The World Wide War on Drugs #8 - Demonstraties in Mexico

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Will Colombia stop fighting coca with Monsanto's glyphosate?

Research by the World Health Organisation sparks recommendations to suspend aerial fumigations of coca plants.

Picture a red jeep bumping up and down a longish, straight, red dirt road in rural Colombia and, coming from the opposite direction, one lone motorcyclist. The two vehicles draw near and stop. “Amigo, we have problems,” says the motorcyclist to the jeep driver, “they’re fumigating.” “Where?” He gestures back in the direction the jeep has come from. “Two planes.”

That was all that was said. Nothing else required. The motorcyclist sped off to do whatever you do when you’re faced with such a terrifying prospect: planes spraying your home, land and loved ones - or the home, land and loved ones of someone you know - with a cocktail of chemicals including glyphosate.

That exchange took place somewhere east of a town named San Jose del Guaviare in Colombia’s Guaviare department, one of the biggest coca-producing regions in the country that has “likely” just overtaken Peru to reclaim “its position as the world’s principal cocaine producer”, according to InSight Crime’s interpretation of recently-released US White House statistics. The planes were taking off from San Jose and piloted by US citizens because the Colombians weren’t considered skilled enough to spray accurately enough - or so I was told.

Aerial fumigations using glyphosate - developed and patented by US-based firm Monsanto - have been carried out in Colombia for more than 20 years, and have become the cornerstone of the US-financed and -supported so-called “War on Drugs.” The stated aim is to destroy the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine, and it is estimated that at least 1.6 million hectares have been sprayed.

Many people, both in Colombia and abroad, have condemned and protested the fumigations for years. The stated reasons - aside from the fact they haven’t succeeded in eradicating coca cultivation - are legion. One such reason is that they have killed 1,000s of hectares of legal crops belonging to 1,000s of campesinos, Afro-Colombians and indigenous people, and because of devastating environmental impacts including destroying soil fertility, contaminating water, and pushing coca cultivation deeper into particularly environmentally sensitive, biodiversity-rich regions like the Amazon.

Other reasons include intensifying Colombia’s civil war, facilitating killings and abuses by paramilitaries, encouraging support for guerrillas, forcing people to flee to neighbouring Ecuador, increasing poverty, and causing appalling health impacts. Headaches, vomiting, eye irritations, skin rashes and burnings, poisoning, lower sperm counts, miscarriages, hair loss, respiratory problems including lung cancer, foetal deformations, destruction of red blood cells and mental health disorders have all been reported.

“We find significant effects of spraying campaigns on the probability of occurrence of dermatological problems (skin irritations, highlight burnings, etc.) and abortions,” found one recent, particularly controversial study co-written by Daniel Mejia, the president of the Colombian government’s Advisory Commission on Narcotics Policy, based on fumigations between 2003 and 2007. “Our results corroborate some of the results in the medical literature (e.g., the negative effects of exposure to glyphosate on dermatological problems and abortions).”

But will the fumigations now be suspended or, even better, stopped altogether? In March the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) announced the results of nearly a year’s research, published in The Lancet, which found that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic to humans”, that it causes “DNA and chromosomal damage in human cells”, and “there is convincing evidence that [it] also can cause cancer in laboratory animals.” Colombia’s Health Ministry responded the following month by recommending the “immediate suspension” of glyphosate fumigations, and the president himself, Juan Manuel Santos, appears to agree. El Colombiano reported comments by the Conservative party president that Santos would heed the ministry’s advice, and that now appears to have been confirmed by the president himself during a speech he gave on Saturday, 9 May, at a hospital in Bogota.

“I’m going to ask the government functionaries and ministers who sit on the National Narcotics Council that in their next meeting [scheduled for 15 May] they suspend the use of glyphosate in the spraying of illegal crops,” said the president, citing the Health Ministry’s recommendation and a 2014 order by the Constitutional Court to investigate the potential risks of glyphosate fumigations as contributing to his decision.

Santos followed that statement with an appearance on Colombian television yesterday, 11 May, where he said “We must find strategies [to combat cultivation] that are more effective and cause less harm to the environment and public health.”

Monsanto has responded to the WHO’s research by calling it “Junk Science”, “biased” and “irresponsible.”

“We are outraged with this assessment,” Dr. Robb Fraley, Monsanto’s Chief Technology Officer, is quoted as saying. “This conclusion is inconsistent with the decades of ongoing comprehensive safety reviews by the leading regulatory authorities around the world that have concluded that all labeled uses of glyphosate are safe for human health. This result was reached by selective ‘cherry picking’ of data and is a clear example of agenda-driven bias.”

Others disagree. Dario Aranda, a journalist from Argentina, where glyphosate is used across almost 30 million hectares, calls the WHO’s conclusions “late” but “welcome.”

“[It] has confirmed what fumigated peoples, their neighbours fighting with them, social organisations and academics outside the business sector have been saying for more than 10 years,” he wrote in an article published by lavaca.org two days after the WHO’s research was made public. “The world’s most used herbicide affects people’s health.”

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'You can’t trust anybody': the Mexicans caught up in the drug war just south of Texas

Cartel violence in Tamaulipas state has claimed 254 lives in the first three months of this year, but has largely gone unreported in the press

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When Carlos Ulivarri heard that a body had been dumped by the side of a road just outside his hometown of Rio Bravo, a few miles south of McAllen, Texas, he knew he had to act fast.

But he did not even consider contacting the authorities.

Hours earlier, Ulivarri’s son, Luís Carlos, 23, had been shot in a bar, and then dragged into the night after an altercation with a group of men presumed to be members of a local drug cartel.

At first, Ulivarri held out hope his son might be alive. But at 10am the next morning, a friend called to say that a corpse had been spotted on a road outside town which marks the frontline between two warring cartel factions.

Ulivarri, the president of the Rio Bravo chamber of commerce, knew that the body might disappear for good if he did not move quickly, but he did not want to risk a confrontation with either gang, who are both known to monitor the road.

So instead of calling the police and waiting for an escort, he drove alone to the site, bundled his son’s body into his car, and brought him home for the last time.

“We are on our own,” Ulivarri said in a phone interview from his office in Rio Bravo, just six miles from the Donna international bridge into Texas.

“Everybody is frightened here, there is lots of danger and you can’t trust anybody. Lots of people are sending their children away to the United States but that is not the solution.”

Rio Bravo sits on the northern edge of Tamaulipas, a state which is currently gripped by a patchwork of conflicts between rival factions of the Gulf cartel.

It is a war which according to official figures has claimed 254 lives in the first three months of this year, but has largely gone unreported in the Mexican and international press.

Earlier this month, the US state department warned against all but essential travel to Tamaulipas. “Violent conflicts between rival criminal elements and/or the Mexican military can occur in all parts of the region and at all times of the day,” it said.

And if the public circumstances of Luís Carlos Ulivarra’s murder illustrate the brazen quality of cartel violence, his father’s reaction reflects the pervasive distrust many locals feel towards the official response.

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Colombia suspends spraying illegal coca fields with herbicide over cancer link | World news | The Guardian

Move marks end of decades-long strategy to counter drug trafficking after a number of studies suggest glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans

Move marks end of decades-long strategy to counter drug trafficking after a number of studies suggest glyphosate is probably carcinogenic to humans

Colombia will suspend aerial fumigation of illegal coca plants in light of a number of studies linking the herbicide it has used to cancer, a move which marks the end of a decades-long strategy in the country’s fight against drug trafficking.

Related: Last flight looms for US-funded air war on drugs as Colombia counts health cost

The Andean country is one of the world’s biggest producers of cocaine, which is derived from the coca plant. Its leftist rebel groups, the Farc and ELN, as well as criminal gangs make huge sums from their involvement in its production and trafficking.

