The World Wide War on Drugs #5 - Het begin van het einde?

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Nutella boos op wietpasta 'Nugtella'


De makers van de chocoladepasta Nutella, de Italiaanse onderneming Ferrero, gaat juridische stappen nemen tegen de Amerikaanse bereiders van Nugtella, een sterk op Nutella gelijkende bruine pasta waar hazelnoten en marihuana in zijn verwerkt.

@volkskrant bestaat echt pic.twitter.com/4vZEr47FNE

Nugtella bevat wat in Californië 'medische marihuana' wordt genoemd en is uitsluitend verkrijgbaar voor mensen die een speciale vergunning hebben om vanwege hun gezondheid marihuana te kunnen aanschaffen. Nugtella is duurder dan Nutella. Een potje kost 25 dollar (18,65 euro).

De verpakking van het Californische Nugtella lijkt sprekend op die van Nutella. 'Ferrero zal alle mogelijke stappen ondernemen om zijn rechten te beschermen en om verwarring (van Nugtella) met het wereldberoemde merk Nutella uit te sluiten', zei een woordvoerder van het bedrijf in het weekeinde tegen het Duitse weekblad Wirtschaftswoche.

Ferrero verkoopt zijn bekende hazelnootpasta al sinds de jaren 60. Inmiddels is Nutella volgens het bedrijf in meer dan 190 landen verkrijgbaar. Ferrero is ook het moederbedrijf van merken als Kinder en TicTac.

Bron: Volkskrant

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Op zondag 25 augustus 2013 20:59 schreef Brum_brum het volgende:
http://nos.nl/video/544175-conflict-dreigt-om-coffeeshops.html
Kan iemand mij vertellen wat nou precies het probleem en de overlast is in dit stukje staats tv?

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Op zondag 25 augustus 2013 21:14 schreef Brum_brum het volgende:

[..]

Ik denk ook dat mensen intimideren aan de grens meer overlast geeft dan een blower, maar ik hoop eigenlijk op de anti drugs mensen die dit helemaal kunnen verklaren voor ons.

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Mexico: rise of vigilante groups adds to turmoil over crime gangs | World news | theguardian.com

President Enrique Peña Nieto has been forced to dilute plans for new national police force to fight drug cartels

Mexican authorities are struggling to control growing numbers of small town vigilante groups which have taken up arms in the name of protecting their communities against organised crime after local and federal police forces have failed to keep them safe.

On Monday police in the town of Tixtla in the southern state of Guerrero were attacked and had their weapons taken by one such group. On Tuesday scuffles broke out when the army disarmed another group marching to demand the release of a recently arrested leader.

Also on Tuesday, sympathisers of a self-defence group in the mountain town of Aquila in the neighbouring state of Michoacan accused state police of killing two people after a mass arrest of the local "community guard". "The problem is getting worse and it is a serious matter," said security expert Eduardo Guerrero, who closely monitors the dynamics of Mexico's drug wars and government strategy. "It seems to me that the government does not have clear information from the field and that leads to ambiguity in the response."

Increasing numbers of so-called self-defence groups have been formed across the country over the past year. They typically argue that they have no other option for limiting the abuses carried out by organised criminal groups that operate extorsion and kidnapping networks backed up by extreme violence.

President Enrique Peña Nieto took office in December promising to implement a new strategy in the country's raging drug wars. But although the government claims better co-ordination between different security forces has prompted a drop in the murder rate, violence remains extreme and on Tuesday Peña Nieto was forced to dilute plans for a new national police force to lead the struggle against the cartels.

Security forces have proved unable – and sometimes unwilling – to crack down on organised crime groups, prompting growing support in some areas for vigilante groups. But while many self-defence groups have grown out of local communities, some have themselves been accused of participating in criminal activities, or acting as front organisations for the cartels.

The particular circumstances triggering the formation of each vigilante group, their type and level of organisation, as well as the sophistication of the weapons they carry, vary greatly from place to place.

"Some are clearly authentic efforts by communities to protect themselves, but others appear to have been infiltrated by criminals [from rival cartels]," said Guerrero.

He said the phenomenon also fed into divisions within communities, making for highly complex and explosive situations.

The movements have been particularly intense in Guerrero and Michoacan, which have both been severely hit by cartel violence and corruption.

In some towns the groups have negotiated with the state authorities, particularly in Guerrero where there was already a well-established tradition of community policing in indigenous communities.

Olinala is one such case in which an initial uprising in October last year was followed by a period of relative calm when the army was deployed in the area. Several months later a community police was formed led by a local woman called Nestora Salgado, but complaints of arbitrary justice soon began to surface.

