsbendes voor grote problemen en steeds moorddadiger samenlevingen.

De president van Guatemala wil zijn plan maandag direct al bespreken met zijn collega Mauricio Funes, de president van El Salvador. Dat land heeft traditioneel ook te kampen met veel drugscriminaliteit en een extreem hoog moordcijfer het op één na hoogste ter wereld momenteel.

Of het plan van Perez Molina kans van slagen heeft, is echter maar zeer de vraag. De kans dat de Verenigde Staten een legalisering van drugs in Centraal-Amerika zal toestaan is nihil.

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Op zaterdag 11 februari 2012 20:47 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
En dat is ééééééén:

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Op zaterdag 11 februari 2012 20:50 schreef Tism het volgende:

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'No More Weapons' billboard placed on US-Mexican border

Billboard with letters made from crushed weapons unveiled as President Felipe Calderón urges US to stop flow of weapons

The Mexican president, Felipe Calderón, has unveiled a "No More Weapons" advertising board, made using crushed firearms, near the US border and urged the US to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico.

The board, which is in English and weighs three tonnes, stands near an international bridge in Ciudad Juarez and can be seen from the US.

Calderón said its letters were made with weapons seized by local, state and federal authorities.

"Dear friends of the United States, Mexico needs your help to stop this terrible violence that we're suffering," he said in English during the unveiling ceremony. "The best way to do this is to stop the flow of automatic weapons into Mexico."

Before unveiling the billboard, the president supervised the destruction of more than 7,500 automatic rifles and handguns at a military base in Ciudad Juarez.

He said more than 140,000 weapons had been seized since December 2006, when he launched a crackdown against drug traffickers. More than 47,500 people have been killed since then.

Ciudad Juarez, where more than 9,000 people have died in drug-related violence since 2008, is one of the cities most affected by the violence.

The Mexican government said a federal prosecutor assigned to a northern state had been detained on suspicion of protecting the brutal Zetas drug cartel. The attorney general, Marisela Morales, said the federal prosecutor, Claudia Gonzalez, had been sent to prison. She did not say when Gonzalez was detained or give any further details.

Gonzalez was based in the city of Saltillo, the capital of the border state of Coahuila. The state, which borders Texas, has seen a spike of violence as the Zetas and Sinaloa drug cartels fight for control of smuggling routes into the US.

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Mexico drug gang warfare leaves 44 dead in prison near Monterrey

Inmates from Gulf and Zeta rival cartels were stabbed, stoned and beaten to death with bars, state spokesman says

A fight between prison inmates associated with rival drug gangs killed 44 inside a jail near the city of Monterrey in the state of Nuevo León, local authorities said on Sunday.

Jorge Domene, the state public security spokesman, told reporters that the victims were stabbed, stoned and beaten to death with bars.

The prison, in the municipality of Apodaca about 140 miles from the border with Texas, houses inmates associated with both the Gulf cartel and their bitter enemies in the Zetas cartel. The two groups have been involved in bitter turf wars in north-east Mexico for the past two years.

Domene said the prison fight broke out around 2am on Sunday morning after prisoners from C block attacked those in D block and that most if not all the victims were from the latter. He did not specify to which group they belonged.

"We hope that once the bodies are identified, we'll be able to say who was responsible for the attack," the official said.

Domene added that all the prison officers on duty at the time of the violence have been detained to aid an investigation into the possibility that some colluded in the attack. Prisoners from rival gangs are supposed to be kept apart.

Already escalating violence between Mexico's different drug cartels exploded after Felipe Calderon, the country's president, launched an all out offensive against organized crime in December 2006. At least 50,000 people have been killed since then, and the prisons are now filled with drug war related detainees.

With the gangs taking their rivalry behind bars – aided by pervasive corruption – deadly prison riots and massacres have become a regular feature of the drug wars. They are often accompanied by mass breakouts. Occasionally, the prison violence has involved firearms smuggled into the jails.

According to the national newspaper El Universal, there have been 267 deaths behind bars in 19 separate events since the government offensive began. Last month a riot in a prison in the north-east state of Tamaulipas left 31 dead. The paper said that the latest violence in Nuevo León was the worst prison bloodbath so far.

Relatives of the approximately 3,000 prisoners in the jail gathered outside the facility on Sunday morning demanding information. At one point some attempted to break down the a gate into the jail.

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Op maandag 20 februari 2012 02:04 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
Laat ze binnen de muren maar vechten heeft de rest van het land er in ieder geval geen land van.

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Mexican jail chiefs sacked after deadly riot

Dismissal follows violence at Apodaca prison where one drug cartel killed 44 members of its rival gang before escaping.

Mexican authorities have sacked the director of Apodaca prison in the northeast after jailed members of the Zetas drug cartel stabbed and bludgeoned 44 members of the rival Gulf cartel to death before escaping en masse.

The escape on Sunday was apparently aided by prison authorities, Mexican officials said.

Rodrigo Medina, governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, said on Monday that the prison director and three other officials were being investigated after their dismissal.

The same was done with 18 prison guards, he said.

"Unfortunately, a group of traitors has set back the work of a lot of good police," Medina said.