Colombia, which produces some 300 tonnes of cocaine per year, has fumigated illicit coca crops for two decades with financial and technical help from the United States, using the herbicide glyphosate. The strategy also included spraying of poppies, used to make heroin.

“We’ve taken the decision by a majority of 7-1, to suspend the spraying of areas with glyphosate,” the health minister, Alejandro Gaviria, said, referring to the vote taken by the National Narcotics Council late on Thursday.

Various scientific reports, including one by the World Health Organisation, have suggested that the weed killer is likely carcinogenic to humans, Gaviria said.

Spraying will be halted after administrative formalities are completed, which could take several weeks, he added.

Glyphosate is a key ingredient in the world’s most widely used herbicide, Roundup, produced by Monsanto Co.

Monsanto officials have said the chemical has been proven safe for decades and the company has demanded a retraction from WHO over its report linking the herbicide to cancer.

President Juan Manuel Santos called for an end to the fumigations last week, adding law enforcement should intensify its efforts against other parts of the drug trafficking supply chain, which include clandestine laboratories and smuggling networks.

Local communities have expressed concerns that exposure to glyphosate has caused illnesses, among them cancers and birth defects. Colombia was the only South American country still using the chemical, authorities said.

The defence ministry and other entities which fight narcotics trafficking will be tasked with recommending other ways to eradicate illegal plants, the minister added, including possibly increasing the amount of it manually uprooted.

Over the past three decades, more than 1.6m hectares of land in Colombia have been sprayed using the chemical.

Opposition figures have expressed fears that a halt to spraying may increase coca and cocaine production.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Home-brewed heroin? Scientists create yeast that can make sugar into opiates | Science | The Guardian

Researchers have managed to reproduce the way poppies create morphine in the wild, but warn that the technology needs urgent regulation

Researchers have managed to reproduce the way poppies create morphine in the wild, but warn that the technology needs urgent regulation

Home-brewed heroin could become a reality, scientists have warned, following the creation of yeast strains designed to convert sugar into opiates.

The advance marks the first time that scientists have artificially reproduced the entire chemical pathway that takes place in poppy plants to produce morphine in the wild.

Scientists warned that the findings could pave the way for opium poppy farms being replaced by local morphine “breweries” and called for urgent regulation of the technology. In theory, opium brewing would be no more difficult to master than DIY beer kits, raising the possibility of people setting up Breaking Bad-style drug laboratories in their own homes.

Tania Bubela, a public health professor at the university of Alberta and co-author of a commentary on the research in the journal Nature, said: “In principle, anyone with access to the yeast strain and basic skills in fermentation could grow morphine-producing yeast using a home-brew kit for beer making.”

The team behind the advance have stopped one step short of linking together the entire chemical chain within a single easy-to-brew yeast strain, and announced a self-imposed moratorium on the work to allow law enforcement agencies and regulators time to catch up.

“We’re certainly not aiming for the illicit drugs market, that’s for sure,” said Vincent Martin, a microbiologist at Concordia University in Québec and co-author. “We realised that we’re entering into a brave new territory here. Me and my collaborators felt that various regulatory bodies should be consulted and talked to and we should build a consensus of how to take this forward.”

The findings, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, mark a turning point in efforts that have been made for more than a decade to replicate in microbes the 15-step chemical pathway in the poppy plant.

Scientists had previously succeeded in reproducing the second half of the chemical pathway, but the initial conversion of glucose to a compound called reticuline had proved a sticking point. The latest study cracks this problem for the first time by inserting genes from the poppy plant, sugar beet and a soil-dwelling bacteria into yeast.

Several existing yeast strains are available that can turn reticuline into morphine, and the scientists said that combining the two halves of the process was now feasible – although they have not yet attempted this final step.

“What you really want to do from a fermentation perspective is to be able to feed the yeast glucose, which is a cheap sugar source, and have the yeast do all the chemical steps required downstream to make your target therapeutic drug,” said John Dueber, lead author and a bioengineer at the University of California, Berkeley. “With our study, all the steps have been described, and it’s now a matter of linking them together and scaling up the process. It’s not a trivial challenge, but it’s doable.”

He predicted a timeline of a “couple of years, not a decade” for the reliable production of controlled drugs by sugar-fed yeast.

Being able to synthesise opiates in the laboratory raises the possibility of engineering new therapeutic forms of the drug, designed to be less addictive, more powerful or longer lasting, for instance.

“It creates a platform for finding new chemical structures that could have a lot of potential benefits,” said Martin.

However, it also raises concerns about the yeast falling into the wrong hands. In their commentary, Bubela and colleagues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) call for urgent regulation of the technology warning that it could lead to an alternative system for current criminal networks, particularly in North America and Europe, where the drugs are in high demand. “Because yeast is so easy to conceal, grow and transport, criminal syndicates and law-enforcement agencies would have difficulty controlling the distribution of an opiate-producing yeast strain,” the authors write. “All told, decentralised and localised production would almost certainly reduce the cost and increase the availability of illegal opiates - substantially worsening a worldwide problem.”

Future strains of morphine-producing yeast could be designed to have unusual nutrient requirements as a biocontainment measure, Bubela suggests. Such strains should also be kept in bio-secure facilities in the future, with similar safeguards to those used by researchers working with anthrax or smallpox.

Globally, more than 16 million people use opiates illegally. The drugs come from the misuse of prescription pain medications and from illegally cultivated poppy crops in countries such as Afghanistan, Laos and Mexico.

“The time is now to think about policies to address this area of research,” said Dueber. “The field is moving surprisingly fast, and we need to be out in front so that we can mitigate the potential for abuse.”

Martin said the team had no plans to complete the chain until regulations were in place to do so safely. “If this is something that we shouldn’t do, let’s talk about it now,” he added.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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50 duizend liter chemicaliën voor drugs gevonden bij grote actie | Binnenland


In het zuiden van het land heeft de politie vandaag een grote actie gehouden tegen drugscriminaliteit. Daarbij werd onder meer in een loods in Den Bommel (Goeree-Overflakkee) 50.000 liter aan chemicaliën aangetroffen voor het vervaardigen van synthetische drugs. Twee personen zijn opgepakt.

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Naast de politie waren bij de actie het OM, de douane en de gemeenten betrokken bij de operatie. In totaal ging het om honderd man. De actie is onderdeel van de aanpak van de drugscriminaliteit in het zuiden van het land. Daarvoor is extra politiecapaciteit beschikbaar.


Bron: Volkskrant

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‘Ambtenaren in advies: voorkom bolletjesvluchten vanaf Eindhoven’



Ambtenaren van de ministeries van Veiligheid en Justitie, Financiën en Infrastructuur en Milieu willen dat het kabinet voor de plannen van Arke gaat liggen om vanaf november van Eindhoven naar Curaçao en Aruba te vliegen. Nieuwsuur meldt dit vanavond op grond van een geheime ambtelijke nota.

Arke, onderdeel van TUI, maakte afgelopen februari bekend dat het vanaf november twee keer per week wil gaan vliegen vanaf Airport Eindhoven naar Curaçao en Aruba. Daarmee zou Eindhoven het eerste regionale vliegveld zijn met intercontinentale vluchten. De ambtenaren van de drie ministeries adviseren in de nota dit soort vluchten uit landen met een ’100-procentcontroleregime’ voor drugs alleen vanaf Schiphol toe te staan.

Volgens de ambtenaren is er te weinig tijd om voor 1 november alle benodigde apparatuur, opvangruimtes en personeel klaar te hebben om de vluchten op bolletjesslikkers te controleren. Ook zouden de voorzieningen hiervoor te duur zijn; er zou een investering van 11 miljoen euro nodig zijn plus nog jaarlijks 18,5 miljoen euro aan personeelskosten.

In een reactie aan Nieuwsuur zeggen Arke en Eindhoven Airport dat ze ‘formeel niet op de hoogte zijn’ van een ambtelijk advies.

