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

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Ja Kweek maar 5 planten van 1,7 meter is ok | WatWeWillen.nl

Goed nieuws voor iedereen in Nederland die zich netjes aan het gedoogde aantal van vijf wietplanten houdt. De rechter in Leeuwarden heeft in een vonnis (nogmaals) bepaald dat de grootte van de planten niet uitmaakt, zelfs niet als je daarmee veel meer dan de toegestane gebruikershoeveelheid van 30 gram wiet in bezit hebt!

Vijf enorme wietplanten in de tuin

Met het vonnis dinsdag in de rechtbank van Leeuwarden wordt (opnieuw) bevestigd dat het voor de wet niets uitmaakt hoe groot je wietplanten worden in de tuin, het gaat puur om het aantal – en dat mogen er dus 5 zijn.

Smakelijke nederlaag dus voor een hitsige officier van justitie – in dit geval Margreeth Meijer geheten – die een man uit Drachten aan de gerechtelijke schandpaal wilde nagelen omdat hij vijf joekels van wietplanten – met een schitterende hoogte van 170 centimeter – in zijn tuin had weten te kweken. En dan waren de dames nog niet eens helemaal oogstrijp toen de politie ze op 14 september kwam rippen…

Geen recht op 5-plantenregel?

Volgens de openbaar aanklager had de 38-jarige Drachtster geen recht om zich te beroepen op de fameuze 5-plantenregel in Nederland (zie voor een duidelijke uitleg hierover deze column van RollingStoned columnist en advocaat Mr. Veldman), omdat de planten zo groot waren geworden… Als de man een boete van 250 euro zou betalen was de kous daarmee juridisch gezien af.

Daar had onze superkweker echter helemaal geen zin in. Vandaar dat hij deze week mocht komen opdraven in de rechtbank, zich beroepend op de gedoogregel dat je 5 wietplanten mag hebben.

Uitspraak Hoge Raad

Officier van justitie Meijer ging er nog maar eens met gestrekt been in: hier was toch zeker geen sprake meer van wietplanten maar van ‘hennepbomen of -struiken’. En deze ‘heel grote planten’ zouden dus veel en veel meer dan 30 gram wiet opgeleverd hebben, kortom alle reden voor een veroordeling. Daarbij haalde ze wat oude uitspraken erbij uit 2005 en 2010 die haar gelijk moesten aantonen.

Jammer alleen dat deze overijverige en duidelijk wiethatende aanklager vergeten was de meest belangrijke en recentste uitspraak uit 2012 – van de Hoge Raad nog wel, dus van de allerhoogste gerechtelijke instantie in Nederland! – mee te nemen. Daarin staat namelijk toch echt dat het aantal hennepplanten doorslaggevend is zolang niet kan worden vastgesteld dat de wiet van meer dan 5 planten komt en zolang er dan geen sprak is van ‘beroeps- of bedrijfsmatige teelt’ geldt die goeie ouwe gedoogregel van 5 planten.

Rechter geeft vrijbrief voor 5 wietplanten

Vanzelfsprekend kweekte de man uit Drachten puur voor eigen gebruik, zo verklaarde hij. Weliswaar deels uit nood – werkloosheid – geboren, maar toch niet meer dan 5 planten.

Rechter Bauke Jansen was het ermee eens en gaf de officier van justitie een mooi standje: “Het OM had deze zaak niet moeten oppakken.”

Vrijspraak dus voor deze succesvolle Friese 5-plantenkweker, en een vrijbrief voor ons allen om goed ons best te gaan doen in de tuin deze zomer!

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Colombia to send jets against criminal gangs - BBC News

Defence Minister Luis Carlos Villegas said the full force of the state, including the military, would be used to fight them.

The gangs emerged from right-wing paramilitary squads disbanded under the last government of Alvaro Uribe, in office until five years ago.

Officials say there are three criminal gangs with about 3,000 members.

Air raids against left-wing Farc - country's largest rebel group - are currently suspended, as peace talks continue in an effort to end five decades of conflict.

"This will allow the application of the entire force of the state, without exception, against organised armed groups, against powerful mafias," Mr Villegas said.

The new strategy specifically targets three groups - the Clan Usuga, Los Pelusos and Los Puntilleros.

Clan Usuga, is the largest and is accused of trafficking cocaine to Central America and on to the US.

The Los Pelusos gang has strong links with the powerful Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. Los Puntilleros are involved in trafficking in Colombia's Catatumbo region.

Analysts say the decision to militarise the fight against organised crime marks a sharp turn in strategy as the government is nearing a peace deal with the Farc.

Air raids have been the most powerful military strategy against guerrilla groups and led to the deaths of many of their most feared commanders.

President Juan Manuel Santos said earlier this week that the US was providing intelligence to help fight criminal gangs.

Bron: www.bbc.com

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The Zombie Drug That Wasn't - Reason.com


No one knows why Rudy Eugene, a 31-year-old car wash employee, suddenly launched himself at Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man he encountered on Miami's McArthur Causeway, chewing off most of his victim's face in an 18-minute assault that ended only after a police officer shot him dead. But one thing is certain: "Bath salts" did not make him do it.

We know that because toxicological tests found no trace of synthetic cathinones, the stimulants known as bath salts, in Eugene's body. But the results of those tests were not announced until a month after the attack, which happened on a Saturday afternoon in May 2012. In the meantime, news outlets around the world, based on zero evidence aside from one police officer's speculation, attributed Eugene's savage violence to a drug he had not taken, using security camera footage of the "Causeway Cannibal" (a.k.a. the "Miami Zombie") to illustrate the horrors wrought by a nonexistent "epidemic."

Reviewing that bizarre episode in a recent issue of the journal Contemporary Drug Problems, two researchers at the University of Minnesota, neuroscientist Natashia Swalve and media scholar Ruth DeFoster, draw some lessons that could help journalists avoid such drug panics in the future. That's assuming journalists want to avoid drug panics. Their track record before, during and after the Great Bath Salt Freakout of 2012 suggests otherwise.

Swalve and DeFoster searched the Nexis database for coverage of Eugene's assault by CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NBC, ABC, CBS and NPR. They found 31 stories: 24 from CNN, three from ABC, two from NBC and one each from NPR and MSNBC. The stories typically linked bath salts to aggression, unusual strength and hallucinations, and most referred to a recent increase in use of the stimulants; eight stories used the term epidemic. The reports featured "direct appeals (often by news anchors themselves)" for legislators to do something about the bath salt menace. "In an ostensibly impartial, fact-based medium," Swalve and DeFoster note, "it is relatively uncommon for journalists to appeal directly to legislators."

Those appeals seem to have been successful. The Drug Enforcement Administration had already imposed an "emergency" ban on some of the stimulants used in bath salts, and so had the Florida legislature. But Miami-Dade County commissioners apparently deemed those measures inadequate, because they approved their own ban just two weeks after Eugene attacked Poppo. Congress enacted a broader federal ban on June 27, 2012, the same day it was revealed that bath salts had nothing to do with Eugene's crime. Prior to that vote, the main sponsor of the bill, Rep. Charlie Dent (R-Pa.), had expressed the hope that skeptical colleagues would change their minds "when they learn about this face-chewing situation in Florida," that "this terrible tragedy…will bring about greater awareness and accelerate the need to enact meaningful legislation that will protect people from this poison." It sure looks like that's what happened.

Support for these laws was based on a grossly distorted view of how people act after taking bath salts. "The description of bath salts present in these broadcast media reports was very different from the scientific literature on the topic," Swalve and DeFoster write, "and it does not appear that the media took this particular source of information into account in reporting. The primary symptoms mentioned in the transcripts included an increase in aggressive behavior, 'super strength,' and vivid hallucinations that could cause psychosis. This represents a marked difference from the increase in talkativeness, empathy, energy, and euphoria that characterize the clinical literature on the effects of bath salts." While the research indicates that the most commonly reported effects of bath salts are improved mood and heightened energy (which explains why people like them), TV reports "focused overwhelmingly on psychosis, paranoia, cannibalism, and other extreme outlier behaviors."

To reinforce their depiction of bath salts as catalysts of mayhem, reporters covering the "Miami cannibal attack" cited other examples of violence allegedly caused by the stimulants. "Other cases that were 'packaged' with the Miami incident," Swalve and DeFoster note, included "a case in which a man ate someone's brain, a man who stabbed himself in New Jersey, and the dismemberment of a porn star by her boyfriend." Yet "none turned out to actually have involved the use of bath salts." In that respect, of course, those cases did resemble what Charlie Dent called "this face-chewing situation in Florida."

Despite all the references to a bath salt "epidemic," these drugs were never very popular, and it seems use of them was already declining when CNN et al. warned that it was on the rise. Swalve and DeFoster note that calls to poison control centers involving bath salts fell from 6,138 in 2011 to 2,654 in 2012. The sensational reports provoked by Eugene's gory crime either ignored or blatantly misrepresented these data. "In a June 2 broadcast on CNN," Swalve and DeFoster write, "a guest noted that 'about two years ago, there were 300 reported cases, last year 6,000, and this year 1,000 reported cases, so it's on the rise,' with the news anchor echoing this sentiment, seemingly oblivious to the contradiction."

Journalists' general tendency to hype drug hazards is amplified by the sources on whom they typically rely: cops and clinicians whose work brings them into regular contact with a highly skewed sample of drug users—the ones who end up in jail or in the hospital. In this case the main sources were Armando Aguilar, president of Miami's Fraternal Order of Police, who speculated early and often that bath salts turned Eugene into a face-chewing zombie, and Paul Adams, a local emergency room physician who was happy to back Aguilar's claims about these drugs' impact on strength and aggression.

Aguilar told ABC News there were "striking" similarities between Eugene's assault and incidents involving bath salts. "The cases are similar minus a man eating another," he said, which is like saying Fifty Shades of Grey is like Cinderella except for all the kinky sex. "People taking off their clothes. People suddenly have superhuman strength. They become violent, and they are burning up on the inside. Their organs are reaching a level that most would die. By the time police approach them, they are a walking dead person." In my book Saying Yes, I talk about "voodoo pharmacology," the idea that certain drugs take control of people and force them to do bad things. Here you have a literalized version of such zombification: a drug that turns you into "a walking dead person" who feasts on human flesh.

"You can call it the new LSD," Adams told ABC News—a mystifying comparison, Swalve and DeFoster note, since LSD and synthetic cathinones "are clinically dissimilar in terms of the behavioral effects and pharmacology." Maybe Adams meant that "you can call it the new LSD" because people are freaking out about it based on misinformation. But probably not. Patients under the influence of bath salts "seem to be unaware of their surroundings," he continued. "They are not rational, very aggressive and are stronger than they usually are. In the emergency room it usually takes four to five people to control them." In a Daily Beast story that appeared the same day, Adams said it sometimes takes "seven security guards and one doctor."

The doctor later told Playboy he did not actually confirm that the patients he was describing had taken bath salts. "If I want to test for bath salts, I have to send samples to an outside laboratory," he said. "When somebody tests negative for everything, it's a good bet bath salts are involved." Just like it was a good bet that bath salts were involved in the attack on Ronald Poppo?

News organizations eager to maximize eyeballs have little incentive to question the testimony of alarmists or seek a calmer perspective, so they end up echoing the warnings of their sources. In a story quoted by Swalve and DeFoster, for instance, ABC News correspondent Matt Gutmann, drawing on a common theme of yellow drug journalism, reported that bath salts impart "superhuman strength" and "immunity to pain," creating formidable threats to police officers: "Bloody, naked and hallucinating, they fight their demons and anybody near them, walking through bullets, snapping off taser prongs, growling like caged animals." Swalve and DeFoster sum up the tenor of the press coverage this way:

An early focus on bath salts, triggered by a series of speculative quotations from a single law enforcement source, fueled a month-long focus on bath salts use as the sole interpretive schema for the Miami attack, shutting out other possibilities from coverage. Most glaringly, discussion of mental health as it may intersect with and affect drug use was completely absent from coverage, an oversight that is particularly problematic because it is now clear that mental illness was likely a more appropriate (albeit less sensational) interpretive schema for this incident.

I'm not sure that "mental illness" is any more satisfying or scientifically rigorous as an explanation for Eugene's behavior than bath salts were. But it should be obvious that idiosyncratic factors of some kind must be at work when someone does something so unusual and shocking that it attracts international press attention. Even if Eugene had taken bath salts, that fact alone could not possibly explain his actions, which were extreme even for the minority of consumers who react badly to these substances.

"By relying on inflammatory fear-based appeals; focusing on outlying behaviors; omitting more likely alternative explanatory cultural, environmental, and social factors; ignoring additional sources of data; and 'packaging' unrelated events together to bolster claims about a dangerous 'epidemic' of bath salts use," Swalve and DeFoster write, the news organizations whose work they analyzed, "which are expected to be subject to high ethical standards, presented a portrait of this Miami attack—and of bath salts use in the United States—that was misdirected and disconnected from current clinical research on the use of the drug." In fact, they continued to do so even after the purported link between bath salts and the Miami attack had been decisively debunked. As late as a year ago, CBS News was still citing Eugene's crime as an example of what people do under the influence of synthetic cathinones.

The same hyperbolic tendencies that Swalve and DeFoster saw in stories about the Causeway Cannibal can be seen in prior coverage of drugs such as marijuana, LSD, PCP, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and salvia, not to mention subsequent coverage of drugs such as Krokodil, Captagon and flakka (another name for alpha-PVP, one of the stimulants used in bath salts). All of those panics have been accompanied or followed by critiques like Swalve and DeFoster's, pointing out the gap between the horror story and the reality. How many times must leading news outlets fail to live up to their supposedly "high ethical standards" before we conclude that those are just as mythical as tales of drug-induced cannibalism?

Bron: reason.com

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The Failed Promise of Legal Pot

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There are a few basic reasons for this. First, the medical market, Vasquez says, can sell marijuana more cheaply than the state-licensed and -regulated stores because medical dispensaries don’t have to charge most of the combined 27.9 percent tax on the drug. This increases the resale of medical marijuana on the street. Second, there are the plants that are grown for personal use, which are allowed under the law. Vasquez says the result is a steady supply of marijuana not only for street dealers but also for Craigslist sales, which have become so ubiquitous that some city departments don’t have the resources to crack down on them.