"The most important thing is to make sure that the people working on the inside are on the side of the law, and that they not be corrupted and collaborate with the criminals, as the investigations indicate they presumably did."

Deadly fights happen periodically in Mexico's prisons as gangs and drug cartels stage jail breaks and battle for control of prisons, often with the involvement of officials. Sunday's riot was one of the deadliest so far.

Up to 31 prisoners died in January during a prison riot in the Gulf coast city of Altamira in Tamaulipas state, which borders Texas.

Another fight in a Tamaulipas prison in the border city of Matamoros in October killed 20 inmates and injured 12.

Blunt instruments and knives

Medina did not say how the escape was carried out, but he noted that no members of any gang had broken into the prison to help their colleagues escape, as has happened at other Mexican prisons.

Nor were any firearms smuggled into the facility; all of the deaths apparently occurred with blunt instruments or improvised knives.

Medina confirmed that all 30 escaped inmates were linked to the Zetas cartel, a brutal gang founded by deserters from an elite Mexican military unit.

He did not say what crimes the escaped inmates had been convicted of, but said 25 of the 30 were in the prison on federal charges, which often involve drug trafficking or illegal weapons possession.

Medina offered a reward of 10 million pesos (almost $800,000) for information leading the arrest of those involved in the mass escape.

The Zetas and Gulf cartels were allies before splitting in 2010 and they have been fighting turf battles in Monterrey and elsewhere in northeastern Mexico.

A riot at a prison in the border city of Juarez in July last year killed 17 inmates. Mexican authorities detained the director and four guards over that clash.

Surveillance video showed two inmates opening doors to let armed prisoners into a room where the slain victims were reportedly holding a party.

In 2010, 23 people were killed in a prison riot in Durango city while a riot in Gomez Palacio, another city in the northern Mexican state of Durango, killed 19 people in 2009.

More than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon intensified Mexico's crackdown on organised crime.

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Op dinsdag 21 februari 2012 00:23 schreef Elvislives het volgende:
Die gasten hebben ook echt geen geweten he...

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Mexican scientists successfully test vaccine that could cut heroin addiction

Vaccine makes the body resistant to the pleasure effect of the drug and is now being prepared for tests on humans

A group of Mexican scientists is working on a vaccine that could reduce addiction to one of the world's most notorious narcotics: heroin.

Researchers at the country's National Institute of Psychiatry say they have successfully tested the vaccine on mice and are preparing to test it on humans.

The vaccine, which has been patented in the US, makes the body resistant to the effects of heroin, so users would no longer get a rush of pleasure when they smoked or injected it.

"It would be a vaccine for people who are serious addicts, who have not had success with other treatments and decide to use this application to get away from drugs," the institute's director Maria Elena Medina said on Thursday.

Scientists worldwide have been searching for drug addiction vaccines for several years, but none have yet been fully developed. A group at the US National Institute on Drug Abuse has reported significant progress in a vaccine for cocaine.

However, the Mexican scientists appear to be close to making a breakthrough on a heroin vaccine and have received funds from the US institute as well as the Mexican government.

During the tests, mice were given access to deposits of heroin over an extended period of time. Those given the vaccine showed a huge drop in heroin consumption, giving the institute hope that it could also work on people, Medina said.

Kim Janda, a scientist working on his own narcotics vaccines at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, said that the Mexican vaccine could function but with some shortcomings.

"It could be reasonably effective, but maybe too general and affect too many different types of opioids as well as heroin," Janda said.

Mexico has a growing drug addiction problem. Health secretary Jose Cordoba recently said the country now has about 450,000 hard drug addicts, particularly along the trafficking corridors of the US-Mexico border.

Mexican gangsters grow opium poppies in the Sierra Madre mountains and convert them into heroin known as Black Tar and Mexican Mud, which are smuggled over the Rio Grande.

Every year, the heroin trade provides billions of dollars to gangs such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the Zetas. Since 2006, cartel violence has claimed the lives of over 47,000 people in Mexico.

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Wietplantage moet dorp redden

Het Catalaanse dorp Rasquera (934 inwoners) heeft een opmerkelijk plan om de crisis te bestrijden. Een cannabisclub uit Barcelona mag er zeven hectare grond gaan pachten voor een eigen wietplantage. De gemeente wil hiermee haar schuldenlast van 1,3 miljoen euro terugdringen.

De handel in marihuana is illegaal in Spanje. Evenals het verbouwen van meer dan vijf planten. Wiet-activisten hebben echter al jaren een maas in de wet ontdekt. Zij omzeilen het verbod door zich als medicinale gebruikers in stichting te organiseren. Ze verbouwen samen wiet en roken dit in besloten verband. De autoriteiten staan dit doorgaans oogluikend toe.

Rasquera, dat bestuurd wordt door de ultralinkse, regionationalistische partij ERC, stemde gisteravond in met het plan. Volgens de burgemeester zijn er geen juridische obstakels. Hij legde ook uit dat de cannabisclub niet alleen wiet komt verbouwen om op te roken, maar ook om zaadjes te produceren die weer verkocht kunnen worden aan ‘growshops’. Volgens hem is er reeds interesse uit binnen- én buitenland voor deze ‘crisisaanpak’.