Mochten wij hierover in de daarvoor bestemde overleggen formeel berichtgeving ontvangen, dan zullen Arkefly en Eindhoven Airport hierover in gesprek gaan. In deze overleggen is 1 november tot nu toe het uitgangspunt geweest voor de start van deze operatie.

Volgens NRC-economieredacteur Mark Duursma is het voor zowel de luchthaven als Arke vervelend als het advies wordt opgevolgd door de betrokken ministers:

“Beide partijen hebben geďnvesteerd om dit mogelijk te maken. Voor Arke is het bovendien de eerste intercontinentale bestemming en het bewijs dat het ook lange afstandsvluchten aankan. Ook voor de toekomstige ontwikkeling van Lelystad Airport zou dit negatief kunnen uitpakken. Nu pakken dit soort regionale luchthavens vooral de chartervluchten naar goedkope vakantiebestemmingen, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat ook Lelystad op den duur ambities in de richting van intercontinentale vluchten heeft.”

Volgens Duursma zou ook Schiphol, dat overigens een meerderheidsbelang in Eindhoven Airport heeft, doorgang van dit advies met lede ogen aanzien.

“De Schiphol Group die ook eigenaar is van Lelystad en de luchthaven van Rotterdam wil juist dat de regionale vliegvelden zich ontwikkelen tot serieuze luchthavens zodat Schiphol zelf verder kan doorgroeien. Schiphol zelf wil zich steeds meer richten op de zakelijke transfers.”

Schiphol is de snelst groeiende grote luchthaven van West-Europa. Het aantal vliegbewegingen in het handelsverkeer nam vorig jaar met 3 procent toe en het aantal tonnen vervoerde vracht met 2,5 procent. Ook het aantal passagiers dat via Eindhoven Airport komt, groeide naar 4 miljoen, 6,5 procent van alle passagiers.
Bron: Trouw

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Lib Dem leadership candidate Norman Lamb calls for cannabis legalisation | Politics | The Guardian

Lamb criticises ‘catastrophic failure’ of war on drugs and urges rational, education-based approach

The Liberal Democrat leadership candidate Norman Lamb has called for the UK to legalise, regulate and tax the sale of cannabis.

The former care minister and MP for North Norfolk said the UK should draw on examples from US states such as Colorado, which legalised the possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use by over-21s in November 2012.

He said he wanted immediate legalisation of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and said there should be a swift evidence-based policy change in relation to recreational use.

Lamb acknowledged that the legalisation of recreational use would require a UN treaty change, which he said could be secured at the 2016 meeting of the general assembly on the UN’s drug control system.

“There has been a catastrophic failure of the war on drugs, with thousands of lives lost,” Lamb said. Drug laws were “criminalising so many young people, which blights their lives because of a decision about personal use which then affects their careers and creates a global criminal network”.

He added: “As a parent, I have real concerns about the dangers of drugs, both legal and illegal. But I think that it’s much better to take a rational, education-based approach rather than the approach that we take at the moment.”

The Liberal Democrats have historically been supportive of liberalising drug laws. Their general election manifesto this year pledged to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use and to establish a review to assess the effectiveness of legalisation experiments in the US and Uruguay.

Lamb’s only opposition in the leadership race is Tim Farron, the former Lib Dem president and key figure on the left of the party. Farron is thought to be the frontrunner and has secured the formal backing of three of the party’s eight MPs (Mark Williams, John Pugh and Greg Mulholland); the heads of the Scottish and Welsh branches of the Lib Dems, Willie Rennie and Kirsty Williams; the party’s only surviving MEP, Catherine Bearder; and more than 100 former Lib Dem election candidates.

Lamb has been publicly endorsed by Tom Brake, the MP for Carshalton and Wallington, and Shirley Williams, a founding member of the Social Democratic party, which joined with the Liberals to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988.

On Monday, Julian Huppert, a former MP and a campaigner for drug law reform, backed Lamb and his cannabis policy.
“This is not the first time Norman has called for bold changes based on looking at the evidence – he’s done so on mental health, on prison reform and more,” Huppert said. “I think this is exactly the bold leadership we need, and hope people who feel likewise will support Norman.”
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Mexico's election faces disruption as radical teachers burn ballot papers | World news | The Guardian

Relatives of disappeared join protests amid breakdown in credibility of electoral authorities, widespread corruption claims and murders

Radical teachers and relatives of Mexico’s disappeared have vowed to disrupt voting in the country’s coming national election on Sunday, towards the end of an electoral campaign that has been marked by the murders of candidates amid serious questions about fairness and legitimacy.

“We are ready to install and operate all the polling stations,” Lorenzo Córdova , the head of the national electoral authorities, told international observers. They are in Mexico to monitor the election that will elect all new members of the lower house of congress, as well as nine new governors and hundreds of new mayors. “But if the conditions put the physical integrity of our staff, or the voters, in danger we will not do it. We are not responsible for security.”

Related: Third political candidate killed ahead of Mexico's midterm elections

Córdova was talking about a group of radical teachers whose efforts to roll back education reform now include a movement that aims to block the working of polling stations in five southern states.

The protests are at times violent and have been particularly intense in Oaxaca where the teachers have ejected electoral officials from their offices across the state, burned ballot papers, clashed with the security forces and severely affected the distribution of petrol.

In the state of Guerrero, protesters have included relatives of people who have been killed or disappeared in the drug war violence that has ragedin Mexico for the past eight years.

There is particularly tension around the town of Tixtla, a centre of protest since 43 students from the Ayotzinapa teachers college in the town disappeared after being attacked by cartel gunmen and municipal police, last September.

Local media has reported 21 murders around the country directly associated with the elections. These include three candidates and one would-be candidate, whose beheaded body was dumped beside a message that read “this is going to happen to all the fucking politicians who don’t get in line”.

Security expert Alejandro Hope said the murders of candidates were the logical consequence of a climate in whichdisparate drug cartels are sowing terror and political vendettas can be hidden behind a tendency to blame all assassinations on organised crime. He also stressed the failure of the authorities to provide protection for candidates.

“Given the prevailing conditions,” Hope wrote in El Daily Post, “the surprise is not that some candidates get killed, but that the number of corpses is not much higher.”

The credibility of the elections has also been damaged by questions surrounding the ability of the electoral authorities to guarantee fairness.

“I cannot think of an election where the reputation of the electoral authorities has been so low,” said political analyst Federico Estevéz. “That does not bode well.”

Much of the criticism has centred on the failure to rein in the Green Party’s systematic flouting of campaigning rules, such as the amount of political advertising permitted. The Green party, widely alleged to be among the most corrupt in Mexico, is an ally of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) of President, Enrique Peńa Nieto.

Related: Mexico's Greens: pro-death penalty, allegedly corrupt – and not very green

The fact that no major party is free of allegations of serious corruption has helped give maverick independent candidate Jaime Rodriguez – nicknamed El Bronco – a shot at winning the governorship of the rich northern state of Nuevo Leon, according to most polls. Elsewhere, however, corruption allegations have prompted a movement to spoil ballot papers.

“Spoiling my ballot paper is the only way I can see of stripping the system of legitimacy, shaking it up and reforming it so that it favours citizens,” national political commentator Denise Dresser said in a YouTube video.

For all the signs of crisis, the elections appear set to produce a balance of power that differs little from the one in place since the last time the country voted, in 2012. Polls suggest that the PRI will remain dominant, and with the help of the Greens, could even obtain a majority in congress.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Iran opent 150 nieuwe klinieken voor alcoholverslaafden

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De Iraanse regering opent binnenkort 150 nieuwe klinieken voor alcoholverslaafden. Opmerkelijk, want alcohol is verboden in de streng islamitische republiek

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De autoriteiten schatten dat, ondanks het verbod dat sinds de Iraanse revolutie van 1979 geldt, ongeveer 200 duizend Iraniërs een alcoholprobleem hebben. 'Persoonlijke redenen zijn de belangrijkste factoren die leiden tot de verspreiding van alcoholconsumptie in de samenleving', zei vice-minister van Gezondheid Alireza Mesdaghinia in 2012. 'Sommigen denken dat dit de manier is om met hun frustraties om te gaan.'