With various illegal sources flourishing, Vasquez says, the challenge for regulators “is trying to find the sweet spot, where the taxes are low enough that there’s an incentive for people to go to the regulated stores.”

Francisco Gallardo, a community leader in Denver, summarizes the situation more succinctly: “If it’s ridiculously expensive and they can get it from their homie cheaper, that’s what they’re going to do.”

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In the throes of the Great Depression, legislatures all over the country were also beginning to see alcohol as a way to fill state coffers. Slogans like "Give us beer and balance the budget!" appeared on parade floats and posters. Everyone wanted to bring liquor back--and the lawmakers wanted to do it with a hefty tax. The only problem was that the bootleggers were well established, and fixing prohibition meant finding a way to force illegal operations to go straight or close their doors.

When repeal finally came, Washington's then-Governor Clarence Martin asked Admiral Gregory to head the state's new Liquor Control Board. Critically, Martin gave Gregory carte blanche to mold the new policies as he saw fit. Gregory took up the challenge--and surprised everyone.

First, instead of cracking down on bootleggers and speakeasy operators, Gregory gave them amnesty and issued licenses to anyone willing to play by the state's rules. Second, backed by the governor and his influence in the Senate, Gregory arranged for alcohol taxes to be set as low as any in the nation, which allowed those willing to follow the law to keep a significant amount of their profits, and it made room for legal operators to compete with bootleggers' prices. Third, Gregory punished anyone who broke the rules--even once--with an iron fist, blacklisting them from ever making or selling alcohol in the state again.

Predictably, this caused some turmoil in a legislature anxiously awaiting an infusion of cash from liquor sales, but the governor backed Gregory. Faced with a low cost of entry and legal profits, bootleggers and speakeasies around the state mostly turned legitimate. Meanwhile, the few remaining stragglers were quickly put out of business, and drinkers flocked to a competitive legal market.

That might have been the end of it, but there was one more piece to Gregory's plan. After holding down taxes--and thus prices--for three years, Gregory abruptly raised taxes so much that they were among the highest in the nation. The price of booze went up, of course, but people kept buying legal liquor and beer. There was no alternative left. Gregory had broken the back of the black market.

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ADE veel minder agressief dan politie deed vermoeden - Kunst & Media - PAROOL

Na afloop van de laatste editie van het Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE) sprak de politie van een feest vol drugsincidenten en agressie. In de gemeentelijke evaluatie blijft van dat beeld weinig over.

Daarin staat dat ADE vorig jaar 'relatief rustig is verlopen'. Het aantal drugsincidenten per tienduizend bezoekers was niet groter dan bij andere indoor dancefestivals.

De politie laat nu zelf ook een veel minder paniekerig geluid horen en zegt in de evaluatie dat ADE vergelijkbaar was met een 'zeer druk uitgaansweekend dat eerder begon en langer doorging'.

Dat terwijl politiewoordvoerder Ellie Lust destijds tegenover zo'n beetje alle media vertelde dat "sommige mensen zo veel op hadden, dat ze er heilig van overtuigd zijn dat ze werden ontvoerd door ruimtewezens". Ook zouden politieagenten te maken hebben gehad met mensen die "volledig doorgedraaid waren en uitermate agressief gedrag vertoonden".

In de evaluatie staat dat de uitlatingen van de politie 'het beeld hebben versterkt dat ADE gepaard gaat met extreem en gevaarlijk drugsgebruik en veel incidenten'.

Bron: www.parool.nl

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Politie Colombia onderschept zeker acht ton cocaïne | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl

De politie van Colombia heeft in het noordwesten van het land minstens acht ton cocaïne in beslag genomen.

De drugs werden in de provincie Antioquia ontdekt, bericht de krant El Tiempo zondag. Verwacht wordt dat het om nog meer cocaïne gaat.

President Juan Manuel Santos sprak op Twitter van de grootste drugsvondst uit de geschiedenis van het land. Ook de politie omschrijft het als een van de "grootste drugsvangst in de recente geschiedenis".
Bron: www.nu.nl

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Magic mushrooms lift severe depression in clinical trial

Results raise hopes that active substance in class 1 drug could be used to treat mental health conditions in future


Magic mushrooms have lifted severe depression in a dozen volunteers in a clinical trial, raising scientists’ hopes that the psychedelic experiences beloved of the Aztecs and the hippy counter-culture of the 1970s could one day become mainstream medicine.

A clinical trial, which took years and significant money to complete due to the stringent regulatory restrictions imposed around the class 1 drug, has found that two doses of psilocybin, the active substance in the mushrooms, was sufficient to lift resistant depression in all 12 volunteers for three weeks, and to keep it away in five of them for three months.

The size of the trial and the absence of any placebo means the research, funded by the Medical Research Council and published in the Lancet Psychiatry journal (pdf), is a proof of principle only.

The scientists, from Imperial College London, said they hoped the results would encourage the MRC or other funders to put up the money needed for a full trial. However, the use of a placebo control, comparing those who use the drug with those who do not, will always be difficult, because it will be obvious who is having a psychedelic experience.

In spite of the outcome, the researchers urged people not to try magic mushrooms themselves.

The lead author, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, said: “Psychedelic drugs have potent psychological effects and are only given in our research when appropriate safeguards are in place, such as careful screening and professional therapeutic support.

“I wouldn’t want members of the public thinking they can treat their own depressions by picking their own magic mushrooms. That kind of approach could be risky.”

The senior author, Prof David Nutt, said it was justified for researchers to explore the medical use of banned recreational drugs.

“It is important that academic research groups try to develop possible new treatments for depression as the pharmaceutical industry is pulling out of this field‎. Our study has shown psilocybin is safe and fast acting so may, if administered carefully, have value for these patients.”

All the volunteers had severe depression and had failed to improve on at least two standard antidepressants. They were initially given a low dose of psilocybin to ensure they had no adverse reactions (none did) and then a higher dose a week later. They were treated in a specially prepared room, with music playing and in the presence of two psychiatrists who talked with them throughout. The psychedelic experience lasted up to five hours.

One of the volunteers, Kirk Rutter, from London, described himself as being heartbroken by the death of his mother and unable to come to terms with it in spite of counselling and medication. He said he was nervous about taking part and had never taken magic mushrooms, but said the friendly staff, the room layout and the music had relaxed him by the time he came to swallow the capsules.

“Both times I experienced something called ‘psychedelic turbulence’. This is the transition period to the psychedelic state, and caused me to feel cold and anxious,” the 45-year-old said. “However this soon passed, and I had a mostly pleasant – and sometimes beautiful – experience.

“There were certainly some challenging moments during the sessions, for instance when I experienced being in hospital with my mother when she was very ill. And during the high-dose session I visualised my grief as an ulcer that I was preventing from healing so that I could stay connected to my mother. However, by going through memories, and feeling the love in our relationship, I saw that letting go of the grief was not letting go of her memory.”

He said it was not a quick fix and he needed to keep working at feeling positive, but he was still “doing great”.

Nutt said major hurdles had to be overcome to carry out the research. It took a year to get ethical approval and there was a six-month safety study, but the hardest part was getting through the red tape.

It took 30 months to get the drug, which had to be specially packaged into capsules for the trial by a company which was required to get a licence to do so. All the regulatory approvals took 32 months, Nutt said. “It cost £1,500 to dose each person, when in a sane world it might cost £30.”

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Nederlandse douane vernietigt onterecht 'cocaïnekunstwerk' | kunst | De Morgen

Twee kunstwerken van de Boliviaanse kunstenaar Gastón Ugalde zijn door de Nederlandse douane onterecht vernietigd. De kunstwerken bestaan uit cocabladeren, die volgens het boekje gelden als drugs. Een vonnis van de rechter moest de kunstwerken redden, meldt de Nederlandse krant Het Parool, maar dat kwam te laat.

Volgens de rechter konden de kunstwerken niet als drugs worden gebruikt dankzij een vernislaagje over de cocabladeren. Maar een telefoontje met de douane leerde dat de kunstwerken verdwenen waren. Na een korte zoektocht werd geconstateerd dat de 'cocaïnekunstwerken' vernietigd waren.

De uit de Andes afkomstige Ugalde, bijgenaamd The Andean Warhol, geldt als een prominent kunstenaar. Zijn werk, met cocabladeren als belangrijkste bestandsdeel, wordt over de hele wereld tentoongesteld.

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Big Pharma Seeks to Capitalize on Pain-Reducing Compound Derived From Cannabis


(Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout)(Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout)

The medicinal properties of cannabidiol (better known as CBD), a compound found in the Cannabis sativa L. plant species, are quickly drawing the attention of scientists, plant-medicine lovers, dietary-supplement companies, venture capitalists, professional athletes and Big Pharma -- not to mention people living with serious, chronic medical conditions. Insiders predict the burgeoning market will be as profitable as the NFL.

Today, if you run a search on PubMed.gov, a medical research database, you'll find more than 1,500 academic articles on cannabidiol.

Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD has no euphoric properties whatsoever, and carries no street value. What it does offer, however, are a host of health benefits. According to a 2013 review published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CBD has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation and also has anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and antidepressant properties.

Despite CBD's incredible profile and ability to reduce human suffering, there's a continuing debate over its legal status. Parts of the law are fuzzy and up for interpretation, depending on whom you ask.

"There is this issue of speaking out of both sides of one's mouth when we discuss CBD," said Joy Beckerman, president of Hemp Ace International, a Seattle-based consulting firm.

For instance, the jury is still out when it comes to a whole slew of issues surrounding the plant compound: Is CBD truly legal in all 50 states, just some states or none at all? Meanwhile, it's also unclear as to whether CBD is more legal if it's being imported into the country compared to being grown on American soil. And finally is it safe to sell across state lines? And how about "CBD-only" medical marijuana laws? (Seventeen states, including Alabama and Florida, have legalized CBD for medical use while keeping THC illegal.)

"All of those questions have information but they don't have answers because [the law is] that gray and it's that developing," said Beckerman, who also teaches a course for law students titled "The Curious Legal Status of CBD and Industrial Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids."

According to CBD manufacturers, US regulatory arms, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Customs and Border Protection (within the Department of Homeland Security), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice, are making it increasingly difficult for dietary supplement companies to sell CBD. They say the current atmosphere is reminiscent of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s.

Some selling "CBD-rich hemp oil" have experienced significant disruptions to their businesses: big sums of money frozen by credit card companies or PayPal, customs agents seizing products at the border and FDA-issued warning notices.

"The [FDA's] punishments for running afoul of their endless regulations (that, often, their reps don't know well) can range from a mere letter and a fine to complete shutdown of operations without recourse," said Jennifer Carney, a journalist who is versed in cannabis compliance. "The FDA is the most unforgiving agency with very minimal oversight, and has rules that seem to apply to some (little guys) but not to Big Pharma."

Big Pharma Moves In

GW Pharmaceuticals, a "biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform," is being praised as the leading pharmaceutical company exploring cannabinoid drugs.

While there are other pharmaceutical firms devising cannabidiol-based medications, GW Pharmaceuticals has applied for numerous drug patents that specify particular formulations of CBD and THC to treat cancer pain, childhood epilepsy and multiple sclerosis (MS) -- conditions the Cannabis sativa L. plant has been treating for several hundred years.

Some fear that just as the 20-year-long fight to legalize medical marijuana begins to see substantial success, Big Pharma is now swooping in to monopolize both the THC (typically referred to as medical marijuana) and CBD markets. They are often classified together since both compounds are derived from the same plant.

"This could very well affect the cannabis business in the US and possibly around the world," a manufacturer of CBD-rich pet foods told me, asking to remain anonymous for fear of experiencing difficulties with her business. She also believes the FDA and GW Pharmaceuticals are in cahoots.

GW's Epidiolex, meanwhile, is being primed to become the first FDA-approved cannabis-derived treatment option for those living with severe epilepsy.

Analysts, on average, believe the drug could generate annual sales of $1.1 billion by 2021, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Cortellis.

GW's other drug, Sativex, treats MS and is also being reformulated to treat cancer-related pain. Sativex has already been distributed in 15 countries, while GW has licensing agreements with Bayer HealthCare, Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Novartis.

Sativex can cost an average of $16,000 annually, whereas legal dietary supplements that contain similar compounds are only a fraction of the cost.

FDA: Thou Shalt Not Market CBD as a Dietary Supplement

On February 4, 2016, the FDA issued at least eight warning letters to dietary-supplement companies, accusing them of making health claims about CBD and warning them that CBD may not be positioned as a dietary supplement.

Because CBD-containing products have not been approved by the FDA, they cannot be marketed for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease. The FDA therefore warned the companies that it considers these products unapproved new drugs.

According to the FDA's website,

CBD products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(ff)(3)(B)(ii)]. Under that provision, if a substance (such as CBD) has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement. There is an exception if the substance was "marketed as" a dietary supplement or a conventional food before the new drug investigations were authorized; however, based on available evidence, FDA has concluded that this is not the case for CBD.

In broad strokes, this means that if a pharmaceutical company has (seemingly) gotten there first in creating a CBD-based pharmaceutical drug, then CBD is off limits to dietary-supplement companies, unless the product existed when those three criteria were met. The scenario doesn't work the other way around: If a dietary-supplement company brings a product to the marketplace, this doesn't prevent Big Pharma from introducing their own version.

"We can question whether we have perfect balance when they [Big Pharma] are being offered exclusivity while we are being offered a shared marketplace," said Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, a trade association aimed at supporting the responsible commerce of herbs and herbal products.

Another point up for debate in the 201(ff) provision is when CBD actually entered the market. According to Stuart Tomc, vice president of human nutrition at CV Sciences, "CBD has been marketed as a dietary supplement prior to commencement and public notice of any substantial clinical investigations instituted on CBD, thereby rendering the IND preclusion inapplicable."