De Catalaanse krant La Vanguardia ging kijken in het dorp en maakte dit filmpje. Veel van de (bejaarde) inwoners toonden zich enthousiast (,,We moeten ergens van leven”). Een vrouw is echter bezorgd (,,Dit maakt onze kleinkinderen tot junks”).

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Nederlander in Spanje veroordeeld voor hasjsmokkel

Laatste update: 2 maart 2012 06:50 infoBekijk op de kaart.

AMSTERDAM - Een Nederlander is maandag op het Spaanse eiland Ibiza veroordeeld tot 3,5 jaar cel en vier miljoen euro boete voor de smokkel van twee ton hasj.

Foto: ANP2

Dat melden Spaanse media.

De man werd op 15 januari op een tien meter lange boot voor de kust van Almeria in Zuid-Spanje aangehouden. De drugs die de douane en de politie op de boot vonden waren bestemd voor Ibiza. De bijna tweeduizend kilo hasj zat verpakt in 66 pakketten

Op het schip was ook een Belg aanwezig. Hij is tot dezelfde straf veroordeeld.

In Spanje zitten volgens het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken 209 Nederlanders vast voor een drugsdelict

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Op vrijdag 2 maart 2012 08:25 schreef Basp1 het volgende:

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Maar 3.5 jaar voor 2 ton hash.

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Op vrijdag 2 maart 2012 08:33 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Ja, het buitenland mag ons wel eens gaan helpen met onze War on Drugs!!!!

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Op vrijdag 2 maart 2012 08:36 schreef Basp1 het volgende:

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Gelukkig kwam deze hash niet naar nederland want daar komt nu niets meer naar toe omdat onze politici het verboden hebben.

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Commission on Narcotic Drugs opens in Vienna with call for stronger networks to confront illicit drugs

12 March 2012 ­- Stronger regional networks are vital in confronting the threat of illicit drugs, said Yury Fedotov, UNODC Executive Director, at the opening of the fifty-fifth session of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which is meeting in Vienna from 12 to 16 March. "We face a transnational threat of extraordinary proportions that amounts to $320 billion or some 0.5 per cent of global GDP", he stressed.

Ministers and counter-narcotics officials from the 53 member States of the Commission will consider issues of concern, including the availability of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances for medical and scientific purposes and prevention of the diversion of chemicals for use in the manufacture of illicit drugs. The Commission is the central policymaking body within the United Nations system dealing with illicit drugs.

President Evo Morales of the Plurinational State of Bolivia explained that his Government was vigorously combating cocaine trafficking and had destroyed tons of that drug. He said his country needed more international assistance to combat the scourge, particularly in the form of equipment and technology. However, Bolivia had decided to withdraw from the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961 to "correct a historical error" concerning the indigenous uses of the coca leaf. Bolivia would reaccede to the Convention if it could make a reservation allowing the traditional consumption of coca leaf to continue, he said.

The Executive Director urged States to intensify health strategies as part of a comprehensive response to drug demand, supply and trafficking. "At present, the balance between our work on the supply and demand sides stays firmly in favour of the supply side. We must restore the balance. Prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, reintegration and health have to be recognized as key elements in our strategy", he said. "Overall, our work on the treatment side must be considered as part of the normal clinical work undertaken when responding to any other disease in the health system."

Given that 2012 marks the centenary of the signing of the International Opium Convention in 1912, the first legal instrument on drug control, the Executive Director said that it was important to recognize the gains made over the past hundred years, but that more needed to be done. He stressed the importance of human rights: "Our commitment is founded on the drug conventions. They form part of a continuum based on human rights and the rule of law that flows directly from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international standards and norms to our delivery of practical actions."

Mr. Fedotov highlighted the regional initiatives being spearheaded by UNODC in the context of shared responsibility among drug-consuming and drug-producing nations to combat the security threats posed by drug flows. UNODC recently launched a regional programme for Afghanistan and neighbouring countries to help to create a broad international coalition to combat opium poppy cultivation and opiate trafficking and production. Networks such as the triangular initiative between Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan and the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre are being strengthened. The Office will soon launch a new regional programme for South-Eastern Europe that will focus on the "Balkan route" used for heroin trafficking.

Mr Fedotov also emphasized the importance of enhanced support for Central America: "Countries in Central America, especially in the "Northern Triangle", face dramatic challenges. States have called for a strong UNODC presence in the region. This is why we have created a regional hub for Central America and the Caribbean in Panama to be linked with a re-profiled office in Mexico and other countries in the region."

Important as those initiatives are, tackling supply only was not the solution, according to the Executive Director. "Let me be clear: there can be no reduction in drug supply without a reduction in drug demand, " he said.

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Angel Raich, Cancer Patient, Kicked Out Of Hospital For Using Medical Marijuana

Angel Raich is busy dying. The famous marijuana activist -- who took the federal government to the Supreme Court of the United States for the right to use medical cannabis -- was, earlier this year diagnosed with an inoperable terminal brain tumor, a condition that causes frequent seizures as well as constant pain and headaches.

Told by her doctors at the University of California-San Francisco that she should prepare to die, that's what Raich, 46, is doing, one day at a time -- with purpose as well as dignity.

