• Trump sees ‘carnage’ from America’s drug boom. But major cities are getting safer

    Just as mobile technology has transformed ordinary commerce, it has revolutionized illicit markets, too, making the drug trade more predictable and less lethal
    The Washington Post (US)
    Sunday, January 28, 2018

    The president and his attorney general have blamed the drug boom for “American carnage,” but the latest crime statistics suggest that the relationship between illegal narcotics and violence in U.S. cities is not so clear. In many hubs of the drug trade, the homicide rate decreased last year. Major American cities appear to be getting safer even as they are flooding with dope. These statistics present what appears to be a broad, long-term decoupling of homicide rates and the illegal drug trade in many U.S. cities, a trend that counters conventional wisdom about the origins of urban violence. Criminologists see many potential factors, but one may play the biggest role in reducing drug-related killings: smartphones.

  • Vente de cannabis: le National prend les devants

    La commission de la santé publique veut permettre de mener des projets pilotes concernant la distribution et la consommation récréative de cannabis
    Tribune de Génève (Suisse)
    Vendredi, 26 janvier 2018

    Des projets pilotes de distribution de cannabis devraient pouvoir être menés. Après le niet de la Confédération, la commission de la santé publique du National prend les devants. Par 13 voix contre 6 et 3 abstentions, la commission a décidé de déposer une initiative parlementaire visant à compléter la loi sur les stupéfiants. Cette nouvelle disposition permettrait de mener des projets scientifiques destinés à évaluer des approches de régulation innovantes concernant la consommation récréative de cannabis. La commission réagit à une décision de l'Office fédéral de la santé publique. Ce dernier avait refusé en novembre dernier d'autoriser la réalisation d'une telle étude scientifique à l'Université de Berne.

  • Cannabis : l’étonnant conservatisme des autorités françaises

    Tout se passe comme si la crainte d’être accusé de laxisme interdisait toute réflexion progressiste en la matière
    Le Monde (France)
    Jeudi, 25 janvier 2018

    Depuis trente ans, les rapports de parlementaires ou d’experts se sont succédé avec une belle régularité. Tous ont fait le même constat, qui confine à l’absurde. Comme les précédents, le rapport que deux députés viennent de remettre au gouvernement conclut donc que la prohibition n’a en rien empêché la banalisation – et la « dépénalisation de fait » – de la consommation de cannabis. Inefficace, la législation répressive en vigueur est, en outre, aussi chronophage que coûteuse pour la police et la justice. Et elle n’a pas manqué de favoriser le développement d’un marché clandestin de type mafieux. (Lire aussi: Cannabis: le gouvernement opte pour une amende délictuelle pour les usagers)

  • Cannabis clubs 'could open across country' as founder reveals police 'very supportive' of plan

    Michael Fisher believes his idea could make a difference across the UK after a visit from a senior cop
    Daily Record (UK)
    Thusday, January 25, 2018

    uk cannabis clubA cannabis club founder wants to expand across the UK after a senior cop visited his the Middlesbrough-based club. Michael Fisher set up Teesside Cannabis Club four years ago and says the world is a "very different place" now. He was visited by North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, who has campaigned for the drug laws to be relaxed and wanted to know how the club was set up and how it works. Michael - who has campaigned for cannabis to be de-criminalised - believes the Club Exhale model could be replicated across the country. It allows as many as 180 people to smoke the drug in a safe and controlled space. (See also: 'Cannabis clubs could go nationwide' say Teesside pioneers, after visit from another crime chief)

  • Caricom commission submits ganja report

    The commission is required to recommend the legal and administrative conditions to be applied should there be reclassification
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Thursday, January 25, 2018

    caricom marijuana useThe Caribbean Community (Caricom) Regional Marijuana Commission established to investigate the issue of marijuana use in the region has submitted a status report, the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat has announced. It said that the 10-member commission, which is chaired by Professor Rosemarie Belle-Antoine of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies, is expected to present its findings and recommendations to the Caricom summit to be held in Jamaica in July. According to the status report, marijuana has emerged as an issue of social significance across the region. (See also: Caricom: The people say 'legalise it')