And according to Raphael Mechoulam, an 85-year-old Israeli chemist best known for isolating THC, cannabidiol was discovered in the late 1930s and early 1940s, both in the UK and the US. "The structure was not known, the activity was not known, so it was left behind," he recently told The Wall Street Journal.

In 1980, Mechoulam published the results of a small clinical trial, but no one seemed interested. In an email to Truthout, he noted that he and his team "reported a small anti-epilepsy clinical trial with CBD with positive results 35 years ago. Nobody bothered to expand it or even to repeat it. Thousands of patients, many of them children, could have been helped."

The Matter of Red Yeast Rice

In 2015, the FDA sent out warning letters to go after deceitful CBD sellers.

"We've seen a lot of fraud in this industry: Some of these products contain no CBD, or far less than advertised. It's basically an uncontrolled experiment that is going on now in the Wild West," said Ethan Russo, a board-certified neurologist and former senior medical adviser to GW Pharmaceuticals. "You cannot make a supposed claim on what a product can do without randomized controlled trials and a particular preparation," added Russo, who advocates for the legalized production of CBD through a regulated market with standards.

Deceitful corporate schemes do a disservice to quality vendors. That's why we have the FDA, to assure safety and proper labeling -- not to peddle the interests of Big Pharma or deny human beings a micronutrient found in nature.

"When it comes to CBD, 201(ff) is equivalent to saying you cannot take vitamin C until you get sick with scurvy, because it's being used as a drug," said Will Kleidon, founder of Ojai Energetics, an organic CBD manufacturer.

But wait: Can a natural, non-intoxicating compound really be classified as a drug when it's really a "dietary ingredient"? (The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act defines a dietary ingredient as a "vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances.") It's happened before.

In 1987, red yeast rice became the center of what would turn out to be a landmark case, often referenced when discussing the complexities of CBD.

Red yeast rice extract has been used as a traditional Chinese remedy since the Tang dynasty to improve blood circulation and decrease cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but it was suddenly classified as a drug once the FDA discovered the active ingredient monacolin K was found to be chemically identical to lovastatin, a compound found in Merck's patented prescription drug Mevacor.

On this basis, the FDA advised that a product called Cholestin was now a drug requiring the FDA's approval for marketing and banned it, even though red yeast rice is an ingredient with a documented history of food use going back nearly a millennium. The FDA concluded that Cholestin was therefore excluded from the definition of "dietary supplement."

A dietary-supplement manufacturer can still use red yeast rice, but cannot manipulate the supplement's lovastatin content, added McGuffin.

Instead of allowing beneficial substances found in nature to be responsibly sold, we have a system that operates on loopholes, compromises, inaccuracies and Big Pharma sway.

Red yeast rice's case history provides lessons for manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements containing CBD.

"Ultimately, dietary companies are advocating for the same thing consumers are," McGuffin said. "Unfettered and informed access to high-quality, cannabis-derived products that contain CBD."

Pot-Phobic Restrictions on the Harvesting of CBD

Cannabidiols are actually found in many plants such as cacao, black pepper and echinacea (whereas THC is only found in cannabis plants), but the highest levels of cannabinoids are found in the plant species Cannabis. CBD is one of more than 107 active cannabinoids in the cannabis plant that interact with receptors in our body referred to as the "endocannabinoid system," responsible for maintaining homeostasis in our bodies. As a result, many argue that whole plant synergies are more effective than the isolated single-molecule compounds that Big Pharma tries to capitalize on because of patentability. It's well accepted that CBD and THC work synergistically for therapeutic efficacy -- a combination that medical marijuana advocates refer to as the "entourage effect."

However, when it comes to dietary supplements, companies are only able to source CBD from "industrial hemp" plants, which contain lower resin than marijuana. Remember, the DEA still considers cannabis a Schedule I drug, up there with heroin and ecstasy. But for all intents and purposes, hemp and marijuana are the same plant.

The distinction between "industrial hemp" and marijuana was made just a few years ago, for the first time in US history, under the "Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research" provision of the 2014 Agricultural Act, otherwise known as the federal farm bill. Almost magically, cannabis was now considered hemp, as long as no part of the plant exceeded a THC concentration of "more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis."

Martin A. Lee, author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana -- Medical, Recreational, and Scientific and cofounder and director of Project CBD, describes the 0.3 percent legal limit as "an absurd, impractical, resin-phobic relic of reefer madness."

"It has become the lynchpin of cannabis prohibition, a venal, dishonest policy that impedes medical research and blocks patient access to valuable therapeutic options, including herbal extracts with various CBD:THC ratios. For patients struggling with a wide range of conditions, CBD and THC work best together, enhancing each other's beneficial effects," he recently wrote.

While Beckerman acknowledges that there has been progress, she notes that we wouldn't be having these discussions regarding low-THC/high-CBD varieties if not for cannabis prohibition.

"If we were free to do what we wanted with this medicine, we would breed for desired therapeutic properties regardless of THC-phobic legal definitions. We wouldn't be limiting ourselves; we'd want to create the most efficient systems and biggest return on the energy to extract medicine," she said.

Currently, CBD manufacturers are not permitted to extract CBD from the flowers where the greatest concentrations of THC are found. Instead, they must extract CBD from stems and stalks.

Fortunately, things are evolving, albeit in an unexpected way, says attorney Rod Kight from Asheville, North Carolina. Based on a 2015 funding bill, CBD derived from industrial hemp -- including CBD derived from cannabis flowers -- may be transported to, and sold in, any state in the US that does not have laws expressly forbidding it. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2016 contains the following provision in section 763:

None of the funds made available by this act or any other act may be used ... to prohibit the transportation, processing, sale or use of industrial hemp that is grown or cultivated in accordance with section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, within or outside the State in which the industrial hemp is grown or cultivated.

Although this language does not explicitly amend the farm bill, it does forbid the use of federal funds to enforce any law that would otherwise prohibit transporting, processing, selling or using CBD in any state so long as the CBD was extracted pursuant to the provisions of the farm bill. The practical effect of this clause is that it makes CBD legal on the federal level throughout the US, says Kight.

According to the DEA Office of Diversion Control, parts of the cannabis plant are exempt from being scheduled as a Class One substance: "The mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil, or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination."

Meanwhile, the only reason hemp food products aren't off limits altogether is because of the Hemp Industries Association's victorious 2004 lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit against the DEA.

In the ruling Judge Betty Fletcher wrote:

They [the DEA] cannot regulate naturally-occurring THC not contained within or derived from marijuana -- i.e., non-psychoactive hemp products -- because non-psychoactive hemp is not included in Schedule I. The DEA has no authority to regulate drugs that are not scheduled, and it has not followed procedures required to schedule a substance. The DEA's definition of "THC" contravenes the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress in the [Controlled Substances Act] and cannot be upheld.

CBD hemp oil purveyors often cite the ruling when explaining why their products are "legal in all 50 states." Yet others say that the court decision never mentions CBD.

"I get into debates all the time with people who say that case legalized CBD," Beckerman said. "I am not arguing with them other than to say, 'Jesus Christ, it was a case about oil pressed from a hemp seed.' At no point did they discuss cannabinoids in the spirit of plant material collection other than when the poor ... justices had to spell it out for the ignorant and obstinate DEA."

However, Kleidon and many others, who have consulted with attorneys and experts, maintain that as long as their product does not include a psychoactive concentration of THC, and it is derived from stalk and stem, there is no federal violation.

"Many times the raw materials have been imported, declared at customs [and] taken out by FDA agents who legally report and prevent illegal substances from entering the country," Kleidon said. "It's been declared as CBD-rich hemp stalk oil, and it's been tested and pulled for. If it was a controlled substance, they would be committing a federal crime. And that is not the case."

"Dietary supplements are currently selling CBD with a sword of Damocles hanging over their head," said Marc Ullman, an attorney at Rivkin Radler who represents clients in matters relating to all aspects of FDA and DEA matters.

If the production and use of all cannabis-derived products (including recreational marijuana, medical marijuana and non-psychoactive compounds like CBD) were decriminalized entirely, as many activists have called for, many of the unnecessary restrictions on CBD's production would immediately be lifted.

According to Beckerman:

While there are currently three competing federal bills that specifically seek to define "cannabidiol" and remove it from the Controlled Substances Act (S.683,H.R. 1635 andS.1333), if the feds would simply deschedule "marihuana" from the Controlled Substances Act, then all forms ofcannabis-- whether marijuana or industrial hemp -- and all of the constituents ofcannabis, including CBD, will be liberated from the displaced control of the DEA. Sen. Bernie Sanders filed the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015" (S.2237) in November of 2015.

But in the meantime, Russo argues that it's important to ensure that the criminalization of pot does not spread to CBD.

"The USA is one of the only countries in the world where CBD is illegal," Russo said. "It has nothing of the features of a Schedule I drug. It's not addictive. It does not produce intoxication. It's a matter of guilt by association because of the plant from which it derives."

Maryam Henein (maryam@honeycolony.com) is founder and editor-in-chief of HoneyColony. She is also the director of the award-winning documentary film Vanishing of the Bees, narrated by Ellen Page.Follow her on Twitter @maryamhenein.

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(Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout)(Image: Lauren Walker / Truthout)

The medicinal properties of cannabidiol (better known as CBD), a compound found in the Cannabis sativa L. plant species, are quickly drawing the attention of scientists, plant-medicine lovers, dietary-supplement companies, venture capitalists, professional athletes and Big Pharma -- not to mention people living with serious, chronic medical conditions. Insiders predict the burgeoning market will be as profitable as the NFL.

Today, if you run a search on PubMed.gov, a medical research database, you'll find more than 1,500 academic articles on cannabidiol.

Unlike tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), CBD has no euphoric properties whatsoever, and carries no street value. What it does offer, however, are a host of health benefits. According to a 2013 review published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, CBD has been shown to reduce pain and inflammation and also has anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor and antidepressant properties.

Despite CBD's incredible profile and ability to reduce human suffering, there's a continuing debate over its legal status. Parts of the law are fuzzy and up for interpretation, depending on whom you ask.

"There is this issue of speaking out of both sides of one's mouth when we discuss CBD," said Joy Beckerman, president of Hemp Ace International, a Seattle-based consulting firm.

For instance, the jury is still out when it comes to a whole slew of issues surrounding the plant compound: Is CBD truly legal in all 50 states, just some states or none at all? Meanwhile, it's also unclear as to whether CBD is more legal if it's being imported into the country compared to being grown on American soil. And finally is it safe to sell across state lines? And how about "CBD-only" medical marijuana laws? (Seventeen states, including Alabama and Florida, have legalized CBD for medical use while keeping THC illegal.)

"All of those questions have information but they don't have answers because [the law is] that gray and it's that developing," said Beckerman, who also teaches a course for law students titled "The Curious Legal Status of CBD and Industrial Hemp-Derived Cannabinoids."

According to CBD manufacturers, US regulatory arms, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Customs and Border Protection (within the Department of Homeland Security), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and Department of Justice, are making it increasingly difficult for dietary supplement companies to sell CBD. They say the current atmosphere is reminiscent of alcohol prohibition in the 1920s.

Some selling "CBD-rich hemp oil" have experienced significant disruptions to their businesses: big sums of money frozen by credit card companies or PayPal, customs agents seizing products at the border and FDA-issued warning notices.

"The [FDA's] punishments for running afoul of their endless regulations (that, often, their reps don't know well) can range from a mere letter and a fine to complete shutdown of operations without recourse," said Jennifer Carney, a journalist who is versed in cannabis compliance. "The FDA is the most unforgiving agency with very minimal oversight, and has rules that seem to apply to some (little guys) but not to Big Pharma."

Big Pharma Moves In

GW Pharmaceuticals, a "biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing novel therapeutics from its proprietary cannabinoid product platform," is being praised as the leading pharmaceutical company exploring cannabinoid drugs.

While there are other pharmaceutical firms devising cannabidiol-based medications, GW Pharmaceuticals has applied for numerous drug patents that specify particular formulations of CBD and THC to treat cancer pain, childhood epilepsy and multiple sclerosis (MS) -- conditions the Cannabis sativa L. plant has been treating for several hundred years.

Some fear that just as the 20-year-long fight to legalize medical marijuana begins to see substantial success, Big Pharma is now swooping in to monopolize both the THC (typically referred to as medical marijuana) and CBD markets. They are often classified together since both compounds are derived from the same plant.

"This could very well affect the cannabis business in the US and possibly around the world," a manufacturer of CBD-rich pet foods told me, asking to remain anonymous for fear of experiencing difficulties with her business. She also believes the FDA and GW Pharmaceuticals are in cahoots.

GW's Epidiolex, meanwhile, is being primed to become the first FDA-approved cannabis-derived treatment option for those living with severe epilepsy.

Analysts, on average, believe the drug could generate annual sales of $1.1 billion by 2021, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Thomson Reuters Cortellis.

GW's other drug, Sativex, treats MS and is also being reformulated to treat cancer-related pain. Sativex has already been distributed in 15 countries, while GW has licensing agreements with Bayer HealthCare, Otsuka Pharmaceutical and Novartis.

Sativex can cost an average of $16,000 annually, whereas legal dietary supplements that contain similar compounds are only a fraction of the cost.

FDA: Thou Shalt Not Market CBD as a Dietary Supplement

On February 4, 2016, the FDA issued at least eight warning letters to dietary-supplement companies, accusing them of making health claims about CBD and warning them that CBD may not be positioned as a dietary supplement.

Because CBD-containing products have not been approved by the FDA, they cannot be marketed for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of any disease. The FDA therefore warned the companies that it considers these products unapproved new drugs.

According to the FDA's website,

CBD products are excluded from the dietary supplement definition under section 201(ff)(3)(B)(ii) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(ff)(3)(B)(ii)]. Under that provision, if a substance (such as CBD) has been authorized for investigation as a new drug for which substantial clinical investigations have been instituted and for which the existence of such investigations has been made public, then products containing that substance are outside the definition of a dietary supplement. There is an exception if the substance was "marketed as" a dietary supplement or a conventional food before the new drug investigations were authorized; however, based on available evidence, FDA has concluded that this is not the case for CBD.