Except for Monday night, when she was summarily removed from the hospital at UCSF's Parnassus campus for using marijuana, according to NBC Bay Area -- which showed up for an interview that was cut short when Raich had a seizure and had to be rushed to a (different) hospital.

Now might be a good time to mention UCSF also happens to be one of the nation's teaching hospitals that researches marijuana's efficacy in treating cancer and pain.

Raich has lived with her brain tumor for some time, but earlier this year she was diagnosed with radiation necrosis, a complication from radiotherapy.

Details are scant, but it appears Raich was at UCSF for tests and was using marijuana via a vaporizer at the Parnassus campus when someone -- a doctor or a pharmacist -- took offense, and told Raich that they'd "call the Feds" unless she stopped using marijuana.

"The pharmacist said, you can't use cannabis in this hospital," Raich told the television station. "That's a death sentence."

Berkeley-based Dr. Frank Lucido, Raich's primary care physician, says that Raich needs to use marijuana every two waking hours, and denying her the drug amounts to "malpractice," according to a statement on Raich's website. "Angel will suffer imminent harm without access to cannabis."

Television viewers saw exactly what Lucido is talking about, as Raich suffered a seizure during her brief interview with NBC. Raich was then taken to St. Mary's Hospital on Stanyan Street, according to NBC.

In a statement, UCSF said that their hospital is "a smoke-free campus and this includes medical marijuana."

"Any particles from vapor and odor could have an impact on other patients and hospital employees," the statement read. "Under federal and state law, a physician is at legal risk related to any activity that could be construed as prescribing medical marijuana to a patient."

Raich gained national fame as the medical marijuana patient who took the federal government to the United States Supreme Court for the right to use medical marijuana. Her husband at the time, Oakland-based attorney Robert Raich, was one of the attorneys who argued that state law should supplant federal law, and that seriously ill Californians such as Raich have rights under the Constitution to use marijuana for medical purposes.

The Rehnquist Court disagreed, with the majority saying that the Commerce Clause gives Congress the right to ban marijuana for medical use, state law be damned. Justices Sandra Day O'Connor and Clarence Thomas joined Rehnquist, who died later that year, in supporting Raich.

Raich sued the government after DEA agents raided in 2002 a Butte County residence that housed six pot plants that provided Raich with her medicine.

It's worth mentioning that Raich is currently involved in yet another Supreme Court case, though not one you might expect. Raich filed an amicus brief in support of the lawsuit filed by the state of Florida which seeks to overturn Obamacare. Oral arguments in that case, Florida v. United States Department of Health and Human Services, are scheduled to begin later this month.

Details on Raich's current condition, and exactly what happened at UCSF were not available as of Tuesday. We'll update this post as soon as we know more.

Take a look at a video report of Raich's situation below, courtesy of NBC Bay Area:

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Drug use: 20 things you might not know - animation

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Would you take a mystery white powder without knowing what it was? Would you drive after taking drugs? And if you got stopped by police carrying drugs in the US, would they be discovered? This animation explains some of the key findings from the UK and the US of the Guardian/Mixmag Global Drug Survey of over 15,000 people. Where do you fit in?

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Which drug do you take? US and the UK compared by the global drug survey

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'Hidden' drug users who won't be found burgling your home to fund their habit

These detailed new insights reveal that despite media hype around illicit substances, alcohol is the bigger problem

You probably know one or two of Britain's "hidden" drug users, and may even be one yourself. They are often young, highly educated, working, sociable and sporty. They feel healthy, happy in their relationships, and confident about the future. They take cannabis, cocaine, MDMA (ecstasy) and, lest we forget, a fair amount of tobacco and alcohol.

They are, by and large, the drug users you rarely hear or read about, at least not in the social affairs pages. You won't find them in a crack den or breaking into your home to fund their habit. Their use of illegal drugs is a lifestyle choice: it doesn't define or consume them like some heroin and crack addicts. They don't register as an alert on the public health radar, or as a headline on the law and order agenda.

It is easy to imagine many of them as smart, respectable, economically productive, holding down jobs in – or preparing to enter – the professions, business, banking, public service, the law, even politics. It's easy to think of these "happy" drug takers as unproblematic: as rational, self-regulating, middle-class "consumers", who are relatively discreet and (on the whole) discriminating in their drug use, and who tend to tidy up after themselves.

This view, the Guardian/Mixmag survey reveals, is implicitly shared by the police. The status, and perhaps age and skin colour, of our "hidden" drug users means they are not a target – unlike, say black, inner-city youth. They do get stopped and searched, sometimes busted for possession. But the survey suggests the law is pragmatically uninterested, on the whole, in criminalising their misdemeanours.

It also confirms truths that often get lost in the hysterical media discourse around drugs and public health: that taking drugs is, for many ordinary people, as normal and pleasurable a part of their lives as drinking or smoking.

They balance their desire for drug experiences with the demands of work, study and relationships. They see drug use as a choice, with desirable consequences, as well as risks.

This year's survey, conducted by Global Drug Survey, is the biggest of current UK drug use ever carried out, completed by 7,700 UK drug users and 15,500 worldwide, including 3,300 in the US. Its crowd-sourced snapshot of the real-life experiences of a large group of users, male and female, gay and straight, clubbers and non-clubbers, is unique in the scale and detail of its insight into current drug trends, attitudes, practices, risks and harms.