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Iran scoort nog een stuk hoger als het gaat om drugsgebruik. Het hoofdkantoor van de Iraanse drugsbestrijdingsdienst schat dat ongeveer 3 miljoen Iraniërs verslaafd zijn aan drugs (met name opium, al zijn heroďne, crack en crystal meth in opkomst). Er zijn ook onderzoeken die suggereren dat het aantal eerder richting de 10 miljoen gaat. Iran telt daarmee het hoogste aantal drugsgebruikers ter wereld.

Het land kent, verrassend genoeg, een progressief drugsbeleid. Er zijn ongeveer 600 klinieken voor drugsverslaafden, waar patiënten schone naalden krijgen om drugs de injecteren. In alle grote steden zijn methadonklinieken en verslaafden die op straat leven worden geholpen door de vele ngo's die in het land actief zijn.

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Op donderdag 11 juni 2015 09:46 schreef Basp1 het volgende:
Coalitiepartner VVD is fel tegenstander van regulering van wietteelt, maar laat in een reactie weten de zorgen over gezondheidsrisico's te delen.

"Het is dan ook goed dat in het regeerakkoord is afgesproken het gehalte werkzame stoffen terug te brengen en het THC-gehalte voor softdrugs is inmiddels gemaximeerd op 15 procent", stelt VVD-Kamerlid Foort van Oosten.

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OM wil snellere berechting van drugsverdachten



Het Openbaar Ministerie werkt aan het creëren van ‘fast lanes’ die een snellere berechting van drugsverdachten mogelijk moeten maken. Dat zei de hoofdofficier van justitie van Limburg, Roger Bos, vandaag op een bijeenkomst in Tilburg waar de resultaten werden gepresenteerd van een negen maanden geleden begonnen offensief tegen de vaderlandse drugsmaffia.

Bos presenteerde de resultaten samen met burgemeester Peter Noordanus en het hoofd van de landelijke recherche Wilbert Paulissen. In Brabant, Zeeland en Limburg zijn sinds oktober 125 rechercheurs actief om samen met FIOD, OM en Belgische collega’s alle drugshandel in het zuiden nadrukkelijker aan te pakken. Volgens Bos wil justitie “de strafrechtelijke keten versnellen om sneller vonnissen te kunnen krijgen”.

Nu duurt het vaak jaren voordat verdachten in een drugsonderzoek voor de rechter staan. Bos zei dat dit onder meer komt omdat advocaten de strafzaken vertragen door vele tientallen getuigen op te roepen. Hij zei niet hoe hij dit probleem denkt op te lossen.

Het drugsoffensief in het zuiden heeft tot nu toe onder andere geleid tot een inbeslagname van ruim 100.000 liter aan chemicaliën die worden gebruikt voor de productie van XTC en amfetaminen. Er werden 200.000 pillen in beslag genomen en 116.000 hennepplanten. In totaal werden 149 mensen gearresteerd.

Volgens Paulissen slaagt de politie er goed in de “criminele infrastructuur in het zuiden te verstoren”. Hij zei te verwachten dat het recherchewerk zal leiden tot een verhoging van de prijzen van drugs en een verplaatsing van de criminele activiteiten. Noordanus zei dat “een prioriteit is de productie van drugs stevig terug te dringen”. In zijn stad Tilburg wordt volgens onderzoek jaarlijks zo’n 750 miljoen euro omgezet in de drugshandel die er aan 2.500 mensen werk biedt.

“Brabant hoeft geen land van heiligen te worden”, aldus Noordanus maar de huidige situatie acht hij onacceptabel. “Ik wil een stad besturen waar mensen op een normale manier geld verdienen. De huidige omvang van de drugshandel ondergraaft de rechtsstaat”. Volgens hoofdofficier van justitie Bos is door het huidige justitie offensief “de onschuld van hennep” definitief verdwenen.

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Mexican woman jailed for combatting cartels: 'It is a sacrifice that had to be made' | World news | The Guardian

Nestora Salgado is a mother of three who was thrown into a high-security prison on kidnapping charges after returning to Mexico from the US to take up the fight against Guerrero’s narcos – yet her indomitable character remains intact


Nestora Salgado is not a woman who caves in easily.

A child bride who soon became a single mother of three, Salgado was still a teenager when she left her hometown in the mountains of southern Mexico to rebuild her life in the US.

Two decades later, she returned home to lead an armed rebellion against drug traffickers and corrupt local authorities – only to be accused of kidnapping and imprisoned.

Salgado spent 21 months in a high-security jail until a hunger strike galvanized international support for her case and helped secure her transfer last month to the medical wing of a more relaxed facility.

Now, in her first interview with the international press, Salgado argued that she was guilty of nothing more than helping her community stand up to the narcos and their corrupt political allies, and called on the Mexican government to release her and drop all the charges.

“I have no regrets about what I did, and I never will have any regrets,” she told the Guardian. “I am not a person who likes to confront the authorities, but in a place where dialogue is not possible, what else can you do?”

Related: Masked gunmen took over a Mexican town and police stood by as 13 men disappeared

Salgado’s extraordinary story has unfolded amid a fierce debate about the role of armed vigilante groups that have sprung up across the country to fight the cartels, but have themselves been accused of murder, extortion and – in some cases – even acting as proxies for rival crime groups.

Mexican officials argue that nobody has the right to take the law into their own hands. Salgado’s supporters say she is merely a community leader who has been criminized for exposing the Mexican state’s failure to enforce the rule of law.

Sitting on her prison hospital bed in white and blue flannel pyjamas, Salgado, 43, said she had never underestimated the risks involved in taking a stand.

“The government is against people who want to do the right thing and protect their communities,” she said. “I know I have made my family suffer, but it is a sacrifice that had to be made.”

Salgado’s indomitable character was forged in Olinalá, high in the mountains of Guerrero, a state in southern Mexico with a long history of repression and rebellion.

The town is best known for the intricately lacquered boxes produced by local craftsmen – and for the opium poppies grown in the surrounding hills.

The sixth of seven children, Salgado says her childhood was happy, if brief. She was married at 14, but within five years her husband emigrated to the US. The plan had been for him to send money to support the family, but it never arrived. Struggling to make ends meet, Salgado decided to entrust her daughters to her sisters and head north too.

She soon joined her husband in Washington state. In those days, it was still relatively easy for migrants to cross the border safely, so in 1992 Salgado sent for her children. Saira was five, Ruby was three and Grisel was one.

The family settled in the Seattle suburb of Renton, but according to Salgado, the reunion was not a happy one: her then-husband drank and beat her, and the couple separated. Soon after, she met her current husband, Jose Luis Villa, who is now a driving force of the cross-border campaign to secure her release.

Life in Seattle was tough, but good, she says. Salgado and Villa both worked two or three jobs, and sent money to her family in Olinalá whenever they could, but Salgado didn’t return home until 2000 when she obtained her US residency.

The visit was a reminder of the harsh reality of she had left behind, Salgado said. “It really hurt me to see my people still living in such poverty,” she said. “I had got used to the United States.”

Salgado took the family to live in Olinalá for a year, hoping it would make her daughters appreciate the opportunities they had in the US. She also became more outspoken against day-to-day corruption and lawlessness. “Living in the United State had opened my horizons and made me conscious of rights,” she said.

Related: Mexico drug war continues to rage in region where president fired first salvo

Guerrero has long been one of Mexico’s most lawless regions, but in 2006 the state was plunged into a open conflict by a military-led offensive against organized crime.

The campaign helped shatter the once-mighty Beltran Leyva cartel, but numerous splinter groups sprang up in its wake. One of these, Los Rojos, took control of Olinalá. Kidnapping, extortion, disappearances and murder became common; cartel gunmen walked the streets with impunity.

