• A more enlightened approach to intoxicants should legalise marijuana

    Comment
    The Times of India (India)
    Monday, November 12, 2012

    With two US states - Washington and Colorado - voting to legalise the recreational use of marijuana, a similar liberal approach towards mild intoxicants in India is up for debate. Consumption of marijuana and other cannabis derivatives such as bhang dates back hundreds of years with strong roots in Indian culture. Untill 1985, marijuana and other cannabis derivatives were legally sold in the country through authorised retail shops. The enactment of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in that year - carried out under pressure from the US - pushed the marijuana trade underground.

  • As US states legalise marijuana, is this the end of the drugs war?

    The director of a landmark documentary which chronicles how the current penal approach has resulted in social disaster says the greatest legacy of the US elections may be shifting attitudes towards illegal narcotics
    Eugene Jarecki
    The Observer (UK)
    Sunday, November 11, 2012

    Last week was a momentous week, the beginning of the end, perhaps, of a national depravity – the "war on drugs". The voters of Colorado and Washington passed measures to legalise marijuana, amounting to local shifts, for the moment. So we shouldn't delude ourselves that the country will be transformed overnight, but the public thinking, the public spirit is being transformed. Finally, there is a growing realisation that this "war" has produced nothing but a legacy of failure. And who wants to be associated with failure?

  • Legalized marijuana initiatives leave federal government wrestling with policy

    The Washington Post (US)
    Saturday, November 10, 2012

    marijuana-plantSenior administration officials acknowledged that they are wrestling with how to respond to the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington, which directly violates federal drug law and is sparking a broad debate about the direction of U.S. drug policy. The most likely outcome will be that the Justice Department will prevent the laws from going into effect by announcing that federal law preempts the state initiatives, which would make marijuana legal for recreational use. But the White House and the Justice Department have not made a decision yet.

  • The joint campaign: Should we not legalize recreational use of cannabis?

    The Times of India (India)
    Saturday, November 10, 2012

    bhang-shopWhat two American states, Washington and Colorado, have decided to do - legalize recreational use of marijuana - was the norm in India until 1985. All cannabis derivatives - marijuana (grass or ganja), hashish (charas) and bhang - were legally sold in this country. As a matter of fact, most state governments had their own retail shops to sell these drugs. India has known, consumed and celebrated ganja, charas and bhang for millennia. (See also: Recreational use of marijuana: Of highs and laws)

  • Colorado, Washington await federal response to pot measure

    The Seattle Times (US)
    Friday, November 9, 2012

    Should marijuana be treated like alcohol? Or should it remain in the same legal category as heroin and the most dangerous drugs? Votes by Colorado and Washington to allow adult marijuana possession have prompted what could be a turning point in the nation's conflicted and confusing war on drugs. Both states are holding off on plans to regulate and tax the drug while waiting to see whether the Justice Department would assert federal authority over drug law. (See also: Marijuana prosecutions dropped in anticipation of legalization)

  • The end of the war on marijuana

    On Tuesday, voters in Washington state and Colorado legalized recreational marijuana
    Roger A. Roffman, professor emeritus of social work at the University of Washington and a sponsor of I-502
    CNN (US)
    Friday, November 9, 2012

    initiative-502The historic measure to regulate and tax marijuana in Washington State deserves to be looked at closely as a model of how legalization ought to be designed and implemented elsewhere in America. We've turned a significant corner with the approval of Initiative 502, which purposefully offers a true public health alternative to the criminal prohibition of pot. (See also: I-502 Fact Sheet from ACLU)

  • Colorado and Washington legalise marijuana: what it really means

    Even if federal authorities allow measures to supersede US law, it will be more than a year before pot goes on sale in either state
    The Guardian (UK)
    Friday, November 9, 2012

    let-me-smokeNo sooner had the voters of Colorado and Washington passed measures to legalise marijuana than the predictions began: visions – both overexcited and apocalyptic – of busloads of stoned tourists turning the states into Rocky mountain or Pacific north-west versions of Amsterdam. However such speculation may be premature. There are a few more hurdles before legally buying and selling marijuana in the US can become reality.

  • The American Public Is Doing a 180 on Marijuana Prohibition...

    How Come the Politicians Aren't?
    Alternet (US web)
    Friday, November 9, 2012

    we_need_weedThe election results this week from Washington, Colorado, Massachusetts and Arkansas demonstrate that public opinion about cannabis has moved much faster than the positions of elected officials. Despite what the voters in Washington and Colorado did, growing and selling marijuana will remain federal felonies. The federal reaction is crucial, and at the moment unpredictable. We probably won’t know until a new attorney general takes office.

  • Legalisation in U.S. States may prompt changes in Mexico’s anti-drug policy

    Inter Press Service (IPS)
    Thursday, November 8, 2012

    fence-carThe legalisation of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, which will allow the drug to be taxed and regulated, in two U.S. states will prompt debate on anti-drug policies in Mexico as well, and on the coordination of strategies between the two countries, experts say. “The least bad option is legalisation,” Jorge Chabat, at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), told IPS. “It will have an impact on the way prohibition is designed, because there will be a cascade effect, and we’ll see changes very soon.”

  • Mexico says marijuana legalization in U.S. could change anti-drug strategies

    The Washington Post (US)
    Thursday, November 8, 2012

    The decision by voters in Colorado and Washington state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana has left Mexican President-elect Enrique Peña Nieto and his team scrambling to reformulate their anti-drug strategies in light of what one senior aide said was a referendum that “changes the rules of the game.” It is too early to know what Mexico’s response to the successful ballot measures will be, but a top aide said Peña Nieto and members of his incoming administration will discuss the issue with President Obama and congressional leaders in Washington this month.

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