• Gov't addressing banking challenges impacting cannabis industry

    Banks are derisking to preserve their corresponding banking relationships, mainly in the USA
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Thursday, September 10, 2020

    jamaica claThe Ministry of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries is engaging international stakeholders to address the banking difficulties that have been impacting Jamaica's medical cannabis industry. Director of Research Development and Communications at the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA), Felicia Bailey, in making the disclosure at a JIS Think Tank recently, noted that the continued hesitance of banks to deal with players in the local industry remains a challenge. Many major banks are reluctant to fund the growth of medical cannabis out of fear of breaching federal laws in the United States of America. As a result, businesses are unable to attract financing, without which they cannot be licensed. (See also: Cannabis Licensing Authority committed to facilitating import, export)

  • Medical cannabis big hit in Luxembourg

    Enough supplies after a shortage in July, government says
    Luxembourg Times (Luxembourg)
    Thursday, September 10, 2020

    medical cannabis docterDoctors in Luxembourg have given out cannabis to more patients so far this year than in all of 2019, Health Minister Paulette Lenert said, a sign that the legalisaton of the drug - which remains banned for recreational use - filled a gap in demand. Parliament approved the medicinal use of cannabis in June 2018 and government will evaluate the law at a later stage. It is mainly prescribed for serious diseases such as multiple sclerosis or cancer. The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed Luxembourg's plans to also legalise the recreational use of cannabis - an election promise that has irked neighbouring countries - which is likely to be another two years away. (Le Luxembourg en manque de cannabis médical)

  • Pot shop licenses to promote social equity could go to firms tied to co-founder of $3B cannabis giant

    Matt Estep, the former managing partner of Green Thumb Industries, runs an investment firm linked to two applicants hoping to win the right to open marijuana dispensaries in Illinois
    Chicago Sun-Times (US)
    Thursday, September 10, 2020

    Matt EstepTwo shadowy companies vying for multiple licenses in the upcoming pot shop lottery share the same west suburban address as an investment firm led by the co-founder of Green Thumb Industries, a River North-based power player in the weed industry. Matt Estep was among a group of investors who started GTI in 2014, the same year medical cannabis was legalized in Illinois. The firm, which has since blossomed into a publicly traded behemoth valued at roughly $3 billion, has operations in multiple states and runs two cultivation centers and six dispensaries in Illinois, including Rise Joliet and Rise Mundelein. (See also: New marijuana shops need ‘true social equity,’ lawmakers say in pitching change to weed law)

  • In 2017-18, 97% drugs cases in Mumbai courts over possession: study

    The study found that consumption of cannabis accounted for 87 per cent of all arrests and convictions in drug consumption cases in Mumbai
    The Indian Express (India)
    Wednesday, September 9, 2020

    rolling jointsOver 97 per cent of drug-related cases decided by Mumbai courts in 2017 and 2018 involved possession for personal consumption, according to a study by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy. Actor Rhea Chakraborty, arrested by Narcotics Control Bureau, faces similar charges. Cannabis accounted for 87 per cent of all arrests and convictions. Chargesheets in cases against small-time peddlers and consumers, most of them slum or street dwellers, are filed speedily. They result in nearly 100% conviction, thus presenting a rosy picture of enforcement in a state which tops in cases under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in India. (See the study: Criminalisation leads to exploitation: The Mumbai story no one knows about | Study: Most held in drug cases are users & peddlers, not big suppliers)

  • The incredible story of Zürich’s journey to harm reduction

    Any society refusing to integrate its marginalized members is a looming danger to itself
    Filter (US)
    Wednesday, September 9, 2020

    zurich 1990sIt was in 1992 that the Platzspitz city park – right by Zürich train station and internationally nicknamed “Needle Park” – was cleared out by the police, who had previously tolerated drug use and sales there. This was eventually followed, however, by a far more enlightened policy. Switzerland found itself at a crossroads, and chose to take the path of careful consideration instead of ostracization, incarceration and destruction of fellow human beings. From the mid-1990s, we vastly expanded syringe services and methadone access, and also permitted the limited prescribing of heroin – a policy with many well-studied benefits, which spawned a number of imitators around the world. 