There are detailed, fresh and important insights into drug use and consequences: the unexpectedly high prevalence among drug users of legally prescribed medication – Ritalin, sleeping pills and so on – acquired through the "grey market" of friends and dealers; the reckless use of "mystery white powders" by young hedonists; the consumer backlash against much-hyped drugs such as mephedrone and synthetic cannabis; warning signs of physical harms connected to use of ketamine, for example.

Of course, pleasurable drug use can easily slide into pain: for all that respondents feel happy and in control, most know of at least one friend whose drug use they fear is spinning out of control with all the toxic consequences for their health, relationships and careers. When this happens, it seems conventional help – whether GPs or government-funded drug advice websites – is rarely regarded as trustworthy or helpful.

It's worth noting that while respondents say they block out messages saying "don't take drugs", they would lap up practical, personalised information about dangers and safety tips that enable them to regulate and benchmark their drug intake – the kind of information that Global Drug Survey's Drugs Meter app seeks to provide.

The question for policymakers is how to use this kind of detailed user intelligence data to design and implement appropriate public health responses, based on the evidence of what drugs people take, how and why they consume them, and what consequences they report.

The first policy stop might be that most potent of legal substances, alcohol. Over half of the survey respondents reported drinking at levels that the World Health Organisation would class as harmful (though some of this group believed they were only drinking "average" amounts). Asked which drug they would most like to cut down on, 36% of respondents said alcohol (a figure only exceeded by the 64% who wanted to cut down on tobacco).

When it comes to drugs, we are fascinated and horrified by the fashionable, illicit and notorious. But the deeply mundane finding of our survey is that the most prevalent, damaging and antisocial drug of all – and the one most users want help to kick – is still the one in your fridge and supermarket trolley: booze.

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Guardian/Mixmag drug survey reveals a generation happy to chance it

Data shows predominantly white, educated and relatively healthy users willing to take significant risks with their health

"My daily life is sensible, regimented and very stressful, so at the weekend I want the complete opposite," explained James, a financial broker. "When I go out, the last thing I want is to think about work and responsibilities. I just want to lose myself for a few hours."

The 25-year-old, who is at his desk in the City by 6.30am every day, takes a mix of MDMA, cocaine and the anaesthetic ketamine almost every weekend. He insists it does not affect his work and says the fallout from a weekend drug bender is little worse than a bad hangover.

"I just personally enjoy it," he said. "It's not sitting alone in a room shooting up heroin, it's a social and enjoyable experience that I can balance with my working life."

Respondents to the Guardian/Mixmag drug survey – for which 15,500 regular users such as James revealed everything from their drug of choice to the amount they pay for a gram of cocaine – do not easily conform to drug user stereotypes. Predominantly white, educated, relatively healthy people with an average age of 28, they are neither in rehab nor prison and rarely touch heroin or crack.

But the survey exposes a generation of drug-users willing to take significant risks with their health. Many respondents admitted to taking cocktails of drugs, mixing drugs with alcohol, and taking "mystery" white powder with little or no knowledge of its content.

And while a significant majority – 76% – said they didn't need drugs for a good night out, a higher proportion – 86% – thought drugs could make a good night better.

"I think most people view drug-users as dependent or weaker in some way," said Luke, 20, who works for a removals and storage business. "In fact, the users that I regularly spend time with – myself included – are hard-working and socially functional people, just like many non-users."

Unknown substances

Despite a commonly professed happiness with their relationships and standard of living, there is evidence that younger drug-takers in particular are taking serious risks with their health.

Those under 25 were twice as likely to have taken a "mystery white powder" as older respondents, with 19% admitting to snorting or ingesting a substance without knowing what it was. Of the overall 14.6% of respondents who had taken an unknown white powder, a third took it from a stranger and 80% were already intoxicated when they took it.

Dr Adam Winstock, founder of Global Drug Survey, which analysed the Guardian/Mixmag data, said that while the majority of drug users were "not stupid", many were putting themselves in dangerous situations.

"What worries me is that people's judgment is already impaired when they are taking a substance they don't know," Winstock said. "You are much more likely to run into trouble if you mix drugs, or mix drugs with alcohol – and if you are taking a drug you don't know from someone you don't know, that is really upping the risk."

Tanya, a 29-year-old who lives in Glasgow and works in the media, said the illicit nature of the drug scene made people more likely to take risks.

"I think half the reason people are taking mystery powder is because of all this cloak and dagger stuff. If someone offers you something in a club, it's not like you can shout out and ask what it is, or how much you should take – you just lick your finger and stick it in."

Tanya described snorting what she thought was cocaine at a house party, only to be told it was ketamine.

"Ketamine is a horse-tranquiliser and, to be honest, it makes you feel like a tranquilised horse," she said. "That was a bit of a wake-up call. The next day we all sat around saying: 'We are educated, sensible people – what were we playing at?'"

James had a more extreme reaction after taking a drug he believed was ketamine on a night out for his birthday. Unable to contact his usual drug dealer, he bought what he thought were pills and ketamine from someone he had not used before. "We took the stuff in the club and everyone went insane. It was horrendous – we were like complete zombies, just dribbling," he said. "We found ourselves out on the street a couple of hours later when we came around."