“At first you just try to keep a distance out of fear, but then it starts to move your heart,” Salgado said of the terror. “You get angry when the authorities do nothing.”

That fury erupted in October 2012 at the funeral of a taxi driver who had been kidnapped and killed by cartel thugs. A rumour broke out that a second driver had been abducted – and Salgado decided that enough was enough.

She helped organize the crowd as they disarmed the local police, then commandeered a police car to drive around town, using a megaphone to urge townspeople to join the rebellion. Within hours, the gunmen were driven from town, and an ad hoc militia armed with hunting rifles and AK-47s had set up checkpoints.

The ragtag force gained a figleaf of legality within an older tradition of community policing in Guerrero’s indigenous communities. But it also tapped into another strand of the region’s history – that of armed uprisings against the Mexican state.

Under the leadership of “Comandanta Nestora”, the Olinalá community police arrested suspected wrongdoers and detained them for “re-education”. Meanwhile the group also built ties with radical community groups allegedly linked to the region’s defunct guerrilla movement.

But many locals chafed at the Salgado’s high-handed manner and called for the military to take over security in the town. Anger focussed on the detention of three teenage girls accused of dealing cocaine for their narco boyfriends. Soon after, Salgado incurred the displeasure of local politicians when she detained a well-connected town official she accused of fraternizing with the narcos.

By then, even some of Salgado’s supporters suspected she had gone too far, quietly admitting that she had perhaps been politically naive in her attempt to cut through the web of local politics and organised crime.

“I knew that when I started to expose the municipal government that there was a risk I would be arrested or killed,” she said. “I didn’t care. It was necessary.”

Authorities put out an arrest warrant for kidnapping, and on 21 August 2013, Salgado was detained by the army.

She was sent to a high-security jail over 1,000km (620 miles) away from Olinalá – a move her lawyers describe as the first of many violations of due process in the government crackdown crackdown on vigilantes.

“The arrest and prosecution of Nestora was clearly a political decision,” said Salgado’s lawyer, Leonel River. “The case is full of violations.”

Salgado’s supporters also allege mistreatment within the jail. They say she has been isolated from other inmates, denied medical attention for spinal injuries sustained in a 2002 car accident, and that visits from her legal council and family have been severely restricted.

In January, calls by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for urgent action to improve her conditions did little to help. But suggestions from the Guerrero state government that it would consider dropping the kidnapping charges faded after a backlash from high-profile anti-crime campaigners associated with the political right.

The case, meanwhile, inched through Mexico’s labyrinthine judicial system, in which cases are still mostly fought in written arguments, often behind closed doors.

On 5 May, Salgado decided to stop eating in protest at her treatment. “I was prepared to die,” she said of the hunger strike that she maintained for 31 days.

The hunger strike focused new attention on her cause which has been taken up by supporters on Mexico and the US, and at the end of May, Salgado was transferred to the medical wing of a relatively relaxed women’s prison on the southern outskirts of Mexico City

At first, Salgado said she would continue to refuse food until she was freed, but was persuaded to end the hunger strike when doctors warned she risked permanent damage. Meanwhile, discrete negotiations with state authorities continue – though Salgado’s supporters are wary of raising their hopes too soon.

“We are facing a monster in Mexico and we know how dirty politics are,” said her husband, José Louis Villa. “The government gives three choices to activists. You can be bought, you can be killed or you can be put in prison.”

Meanwhile, La Comandata remains defiant. In an 30-minute interview, she only appeared to drop her guard for a brief moment as she described seeing herself in the mirror last month for the first time since her arrest.

“They try to destroy you in that place,” she said. Then she straightened her back and continued: “But I am strong.”
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Smuggling tonnes of cocaine through an Italian port - Al Jazeera English

Gioia Tauro, Italy - In Calabria, one of Italy's poorest regions, the Gioia Tauro port has become known for the massive quantities of cocaine transported by organised crime groups.

"The port was born with an original sin," said Roberto Di Palma, an Italian magistrate and mob researcher, during a conversation with Al Jazeera at his Reggio Calabria office.

The "original sin" Di Palma refers to is the 'Ndrangheta, Europe's most powerful crime syndicate, an organisation that is more dangerous and influential than the Mafia, its better-known Sicilian cousin.

The coastal road leading to the Gioia Tauro port runs past a number of abandoned warehouses and un-farmed plots of land. In Calabria - home to powerful 'Ndrangheta families with global influence - the illegal activities of organised crime dwarf the revenues of the legal economy.

The Gioia Tauro port is one of Europe's largest when it comes to transhipment, the term the shipping industry uses to describe ports used primarily as intermediate destinations.

Every year 3.6 million containers arrive at the Gioia Tauro port, a number that makes it extremely difficult for the companies operating there, as well as the team of 25 policemen supervising it, to control the port's inflows and outflows.

"How can we check everything?" a nearly desperate company manager told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

"It's nearly impossible. If we checked every cargo, no ship would stop and the port would die."

Di Palma said "when it comes to drug trafficking, it is always hard to have reliable numbers. What we can say with certainty is that in terms of numbers of drug requisitions by port authorities, Gioia Tauro tops Europe".

90 percent purity

When estimating cocaine volumes, authorities involved in fighting narcotrafficking use what is known as the one-to-10 rule of thumb.

According to this rule, for every police seizure there are about nine drug shipments that freely transit through the port.

According to data published by the DIA, the Italian law enforcement agency dealing with organised crime, between 2011 and 2014 total seizures amounted to 5.5 metric tonnes, implying that almost 50 tonnes of cocaine probably transited through the port over that time period.

Vincenzo Caruso, who is in charge of port security and a lieutenant colonel with the Guardia di Finanza, a police force that deals with financial crimes, said in a phone interview with Al Jazeera that "the cocaine arriving in Gioia Tauro is usually about 90 percent pure, meaning that it can be cut up to four times before being placed on the market".

Given that the average street price of cocaine in Western Europe is somewhere between 60-70 euros ($67-79) a gram, the estimated market value of the cocaine that transited through Gioia Tauro between 2011 and 2014 is somewhere between 30bn-35 billion euros ($34bn-39bn).

Italian police estimate the 'Ndrangheta controls between 60-80 percent of Europe's cocaine market. Narcotrafficking, coupled with other activities including real estate, the illegal arms trade, and hazardous waste management, yield the group an annual revenue of roughly 56 billion euros ($63bn), more than the combined annual revenue of Deutsche Bank and McDonald's.

Data from the UNODC, the UN agency monitoring drug trafficking and consumption, show the volume of seizures have declined. However, Di Palma said these numbers should be taken with caution, since the 'Ndrangheta has recently refined its smuggling techniques, for a time duping port authorities.

Refining techniques

The 'Ndrangheta's new smuggling technique is called "rip-off" and is at the centre of a new book Oro Bianco (White Gold), authored by Nicola Gratteri and Antonio Nicaso, the world's top researchers on the Calabria-based crime syndicate.

A few years ago, cocaine smuggling was mainly carried out by establishing fake cargo companies under the control of the 'Ndrangheta.

But now the group relies on men whom it has placed in key ports along cocaine trafficking routes, a technique it first experimented with in Gioia Tauro, a port where it was able to take more risks thanks to the strong influence it exercises in the region.

The strategy involves a 'Ndrangheta member strategically placed at a port who opens up a container bound for Gioia Tauro, and hides cocaine parcels inside it. His counterpart in Gioia Tauro is then informed of the container's number. When it arrives at the Italian port, the crime syndicate rushes to empty it before customs or police are able to check it.

"It's nearly impossible for authorities to find out what is going on," a port worker in Gioia Tauro told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.

"There are just too many containers coming and going, and the 'Ndrangheta's influence is strong despite the work of the authorities."