Federal forces arrested Salgado earlier this month on charges of kidnapping, prompting protests from part of the community including the march on Tuesday that was reportedly disarmed and disbanded amid much shouting and pushing only after hundreds of soldiers surrounded the protesters with a helicopter circling overhead.

Local press reported on Wednesday that the road blockade went ahead anyway with the demand for the return of the weapons added to the call for Salgado's release.

Meanwhile, the official response to the disarming of municipal police by vigilantes in the town of Tixtla has so far been much more tolerant, with governor Angel Aguirre complaining that the violent events obstructed talks with community defence groups, but little else.

A video of the incident broadcast on national media shows police being beaten up and their guns taken. It also shows police and members of the self-defence group taking up positions behind walls and market stalls, weapons aimed at each other, while civilians run for cover in terror.
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Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Electric Zoo music festival cancelled over drug-related health concerns | World news | theguardian.com

Two attendees died and four others were hospitalised during first two days of performances of New York City festival

The last day of a New York City dance music festival featuring high-profile acts including Avicii, David Guetta and Diplo has been canceled over drug-related health concerns.

The city says it recommended that the Electric Zoo festival not continue Sunday after two attendees died and four others had to be hospitalized during the first two days of performances on Friday and Saturday. The festival took place on Randall's Island in the East River.

A statement from the fesitval's organiser, Made Event, said: "The founders of Electric Zoo send our deepest condolences to the families of the two people who passed away this weekend. Because there is nothing more important to us than our patrons, we have decided in consultation with the New York City parks department that there will be no show today."

The city says the deaths appear to have been linked to drugs, specifically MDMA, or ecstasy. Definitive causes of death have not yet been determined.

The event's founders expressed condolences on its website to the families of those who died.

The festival has been held since 2009.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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War on Drugs Leads to Better, Cheaper Dope, Study Says

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The American war on drugs has cost taxpayers at least a trillion dollars. For decades, it has put away mothers and fathers, husbands and daughters, giving the United States one of the highest incarceration rates in the world.
Then-President Richard Nixon first identified drugs as a top target in 1969 and more formally declared war in 1971. What has this four-decade battle really gotten us?
Stronger and cheaper drugs.

Really.

So says a study this week by researchers at the International Centre for Science in Drug Policy that was published in the British Medical Journal Open.

The academics from the University of British Columbia looked at drug use in the United States over roughly two decades (1990 to 2009) and discovered a correlation between the war and the availability of more affordable, more potent street narcotics.

For example, the researchers say, the purity of cocaine was found to have increased by 11 percent. The purity of heroin: 60 percent.

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Drugs Like Krokodil Are the Result of Irresponsible 'War on Drugs' Policy

A flesh-rotting drug is eye-popping, but the real story should ask why we aren’t doing more to help impoverished addicts.

It’s easy to focus on the sensational aspects of the emerging krokodil “ flesh-rotting drug” story, but that ignores the most troubling issues around its origins, its popularity and its continued use. Krokodil is the street term for a home-made injectable opioid called desomorphine, a drug with effects similar to, but not as long lasting, as heroin. Desomorphine was first patented in the U.S. in 1932, but the homemade version has risen in popularity in Russia in recent years. Desperation often breeds tragedy and disaster, and Russia’s

shoddy methods of treating their sick and addicted created the desperation that led to the disastrous popularity of krokodil.

In Russia, there is no methadone, drug treatment is totally inadequate, the street price of heroin can be very high and drug users are left to struggle with their addictions with no real therapeutic assistance. In that awful climate krokodil emerged and spread. Lacking any real alternatives, drug users attempt to manage their addictions themselves by creating a substitute for heroin. According to the World Health Organization, the Russian Federation has one of the highest rates of opiate use in the world. Millions of drug users throughout Russia urgently need access to evidence-based treatment and medication for their drug use, but are refused it, largely due to stigma and ignorance.

Earlier this year, the Pulitizer Center reported on the dire situation in Russia, describing it as “Death by Indifference.” But this is hardly breaking news. We’ve known about these failures a long time. Back in 2008, the New York Times reported on it, shining an important light on the urgent need for methadone access.

People who use drugs urgently need, at minimum, access to evidence-based treatment and the full range of therapeutic interventions and medications that can help them. We take this for granted in the U.S., because we do a pretty good job at helping people access substance abuse treatment. But when drug users are pushed to the margins of society and denied access to lifesaving interventions, including rehabilitation and treatment services, we see the failures of the drug war in stark relief: underground drug markets explode and flourish; HIV is transmitted via shared syringes; serious medical consequences are exacerbated due to neglect; human beings are pushed in corners, forgotten about and essentially left for dead.