Yet James said that the group then went back to his house and, thinking the reaction had come from "dodgy pills", took more of the ketamine.

"We did a load more and went into freakout mode; no one could breathe and we didn't know how it was going to end," he said.

James later discovered his group had been sold methoxetamine – also known as MXE, Mexxy or Roflcoptr – a "legal high", ketamine-style chemical that has been tried by 5% of the survey's respondents. "It really put me off buying from a 'random'," said James. "Basically they can sell you anything and what are you going to do? You are never going to report a dealer."

MXE is in line to become the first drug to be made subject to a temporary class drug order, which would ban the substance for 12 months while further investigations are carried out – part of the government's attempts to stem a wave of new drugs available.

The survey reveals that 20% of respondents have taken legal highs in the past 12 months, with 35% buying them from friend, 45% online, 42% from a shop and 22.5% from a dealer.

"The research chemicals available in the UK are diverse and fascinating," said David, a 21-year-old student . A self-confessed "enthusiast", he admitted using legal highs, including the psychedelic AMT, the stimulant 6-APB (benfamine) and MXE. Despite describing one experience on ketamine as "very oppressive – like dying and coming back to life", David said he had no qualms about trying out new chemical compounds.

"It's not for everyone, but it is actually quite hard to kill yourself," he said. "Of course there are risks, but you negate them by learning about the drugs – in the same way you wear a seat belt in a car. And for me, the risks are very much worth it."

John Ramsey, a toxicologist at St George's medical school in London, contrasted the increasing number of "legal" drugs on the market with the dearth of research into their short- and long-term effects. "It is amazing that so many people take mystery white powders," he said. "The truth is nobody knows what the risks of legal highs are, and it is patently dangerous to take untested drugs."

The debate about how to tackle legal highs rages on. There have been high-profile deaths linked to legal highs – such as the BZP-linked death of the 22-year-old mortgage broker Daniel Backhouse, who is thought to have also taken ecstasy – yet critics accuse the government of bowing to a media frenzy.

Maryon Stewart, whose 21-year-old daughter, Hester, died in April 2009 after taking the club drug GBL in combination with alcohol, warns that the risks of legal highs are real. "Young people are playing russian roulette with their lives and wellbeing," she said. "There are risks when you know what you are taking, which are multiplied when you don't know what you are throwing down your throat."

Legal highs

Stewart set up the Angelus Foundation, which aims to educate users of the risks of taking legal highs and other drugs, and she says that simply banning new drugs is not the answer. "The prime minister has said he will stamp out legal highs, but how? All the government is doing is banning them one by one, which is pretty much a waste of time. For young people, raising awareness and education is key," she said.

Her foundation has launched a petition to encourage people to lobby the government to bring drug education on to the national curriculum.

Dr Les King, a chemist and former head of the drugs intelligence unit in the forensic science service, agreed. "The government wants to be seen to be doing something – but using the Misuse of Drugs Act to ban these substances is not the way forward," he said. "There are so many of them that we need a different approach."

The government banned mephedrone in March 2010 after reports linking the drug to deaths in the UK, such as 14-year-old schoolgirl Gabrielle Price in Brighton, although police later said she died from bronchopneumonia. And despite reports claiming mephedrone is more popular among clubbers than before it was banned, results from the Guardian/Mixmag survey suggest the ban could have had an impact. Usage has dropped among survey respondents in the past year – from 51% to 19.5%. Among regular clubbers it was down to 30%.

According to King, the "huff and puff" around banning drugs was obscuring the bigger problem: dependence on alcohol and tobacco. "Alcohol and tobacco are never put in the same league as drugs, but from a scientific point of view they should be," he said.

His concerns appear to be backed up by respondents' concerns – 36% said they would like to consume less alcohol, compared with 64% who wanted to cut down on tobacco, 17% who wanted to cut down on cocaine and 8% on MDMA, while 40% said that their friends' alcohol consumption caused them the most worry. As one regular drug user put it: "It seems everyone in the country drinks like a fish, from the Queen down, so I think drugs are the least of our worries."

The survey also suggests that many respondents are relatively unconcerned about breaking the law – 9.4% had been stopped and searched in the previous 12 months and 60% reported having drugs on them on at least one occasion when stopped. Of those that had been searched, 65% said police had failed to find the drugs they were carrying on at least one occasion. Of those found with MDMA, 37% were let off with only a telling off, as were 40% of those with cocaine and 49% of those with cannabis.

For many of the survey's respondents, there appears to be no pressing need to stop taking drugs. Tanya, who has never been in trouble with the police, is not worried about leaving drugs behind. "I used to say I'd give up when I was 30," said the 29-year-old. "I'm now thinking I might put that back to 40."

For James, the prospect of giving up drugs lies some way in the future. "My drug-taking and partying is a choice. I assume that one day I'll grow bored of it or not be able to balance it with other commitments I may have. But for as long as I continue to enjoy myself, I'll probably continue."

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Decriminalising drugs in the Western hemisphere

In a break with his past positions, Guatemala's president recently suggested decriminalising illegal drugs.