The recent economic crisis also plays a role. A number of companies operating in Gioia Tauro were hit heavily and at risk of going bankrupt. The 'Ndrangheta loaned money to companies in crisis, allowing them to take them over and operate in the port without anyone noticing.

The new smuggling technique has two benefits, Nicaso and Gratteri told Al Jazeera.

It reduces costs because the criminal organisation no longer has to open up fictitious cargo companies. It also diminishes risk, because cocaine is smuggled in smaller quantities - up to 200kg per shipment. If seized, the loss is not a major setback.

Impossible to halt

This makes it harder for authorities to stop the inflow.

Nevertheless, the Gioa Tauro Guardia di Finanza has been quick to find ways to fight the "rip-off" technique.

Caruso and his men were the first to take notice. As the Guardia di Finanza caught on, it started checking the codes on the cargo container locks to see whether they were tampered with. If the code was different, the cargo probably contained a drug parcel.

This strategy has now been imitated across Europe by other national authorities fighting narcotrafficking.

As authorities discovered more and more containers that had been tampered with, the 'Ndrangheta responded by forging locks with the same numerical code as the original in order to bypass police checks.

This made it once again hard, if not impossible, for Gioia Tauro's authorities to find drug parcels. However, Caruso said "new prevention techniques are being developed, and we are certain we'll soon have positive results".

Di Palma, Gratteri, Nicaso, and Caruso complain that the 'Ndrangheta and its cocaine smuggling are often falsely considered to be a local or national problem; the 'Ndrangheta is an organised crime network that operates on an international scale.

Authorities in Gioia Tauro can put up a fight, they say, but until there is a coordinated effort by international police, it may be nearly impossible to bring to a halt an industry worth billions.

Bron: www.aljazeera.com

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Men in fake ambulance accused of smuggling drugs into UK | UK news | The Guardian

Four Dutch men dressed as paramedics arrested in car park in Smethwick, West Midlands. after amphetamine and ecstasy found in vehicle

Four Dutch men have been charged with attempting to smuggle hundreds of kilos of drugs, including heroin and cocaine, into Britain inside a fake ambulance.

Men dressed as paramedics were arrested by National Crime Agency (NCA) officers in a car park in Smethwick, West Midlands, on Tuesday.

Packages of drugs were found behind interior panels, in cupboards and under the floor of the vehicle, police said. Wraps of amphetamine and three holdalls containing thousands of what are believed to be ecstasy pills were also discovered.

The seizure of about 270 kilos of drugs followed a surveillance operation by the NCA officers, who watched as two men arrived in Birmingham in the ambulance on Tuesday morning and met two others.

The officers, who were assisted by West Midlands police, arrested four men at a car park on Hill Street in Smethwick. Two men from London who were seen leaving the car park shortly before the ambulance arrived were arrested nearby.

Brent Lyon, from the NCA’s armed operations unit, said: “This was an audacious plot. We believe the two men in the ambulance posed as paramedics to avoid unwanted attention when entering the country through Harwich. Our officers were ready and waiting though and stopped the drugs from being distributed to crime groups across the country.”

Four Dutch men – Olof Schoon, 37; Leonardus Bijlsma, 55; Dennis Vogelaar, 28; and Richard Engelsbel, 50 – were charged with drug offences and appeared at Birmingham magistrates court on Thursday morning.

All four have been remanded in custody until 2 July when they will appear at Birmingham crown court. The two men from London have been bailed pending further inquiries.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Lib Dems: legalise medicinal cannabis and possession of drugs for personal use | Society | The Guardian

‘Locking up drug users is not the answer,’ says Lord Paddick, who has tabled amendments to government’s controversial psychoactive substances bill

Liberal Democrat peers have called on the government to decriminalise the possession of drugs for personal use and legalise medical cannabis.

Brian Paddick, the party’s home affairs spokesman in the Lords and a former London mayoral candidate, has tabled a series of amendments to the government’s psychoactive substances bill, including decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs for personal use and the legalisation of medicinal use of cannabis when it is prescribed by a doctor.

The psychoactive substances bill, which will be debated in the Lords on Tuesday, seeks to outlaw legal highs, which have been blamed for a number of deaths in recent years. But the draft legislation has been criticised for being badly drafted and containing too broad a definition of psychoactive substances.

Lord Paddick, who was deputy assistant commissioner for the Metropolitan police before his retirement, also called for the government to delay the new laws until a full independent, evidence-based review of existing laws had been carried out.

Paddick said that, instead of tackling the threat of these new drugs, the proposed legislation was likely to make things worse.

“When I was a police officer, I realised that locking up drug users is simply not the answer,” he said. “We have to learn the lessons of why our current approach is failing before we make the same mistakes with new psychoactive substances as we have done with other illegal drugs.”

Decriminalising personal possession would free up police resources, ensure addicts got treatment and social users received the education they needed to keep them safe, said Paddick.

Arguing for the legalisation of cannabis use for medical purposes, he said: “There can be absolutely no justification for seriously ill people, prescribed medicine by a doctor, to be forced to become drug smugglers.

“We aren’t talking about fake prescriptions for those wishing to get high. We are talking about properly prescribed doses of pain relief for those with serious conditions.”

Despite losing 48 of their 56 MPs at the last election, leaving them as the fourth biggest party in the Commons with only eight MPs, the Lib Dems have 101 members in the Lords, making up 93% of their parliamentary party.

The Conservative party has 228 members, Labour has 212 and there are 178 crossbenchers, meaning the Lib Dems have significant potential to unite with others to amend government legislation.

Liberalising drugs laws has always been a key Lib Dem policy, with the party’s two leadership candidates, Tim Farron and Norman Lamb, both backing calls for the UK to legalise, regulate and tax the sale of cannabis.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Eindhoven stopt met controleren coffeeshops

quote:

Steeds meer gemeenten stoppen met het zogeheten ‘ingezetenencriterium’: dat alleen Nederlanders softdrugs mogen kopen in coffeeshops en buitenlanders worden geweerd om drugstoerisme tegen te gaan. Te veel rompslomp zeggen de betrokken burgemeesters.

quote:

'Gemeenten negeren verbod regulering wietteelt' | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl

Dat meldt Nieuwsuur donderdag na een rondgang. Het televisieprogramma spreekt van een patstelling.

"Het wordt tijd dat Den Haag de ogen opent voor de realiteit en de achterdeurproblematiek rondom de hennepteelt", stelt burgemeester van Weert Jos Heijmans (D66).

Weert is een van de 55 gemeenten die het zogenoemde 'Joint Regulation'-manifest ondertekende. In Wageningen werd onlangs een motie aangenomen die stadsbestuur aanspoort te blijven zoeken naar mogelijkheden voor regulering.

Volgens burgemeester van Zwijndrecht Dominic Schrijer (PvdA) zijn de problemen zo groot dat nieuw beleid niet kan wachten.

"Je moet kiezen voor een totaalverbod op softdrugs óf voor het reguleren van de wietteelt om zo via de geleidelijke weg de criminaliteit te verdringen."

Hij wil dat wietteelt onder staatstoezicht aan banden wordt gelegd en gecontroleerd.

De Tweede Kamer nam in mei met een krappe meerderheid een CDA-motie aan waarin het kabinet wordt opgeroepen gemeenten "geen enkele ruimte" te geven om wietteelt zelf te organiseren.

Burgemeester Schrijer denkt dat het CDA hiermee aan het voorsorteren is voor de volgende verkiezingen. "Door het zo politiek te maken, wordt de hele discussie geblokkeerd", stelt de burgervader.

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China's 1st official drug report shows alarming situation - CCTV News - CCTV.com English

^{06-24-2015 15:12 BJT}

China has released its first ever official report on the general situation on drug-related crimes and measures to deal with them.

Narcotics authorities say that the country faces a serious drug abuse problem, and warns that its spread and related crimes will continue to increase over the next few years.