For decades we have engaged in an increasingly futile, increasingly costly war on drugs. Prohibition creates an environment for new drugs to emerge; new methods of making drugs contribute to an ever more clandestine ‘make it yourself’ drug market (see the rise of ‘ shake and bake’ at-home meth manufacturing in soda bottles).

Very few details about the emergence of krokodil in Arizona are yet available. What we don’t know about this story far outweighs what little we do know. We don’t yet know anything about the patients treated; other substances they may have been using; the extent of krokodil use in their communities; if their use of krokodil was experimental or daily; if they were using it as a substitute for another opioid; or really anything. Much of the reporting thus far has been little more than a few gory pictures of “flesh rot” and fear mongering about the drug.

The media is highlighting some of the horrific consequences of homemade drug production —but we can’t stop there. Because beyond the eye-popping pictures of necrosis associated with krokodil, there is a question begging to be asked: why aren’t we doing more to help these people? Why are we tolerating a world in which people are driven to extreme and serious medical consequences instead of simply having access to the treatments that can save their lives?

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The war on drugs created a zombie monster drug that rots human flesh

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The war on drugs -- a miserable failure that has militarized our police departments, bolstered the domestic surveillance state, and spawned an incarceration crisis unmatched anywhere else in the world -- has been rotting our democracy for decades.

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'Drugsvrije' wietteelt in Rusland mislukt

Het plan om in Siberië in het wild groeiende wietplanten te verdringen door een 'drugsvrije' variant te planten is mislukt. De krachteloze aanplant paste zich snel aan en ontwikkelde het bestanddeel THC (tetrahydrocannabinol), dat van de plant een verdovend middel maakt.

Afgelopen zomer hebben de autoriteiten in de regio Boerijatia, ongeveer 4400 kilometer ten oosten van Moskou, 300 kilogram aan zaadjes van een 'drugsvrije' cannabissoort geplant in de hoop af te rekenen met de echte soort. Dat is niet gelukt, omdat de drugsvrije aanplant toch het bestanddeel THC ontwikkelde.

Het ministerie van Landbouw van de deelrepubliek Boerijatia laat zich ondanks de mislukking niet uit het veld slaan. Er worden binnenkort nieuwe zaadjes voor nieuwe drugsvrije hennepplanten besteld.

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Colorado farmers harvest industrial hemp despite federal prohibition

Finished hemp, marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin, is legal in the US, but growing it remains off-limits under federal law

Ryan Loflin, a farmer from southeast Colorado, tried an illegal crop this year. He didn't hide it from neighbors, and he was never afraid that law enforcement would come asking about it. Loflin is among about two dozen Colorado farmers who raised industrial hemp, marijuana's non-intoxicating cousin that cannot be grown under federal drug law, bringing in the nation's first acknowledged crop in more than five decades.

Emboldened by voters in Colorado and Washington last year giving the green light to both marijuana and industrial hemp production, Loflin planted 55 acres of several varieties of hemp alongside his typical alfalfa and wheat crops. The hemp came in sparse and scraggly this month, but Loflin said he is still turning away buyers.

"Phone's been ringing off the hook," said Loflin, who plans to press the seeds into oil and sell the fibrous remainder to buyers who will use it in building materials, fabric and rope. "People want to buy more than I can grow."

Hemp's prospects, however, are far from certain. Finished hemp is legal in the US, but growing it remains off-limits under federal law. The Congressional Research Service recently noted wildly differing projections about hemp's economic potential.

However, America is one of hemp's fastest-growing markets, with imports largely coming from China and Canada. In 2011, the US imported $11.5m worth of hemp products, up from $1.4m in 2000. Most of that is hemp seed and hemp oil, which finds its way into granola bars, soaps, lotions and even cooking oil. Whole Foods Market now sells hemp milk, hemp tortilla chips and hemp seeds coated in dark chocolate.

Colorado will nt start granting hemp-cultivation licenses until 2014, but Loflin didn't wait. His confidence got a boost in August, when the US Department of Justice said the federal government would generally defer to state marijuana laws as long as states kept marijuana away from children and drug cartels. The memo did not mention hemp as an enforcement priority for the Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I figured they have more important things to worry about than, you know, rope," a smiling Loflin said as he hand-harvested 4ft plants on his Baca County land.

Colorado's hemp experiment may not be unique for long. Ten states now have industrial hemp laws that conflict with federal drug policy, including one signed by California Governor Jerry Brown last month. And it's not just the typical marijuana-friendly suspects: Kentucky, North Dakota and West Virginia have industrial hemp laws on the books.