Scranton, PA - United States Vice President Joseph Biden recently travelled to Mexico and Honduras in the midst of growing frustration with the US war on drugs. In Mexico, Biden met with current President Felipe Calderón as well as several contenders in the country's presidential election this July.

From there, Biden flew to Honduras for a meeting of the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) during which he met with the presidents of Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and El Salvador, and Panama, and others. While Biden's Central America visit was initially designed to discuss regional security more broadly, debate mainly revolved around Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina's suggestion that the region consider decriminalising the use and transportation of drugs.

Central America and Mexico are situated between the major drug-producing nations of South America (Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia) and the world's largest consumer of illegal drugs, the United States. Ninety per cent of the cocaine destined for the US passes through the region. While the US has moved to restrict the flow of drugs moving into the country via the Caribbean and air routes, violence in Mexico and Central America has increased as rival drug trafficking organisations fight over access to the lucrative drug market in the United States.

The Northern Triangle of Central America is now comprised of three of the most violent countries in the world in terms of homicides per 100,000 people. Honduras (86 homicides per 100,000) and El Salvador (70) had the two highest homicide rates in the world in 2011 and Guatemala (39), while far behind, still ranked among the most violent. Homicide rates in Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Mexico have also seen sharp increases over the last few years. While there are no solid numbers as to what percentage of homicides have been caused by drug trafficking, it is clear to all parties that the drug trade is fuelling, in one way or another, much of the region's violence.

President Otto Perez Molina's call to discuss decriminalising drugs was welcomed by many, but it is still unclear why he suggested that the region consider decriminalising illegal drug use and transportation at this moment in time. It is quite possible that Perez has come to the same conclusion that many others have - that the US-directed war on drugs has failed. For all the billions of dollars spent and lives lost in the war on drugs, there's very little positive to show for it. The only way for the region to reduce the violence associated with drug trafficking between its South American source and North American destination is to decriminalise its production, transportation, and consumption.

This is not an unreasonable position. Former presidents of Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia have criticised US drug policy and have called for some level of decriminalising illegal drugs.

I understand that Perez' justification for his policy reversal isn't the primary concern for those who seek a fundamental change in the region's drug policy, but it is an important question, and the Guatemalan people should know better how President Perez came to this decision. Before his victory in a November runoff, Perez had been campaigning for president ever since he founded the Patriotic Party in 2001. He ran on a mano dura ("strong fist") platform that he insisted was necessary to tackle rising crime before losing to Alvaro Colom in the 2007 presidential election. In 2011, Perez was again the mano dura candidate. His campaign rhetoric also addressed social and economic issues in greater detail compared to 2007.

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Op donderdag 15 maart 2012 13:56 schreef ComplexConjugate het volgende:
Alcohol en tabak zijn zonder meer de meest schadelijk drugs die er te vinden zijn, helaas zijn deze middelen gereguleerd maar ik zou er wel wat in zien als je via legale weg toegang zou kunnen krijgen tot een breed scala aan prettige substanties

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Op donderdag 15 maart 2012 14:03 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

Het verbieden van drugs gaat over macht en geld, niet over een goede samenleving of volksgezondheid.

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New wrinkle in pot debate: stoned driving

Associated Press= DENVER (AP) — Angeline Chilton says she can't drive unless she smokes pot. The suburban Denver woman says she'd never get behind the wheel right after smoking, but she does use medical marijuana twice a day to ease tremors caused by multiple sclerosis that previously left her homebound.

"I don't drink and drive, and I don't smoke and drive," she said. "But my body is completely saturated with THC."

Her case underscores a problem that no one's sure how to solve: How do you tell if someone is too stoned to drive?

States that allow medical marijuana have grappled with determining impairment levels for years. And voters in Colorado and Washington state will decide this fall whether to legalize the drug for recreational use, bringing a new urgency to the issue.

A Denver marijuana advocate says officials are scrambling for limits in part because more drivers acknowledge using the drug.

"The explosion of medical marijuana patients has led to a lot of drivers sticking the (marijuana) card in law enforcement's face, saying, 'You can't do anything to me, I'm legal,'" said Sean McAllister, a lawyer who defends people charged with driving under the influence of marijuana.

It's not that simple. Driving while impaired by any drug is illegal in all states.

But it highlights the challenges law enforcement officers face using old tools to try to fix a new problem. Most convictions for drugged driving now are based on police observations, followed later by a blood test.

Authorities envision a legal threshold for pot that would be comparable to the blood-alcohol standard used to determine drunken driving.

But unlike alcohol, marijuana stays in the blood long after the high wears off a few hours after use, and there is no quick test to determine someone's level of impairment — not that scientists haven't been working on it.

Dr. Marilyn Huestis of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a government research lab, says that soon there will be a saliva test to detect recent marijuana use.

But government officials say that doesn't address the question of impairment.

"I'll be dead — and so will lots of other people — from old age, before we know the impairment levels" for marijuana and other drugs, said White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

Authorities recognize the need for a solution. Marijuana causes dizziness, slowed reaction time and drivers are more likely to drift and swerve while they're high.

Dr. Bob DuPont, president of the Institute for Behavior and Health, a non-government institute that works to reduce drug abuse, says research proves "the terrible carnage out there on the roads caused by marijuana."