The Chinese government is one of the world’s toughest on drugs. But that does not mean the country faces less of a problem.

On Wednesday, the National Narcotics Control Commission published the first official report on drug use in China, in which some alarming figures were released.

The report shows that by the end of 2014, there were nearly 3 million registered drug users in China, and the actual number of users is estimated at 14 million. That means one out of every hundred Chinese is a drug user. The number has been rising at a staggering pace of 40 percent each year since 2008.

"The ages of arrested drug users are becoming lower and lower. In 2014, over half of them were under 35. Moreover, in the past, most drug takers used to be found among marginalized groups such as jobless people, poor farmers or migrant workers. But recently, we find that drug abuse is gradually spreading to groups like regular employees, freelancers, celebrities and even civil servants," said Liu Yuejin, minister assistant of Public Security Ministry.

As Chinese people become richer, drugs have become more widespread, particularly in bars and clubs.

Another unsettling fact is that these people tend to use synthetic drugs, which are more addictive and dangerous than traditional drugs like heroin and opium. In 2014, four out of every five people caught were users of synthetic drugs.

"The excessive use of synthetic drugs can cause mental disorders, which often prompts dangerous behaviors like suicide, murder and rape. Unlike traditional drugs, which generally cause people to be silent and go inward, synthetic drugs make people excited and go to the extreme. That is a serious threat to public safety," Liu said.

China's narcotics authorities say that following this report they are going to publish regular reports on the drug situation in the country. They say while China is determined to crack down on drugs, it also finds it impossible to do it alone. They are therefore calling for stronger international cooperation to make that happen.

Geographically, China is very close to the world's two top drug exporting regions, with drugs flooding across the border. One is called the Golden Triangle, along the Mekong River, and the other called the Golden Crescent, near the border of Afghanistan.

"The rampancy of drug production and exporting there is partly because of the restive situation in those regions. China attaches great importance to cooperation with relevant countries. And we spare no effort in assisting them to calm the situation and crack down on drugs," Liu said.

As the crackdown continues to intensify, police say that the fight against drugs also needs systemic efforts from society to tackle this complicated and rising problem.

Bron: english.cntv.cn

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How Britain's khat ban devastated an entire Kenyan town | World news | The Guardian

Mild stimulant used to be Maua’s most valuable export, bringing prosperity to all involved. A year since it was outlawed, the local economy has been devastated

In a quiet and unassuming town tucked away in a hilly part of eastern Kenya, the British home secretary Theresa May’s name is spoken with barely concealed anger. Since her role in the ban of the town’s most valuable export, she’s become a universally vilified figure.

For more than two decades, Maua enjoyed booming business propelled by the growth and sale of khat, known locally as miraa, a popular herb whose leaves and stems are chewed for the mild high they offer.

But last year the UK, home to one of khat’s biggest markets, declared the stimulant a class C drug and banned all imports, prompting Maua’s rapid descent into economic purgatory.

Since the early 1990s, Britain has imported between 2,500 to 2,800 tonnes a year, according to the Home Affairs committee. Although in its initial findings the committee could not find a compelling health or social reason to ban khat, May’s argument – that continuing to allow trade in the UK would spawn off an illegal export corridor to other European countries where it is banned – won out in what became a controversial cultural debate.

Now that people are no longer making money from miraa, they do not have money to buy food

Now, a year after the legislation was signed, residents in Maua have been hit hard by a shrinking local economy that has left many facing poverty.

Edward Muruu is one of the earliest pioneers of the khat export trade. A retired headmaster at a local primary school, he says he has experienced unprecedented losses since the ban came into effect.

“I used to ferry miraa (khat) from Maua to Nairobi four times a week using 27 Toyota Hilux trucks, where it was repackaged for export. I used to make around Ł2,100 a month. Now I am lucky if I bring in Ł250 per month,” he says.

With the European market gone, the only place left for Muruu to sell his stimulant is Somalia, where consumers now dictate how much they pay – and it’s not much.

“The other issue with the Somali market is that the only people who can transport miraa to Mogadishu are Kenyan Somalis, meaning that the rest of us drivers have been put out of work,” says a former worker of Muruu’s, who only identified himself as Kanda.

According to Kanda, if non-Somali drivers attempt the trip they are attacked along the journey. For a town of its size and location, Maua has a disproportionately large number of residents of Somali heritage, most of whom are involved in the khat trade as middlemen. They are also big consumers themselves.

The effects of the London ban have reached everybody in the khat micro-economy, from the big name traders like Muraa to the small fish who depend on the trade for their survival.

Although Muraa has made investments that have cushioned him against the blows of a deeply depleted income, those at the lower end of the food chain have not been so lucky.

Miriti Ngozi, chairman of the Miraa Traders Association, says that many farmers and traders are no longer able to pay school fees or even buy enough food for their families.

The miraa trade was the heartbeat of this town; it drove everything else

“You have to understand that in this region, subsistence farming has long been overshadowed by the more prestigious miraa farming. Now that people are no longer making money from miraa, they do not have money to buy food and many families are sleeping hungry,” he says.

Yet many remain reluctant to uproot their khat crops and plant maize instead, holding on to the hope that their fortunes might one day return.

Pius Mbiti, a trader in his early 30s, is a qualified vet but says that he makes most of his income from picking and selling the stimulant.

“On a good day I used to make up to Ł12 which, when supplemented with earnings from my vet practice, was enough to take care of my family. But since the ban I am lucky if I make even Ł2 pounds,” he says.

He cannot rely on animal medicine any more either because farmers no longer have the money to pay for his services.

This narrative is familiar across the town, with the common refrain being that shutting down miraa imports to London is killing businesses indirectly linked to the herb.

“The miraa trade was the heartbeat of this town; it drove everything else. With revenue from miraa so drastically low, people no longer have the money to buy things,” says Lawrence Kobia, who owns a bookshop. He says that his sales have plummeted by more than 40% since last year.

In its submissions to parliament, the Home Office committee warned that banning khat would result in the formation of a black market – as seen in the United States and other European countries including Norway and Holland.

Related: This ban on khat is another idiotic salvo in the UK's disastrous war on drugs | Ian Birrell

Although initially khat sold for between Ł3 and Ł4 a kilogram in Britain, the committee reported that if it was banned the price could increase to Ł318, similar to its price in the US.

Their predictions turned out to be true: there has been a proliferation of the stimulant in London since the ban. While the border police have no statistics on seizures, the London Metropolitan police says it has handled a number of khat-related offences.

A spokesperson said that in the first six months after the ban came into effect, a total of 68 warnings and 14 penalty notices were issued. In addition, 36 people were arrested for possession of the herb, four of whom were later charged.

In the meantime, the Kenyan government is trying hard to get the ban lifted, with president Uhuru Kenyatta even promising the farmers in Maua as recently as February that he will petition to have the market reopened for them.
[/b]

The farmers, however, see this as a cheap political move to whip up support, complaining that no tangible rewards have come from promises made by politicians regarding the matter in the past.

But the squabbling over high-level politics in Kenya and the workings of the parliament in Britain are meaningless to the miraa farmer in Maua, whose only worry is where the next meal will come from.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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'Inept' head of family drug-dealing gang sentenced to nine years in jail | UK news | The Guardian

A couple who were part of a family-run multimillion-pound drugs ring spent Ł40,000 on their wedding and lived a lavish lifestyle while still claiming benefits, a court heard.

Carl Honey-Jones, 31, described by a judge as the “inept” head of his family-run conspiracy, was brought before a judge, along with his wife and four other relatives, to be sentenced for their part in a cocaine supply ring in Swansea.

Prosecutor Ian Wright QC said Honey-Jones and his wife, Donna, lived the kind of lavish lifestyle reserved for the rich and famous, while continuing to claim benefits. The couple jetted off on all-inclusive trips to the Maldives and paid for a family holiday to Lapland. They also spent Ł40,000 on their wedding – getting married at a 14th-century church before going to a reception by horse and cart.