Hemp production was never banned outright, but it dropped to zero in the late 1950s because of competition from synthetic fibers and increasing anti-drug sentiment. Hemp and marijuana are the same species, cannabis sativa, cultivated differently to enhance or reduce marijuana's psychoactive chemical, THC. The 1970 Controlled Substances Act required hemp growers to get a permit from the DEA, the last of which was issued in 1999 for a quarter-acre experimental plot in Hawaii. That permit expired in 2003.

The US Department of Agriculture last recorded an industrial hemp crop in the late 1950s, down from a 1943 peak of more than 150m pounds on 146,200 harvested acres.

Loflin and other legalization advocates say hemp is back in style and that federal obstacles need to go. Loflin didn't have to hire help to bring in his crop, instead posting on Facebook that he needed volunteer harvesters. More than two dozen people showed up — from as far as Texas and Idaho. Volunteers pulled the plants up from the root and piled them whole on two flatbed trucks. The mood was celebratory.

But there are reasons to doubt hemp's viability. "It is not possible," Congressional Research Service researchers wrote in a July report, "to predict the potential market and employment effects of relaxing current restrictions on US hemp production."

The most recent federal study came 13 years ago, when the USDA concluded the nation's hemp markets "are, and will likely remain, small" and "thin". A 2004 study by the University of Wisconsin warned hemp "is not likely to generate sizeable profits" and highlighted "uncertainty about long-run demand for hemp products".

Still, there are seeds of hope. Global hemp production has increased from 250m pounds in 1999 to more than 380m pounds in 2011, according to United Nations agricultural surveys, which attributed the boost to increased demand for hemp seeds and oil. Congress is paying attention to the country's increasing acceptance of hemp. The House version of the stalled farm bill includes an amendment, sponsored by lawmakers in Colorado, Oregon and Kentucky, allowing industrial hemp cultivation nationwide. The amendment's prospects, like the farm bill's timely passage, are far from certain.

Ron Carleton, a Colorado deputy agricultural commissioner who is leading the state's looming hemp licensure, said he has no idea what hemp's commercial potential is. He is not even sure how many farmers will sign up for Colorado's licensure program next year, though he has fielded a "fair number of inquiries".

"What's going to happen, we'll just have to see," he said

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Oreos the Next Target in the War on Drugs

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According to a study from students and professors at Connecticut College, lab rats find Oreo cookies to be as addictive as cocaine.

"Our reserach supports the theory that high-fat/high-sugar foods stimulate the brain in the same way that drugs do," said Joseph Schroeder, associate professor of Neuroscience at Connecticut College.

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'Drugsbaronnen ontduiken eenvoudig belastingen'

Drugsmiljonairs ontduiken op eenvoudige wijze belasting door een 'uitschrijftruc'. Dat blijkt uit een intern recherchedocument dat in handen is van RTL Nieuws.

Drugscriminelen schrijven zich uit bij de gemeente en zeggen dat ze naar het buitenland vertrekken. Hierdoor verschaffen zij zich een fiscale en justitiële anonimiteit. 'Door deze fiscale anonimiteit is het zicht op het legaal inkomen en vermogen onzichtbaar voor de Nederlandse fiscus', staat te lezen in het rapport 'Nederlandse Belastingnomaden' van de Nationale Recherche.

In werkelijkheid vertrekken die zogenaamde belastingnomaden vaak helemaal niet naar het buitenland. Het gaat om landelijk bekende criminelen, van wie enkelen afkomstig zijn uit het woonwagenmilieu, die de uitschrijftruc 'veelvuldig toepassen'.

Elk jaar worden er meer dan 5.000 wietplantages opgerold. De grote hennepbaronnen blijven vaak buiten schot. 'We hebben het over de topcriminelen', zegt Wim Gerritsen van het Regionale Inlichtingen en Expertisecentrum Criminaliteit (RIEC) Brabant tegen RTL Nieuws. 'Jongens die ontzettend veel geld verdienen. Tientallen, zo niet honderden miljoenen per jaar met drugs en criminaliteit. Daarmee leiden ze hier een ontzettend luxe leven. Dikke huizen, grote auto's, vette Porsches. Maar ze hebben ook hotels in het buitenland, dikke boten in de Middellandse Zee.'

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Under the mask of the war on drugs

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LS: Catherine Austin Fitts, a former investment banker from Wall Street, shared this observation once with me:

Essentially, I would say the governments run the drug trade, but they're not the ultimate power, they're just one part, if you will, of managing the operations. Nobody can run a drug business, unless the banks will do their transactions and handle their money. If you want to understand who controls the drug trade in a place, you need to ask yourself who is it that has to accept to manage the transactions and to manage the capital, and that will lead you to the answer who's in control. [2]

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'It is time to end the war on drugs', says top UK police chief