In broad strokes, this means that if a pharmaceutical company has (seemingly) gotten there first in creating a CBD-based pharmaceutical drug, then CBD is off limits to dietary-supplement companies, unless the product existed when those three criteria were met. The scenario doesn't work the other way around: If a dietary-supplement company brings a product to the marketplace, this doesn't prevent Big Pharma from introducing their own version.

"We can question whether we have perfect balance when they [Big Pharma] are being offered exclusivity while we are being offered a shared marketplace," said Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association, a trade association aimed at supporting the responsible commerce of herbs and herbal products.

Another point up for debate in the 201(ff) provision is when CBD actually entered the market. According to Stuart Tomc, vice president of human nutrition at CV Sciences, "CBD has been marketed as a dietary supplement prior to commencement and public notice of any substantial clinical investigations instituted on CBD, thereby rendering the IND preclusion inapplicable."

And according to Raphael Mechoulam, an 85-year-old Israeli chemist best known for isolating THC, cannabidiol was discovered in the late 1930s and early 1940s, both in the UK and the US. "The structure was not known, the activity was not known, so it was left behind," he recently told The Wall Street Journal.

In 1980, Mechoulam published the results of a small clinical trial, but no one seemed interested. In an email to Truthout, he noted that he and his team "reported a small anti-epilepsy clinical trial with CBD with positive results 35 years ago. Nobody bothered to expand it or even to repeat it. Thousands of patients, many of them children, could have been helped."

The Matter of Red Yeast Rice

In 2015, the FDA sent out warning letters to go after deceitful CBD sellers.

"We've seen a lot of fraud in this industry: Some of these products contain no CBD, or far less than advertised. It's basically an uncontrolled experiment that is going on now in the Wild West," said Ethan Russo, a board-certified neurologist and former senior medical adviser to GW Pharmaceuticals. "You cannot make a supposed claim on what a product can do without randomized controlled trials and a particular preparation," added Russo, who advocates for the legalized production of CBD through a regulated market with standards.

Deceitful corporate schemes do a disservice to quality vendors. That's why we have the FDA, to assure safety and proper labeling -- not to peddle the interests of Big Pharma or deny human beings a micronutrient found in nature.

"When it comes to CBD, 201(ff) is equivalent to saying you cannot take vitamin C until you get sick with scurvy, because it's being used as a drug," said Will Kleidon, founder of Ojai Energetics, an organic CBD manufacturer.

But wait: Can a natural, non-intoxicating compound really be classified as a drug when it's really a "dietary ingredient"? (The Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act defines a dietary ingredient as a "vitamin; mineral; herb or other botanical; amino acid; dietary substance for use by man to supplement the diet by increasing the total dietary intake; or a concentrate, metabolite, constituent, extract, or combination of the preceding substances.") It's happened before.

In 1987, red yeast rice became the center of what would turn out to be a landmark case, often referenced when discussing the complexities of CBD.

Red yeast rice extract has been used as a traditional Chinese remedy since the Tang dynasty to improve blood circulation and decrease cholesterol and triglyceride levels, but it was suddenly classified as a drug once the FDA discovered the active ingredient monacolin K was found to be chemically identical to lovastatin, a compound found in Merck's patented prescription drug Mevacor.

On this basis, the FDA advised that a product called Cholestin was now a drug requiring the FDA's approval for marketing and banned it, even though red yeast rice is an ingredient with a documented history of food use going back nearly a millennium. The FDA concluded that Cholestin was therefore excluded from the definition of "dietary supplement."

A dietary-supplement manufacturer can still use red yeast rice, but cannot manipulate the supplement's lovastatin content, added McGuffin.

Instead of allowing beneficial substances found in nature to be responsibly sold, we have a system that operates on loopholes, compromises, inaccuracies and Big Pharma sway.

Red yeast rice's case history provides lessons for manufacturers and distributors of dietary supplements containing CBD.

"Ultimately, dietary companies are advocating for the same thing consumers are," McGuffin said. "Unfettered and informed access to high-quality, cannabis-derived products that contain CBD."

Pot-Phobic Restrictions on the Harvesting of CBD

Cannabidiols are actually found in many plants such as cacao, black pepper and echinacea (whereas THC is only found in cannabis plants), but the highest levels of cannabinoids are found in the plant species Cannabis. CBD is one of more than 107 active cannabinoids in the cannabis plant that interact with receptors in our body referred to as the "endocannabinoid system," responsible for maintaining homeostasis in our bodies. As a result, many argue that whole plant synergies are more effective than the isolated single-molecule compounds that Big Pharma tries to capitalize on because of patentability. It's well accepted that CBD and THC work synergistically for therapeutic efficacy -- a combination that medical marijuana advocates refer to as the "entourage effect."

However, when it comes to dietary supplements, companies are only able to source CBD from "industrial hemp" plants, which contain lower resin than marijuana. Remember, the DEA still considers cannabis a Schedule I drug, up there with heroin and ecstasy. But for all intents and purposes, hemp and marijuana are the same plant.

The distinction between "industrial hemp" and marijuana was made just a few years ago, for the first time in US history, under the "Legitimacy of Industrial Hemp Research" provision of the 2014 Agricultural Act, otherwise known as the federal farm bill. Almost magically, cannabis was now considered hemp, as long as no part of the plant exceeded a THC concentration of "more than 0.3 percent on a dry weight basis."

Martin A. Lee, author of Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana -- Medical, Recreational, and Scientific and cofounder and director of Project CBD, describes the 0.3 percent legal limit as "an absurd, impractical, resin-phobic relic of reefer madness."

"It has become the lynchpin of cannabis prohibition, a venal, dishonest policy that impedes medical research and blocks patient access to valuable therapeutic options, including herbal extracts with various CBD:THC ratios. For patients struggling with a wide range of conditions, CBD and THC work best together, enhancing each other's beneficial effects," he recently wrote.

While Beckerman acknowledges that there has been progress, she notes that we wouldn't be having these discussions regarding low-THC/high-CBD varieties if not for cannabis prohibition.

"If we were free to do what we wanted with this medicine, we would breed for desired therapeutic properties regardless of THC-phobic legal definitions. We wouldn't be limiting ourselves; we'd want to create the most efficient systems and biggest return on the energy to extract medicine," she said.

Currently, CBD manufacturers are not permitted to extract CBD from the flowers where the greatest concentrations of THC are found. Instead, they must extract CBD from stems and stalks.

Fortunately, things are evolving, albeit in an unexpected way, says attorney Rod Kight from Asheville, North Carolina. Based on a 2015 funding bill, CBD derived from industrial hemp -- including CBD derived from cannabis flowers -- may be transported to, and sold in, any state in the US that does not have laws expressly forbidding it. The Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2016 contains the following provision in section 763:

None of the funds made available by this act or any other act may be used ... to prohibit the transportation, processing, sale or use of industrial hemp that is grown or cultivated in accordance with section 7606 of the Agricultural Act of 2014, within or outside the State in which the industrial hemp is grown or cultivated.

Although this language does not explicitly amend the farm bill, it does forbid the use of federal funds to enforce any law that would otherwise prohibit transporting, processing, selling or using CBD in any state so long as the CBD was extracted pursuant to the provisions of the farm bill. The practical effect of this clause is that it makes CBD legal on the federal level throughout the US, says Kight.

According to the DEA Office of Diversion Control, parts of the cannabis plant are exempt from being scheduled as a Class One substance: "The mature stalks of such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture, or preparation of such mature stalks (except the resin extracted therefrom), fiber, oil, or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination."

Meanwhile, the only reason hemp food products aren't off limits altogether is because of the Hemp Industries Association's victorious 2004 lawsuit in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit against the DEA.

In the ruling Judge Betty Fletcher wrote:

They [the DEA] cannot regulate naturally-occurring THC not contained within or derived from marijuana -- i.e., non-psychoactive hemp products -- because non-psychoactive hemp is not included in Schedule I. The DEA has no authority to regulate drugs that are not scheduled, and it has not followed procedures required to schedule a substance. The DEA's definition of "THC" contravenes the unambiguously expressed intent of Congress in the [Controlled Substances Act] and cannot be upheld.

CBD hemp oil purveyors often cite the ruling when explaining why their products are "legal in all 50 states." Yet others say that the court decision never mentions CBD.

"I get into debates all the time with people who say that case legalized CBD," Beckerman said. "I am not arguing with them other than to say, 'Jesus Christ, it was a case about oil pressed from a hemp seed.' At no point did they discuss cannabinoids in the spirit of plant material collection other than when the poor ... justices had to spell it out for the ignorant and obstinate DEA."

However, Kleidon and many others, who have consulted with attorneys and experts, maintain that as long as their product does not include a psychoactive concentration of THC, and it is derived from stalk and stem, there is no federal violation.

"Many times the raw materials have been imported, declared at customs [and] taken out by FDA agents who legally report and prevent illegal substances from entering the country," Kleidon said. "It's been declared as CBD-rich hemp stalk oil, and it's been tested and pulled for. If it was a controlled substance, they would be committing a federal crime. And that is not the case."

"Dietary supplements are currently selling CBD with a sword of Damocles hanging over their head," said Marc Ullman, an attorney at Rivkin Radler who represents clients in matters relating to all aspects of FDA and DEA matters.

If the production and use of all cannabis-derived products (including recreational marijuana, medical marijuana and non-psychoactive compounds like CBD) were decriminalized entirely, as many activists have called for, many of the unnecessary restrictions on CBD's production would immediately be lifted.

According to Beckerman:

While there are currently three competing federal bills that specifically seek to define "cannabidiol" and remove it from the Controlled Substances Act (S.683,H.R. 1635 andS.1333), if the feds would simply deschedule "marihuana" from the Controlled Substances Act, then all forms ofcannabis-- whether marijuana or industrial hemp -- and all of the constituents ofcannabis, including CBD, will be liberated from the displaced control of the DEA. Sen. Bernie Sanders filed the "Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2015" (S.2237) in November of 2015.

But in the meantime, Russo argues that it's important to ensure that the criminalization of pot does not spread to CBD.

"The USA is one of the only countries in the world where CBD is illegal," Russo said. "It has nothing of the features of a Schedule I drug. It's not addictive. It does not produce intoxication. It's a matter of guilt by association because of the plant from which it derives."

Bron: www.truth-out.org

quote:

It is hard to believe this is the source of so much misery and conflict in the world.

quote:

The opium farmers with the police on their side - BBC News


This year, Afghanistan is expected to produce more opium than the world consumes. Although billions of dollars have been spent trying to eradicate the crop, in some places the trade seems more institutionalised than ever, with local police openly supporting farmers.

Mazar-e-Sharif is one of the safest and best-run cities in the Afghanistan - a model of good governance - yet just half an hour out of town in a small village of mud-walled houses it is obvious what the main cash crop is.

I stop at a big poppy field right beside the road. It must be 100m square. Thousands of swollen poppy heads nod gently at me in the dawn breeze.

Across the field, five or six men are working, scraping the bulbs with a sickle-shaped tool. They look up, but they don't seem concerned.

The villager who is guiding me gestures to indicate I can go into the field.

The plants are waist high and brush against me as I walk. The heads are bigger than I expected, about the size of a large plum. Most have a blackish purple dribble on the side.

Each afternoon the workers score the bulbs with a series of tiny scratches. Overnight the sap suppurates out to form a dark scab.

It is hard to believe this is the source of so much misery and conflict in the world.

For a moment I'm back in a history class in my school in north London, rain lashing down on the windows, learning about the opium wars. I remember people I knew from that time who became addicted to heroin. Two are dead now.

I touch the opium with my finger. I expect it to be sticky, but it is actually surprisingly moist. The reddish black colour is a thin skin. Underneath, it is white and the texture of pus.

I sniff it. It barely smells at all - perhaps a hint of grass cuttings or crushed leaves - but in this form, the legendary intoxicant is almost odourless.

I rub it between my fingers. It darkens and becomes more gummy.

Curiosity overcomes me. I raise my finger to my mouth and dab my tongue, just for a moment. It tastes horrible, bitter and metallic.

I am startled by a shout. One of the harvesters, his salwar kameez brown with opium stains, has been watching me. He saw me taste the drug.

"Don't do that. That stuff is very bad for you," he says.

"Haven't you ever been tempted to try it?" I want to know.

"I know that if I start using it, I'll get addicted and my future will be destroyed. The people who use it - I've seen them in the cities lying down, their family life is destroyed, their children don't go to school," he tells me.

"But you're helping produce the stuff. Don't you feel guilty?" I ask.

I'm not surprised by his answer. "I've got no choice," he says. "I've got no job and you get good money with the opium."

My colleague Mahfouz, who's been translating, tells me the farmer has arrived and that we should meet him.

Taza Meer greets me cheerfully, but as we shake hands I notice with a shock that the man beside him has an AK47 slung over his shoulder.

Meer sees I am alarmed. "Don't worry about him," he says. "He's a policeman."

The man smiles warmly and reaches out his hand.

Growing opium is a very serious crime in Afghanistan. You can be punished with death, yet here is a policeman welcoming a BBC reporter to a poppy field at the height of the harvest.

We chat for a while, then Meer offers us tea. He leads me along a path beside a small irrigation stream. The policeman follows behind.

I see almond, peach, walnut and plum trees.

"Your farm is very fertile," I say. He agrees, telling me he also grows wheat, cotton and melons. Yet, over a steaming cup of saffron tea, he claims he has no choice but to grow opium.

"I get three times the profit and I need the money. There are 12 people in my family," he says.

"Doesn't the government try to stop you?" I ask. "They must know what you are doing." I nod toward the policeman, who has joined us for tea.

"Of course they know," he says. "But they also know it is the only way anyone can make decent money They help us, and we help them."

He puts a hand on the policeman's knee.

"He is a local man like me," the farmer says. "The police treat us well, they understand the pressures on us. We all get along fine."

The policeman nods his agreement and takes a sip of saffron tea.

The sun shines in through the open window, and both men smile at me.