Swansea crown court heard the Honey-Jones’s frivolous spending had made them conspicuous to the authorities. They drove top-of-the-range Audis and BMWs, both with private number plates, and lived in a suburban four-bedroomed home while still in minimum-wage jobs and claiming thousands in benefits.

Carl Honey-Jones, 31, was sentenced to a nine-year custodial term, while his wife, 32 – whose lawyer has insisted was just “taking cash from her husband and spending it” – had her sentence adjourned until 6 July.

Four other relatives were involved, including Honey-Jones’s father-in-law Brian Harding, 58, who mixed cocaine with cutting agents in his garage; and Honey-Jones’s cousin, Matthew Jones, 24, described in court as Honey-Jones’s “right-hand man”.

Donna Honey-Jones’s brother and sister also inadvertently gave themselves up after calling the police to report that they had received threats from gangsters.

Judge Paul Thomas said the Honey-Jones operation – which saw large quantities of cocaine brought from Liverpool to Swansea – was motivated by greed. He said: “Carl Honey-Jones, you were the dealer principal and in your case it financed a extravagant lifestyle of foreign holidays, a lavish wedding and luxury cars.

“The sums involved were in the seven-figures and you, Carl Honey-Jones, was at the very top of that conspiracy. Although it was was lucrative, the operation that you led was inept and amateurish.

“Top-of-the-range cars and luxury brands in Penlan road were bound to attract suspicion.” The drugs network was taken apart after police raided 11 addresses in Swansea last year.

Cocaine with a potential street value of Ł750,000 and almost Ł60,000 in cash were seized, along with expensive jewellery – including a genuine Rolex watch – as well as cars and quad bikes.

Detectives also found a notebook detailing drug deals – with the amounts described in court as “eye-watering”.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

quote:

Suiker is belonend, maar minder verslavend dan drugs

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'Drugs zorgen inderdaad min of meer voor een blijvende verandering in de hersenen, terwijl je van suiker direct afkickt', zegt Aart Jan van der Lelij, hoogleraar endocrinologie aan het Erasmus MC en niet betrokken de promotie van De Jong. 'Daardoor zul je niet snel zien dat iemand een bejaarde berooft van een zakje suiker wanneer hij daar al paar dagen van onthouden is.'

Toch reageren de hersenen tijdens het consumeren zelf wel degelijk vergelijkbaar, zegt Van der Lelij. 'Het probleem is dat suiker inmiddels overal in zit, van pindakaas tot kokosnootmelk. Door de belonende werking ervan zijn mensen constant gebrand op meer, meer, meer.'

quote:

Norman Lamb: more than half of Tory ministers have taken drugs | Politics | The Guardian

Lib Dem leadership candidate attacks ‘pathetic’ drug laws and says majority of government ministers will ‘almost certainly’ have taken drugs in their youth

Liberal Democrat leadership hopeful Norman Lamb has said that more than half of current government ministers “almost certainly” tried illegal drugs in their younger years.

Speaking at an event organised by the Institute of Public Policy Research thinktank on Wednesday evening, the MP for North Norfolk described the UK’s current drugs laws as pathetic and a “monumental failure of public policy”.

“We have the crazy situation that, almost certainly, more than half of this government – half of the government ministers in a Conservative government – will have taken drugs in their younger years,” said Lamb, a former care minister under the coalition government.

“They put it down, in a very middle-class way, to youthful indiscretion, while other fellow citizens end up criminalised and their careers blighted as a result of taking a substance that is less dangerous than substances that are entirely legal.”

Lamb has previously called for the UK to legalise, regulate and tax the sale of cannabis, arguing that the UK should draw on examples from US states such as Colorado, which legalised the possession of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use by over-21s in November 2012.

“We have tobacco, which kills about 100,000 people a year in our country,” said Lamb. “We have alcohol, which causes untold damage to families. We’ve lost our own former leader to an illness of alcohol addiction and yet we chose to criminalise young people for smoking a joint.”

Charles Kennedy, who was Lib Dem leader between 1999 and 2006, died in early June aged 55 after a long struggle with alcohol addiction.

“This is pathetic, outrageous public policy,” said Lamb. “At the same time as giving billions of pounds to international criminal networks. What an extraordinary position we’ve got ourselves into.”

A 2007 biography of the prime minister, Cameron: the Rise of the New Conservative, by James Hanning and Francis Elliott, tells how David Cameron was punished for smoking cannabis at Eton in 1982, weeks before his O-level exams.

According to the book, Cameron was fined, grounded for two weeks, and given the school’s traditional punishment of a “Georgic”: copying out hundreds of lines of Latin poetry. Cameron has never denied the story.

Former Conservative frontbenchers David Willetts, Francis Maude, Chris Grayling and Oliver Letwin have all admitted to smoking cannabis in their youth as have Labour leadership candidates Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper.

Lamb has spoken openly about his own family’s experience with his son’s mental ill-health and problems with drugs. “Look, as a father I’m actually rather hostile to drugs,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of people being affected by the influence and certainly not the addiction of a range of drugs, legal or illegal … But I don’t want my sons to be criminalised if they chose to do something like that.”

The Lib Dems have historically been supportive of liberalising drug laws. Their general election manifesto this year pledged to allow doctors to prescribe cannabis for medicinal use and to establish a review to assess the effectiveness of legalisation in the US and Uruguay.

Lib Dem peers have tabled a series of amendments to the government’s psychoactive substances bill, which seeks to outlaw legal highs. The amendments include the decriminalisation of the possession of all drugs for personal use and the legalisation of medicinal use of cannabis when it is prescribed by a doctor.

Lamb is competing with the MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale, Tim Farron, to replace Nick Clegg as party leader. Members will cast their ballots under an alternative vote system and the winner will be announced on 16 July.
Bron: www.theguardian.com

What happened when Portugal decriminalised drugs?

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Economist Films: For 20 years The Economist has led calls for a rethink on drug prohibition. This film looks at new approaches to drugs policy, from Portugal to Colorado. “Drugs: War or Store?” kicks off our new “Global Compass” series, examining novel approaches to policy problems.

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Chileen mag voortaan zes wietplanten telen

Chili staat op het punt het gebruik van marihuana te legaliseren. Woensdag stemde de Tweede Kamer met een ruime meerderheid in met de wetswijziging. Als ook de senaat akkoord gaat mogen Chilenen voortaan zes wietplanten in huis hebben en naar hartelust blowen.

Bron: www.volkskrant.nl

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Mexicaanse drugsbaas El Chapo ontsnapt uit gevangenis



Mexico’s meest notoire drugsbaas Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán is gisteravond ontsnapt uit een zwaarbewaakte gevangenis. Het is de tweede keer dat de voormalige leider van het Sinaloa-kartel uit een gevangenis breekt.

Dat blijkt uit een verklaring van de Mexicaanse veiligheidscommissie. Guzmán is voor het laatst gezien toen hij ‘s avonds ging douchen. Nadat zijn cel werd gecontroleerd, bleek dat Guzmán weg was.

Een zoekoperatie in het gebied rondom de gevangenis is inmiddels in volle gang. Uit voorzorg zijn alle vluchten van het vliegveld van Toluca, nabij de gevangenis, geannuleerd.

El Chapo (De Kleine) werd in februari vorig jaar gearresteerd in de badplaats Mazatlan. Hij wordt gezien als één van de grootste drugsbazen van Mexico. Onder zijn leiding werd het Sinaloa-kartel een van de machtigste drugsbendes in het land. Het kartel kreeg na een bloedige strijd met andere bendes de controle over een aantal belangrijke drugsroutes naar de VS en was in meer dan vijftig landen actief. Guzmán vergaarde een enorm fortuin, wat hem zelfs in de miljardairslijst van het zakenblad Forbes deed belanden.

Bron: NRC