  • France to issue on-the-spot fines for cannabis use

    Decriminalisation of cannabis and other drugs has been a hot topic in France in recent years, with those advocating such a course facing accusations of being soft on crime
    France 24 (France)
    Thursday, January 25, 2018

    The French government will start handing out smaller, on-the-spot fines as part of a new policy on cannabis use, ruling out a decriminalisation of the drug. “We are going to introduce simplified fines for this offence,” said Interior Minister Gerard Collomb. Collomb said further action against offenders would remain an option, adding: “Therefore there will be no decriminalisation for cannabis use.” The new fines are expected to be set at 150 to 200 euros. Cannabis use is on the rise in France, with around 700,000 people estimated to use every day. The number of 15- and 16-year-olds who admitted recent use of cannabis was higher in France than any other European country in a 2015 survey published by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

  • Danish police arrest 13 in tense Christiania raid

    Police entered Christiania as part of a routine operation against cannabis dealing in the area
    The Local (Denmark)
    Wednesday, January 24, 2018

    Police seized a large amount of narcotics and items in a raid in the alternative enclave of Christiania in Copenhagen.Ten kilograms of hash and various other cannabis products, 3,400 joints, doping substances, knives, pepper sprays and over 80,000 kroner (10,700 euros) in cash from sales of cannabis were confiscated in the operation, while 13 people were arrested. Police carry out regular raids in an effort to restrict the cannabis trade in Christiania, an alternative enclave originally established by hippie squatters in 1971. Permanent cannabis stalls were torn down in 2016, but hash and marijuana are still sold along the Pusher Street thoroughfare.

  • A huge step backward on opioids

    How to fix the opioid crisis
    CNN (US)
    Wednesday, January 24, 2018

    The latest statistics on the overdose crisis -- roughly 64,000 deaths in the United States in 2016 -- also reveal that fentanyl and other synthetic opioids are now the driving force behind US overdose deaths. Fentanyl is an opioid estimated to be 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, and it's often added to heroin to increase its potency. Sadly, just as a bipartisan consensus was emerging that a punitive approach to drugs was not the way forward, lawmakers are responding to fentanyl by prioritizing prison over public health and embracing discredited drug war policies proven to make the crisis worse.

  • Cannabis legalization can yield NIS 2.3b tax bonanza, report says

    The market for weed in Israel has estimated turnover of NIS 6 billion ($1.8b) a year – on which taxes aren't paid
    The Times of Israel (Israel)
    Wednesday, January 24, 2018

    The legalization of the cannabis industry can lead to a boon of NIS 2.3 billion ($675 million) in tax revenues a year for Israel, according to a new study by the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies, a nonprofit economic policy think tank. The study recommends the full legalization of the industry because of the “big economic advantages” that would stem from such a move, which is also not expected to lead to negative social consequences like increased crime and road accidents. In addition, the government can save some NIS 191 million a year by cutting back on police enforcement and court costs, if use of the drug is legalized. (See also: Israeli marijuana is growing, but exports have nowhere to go)

  • Could Sessions’ marijuana policy shift benefit the cannabis industry in 2018?

    The A.G.'s unilateral moves have forced politicians to take sides on marijuana legalization
    The Cannabist (US)
    Wednesday, January 24, 2018

    Uncertainty interjected into the cannabis industry earlier this month by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions could create new opportunities for the sector and advance legalization legislation. But the realities of a post-Cole Memo legal landscape underscore just why the National Cannabis Industry Association exists, the organization’s executive director Aaron Smith told the Colorado Cannabis Caucus Tuesday evening. The demise of the Cole Memo — Obama-era U.S. Department of Justice guidance on marijuana enforcement — needs to be taken seriously by the entire industry, he told the gathering of 250 NCIA members in downtown Denver. “But it’s important to note that this was not a major, substantive shift in policy,” Smith said.

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