They clearly think the enterprise they are involved in is the most natural thing in the world.

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Bron: www.bbc.com

twitter:

DrugsInDebat twitterde op donderdag 26-05-2016 om 11:52:27 Een glas wijn voor het slapen goed om af te vallen? https://t.co/05aUYTqRzN https://t.co/1cq30e66vU | #wijn #alcohol https://t.co/MOAxAxL1ao reageer retweet

quote:

Judge Compares Drug War To Slavery, Bravely Refuses To Put Convicted Drug Felon In Prison

NYC Jails Federal Investigation

It appears that America has awakened to the problem of mass incarceration–an issue underscored by the fact that the U.S. holds less than 5 percent of the world’s population but houses about 22 percent of the world’s prisoners. Congress is now making a token effort at criminal justice reform, including the reduction of mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders, but even this faces opposition from the most fervent police state crusaders.

In the face of inaction, one New York judge is stepping outside the box to breathe life into a much-needed national debate. Judge Frederick Block of the Federal District Court chose not to send a woman to prison who was convicted of felony drug charges, instead sentencing her to probation.

Block said that the plethora of collateral consequences that people face after being convicted—amounting to 50,000 federal and state statutes—serve “no useful function other than to further punish criminal defendants after they have completed their court-imposed sentences.”

In other words, people like Chevelle Nesbeth, who was arrested at Kennedy International Airport after 600 grams of cocaine were found in her luggage, face enough punishment through collateral consequences. There is no reason to send this nonviolent “offender” to jail.

According to the New York Times:

Block is doing what someone called a “judge” is supposed to do by applying factual information and rationality to the situation.

Instead of going to prison for 33-41 months, Nesbeth—who said that friends gave her the suitcase and she was unaware of the contents—was sentenced by Block to “one year of probation, to include six months of home confinement and 100 hours of community service.”

While the larger issue of the unjust War on Drugs remains, it is heartening to see that some within the system understand the draconian nature of the existing criminal justice system. And they’re doing something about it.

Judge Block’s extraordinary act comes just after U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher admitted that he used medical cannabis to treat his arthritis. It is increasingly obvious that the American government’s approach to drugs, whether medicinal or not, is completely irrational and greatly contributes to mass incarceration.

In his 42-page opinion which also called for reform, Block quoted legal scholar Michelle Alexander, who authored The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. From the book:

Block’s groundbreaking opinion was hailed by Gabriel J. Chin, a professor at the University of California, Davis, School of Law, as “the most careful and thorough judicial examination” of collateral consequences in sentencing.

“It’s going to generate debate on a critical issue in the criminal justice system — the ability of people convicted of crimes to get on with their lives,” said Chin, whom Block also quoted in his opinion.

Naturally, the U.S. attorney’s office is intent on perpetuating the status quo of swelling jails with nonviolent drug offenders. They insist that collateral consequences are “meant to promote public safety, by limiting an individual’s access to certain jobs or sensitive areas,” and “to ensure that government resources are being spent on those who obey the law.”

When the law is unjust and the punishment unwarranted, it is the duty of free thinkers to resist. Let’s hope that Frederick Block, along with countless others bravely pushing back against state tyranny, can begin to undo the burden of mass incarceration.

Bron: www.mintpressnews.com

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Roberto Saviano: London is heart of global financial corruption

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The financial services industry based in the City of London facilitates a system that makes the UK the most corrupt nation in the world, the anti-mafia journalist Roberto Saviano said at the Hay festival.

Saviano, who has been living under armed police guard for more than 10 years after writing an expose of the Neapolitan Camorra, said London’s banking institutions were key components of “criminal capitalism”, which laundered drug money through the offshore networks.

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He added: “We have proof, we have evidence. Today, the criminal economy is bigger than the legal economy. Drug trafficking eclipses the revenue of oil firms. Cocaine is a £300bn-a-year business. Criminal capitalism is capitalism without rules. Mafia and organised crime does not abide by the rule of law – and most financial companies who reside offshore are exactly the same.”

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Op maandag 30 mei 2016 16:36 schreef Sylv3se het volgende:

[..]

Dat gaat voor geen meter werken, met jaarlijkse accijnsverhogingen betaal je straks 3x zoveel voor een grammetje wiet. En zo bloeit de illegale handel weer op.

Het zou misschien kunnen werken, maar met deze generatie politici zie ik dat niet gebeuren helaas.

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Workaholic? Dikke kans dat je een psychische stoornis hebt - rtlz.nl

Ben je een workaholic? Nou: houd je hart maar vast. Er een dikke kans dat je niet 100 procent 'doorsnee' functioneert. Volgens een recent onderzoek in Noorwegen is er een grote kans dat je symptomen vertoont van psychische stoornissen.


Uit het onderzoek onder ruim 16.000 werkende volwassenen in het land, blijkt dat er een sterke link is tussen een flinke werkethos en ADHD, dwangstoornissen, angststoornissen en depressie. Het overgrote deel van de onderzochte mensen was tussen de 26 en 45 jaar oud. Twee derde werkte fulltime.

- 33,8 procent vertoonde aanzienlijk veel tekenen van angststoornissen, tegenover 11,9 procent van de minder hardwerkende mensen.
- 32,7 procent vertoonde aanzienlijk veel tekenen van ADHD, tegenover 12,7 procent van de minder hardwerkende mensen.
- 25,6 procent vertoonde aanzienlijk veel tekenen van een dwangstoornis, tegenover 8,7 procent van de minder hardwerkende mensen.
- 8,9 procent vertoonde aanzienlijk veel tekenen van depressie, tegenover 2,6 procent van de minder hardwerkende mensen.

Slik. Dat zijn pittige cijfers. De wetenschappers, die samenwerkten met andere onderzoekers van Yale en Notthingham Trent University, weten niet precies of mensen met een stoornis eerder een workaholic worden of dat de symptomen veroorzaakt worden door het harde werken.

Marianna Virtanen, een Finse epidemioloog die niet betrokken was bij de studie, deed eerder onderzoek naar werknemers die meer uren dan gemiddeld werken. Zij zegt in Quartz over dit onderzoek dat harde werkers eigenlijk een psychiatrische stoornis hebben. En net als vergelijkbare aandoeningen, ontwikkelen die vaak al op jonge leeftijd. Volgens haar is het ook mogelijk dat een 'werkverslaving' psychiatrische symptomen op de lange termijn kan verergeren.

De Finse onderzoeker is niet alleen: in de jaren '90 schreef psychotherapeut Bryan Robinson er al een boek over. Hij vergelijkt extra hard werken met een drugs- of alcohol verslaving en pleit ervoor workaholics dus geen 'heldenstatus' te geven, maar te behandelen als mensen met een groot probleem.

Bron: www.rtlz.nl

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Ecstasy in comeback as new generation discovers dance drug | Society | The Guardian

Survey of drug use finds MDMA is back in mainstream due to ‘creative and aggressive marketing’ and has a higher purity

Ecstasy is making a comeback as the drug of choice for young people in the UK and across Europe – and it is much stronger than before, the EU’s drug agency has warned.

Related: Legal high ban predicted to exacerbate crisis on streets

The 2016 European Drug Report says there are clear indications that ecstasy – the common name of MDMA – is returning to popularity with both established drug users and a new generation, but this time powders and tablets are likely to contain much higher doses than in previous years.

The rapidly expanding electronic dance music industry is now worth £4.5bn a year, promoting events such as the Belgian festival Tomorrowland, which in 2014 attracted almost 360,000 people over two weekends. This growth has introduced MDMA to a new generation of young people who were not even born in the drug’s heyday during the 1990s house, rave and techno scenes.

The EU drug experts also point to “creative and sometimes aggressive marketing” tactics, including the use of logos such as Superman and UPS, and the production of MDMA tablets specifically for individual events, typically music festivals. Dutch police reported more than 170 tablet designs in circulation in 2014.

Ecstasy use had been falling since its mid-2000s peak, but the Lisbon-based European monitoring centre for drugs and drug addiction (EMCDDA) said the latest survey data suggested 2.1 million people aged 15-34 had used ecstasy in the last year, 300,000 higher than the estimate in 2015.

The EU report suggests this ecstasy comeback follows a period when they were replaced by newly emerging legal highs such as piperazines and cathinones, because many tablets sold as ecstasy contained little or no MDMA due to a shortage of key ingredients or precursor chemicals. The tide seems to have turned again in favour of much more potent forms of ecstasy as the shortage of precursors has ended.

Nine out of 12 countries report higher estimates of the drug’s use in the last year. The UK reported the second highest level of use, with 3.5% of young adults saying they had taken it in the last 12 months. The highest usage was in the Netherlands, where 5.5% of young adults said they had taken it in the last year.

The report suggests that ecstasy producers may have adopted a deliberate strategy to improve the drug’s image after a lengthy period in which poor drug quality and adulteration led to a decline in popularity.

“Innovation in sourcing precursors, new production techniques and online supply all appear to be driving a revival in a market now characterised by a diversity of products,” the EMCDDA said. “High-dose powders, crystals and tablets with a range of logos, colours and shapes are available, with evidence of production to order and the use of sophisticated and targeted marketing.”

The experts say MDMA is no longer a niche or “sub-cultural” drug used in dance clubs but is again being taken by a wider range of young people in bars and at parties and festivals. They say this suggests a need for new prevention and harm reduction responses to target a new population of users who may be using high-dose products but lack an understanding of the risks involved.

The agency says that in the 1990s and 2000s the average MDMA content of tablets was between 50-80mg; now average purity is closer to 125mg, while some “super-pills” are available in some countries with a reported range of 270-340mg.

Alexis Goosdeel, the EU drugs agency director, said: “The revival of MDMA brings with it the need to rethink existing prevention and harm-reduction responses to target and support a new population of users who may be using high-dose products, without fully understanding the risks involved. Intoxications and even deaths associated with this drug are highlighted in our new report. This is particularly worrying since MDMA is moving into more mainstream social settings and is increasingly available via online markets.”

The 2016 review of the European drugs market says that while most illicit drug transactions still take place in person, the rapid expansion of the online market represents the “growing dark cloud on the horizon”.

The number and type of legal highs or new psychoactive substances continues to grow with more than 560 new substances now being monitored by the agency, with 98 of them being reported for the first time in 2015. The market continues to be dominated by synthetic chemicals that claim to imitate the effects of cannabis or stimulants such as amphetamines, ecstasy or cocaine.

More than 2.4 million young adults used cocaine in the last year in southern and western Europe. Analysis of city wastewater showed the highest levels of use last year in the UK, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium.

Cannabis remains the most popular illicit drug in Europe. An estimated 16.6 million young European adults used it in the last 12 months, and there are no signs that overall levels are falling. Cannabis use in the UK has, however, fallen steadily over the past decade from 20% to 11% of young adults in the past year.

The European drugs agency says more than 88 million adults – or one in four of Europe’s population – have tried illicit drugs. They note the overall trend across Europe in the past 15 years to reduce the use of imprisonment for minor drug offences and increasing use of non-criminal sanctions such as fines for personal possession.

The report raises concerns about the rise in the number of deaths from overdoses in some countries. The UK accounted for 2,332 of the 6,800 drug-related deaths notified to the authorities in 2014. Heroin and other opiates such as methadone accounted for 1,786 of these UK deaths – a rise of 194 on the previous year. Deaths due to cocaine use also rose from 169 to 247. A similar pattern was seen in Ireland, Lithuania and Sweden.

“The reasons behind these rises in fatal overdoses are unclear, but a number of factors may be involved, including: increased heroin availability, higher purity, ageing users and changing consumption patterns, including the use of synthetic opioids and medicines. Overdoses are most commonly reported among older opioid users [35–50],” the report says.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU commissioner for migration, home affairs and citizenship, said: “Europe faces a growing problem with drugs. New psychoactive substances, stimulants, heroin and other opioids continue to be in high demand and supply, with major impacts on public health … With this knowledge in hand, we will continue to call on EU member state authorities, third countries, internet companies and civil society to redouble cooperation in fighting this global challenge.”


Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Zorgen politie over enorme hoeveelheden cocaïne | NOS

De politie maakt zich zorgen over de grote hoeveelheden cocaïne die smokkelaars Nederland proberen in te brengen. De partijen zijn volgens de politie steeds groter. Ook motorbendes zijn vaker betrokken bij de cocaïnesmokkel.

In De Telegraaf zegt de chef van de nationale recherche, Wilbert Paulissen, dat de vraag naar coke kennelijk zeer groot is en dat hoge risico's op onderschepping worden geaccepteerd. In de afgelopen tien maanden werd meer dan 30.000 kilo cocaïne door politie en douane onderschept.

Volgens de recherchechef werd een aantal jaar geleden ongeveer eens per jaar een partij van duizend kilo onderschept. "Nu doen we de ene na de andere megavangst", zegt Paulissen.

Dat komt volgens hem ook doordat bendes met enorme voorraden zitten. Door strengere milieu-eisen mogen cocaplantages in Colombia minder met gif worden bestreden.

Uit contact met de politie in Zuid-Amerika concludeert de politie dat leden van Nederlandse motorbendes in landen als Colombia actief zijn. De leden doen de aan- en verkoop en zouden ook de transporten regelen.

Volgens de politie wordt waarschijnlijk maar een kwart van alle cocaïne onderschept. "Het is een utopie om te denken dat we alles onderscheppen", zegt woordvoerder Thomas Aling van de politie. Maar volgens hem is het goed om de smokkelaars zoveel mogelijk pijn te blijven doen.

Daarnaast blijft de politie nauw samenwerken met de autoriteiten in Antwerpen. Veel drugs die via Nederland naar andere Europese landen worden verspreid, komen in Antwerpen aan in Europa.

Bron: nos.nl

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"Het is een utopie om te denken dat we alles onderscheppen"

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Busje vol zoutzuur in woonwijk Eindhoven | NOS

In een bestelbusje in een woonwijk in Eindhoven zijn honderden liters zoutzuur gevonden. De bijtende stof zat in tientallen vaatjes.