One recent review of several studies of pot smoking and car accidents suggested that driving after smoking marijuana might almost double the risk of being in a serious or fatal crash.

And a recent nationwide census of fatal traffic accidents showed that while deadly crashes have declined in recent years, the percentage of mortally wounded drivers who later tested positive for drugs rose 18 percent between 2005 and 2011.

DuPont, drug czar for Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, wrote a paper last year on drugged driving for the Obama administration, which has made the issue a priority.

Physicians say that while many tests can show whether someone has recently used pot, it's more difficult to pinpoint impairment at any certain time.

Urine and blood tests are better at showing whether someone used the drug in the past — which is why employers and probation officers use them. But determining current impairment is far trickier.

"There's no sure answer to that question," said Dr. Guohua Li, a Columbia University researcher who reviewed marijuana use and motor vehicle crashes last year.

His survey linked pot use to crash risk, but pointed out wide research gaps. Scientists do not have conclusive data to link marijuana dosing to accident likelihood; whether it matters if the drug is smoked or eaten; or how pot interacts with other drugs.

The limited data has prompted a furious debate.

Proposed solutions include setting limits on the amount of the main psychoactive chemical in marijuana, THC, that drivers can have in their blood. But THC limits to determine impairment are not widely agreed upon.

Two states place the standard at 2 nanograms per milliliter of blood. Others have zero tolerance policies. And Colorado and Washington state are debating a threshold of 5 nanograms.

Such an attempt failed the Colorado Legislature last year, amid opposition from Republicans and Democrats. State officials then set up a task force to settle the question — and the panel couldn't agree.

This year, Colorado lawmakers are debating a similar measure, but its sponsors concede they don't know whether the "driving while high" bill will pass.

In Washington state, the ballot measure on marijuana legalization includes a 5 nanogram THC limit.

The measure's backers say polling indicates such a driving limit could be crucial to winning public support for legalization.

"Voters were very concerned about impaired driving," said Alison Holcomb, campaign director for Washington's legalization measure.

Holcomb also pointed to a failed marijuana legalization proposal in California two years ago that did not include a driving THC limit.

The White House, which has a goal of reducing drugged driving by 10 percent in the next three years, wants states to set a blood-level standard upon which to base convictions, but has not said what that limit should be.

Administration officials insist marijuana should remain illegal, and Kerlikowske called it a "bogus argument" to say any legal level of THC in a driver is safe.

But several factors can skew THC blood tests, including age, gender, weight and frequency of marijuana use. Also, THC can remain in the system weeks after a user sobers up, leading to the anxiety shared by many in the 16 medical marijuana states: They could be at risk for a positive test at any time, whether they had recently used the drug or not.

A Colorado state forensic toxicologist testified recently that "5 nanograms is more than fair" to determine intoxication. But, for now the blood test proposals remain politically fraught, with supporters and opponents of marijuana legalization hinging support on the issue.

Huestis, of the government-funded drug abuse institute, says an easy-to-use roadside saliva test that can determine recent marijuana use — as opposed to long-ago pot use — is in final testing stages and will be ready for police use soon.

Researchers envision a day when marijuana tests are as common in police cars as Breathalyzers.

Until then, lawmakers will consider measures such as Colorado's marijuana DUI proposal, which marijuana activists say imperils drivers who frequently use the drug such as Chilton, the multiple sclerosis patient.

She says that since she began using pot she has started driving again and for the first time in five years has landed a job.

Chilton worries Colorado's proposal jeopardizes her newfound freedom.

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Mexican police killed after beheadings

Gunmen opened fire on a police convoy on a rural highway near Teloloapan, killing 12 officers and wounding 11 more

Twelve Mexican police were killed in a mountain highway ambush hours after the severed heads of 10 people were found in a small town in a key illegal drug-growing region.

Gunmen opened fire on a police convoy on Sunday evening, killing 12 officers and wounding 11 more, said Arturo Martinez, spokesman for the Guerrero state government.

The ambush took place on a rural highway near the town of Teloloapan, located in southern Mexico between the beach resort of Acapulco and Mexico City.

Earlier on Sunday, the severed heads of 10 people were lined along a street outside a slaughterhouse in the centre of Teloloapan.

The region has been long used by drug gangs to grow marijuana. Surrounding Guerrero state has seen a spike in violence since last year as several major gangs battle over trafficking routes.

The La Familia cartel and its offshoot, Los Caballeros Templarios (The Knights Templar), are among the gangs fighting for territory in the region. The heads had been left with a message threatening the La Familia gang, local media reported.

More than 50,000 people, including more than 2,500 police and soldiers, have died in drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led crackdown on the cartels after taking office five years ago.

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Op dinsdag 20 maart 2012 22:16 schreef VeX- het volgende:
Mexico is een doodlopend verhaal.

Gewoon de VS hele boel laten platbombarderen en van de grond af aan opnieuw beginnen.

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Op dinsdag 20 maart 2012 22:16 schreef VeX- het volgende:
Mexico is een doodlopend verhaal.

Gewoon de VS hele boel laten platbombarderen en van de grond af aan opnieuw beginnen.