  • Swiss cannabis studies get the green light

    The debate around the tests goes back to 2017, when the University of Bern applied to begin such a study
    Swissinfo (Switzerland)
    Wednesday, September 9, 2020

    switzerland cannabis2Parliament has backed a legal change allowing for pilot studies that will distribute cannabis to control groups, in order to find out more about the effects of recreational use. The monitoring studies will be limited in size and duration, and will only include existing cannabis smokers over the age of 18. Interior Minister Alain Berset, who backed the amendment, said that the current situation was “unsatisfactory”. This is particularly the case in bigger cities like Bern, Geneva, Zurich and Basel, who have all expressed an interest in the potential of such trials. One third of the Swiss population has admitted to smoking cannabis at some point, while some 200,000 smoke regularly. But cannabis remains an illegal substance, and there is no oversight of the quality or origin of what’s consumed.

  • Let's decriminalise casual cannabis use

    Users should be allowed to toke in peace while enforcement focuses on busting organised drug smugglers
    Berliner Zeitung (Germany)
    Tuesday, September 8, 2020

    germany police cannabisThe number of drug offences continue to increase in Germany – a very real issue for the country. Drug Commissioner Daniela Ludwig is of course on the right track when she emphasises prevention programmes. Doing away with addiction as a social taboo is an important factor when it comes to combating drug abuse. But it would be even more helpful not to criminalise responsible citizens who use cannabis from time to time. Sixty per cent of offences are linked to plant-based drugs. The criminalisation of cannabis brings people – mostly young people – more quickly into an environment where harder drugs are consumed. Redefining what is illegal could help.

  • Police routinely use drug powers to 'bully people', says former Chief Inspector

    Police in the UK regularly use drugs as a pretext to stop and search people, despite three-quarters of these searches coming up empty
    Vice (UK)
    Friday, September 4, 2020

    A former chief inspector has said he believes that over a third of drug stop-and-searches by UK police are used “as an excuse to harass people”, after an analysis showed that officers are using the powers as a pretext to punish or exert control, rather than to find drugs. Despite a 2011 decision to rein in stop-and-search because so many Black and Asian people were being targeted, the tactic is back on the rise after a surge in knife crime. There was a sharp jump in the number of searches between 2017/18 and 2018/19, from 250,000 to 384,000. Despite the coronavirus lockdown, that figure has skyrocketed in London, increasing by 103 percent in the year up to May of 2020. (See also: As a police officer, I know stop and search is really about power)

  • Where calling the police isn’t the only option

    There’s a growing movement in the U.S. to hand some police duties over to social workers and alternative emergency responders
    Bloomberg CityLab (US)
    Thursday, September 3, 2020

    us defund policeSkeptics of the movement to defund or abolish police departments often invoke the threat of a 911 call in the middle of the night that goes unanswered. But a lot of 911 calls could be answered by someone who’s not an officer in a uniform with a gun: Medical concerns about unhoused people, reports about individuals in the throes of a mental health crisis, and complaints about minor nuisances like loud music dominate the 911 wires. Nationwide, an estimated 80% of 911 calls are made for nonviolent, non-property offenses, says Frankie Wunschel, a research associate at the Vera Institute. The New York Times found that the share of time officers spend handling violent crime in New Orleans, Sacramento and Montgomery County, Maryland, this year was only 4%.

  • Drone drops hundreds of bags of cannabis in Tel Aviv

    The bags were dropped by the "green drone" Telegram group, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis in Israel
    The Jerusalem Post (Israel)
    Thursday, September 3, 2020

    A drone dropped hundreds of bags of cannabis over Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, attracting dozens of confused people, who rushed to pick up as many bags as they could carry. The bags of cannabis were dropped by the "green drone" Telegram group, which advocates for the legalization of cannabis in Israel, with "free love" being the group's slogan. Before dropping the cannabis over Tel Aviv, the group published a message on Telegram, hinting at the planned operation. The operation was part of the group's celebratory launching of a new delivery system titled "rain of cannabis." "We're launching the 'rain of cannabis' project, that will include a weekly delivery to different parts of the country of 1 kilo of cannabis divided into free 2 gram bags," the message stated.

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