De politie kreeg vanochtend een melding dat op een parkeerplaats in het noorden van de stad al enige tijd een busje stond. Agenten controleerden de inhoud en stuitten op zeker veertig volle vaatjes.

Omdat de agenten het niet vertrouwden, schakelden ze drugsspecialisten in. Die stelden vast dat het ging om zoutzuur, dat onder meer wordt gebruikt bij de productie van synthetische drugs als xtc.

Het zoutzuur is afgevoerd naar een veilige plaats. De politie onderzoekt de achtergronden van de vondst.

Bron: nos.nl

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As States Legalize Marijuana, Teen Use Plummets

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Researchers examined 12 years of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Instances of cannabis use fell by 10 percent, while “the number of adolescents who had problems related to marijuana — such as becoming dependent on the drug or having trouble in school and in relationships — declined by 24 percent…”

This raised an important point. While responsible adult cannabis use is far less harmful than “legal drug” use, the abuse of any drug—including cannabis—is detrimental to one’s health, especially on the developing adolescent brain. Cannabis has legitimate therapeutic benefits, but like any drug can exacerbate problems that kids have in dealing with school or troubling facets of their life.

“We were surprised to see substantial declines in marijuana use and abuse,” said study author Richard A. Grucza. “We don’t know how legalization is affecting young marijuana users, but it could be that many kids with behavioral problems are more likely to get treatment earlier in childhood, making them less likely to turn to pot during adolescence. But whatever is happening with these behavioral issues, it seems to be outweighing any effects of marijuana decriminalization.”

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Online verkoop van drugs groeit fors (want het is zo simpel) - rtlz.nl

Een jaar geleden bestelde ik bij een online drugsdealer een gram cocaïne. Het poeder werd verstopt in een leeg dvd-hoesje en verstuurd via de normale briefpost, helemaal vanuit de VS. Uit een zuurtest van verslavingsinstelling Jellinek bleek dat het witte poeder inderdaad cocaïne is.

Nog nooit bestelden zo veel mensen hun drugs via digitale zwarte markten, zo blijkt uit een onderzoek van Global Drugs Survey. Zo'n 8 procent van de ondervraagden had wel eens via een illegale website - alleen te bezoeken via het dark web - drugs besteld of laten bestellen. De verwachting is dat dit aantal de komende jaren blijft groeien.

Het dark web is te bereiken met de gratis Tor-browser. Met deze browser surf je anoniem op het 'normale internet', maar het biedt ook toegang tot het Tor-netwerk dat ook wel het dark web wordt genoemd. Het dark web is vergelijkbaar met het normale internet, maar dan anoniem en versleuteld. Websites zijn te bezoeken via een zogeheten .onion-adres, dat alleen via Tor kan worden bezocht. Het .onion-adres van bijvoorbeeld Facebook is facebookcorewwwi.onion.

De Tor-browser versleutelt jouw internetverbinding en sluist de data door meestal drie servers om je locatie te verhullen. De eerste server weet de herkomst maar niet het eindpunt, de tweede server stuurt de verbinding veilig door naar de derde server, die alleen het eindpunt weet en niet de herkomst. Op deze manier kun je anoniem internetten, omdat websites niet weten wie je bent of waar je vandaan komt.

Op het dark web zijn tientallen verschillende digitale zwarten markten. Je kunt er allerlei producten en diensten kopen, variërend van drugs (een gram cocaïne kost ongeveer 40 euro) en wapens (een revolver gaat voor paar honderd euro over de toonbank) tot gestolen creditcards (enkele euro's per pas) en neppaspoorten (100 euro voor een Nederlands neppaspoort).

Ook bieden mensen diensten via de websites aan. Denk aan het inhuren van een hacker (200 euro voor het hacken van een Facebook-account), spion (300 euro voor de bevestiging of je ex een nieuwe partner heeft) of huurmoordenaar (10.000 euro voor een moord op een Europese inwoner - geen politici of kinderen).

De websites zien eruit zoals webshops er vaker uitzien. Denk aan Marktplaats, Ebay en Etsy. De meeste digitale zwarte markten werken met een beoordelingssysteem, net zoals Ebay. Zo kun je zien wie er regelmatig succesvol producten of diensten heeft geleverd. Een verkoper die succesvol cocaïne levert (en de drugs is ook nog van goede kwaliteit), krijgt veel positieve beoordelingen. Kopers bestellen dan sneller bij deze verkoper.

De meeste verkopers richten zich op een paar drugssoorten: zo verkoopt de één cocaïne en amfetamine (ook wel speed genoemd, meestal in poedervorm), de ander xtc-pillen en MDMA (de grondstof van xtc, wordt verkocht in kristallen) en weer een ander benzodiazepinen (kalmeringsmiddel) en GBL (de grondstof van GHB, waarvan de verkoop enkele jaren geleden in Nederland is verboden).

Bij digitale zwarte markten betaal je met de digitale valuta bitcoin. Ondanks dat bitcoin als 'anoniem' wordt gezien, is het betaalmiddel verre van anoniem. Het betaalverkeer van bitcoin is inzichtelijk en als een koper of verkoper met zijn persoonlijke informatie bitcoins koopt of laat uitkeren, is de transactiegeschiedenis gemakkelijk na te gaan.

Daarom zijn veel zwarte markten op het dark web begonnen met een speciale technologie waarbij bitcoins worden gehusseld. Bij dit proces, dat ook wel 'tumbling' wordt genoemd, worden bitcoins gehusseld met andere bitcoins, waardoor de koop of verkoop niet meer naar een specifiek bitcoin-adres kan worden herleid. Normaal gesproken schakel je een tumbling-dienst in, maar veel illegale webwinkels bieden deze technologie sinds kort standaard aan gebruikers aan.

De bestelde drugs gaat op de post, meestal in enveloppen. Dat komt omdat de meesten drugs voor privégebruik bestellen, dat gemakkelijk in een kleine envelop past. "Super handig", aldus een anonieme gebruiker die wel eens drugs via digitale zwarte markten bestelt. "Ik heb onder andere xtc-pillen, cocaïne en benzodiazepinen gekocht. Eén keer kreeg ik de drugs in een envelop van een niet-bestaande elektronicawinkel in Eindhoven. Er zat zelfs een bonnetje bij. Ik had schijnbaar 'lichtgevoelige led-lampjes' gekocht."

Het gebruik van Tor en het betalen met bitcoin kan ook 'te veel gedoe' zijn: "Een appje sturen en binnen drie kwartier staat er een jongen met zijn scooter voor je deur. In de praktijk is dat veel gemakkelijker."

Een andere anonieme drugsgebruiker beaamt dat: "Ik heb vaak zin in drugs als ik wat heb gedronken, en dan stuur ik mijn dealer een berichtje. Lekker spontaan. De paar keer dat ik via een website drugs heb besteld, was het drugs die lastig te koop is, zoals LSD en morfine. Dan zijn dit soort websites echt een uitkomst."

PostNL verwerkt dagelijks zo'n 11 miljoen poststukken. De douane controleert de post, bijvoorbeeld door post te scannen of een drugshond in te zetten. Maar lang niet alle post wordt gecontroleerd, waardoor - gezien de vele positieve reacties op de sites - veel drugspost arriveert.

Volgens een woordvoerder van de politie ben je strafbaar als je drugs via het internet koopt, maar moet onderzoek uitwijzen of jij ook daadwerkelijk de drugs hebt besteld voordat je wordt veroordeeld.

Bron: www.rtlz.nl

Zangeres Zonder Naam - Mexico

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Georganiseerde misdaad Zuid-Nederland erger dan gedacht | NOS

De georganiseerde criminaliteit in het zuiden van Nederland is erger en dieper in de samenleving geworteld dan tot nu toe werd gedacht. Dat schrijft minister Van der Steur aan de Tweede Kamer. Hij verlengt daarom de intensieve aanpak die afgelopen jaren van kracht was.

De Taskforce Brabant Zeeland, die de afgelopen jaren jacht maakte op de criminele bendes, zou dit jaar worden opgeheven. De minister laat weten dat de 125 medewerkers van de landelijke politie-eenheid en 15 van het OM ook de komende jaren beschikbaar blijven.

Van der Steur vindt dat de aanpak positief heeft gewerkt. Ook is helder geworden dat het probleem groter is dan gedacht. "De aanpak heeft scherper zichtbaar gemaakt wat tientallen jaren onzichtbaar is gebleven: er is sprake van een complex probleem dat ernstiger is en dieper in de samenleving is geworteld dan bij aanvang werd vermoed."

Binnen de Taskforce werken gemeenten, politie, OM, belastingdienst en marechaussee samen. Van der Steur wil dat de aandacht de komende jaren vooral gericht is op het afpakken van crimineel vermogen.

Vorig jaar legde de Taskforce in de strijd tegen drugscriminelen beslag op goederen met een waarde van 36 miljoen euro. 1277 hennepkwekerijen werden opgerold en 25 hennepstekkerijen, die de kwekerijen voorzagen van jonge plantjes, werden gesloten. Ook moesten meer dan 70 growshops dicht.

In april werden op één ochtend op zo'n 100 plekken invallen gedaan in een groot onderzoek naar synthetische drugs, zoals xtc. Aan de actie onder de naam Operatie Trefpunt deden zo'n 1500 mensen mee. Daarbij werden 4000 liter chemicaliën, 50 kilo harddrugs, 20 vuurwapens, 26 auto's, twee boten en twee Harley-Davidsons in beslag genomen. 6 xtc-laboratoria werden gesloten en tientallen mensen werden gearresteerd.

Bron: nos.nl

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Ecstasy warning after pills found with double or triple doses in UK

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Drugs harm reduction campaigners are warning about high-strength ecstasy pills on the market in Britain after an analysis of drugs at a Manchester festival found some that contained double or even triple doses.

Fiona Measham, a member of the government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) and founder of The Loop, a charity which tests drugs found or handed in at festivals, said she and her colleagues found ecstasy pills at the Parklife festival containing as much as 250mg of MDMA, the active ingredient. That makes them significantly stronger than the pills available during ecstasy’s previous hey-day in the late 90s, when average pills contained about 100mg of MDMA.

After a string of recent deaths attributed to MDMA poisoning, particularly among young women, she is calling on clubbers in the north-west to beware of red Mastercard and yellow Mickey Mouse pills, which were found to contain doses that could prove harmful or even lethal to some users.

There are particular concerns that irregularly shaped tablets, often with no score lines to easily split them, are confounding harm reduction advice that tells users to test their reaction to a half or even a quarter of a pill rather than swallowing the whole thing.

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Public health bodies call for decriminalisation of drugs | Politics | The Guardian

Report from Royal Society for Public Health and Faculty of Public Health says misuse of drugs should be a health issue, not a criminal one

The UK’s two leading public health bodies, representing thousands of doctors and other professionals, are making an unprecedented call for the personal possession and use of drugs to be decriminalised.

The war on drugs has done more harm than good, say the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health. They argue that drug misuse should be a health issue, not a matter for the courts and prisons, which have not succeeded in deterring people from taking drugs. More people than ever before are being harmed by drugs and then harmed again by the punishment meted out, instead of being helped to kick or contain the habit, they say.

“We have taken the view that it is time for endorsing a different approach,” said Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the Royal Society. “We have gone to our stakeholders and asked the public and tried to gain some consensus from our community and the public, because that is very important.”

The society commissioned a poll of more than 2,000 UK adults and found that more than half – 56% – agreed that drug users in their local area ought to be referred for treatment, rather than charged with a criminal offence. Fewer than a quarter – 23% – disagreed.

The public health specialists, whose work involves preventing disease through measures such as helping people to quit smoking, say there should be no leniency for those who sell drugs. “We think that people who are dealing drugs and the producers and suppliers absolutely should be prosecuted,” said Cramer. “But for people who have got a drug problem, why treat them differently from someone who has an alcohol problem or an obesity problem?”

The society has produced a report, Taking a New Line on Drugs, which the faculty has endorsed. A key recommendation is that all children and young people learn about drugs in school through personal, social, health and economic education (PHSE). “One of the things that strikes us in public health is how important the education piece is – and that we are missing,” said Cramer. Where there is provision, she said, “it is patchy; it depends on the school”.

The experts also want lead responsibility for drug policy to be moved from the Home Office to the Department of Health, where it should be aligned more closely with alcohol and tobacco strategies. Drugs should be better classified according to the harm they do, the bodies argue, adding that the current classification confuses the public.

Alcohol tops the society’s list of the 10 most harmful drugs, with heroin second and crack cocaine third. Tobacco is in sixth place, while cannabis is eighth.

The report is being published before the anticipated release of the government’s drug strategy, which is expected some time after the referendum. It admires the Portuguese model, in which drug possession is still illegal, but users are referred to treatment and support programmes, rather than being prosecuted. It argues that prosecution and jail sentences cause further harm, including greater exposure to drugs in prison and the severing of family relationships. They are also barriers to education and employment, the report says.

Professor John Middleton, president of the faculty, said: “We need a new, people-centred approach to drug policy, rooted in public health and the best available evidence. This report is an important part of a growing, powerful evidence base that sets out what that approach should look like.

“The time for reframing the global approach to illicit drugs is long overdue. The imbalance between criminal justice and health approaches to illicit drugs is counterproductive. Criminalisation and incarceration for minor, non-violent offences worsen problems linked to illicit drug use, such as social inequality, violence and infection. Possession and use should be decriminalised and health approaches prioritised.”

Professor David Nutt, who heads the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, said: “I fully support the recommendations in this report. The current government approach of blindly prosecuting drug users, rather than trying to reduce the rising tide of drug harms, particularly deaths from alcohol, heroin and cocaine, in fact leads to more damage to individuals and society – and more costs to the taxpayer.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “The UK’s approach on drugs remains clear - we must prevent drug use in our communities and support people dependent on drugs through treatment and recovery.

“At the same time, we have to stop the supply of illegal drugs and tackle the organised crime behind the drugs trade.”

He said there had been a drop in drug misuse over the last decade and more people are recovering from dependency now than in 2009/10.

Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Van der Steur legt onderzoek regulering wietteelt naast zich neer

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Van der Steur ziet echter de nodige haken en ogen aan het onderzoek. Hij stelt dat het niet bewezen is dat de criminaliteit ook daadwerkelijk zal afnemen.

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AnnajoyDavid twitterde op donderdag 16-06-2016 om 11:20:46 Brilliant stuff. #decriminalize. Public Health not Criminal Justice is the way to go. #warondrugs https://t.co/YjsdKVnTDT reageer retweet

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The Times also says the government should see decriminalisation as a first step towards legal regulation of drugs

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The Times calls for decriminalisation of all illegal drugs | Media | The Guardian


Newspaper breaks new ground by declaring itself in favour of treating drug use and possession as a health issue rather than a crime

The Times has boldly gone where few newspapers - and very, very few politicians - have ever dared to go before by declaring itself in favour of legalising drugs in Britain.

In a leading article, "Breaking Good", the paper has supported a call on the government by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) to decriminalise both the possession and use of all illegal drugs.

Accepting that it "is radical advice", the Times thought it "sound" and urged ministers to "give it serious consideration".

Newspapers have usually shied away from adopting such a stance. In 1997, the Independent on Sunday, then edited by Rosie Boycott, came out in favour of decriminalising cannabis. The following year, thousands gathered in London's Hyde Park in support of her campaign to change the law.

But 10 years later, long after Boycott had departed, the paper changed its mind. It argued that new strains of cannabis, notably skunk, were dangerous, causing disorders such as psychosis and schizophrenia.

Although the Observer and the Guardian have raised questions about potential changes of laws within countries that produce drugs neither have advocated decriminalisation in Britain.

The Observer noted in 2011 that the war on drugs had failed and argued that "when policies fail it is incumbent on our leaders to look for new ones."

The Times has adopted the logic of that position. Even so, its initiative, especially going beyond cannabis to embrace all illegal drugs, is something of a first.

Its front page news story reported on the "landmark intervention" by the RSPH and the Faculty of Public Health as "the first leading medical organisations to come out in favour of radical drugs reform."

Both bodies believe that addiction to all drugs - ranging from heroin and cocaine to cannabis and so-called legal highs - should be regarded as a health problem rather than a crime.

The Times's editorial, while agreeing that decriminalisation would put Britain in the company of a small group of countries that have made such a policy switch, supported that change of direction.

It is not "to be taken lightly", it said, "yet the logic behind it and evidence from elsewhere are persuasive". It added:

"The government should be encouraged to think of decriminalisation not as an end in itself but as a first step towards legalising and regulating drugs as it already regulates alcohol and tobacco."

It pointed to the situation in Portugal, where drug decriminalisation has existed for 15 years. Possession there "does not earn the user a criminal record" and "the country's drug-related death rate was three per million citizens compared with 10 per million in the Netherlands and 44.6 in Britain."

The Times said: "Recreational drug use [in Portugal] has not soared, as critics of decriminalisation had feared. HIV infection rates have fallen and the use of so-called legal highs is, according to a study last year, lower than in any other European country."

It contended: "It may be politic not to rush discussion of full legalisation but that should still be the ultimate goal. In the long term it is not tenable to decriminalise possession of a substance while preserving the profit motive of the criminal gangs that supply it."

And the paper concluded, again like the Observer, that international drug wars have "proved unwinnable". Instead, it urged the government "to move gradually towards legalised supply chains such as those allowed for cannabis in Uruguay and a minority of US states."

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Bron: www.theguardian.com

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Microsoft high: stapt in software voor tracken wietteelt - rtlz.nl

Microsoft raakt in hogere sferen en levert cloudtechnologie aan een startup die overheden helpt om de legale wietteelt te monitoren. Dat is booming business in de VS.

Microsoft is een samenwerking aangegaan met de Amerikaanse startup Kind Financial, dat gericht is op overheidstoezicht op de legale wietteelt en cannabishandel. Microsofts Azure-cloudtechnologie moet helpen bij het volgen van de wietplantjes en het toezicht op de verkoop van zaden. Overheidsdiensten in staten waar cannabis is gelegaliseerd kunnen de software gebruiken.

Kind Financial biedt systemen waarmee overheden de legale cannabisverkoop in de gaten houden. Zo kan voorkomen worden dat cannabiszaden op de zwarte markt belanden. Enkele lokale overheden gebruiken het systeem al. Microsoft wil zijn cloudsoftware voor dit doeleinde de komende tijd gaan promoten onder overheden en mogelijk ook tijdens cannabis-evenementen.

Staten als Colorado, Alaska en Washington (niet te verwarren met de hoofdstad Washington DC) hebben recreatief en medisch gebruik van cannabis al gelegaliseerd. De verwachting is dat veel meer Amerikaanse staten dat voorbeeld zullen volgen.

Bron: www.rtlz.nl

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The evidence against the 'war on drugs' is so overwhelming it cannot be ignored | Editorials | Voices | The Independent

In the final editorial of our print edition in March, this column pointed out that over the lifetime of the newspaper, we had made friends of heresies and watched with glee as they became common sense. Perhaps no issue has moved in this direction so far, and so fast, as the debate around the legal status of drugs.

Yesterday, two of the most august public health bodies in Britain added their considerable weight to the growing body of opinion in this country that accepts the catastrophic, murderous stupidity of the so-called “war on drugs” must be reversed.

In a historic intervention, the Royal Society for Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health have made explicit their view that the law as it presently stands is a grim litany of failure. The first British medical bodies to publicly favour radical reform in this way, they argue that drug use should be regarded as a health matter, like consumption of tobacco and alcohol, rather than a crime.

No lefty, liberal conspiracy this: both organisations have looked hard at the evidence, and seen the horror caused by our current laws. They favour decriminalisation of consumption, but not – yet – supply, arguing that it would lead to lower incarceration rates.

Prison is the worst possible way, they note, to address drug use: the widespread availability of drugs in prison increases consumption and endangers addicts; the vast cost of keeping prisoners behind bars diverts precious funds to unproductive, counter-effective uses; and the devastating impact of prison – which damages morale, destroys families, and is antithetical to career and educational opportunities – is the very last thing that addicts need.

This harm principle, best articulated by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty, illustrates precisely why our drug laws are so absurd: at present they vastly increase the harm caused to other citizens. The principal effect of drug laws is to inflate the salaries of the nastiest barons and gangsters on earth, funding organised crime and corruption, and fuelling the self-immolation of whole nations, from Mexico to Albania and Afghanistan.

That is why we would go further than these two bodies, in arguing for full legalisation. This differs from decriminalisation in the essential respect that the latter still leaves control of supply in the hands of organised crime syndicates. We wouldn’t ask them to control the supply of our tobacco or alcohol, so why heroin and cocaine?

What prompts these two health bodies to intervene now, however, is the undeniable evidence from countries that have adopted a more liberal approach. These reforms have been astonishingly effective.

Counterintuitively, the evidence is emphatic that drug use has actually come down in Portugal since that country decriminalised hard drugs in 2001. And, amazingly, drug-related deaths have fallen by 80 per cent – yes, 80 per cent – over the same period, while HIV infection rates have also fallen.

In any other area of policy, such remarkably impressive results from radical reform would be seen as a blueprint for the rest of the world to follow.

For the Royal Society of Public Health and the Faculty of Public Health – bodies whose members proceed by a calm appraisal of the evidence available, rather than in accordance with moral fervour or ideology – it is blatantly obvious that current drug laws are so stupid they could have been devised by a bunch of addled smack addicts. Obviously our political class it too stuffed with cowards and prisoners of religious and superstitious thinking for such reform to happen in the short term.

But if enough people keep making forceful arguments based on the available evidence, the heresy of reformed drug laws will graduate not just to common sense but prevailing wisdom soon enough.

Bron: www.independent.co.uk

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Ministerie van Justitie denkt in geheim over regulering cannabisteelt

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Soms word je aangenaam verrast door initiatieven van anderen die handig gebruik maken van de mogelijkheden die de wet biedt. Een journalist van Reporter deed een beroep op de Wet Openbaarheid van Bestuur om informatie te krijgen van het Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie over nut en noodzaak van de bestrijding van cannabisteelt. De resultaten werden deze week gepubliceerd.

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In de pogingen vorm te geven aan een oplossing voor een (deels) zelf gecreëerd probleem, speelt de toenemende druk van de rechterlijke macht een prominente rol. Rechters wijzen er immers op dat de overheid zelf debet is aan het ontstaan van criminele organisaties door de ogen te sluiten voor de noodzaak van teelt en bevoorrading van coffeeshops. Dit oordeel is hard aangekomen binnen de burelen van het Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie.

Langzamerhand ontstaat achter de schermen het politieke besef dat de redeloze en weerbarstige Opstelten-doctrine zijn langste tijd gehad heeft. Zelfs binnen de VVD neemt de roep om regulering toe. Tijdens het laatste VVD-congres deed de liberale achterban een oproep aan het partijbestuur om pleitbezorger te worden van regulering.

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Op ambtelijk niveau wordt serieus nagedacht om softdrugsteelt te reguleren. Dit blijkt het duidelijkst uit welgeteld één pagina in de stukken die dankzij Reporter gepubliceerd zijn. Deze stukken zijn afkomstig van de ‘Taskforce beleidsalternatieven’ van het Ministerie van Veiligheid en Justitie. Deze taskforce stelt voor de teelt van softdrugs toe te laten op basis van vergunningen onder strikte voorwaarden.

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Congresswoman Who Used To Receive Welfare Wants To Drug Test Rich People Who Get Tax Breaks | ThinkProgress

Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) has had enough of the growing movement to drug test poor people who need government assistance. So on Tuesday, she’s introducing a bill that she says will make things fairer.

Her “Top 1% Accountability Act” would require anyone claiming itemized tax deductions of over $150,000 in a given year to submit a clean drug test. If a filer doesn’t submit a clean test within three months of filing, he won’t be able to take advantage of tax deductions like the mortgage interest deduction or health insurance tax breaks. Instead he would have to make use of the standard deduction.

Her office has calculated that the people impacted will be those who make at least $500,000 a year. “By drug testing those with itemized deductions over $150,000, this bill will level the playing field for drug testing people who are the recipients of social programs,” a memo on her bill notes.

Moore has a personal stake in the fight. “I am a former welfare recipient,” she explained. “I’ve used food stamps, I’ve received Aid for Families with Dependent Children, Medicaid, Head Start for my kids, Title XX daycare [subsidies]. I’m truly grateful for the social safety net.”

Ten states require applicants to their cash welfare programs to undergo a drug test. States are currently barred from implementing drug testing for the food stamps program, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) has sued the federal government to allow him to do so and has gotten some Congressional Republican support.

Moore has been frustrated to witness attempts to tie those who avail themselves of the safety net to drug use. “Republicans continue to criminalize poverty and to put forward the narrative, the false narrative in fact, that people who are poor and reliant upon the social safety net are drug users,” she said.

In fact, evidence from test results among states that test welfare recipients indicates that they are no more likely to use drugs than the general population — in fact, they may be less likely.

That didn’t stop House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) from using a drug rehab center as the backdrop while he unveiled his poverty plan last week. “I think this is what tipped me over the edge,” Moore said, “rolling out his poverty initiative in front of a drug treatment program to sort of drive that false narrative forward.”

Moore also wants to use her bill to question why some recipients of government aid are treated differently than others. “On the one hand, poor people…are entitled to things like Medicaid and SNAP [food stamps],” she said. “People who take tax deductions and particularly those in the top 1 percent…are not entitled to anything.” But they still benefit from a large pot of government money. The government loses about $900 billion in revenue to tax expenditures every year, which mostly flow to the wealthy.

When it comes to drug abuse, “There are no boundaries with regard to class or race,” she said. “If these poor people who are entitled to SNAP for survival are required to be drug tested, then certainly those people who claim $150,000 or more in tax deductions should be subjected to the same in order to receive this benefit from the government.”

Moore also thinks that while there is no evidence that drug testing welfare recipients saves states any money, drug tests for wealthy taxpayers could be different. “We would save a lot of money on this,” she said. “When you add up all of the tax expenditures, all the money we give really wealthy people, it really rivals the amount we spend on Defense, Social Security, Medicare.” The mortgage interest deduction, which overwhelmingly benefits people making more than $100,000, alone cost $70 billion in 2013, or 0.4 percent of GDP.

Her bill will also help illuminate this very fact: that so much is spent on tax expenditures, not just on direct aid programs like welfare and food stamps. “We think it’s important to engage in some transparency and accountability around tax deductions,” she said.

Moore is not the only lawmaker in Congress who has raised questions about unequal treatment between the poor who make use of government programs and everyone else who needs them. In February, Rep. Rosa DeLauro asked why only recipients of food stamps were being considered for drug testing but not the farmers who also make use of programs run by the Agriculture Department.

But Moore is very serious about pushing her bill forward. “I’m motivated,” she said. “I’m going to work on it very seriously. I’m going to try to get cosponsors.”

She also wants to “engage the wealthy in this poverty debate,” she said. “I would love to see some hedge fund manager on Wall Street who might be sniffing a little cocaine here and there to stay awake realize that he can’t get his $150,000 worth of deductions unless he submits to a drug test.”

Bron: thinkprogress.org

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Ohio Medical Marijuana Legalization Is Signed Into Law

Way to go Ohio.

You’re almost there. Governor and former presidential candidate John Kasich recently announced that he signed Ohio House Bill 523 into law.

The bill “authorizes the use of marijuana for medical purposes and establishes the Medical Marijuana Control Program,” his office stated.

Ohio has a love-hate relationship with medical pot though. So does Kasich.

The law will allow medical patients with a doctor’s recommendation to get weed on the black market or in other states starting around September.

The state’s own medical marijuana dispensaries won’t be up and running for at least another year.

And you’re not allowed to smoke in public. And you can’t grow it at home. And employees can still be fired for using cannabis, even if their doctors say it’s legitimate medicine.

Kasich has called recreational legalization a “terrible idea.”

Late last year he explained his stance to Stephen Colbert. “We don’t need to take the approach where we send a confusing and mixed message to our children” – where we say drugs are bad except for this one.

