The trend comes from neighbouring Nepal where parallels with Afghanistan are already frightening: corruption, lack of investment and poverty, with poppy fields completing the picture.

The Indian police regularly discover fields of opium poppies growing in the northern state of Bihar on the India-Nepal border where the illegal crop is giving the administration a headache. The state shares a long border with Nepal, one of the largest markets for opium. No wonder, then, that this area is popular with opium cultivators due to the lack of security and awareness among the local people.

rt.com

Russia urged NATO forces in Afghanistan on Sunday to crack down harder on drug production and smuggling, and offered to help put a security ring around the country.

The international community should classify Afghan drugs as a threat to peace and security because they have become an important source of funds for the Taliban and other insurgent groups, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said in a speech.

journalstar.com
rt.com

Am 31. März fand vor dem Verwaltungsgericht Köln ein Erörterungstermin zum Antrag von Michael Fischer aus Mannheim auf den Eigenanbau von Cannabis für medizinische Zwecke statt. Der Antrag an die Bundesopiumstelle liegt bereits mehrere Jahre zurück. Er war bereits mit einem Bescheid vom 6. Dezember 2007 von der Bundesopiumstelle abgelehnt worden, mit der Begründung, ein Eigenanbau sei zur medizinischen Versorgung nicht notwendig, da zwei pharmazeutische Hersteller einen auf Delta-9-THC standardisierten Cannabisextrakt entwickelt hätten.

encod.org

In November, the police chief in the Mexican border city of Tijuana canceled a concert by a famous group of musicians after they released a song that suggested they had real-life links to the drug traffickers they'd been singing about for years.

Since then, the band has gone elsewhere. On Friday night, a burst of prerecorded gunfire echoed through a Memphis nightclub as the red-suited members of Los Tucanes de Tijuana launched their signature song, "El Papa de los Pollitos." (CAUTION: This link leads to a music video that contains some elements of violence and nudity.)

commercialappeal.com

Even the walls of a maximum security prison can’t keep Marc Emery out of the public eye.

With a new prison blog, he’s harnessed the Internet to give the world a glimpse into his new lifestyle behind bars.

But now, less than two weeks after he entered a U.S. prison, Emery might have stuck it to the man a little to hard.

cannabisnews.org

Agents in Casa Grande first stopped a pickup truck Friday morning and discovered nearly 1000 pounds of marijuana hidden in 600 small packages in the vehicle, officials said. Later, a Border Patrol K-9 unit at the Ajo Station found almost 600 pounds of marijuana abandoned Sunday morning.

azcentral.com

Today, the City of Los Angeles will begin enforcing its ordinance regulating storefront medical marijuana dispensing collectives. The ordinance will force most of the city’s collectives to shut down (over 400 establishments), while the remaining 138 or so (those who registered with the city prior to Nov. 13, 2007) will have to comply with new zoning laws that are stricter than those for adult entertainment businesses, retail alcohol vendors, and pharmacies.

opposingviews.com

Law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles begin cracking down on the city's medical marijuana dispensaries Monday. Hundreds of dispensaries will be found noncompliant with new regulations aimed at putting some limits on this booming industry.

scpr.org