Colbert said we already do that with alcohol. True.

Ohio, by the way, is now the nation’s 25th medical pot state.

Bron: the420times.com

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Regime favours ending war on methamphetamine | Bangkok Post: news

Justice Minister Paiboon Koomchaya has proposed that ya ba (methamphetamines) be taken off the dangerous illicit narcotics list and put under the normal drugs category as current measures to suppress the drugs have failed.


However, if and when the drugs are to be taken off the list, all agencies will have to work out measures to ensure that the distribution, sale and use of the drugs are strictly controlled, Gen Paiboon said.

He made the proposal Wednesday at a meeting which discussed the results of the 2016 UN General Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS), adapting the recommendations to deal with drug problems in Thailand. The Supreme Court president Veerapol Tungsuwan was a speaker at the meeting and he echoed Gen Paiboon's opinion.

Addressing the meeting, Gen Paiboon said the world has fought a war on drugs over the past 28 years, but achieved little. Several countries have now changed their approach to dealing with drugs and have considered how to adapt and live with drugs, instead of continuing the traditional approach.

Justice Minister Gen Paiboon Koomchaya shocked the country Wednesday with a proposal to stop criminalising methamphetamines. (Photo by Pattanapong Hirunard)

"The world has now surrendered to drugs, and has come to think of how to live with drugs. It is like a man suffering from cancer and having no cure and he has to live a happy life with the cancer," Gen Paiboon said.

Numerous countries have discussed solutions to the drug problem in terms of looking after drug users and safeguarding their rights, the minister said.

Gen Paiboon said Thailand is among several countries which supports the idea of a proportionate punishment for drug offences involving the use of amphetamine-type stimulants, as well as alternatives to imprisonment.

Many countries have adopted such ideas, but Thailand has failed to implement them because the country's drug laws still have certain limitations and need to be amended to accommodate these measures, Gen Paiboon said. A bill was drawn up to reform the system of drug laws and has received the endorsement of the cabinet. The bill will be tabled to the National Legislative Assembly for deliberation, Gen Paiboon said.

The bill would allow the courts of justice to determine whether a drug offender deserves punishments such as a jail term or a fine that is less severe than the minimum penalties stipulated by law. He said the status of methamphetamines or ya ba should be changed from a severe to a normal drug. Citing medical studies, Gen Paiboon said methamphetamines's effects on health are less harmful than those of alcohol and cigarettes.

The Justice Ministry will hold discussions with the Public Health Ministry, the courts of justice and prosecutors, and other agencies to amend the law and find ways to take methamphetamines off the narcotics list.

Mr Veerapol told the meeting that Thailand has failed in its bid to use harsh legal measures against drug abuse and drug trafficking. Despite the harsh measures, the drug problem has continued unabated. More than half of about 270,000 legal cases pending in court are drugs-related, Mr Veerapol said. The Supreme Court president also admitted that several agencies, including the courts of justice, have still failed to work together to address the drug problem.

Under the law, drug addicts are now treated as patients as part of a move to improve measures to deal with the problem, he said.

However, a drug user who possesses 15 methamphetamine pills or more is considered a drug dealer and is liable for the same punishment imposed on drug dealers, Mr Veerapol said.

Pol Lt Gen Rewat Klinkesorn, chief of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau, said the police need to follow government policy.

Prateep Ungsongtham Hata, the Duang Prateep Foundation's secretary-general, warned that if methamphetamines are removed from the narcotics list and put in the normal drugs category, there will be an increase in the drug supply and an increase in demand.

Their prices may drop due to higher competition, said Ms Prateep, who has been battling illicit drugs in the Klong Toey slum community in Bangkok.

Ms Prateep, a 1978 Ramon Magsaysay Award winner, said she wanted to see Gen Paiboon come up with plans to educate Thais about the dangers of methamphetamine abuse.

She also disputed Gen Paiboon's claim that methamphetamines are less harmful than alcohol and cigarettes.

Bron: www.bangkokpost.com

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Criminelen bestormen ziekenhuis in Rio de Janeiro | NOS

Een groep zwaarbewapende criminelen heeft een ziekenhuis in Rio de Janeiro bestormd. De groep bevrijdde een drugscrimineel die werd behandeld voor een schotwond. Bij het daaropvolgende vuurgevecht met de politie werd een patiënt doodgeschoten. Twee andere mensen raakten gewond.

"Het was een goed geplande aanval", zegt een woordvoerder van de Braziliaanse politie. "Het was een roekeloze actie die niet ongestraft zal blijven. Dit is onacceptabel."

Minstens vijf van de aanvallers gingen het ziekenhuis binnen, vijftien anderen hielden buiten de wacht. De man die bevrijd werd, heeft de bijnaam 'Fat Family'. Hij zou de leider zijn van een drugsbende in de stad. Hij lag in het ziekenhuis omdat hij bij een eerder vuurgevecht met de politie gewond was geraakt.

Het ziekenhuis is een van de vijf die buitenlanders mogen behandelen tijdens de Olympische Spelen in de Braziliaanse stad. Het is het dichtstbijzijnde ziekenhuis bij het Maracanã-stadion, waar op 5 augustus de openingsceremonie wordt gehouden.

Bron: nos.nl

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The U.S. Government And The Sinaloa Cartel - Business Insider

An investigation by El Universal found that between the years 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an arrangement with Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organization to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs while Sinaloa provided information on rival cartels.

Sinaloa, led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered to be "the world's most powerful drug trafficker," coordinates with American authorities.

But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official.

The written statements were made to the U.S. District Court in Chicago in relation to the arrest of Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, the son of Sinaloa leader Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and allegedly the Sinaloa cartel's "logistics coordinator."

Here's what DEA agent Manuel Castanon told the Chicago court:

"On March 17, 2009, I met for approximately 30 minutes in a hotel room in Mexico City with Vincente Zambada-Niebla and two other individuals - DEA agent David Herrod and a cooperating source [Sinaloa lawyer Loya Castro] with whom I had worked since 2005. ... I did all of the talking on behalf of [the] DEA."

A few hours later, Mexican Marines arrested Zambada-Niebla (a.k.a. "El Vicentillo") on charges of trafficking more than a billion dollars in cocaine and heroin. Castanon and three other agents then visited Zambada-Niebla in prison, where the Sinaloa officer "reiterated his desire to cooperate," according to Castanon.

El Universal, citing court documents, reports that DEA agents met with high-level Sinaloa officials such as Castro more than 50 times since 2000.

Then-Justice Department prosecutor Patrick Hearn told the Chicago court that, according to DEA special agent Steve Fraga, Castro "provided information leading to a 23-ton cocaine seizure, other seizures related to" various drug trafficking organizations, and that "El Mayo" Zambada wanted his son to cooperate with the U.S.

Screen Shot 2014 01 12 at 7.05.37 PM A screenshot from the documents published by El Universal. El Universal

"The DEA agents met with members of the cartel in Mexico to obtain information about their rivals and simultaneously built a network of informants who sign drug cooperation agreements, subject to results, to enable them to obtain future benefits, including cancellation of charges in the U.S.," reports El Universal, which also interviewed more than one hundred active and retired police officers as well as prisoners and experts.

Zambada-Niebla's lawyer claimed to the court that in the late 1990s, Castro struck a deal with U.S. agents in which Sinaloa would provide information about rival drug trafficking organizations while the U.S. would dismiss its case against the Sinaloa lawyer and refrain from interfering with Sinaloa drug trafficking activities or actively prosecuting Sinaloa leadership.

"The agents stated that this arrangement had been approved by high-ranking officials and federal prosecutors," Zambada-Niebla lawyer wrote.

After being extradited to Chicago in February 2010, Zambada-Niebla argued that he was also "immune from arrest or prosecution" because he actively provided information to U.S. federal agents.

Zambada-Niebla also alleged that Operation Fast and Furious was part of an agreement to finance and arm the cartel in exchange for information used to take down its rivals. (If true, that re-raises the issue regarding what Attorney General Eric Holder knew about the gun-running arrangements.)

A Mexican foreign service officer told Stratfor in April 2010 that the U.S. seemed to have sided with the Sinaloa cartel in an attempt to limit the violence in Mexico.

El Universal reported that the coordination between the U.S. and Sinaloa, as well as other cartels, peaked between 2006 and 2012, which is when drug traffickers consolidated their grip on Mexico. The paper concluded by saying that it is unclear whether the arrangements continue.

The DEA and other U.S. agencies declined to comment to El Universal.

[UPDATE 1/14] This post has caused many to interpret that the U.S. government is actively supporting Sinaloa. That has not been established, despite claims by Zambada-Niebla's lawyer and Stratfor's source. What El Universal's investigation and the newly published court documents reveal is that there was a strong correlation from 2005 and 2009 between the rise of the Sinaloa cartel and the DEA's relatively regular contact with a top Sinaloa lawyer.

Bron: www.businessinsider.com

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Decriminalise all drugs says Junior Justice Minister

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As the former chair of the Oireachtas Justice Committee, the Cork East TD produced a report recommending that Ireland should follow the Portuguese legal system on possession drugs.

In Portugal, people caught in possession of certain small amounts of drugs, including cannabis, cocaine and heroin, are not prosecuted by the courts.

Instead, police have the discretion to send drug users for counselling or education on the dangers of drugs.

"When we went to Portugal, I was quite in impressed with the whole system from start to finish," Mr Stanton told the Sunday Independent.

"The police were very happy about it because it meant they weren't tied up in courts. If somebody had a small amount of stuff on them, the police chiefs had the discretion to send them to dissuasion centres where they had interaction with a social worker, counsellor and a legal person," he added.

The minister said his report on decriminalising drugs was submitted last year to Ms Fitzgerald and he believes she accepted the findings "positively".

Mr Stanton said he will be urging his colleagues, including new junior minister with responsibility for drugs policy, Catherine Byrne, to have "an open mind" to the possibility of decriminalising drugs.

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U.S. Gov’t Will Legalize Marijuana on August 01

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will reclassify marijuana as a “Schedule Two” drug on August 1, 2016, essentially legalizing medicinal cannabis in all 50 states with a doctor’s prescription, said a DEA lawyer with knowledge of the matter.

The DEA Lawyer had told the lawyer representing a DEA informant of the DEA’s plan to legalize medicinal cannibis nationwide on August 1, 2016. When questioned by our reporter, the DEA lawyer felt compelled to admit the truth to him as well.

“Whatever the law may be in California, Arizona or Utah or any other State, because of Federal preemption this will have the effect of making THC products legal with a prescription, in all 50 states,” the DEA attorney told the Observer. Federal Preemption is a legal doctrine that where the US Government regulates a particular field, State and local laws are overridden and of no effect.

He explained that “there are five DEA schedules. Nothing on Schedule One is ever legal, and that is where Cannabis is today. Schedule Two drugs are available with a prescription.”

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Buitenlandse drugstoeristen mijden Limburgse coffeeshops | NOS

Belgische drugstoeristen mijden steeds vaker de coffeeshops in Sittard en Geleen. Sinds 1 juni mogen in die plaatsen buitenlanders coffeeshops niet meer in.

De gemeente is positief over de ontwikkelingen sinds de invoering van de zogenoemde ingezetenen-criterium. "Het drugstoerisme is fors teruggelopen", zegt burgemeester Sjraar Cox. Het is niet duidelijk waar de toeristen nu heen gaan om drugs te kopen.

In Maastricht werden coffeeshops in 2012 afgesloten voor buitenlanders. Daardoor gingen Belgische drugstoeristen vaker naar Sittard-Geleen. Omdat daar steeds meer overlast werd ervaren, besloot burgemeester Cox het ingezeten-criterium in te voeren.

Begin deze maand nam het aantal straatdealers wel toe, schrijft 1Limburg. Volgens de gemeente zagen die kans om gebruik te maken van de nieuwe afzetmarkt. De politie heeft het aantal dealers in Sittard flink kunnen terugdringen, maar in Geleen gaat dat moeizamer.

Om de dealers ook uit de straten van Sittard te weren, worden extra agenten ingezet. Die worden geassisteerd door bijzondere opsporingsbeambten (boa's).

Bron: nos.nl

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Paraguay: Drug Czar Steps Down After Deadly Anti-Cannabis Operation | High Times

On Monday, Paraguay's top anti-drug official stepped down, two days after a botched anti-cannabis operation left a three-year-old girl dead at the hands of his troops.

Luis Rojas resigned as head of the National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD), under apparent pressure from President Horacio Cartes. The deadly operation took place in the Nueva Italia municipality, where SENAD troops searching for cannabis plantations apparently fired on a van—which proved to be carrying members of the Zanotti Cavazzoni family, owners of a local sugar plantation and mill. The girl's uncle was also wounded in the attack. The girl was the grand-daughter of Ulrico Zanotti Cavazzoni, local sugar oligarch and land-owner.

Paraguay has seen escalating gunplay in recent months, in an apparent struggle by rival gangs for control of the underground cannabis trade. Last week, a commando-style assassination of a local businessman occurred in the town of Pedro Juan Caballero, on the Brazilian border and a key transfer point for cannabis and other contraband. The "border businessman" Jorge Rafaat Toumani was killed in a road ambush by a team of at least 10 gunmen—armed not only with assault rifles but also a heavy machine-gun. This was apparently needed to penetrate Rafaat Toumani's personal armored vehicle. Another five were injured in the attack. Nine suspects have been apprehended. Authorities say they suspect First Capital Command (PCC), the Brazilian crime network which is said to control much of the cannabis trade in Paraguay.

Paraguay is by far South America's largest cannabis producer, having surpassed Colombia over the past decade. But in vivid contrast to nearby Uruguay, the traditionally conservative landlocked country continues to pursue a policy of hardline intransigence. Rojas had been a particularly outspoken opponent of Uruguay's new legalization program.

But dissent is growing. On Wednesday, members of the opposition Paraguay Pyahurâ Party (PPP) held a protest march in Asunción, the capital, against the "anti-popular and anti-national" drug policies of President Cartes.

Bron: hightimes.com