Federal authorities arrested a fugitive alleged drug kingpin Saturday after a decade-long chase through the Caribbean marked by his narrow escapes and public taunting that he paid off police to remain free.

Known as the Pablo Escobar of the Caribbean, Jose Figueroa Agosto was caught wearing a wig while driving through a working-class Dominican neighborhood of San Juan. When he realized he was being followed, he tried to run on foot as he had last September in the Dominican Republic after a pursuing vice squad shot out a tire on his Jeep.

greenwichtime.com

Es war die größte Menge Kokain, die je in Deutschland gefunden wurde: 1,3 Tonnen stellten Hamburger Ermittler im April im Hamburger Hafen sicher. SPIEGEL ONLINE rekonstruiert, wie die Polizei der Schmugglerbande auf die Spur kam.

Hamburg - Am Anfang war ein Gerücht. Es gebe auffallend viel Kokain in Hamburg, hieß es im Herbst des vergangenen Jahres. Die Preise purzelten, die Händler auf der Straße sprachen darüber und viele Polizisten spitzten die Ohren. "Irgendetwas ist im Gange", sagten sie sich.

Doch wer brachte die Massen an Schnee in die Stadt? Und wie?

spiegel.de

Europe is grappling with a flood of powerful and sometimes lethal new narcotics that are often legal when they first appear because authorities have never seen or banned them before, The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

With catchy nicknames like Meow Meow, Spice and NRG-1, the drugs are often sold online as "legal highs." They typically come in powder form and can be snorted, licked or packed into tablets and create highs that mimic drugs ranging from cocaine to ecstasy.

myfoxny.com
wsj.com

Die nächste Hanfparade findet am Samstag, dem 7. August 2010 statt. Sie beginnt um 13 Uhr mit einer Kundgebung zwischen Fernsehturm und S-Bahnhof Alexanderplatz.

gruene-hilfe.de

The British Medical Journal this week publishes a special edition on drug titled: 'Drug users and HIV: treat don't punish'. the cover feature includes a special commentary section on drugs, HIV/AIDS and harm reduction to coincide with the huge AIDS 2010 conference in Vienna that kicks off this Sunday (see this blog for details and Transform's involvement in the Global Village's Drug Policy Networking Zone).

The special edition of the BMJ features five commissioned commentaries, including; 'Alternatives to the war on drugs' by Transform's Steve Rolles, one of the first detailed explorations in a mainsteam medical journal of legal regulatory models as alternatives to existing unregulated criminal drug markets, specifically from a public health perspective. The full text (also available on the BMJ site here, with rapid responses here) is copied below as it appears online.
The issue also includes Professor Tim Rhodes, Anya Sarang, Peter Vickerman, and Professor Matthew Hickman, on ‘Policy resistance to harm reduction for drug users and potential effect of change’; Richard Hurley on ‘How Ukraine is tackling Europe’s worst HIV epidemic’ and an editorial on ‘Evidence based policy for illicit drugs’ by Prof Evan Woods (who was on BBC R4's Today program this Friday discussing these issues and talking about the Vienna Declaration). These are unfortunately only available in extract without a login.

transform-drugs.blogspot.com

Despite the Golden State’s conspicuous absence from this month’s THMQ, Kush still easily ran away with the top pot spot, nearly doubling the total submissions for the next closest strain, Blueberry. Also this month, Jack Herer made a long-awaited return to the top five - the first such finish for the strain since October 2009.

hightimes.com

Police called out over fears of a potentially fatal gas leak at an apartment block discovered a hash-smoking student instead.

austriantimes.at

Kann sein, dass den Drogenkurieren die Situation zu heiß wurde: Stundenlanger Stau auf der Autobahn, vor ihnen jede Menge Blaulicht, Polizei, und sie mittendrin mit 54 Kilogramm Marihuana im Gepäck. Also wuchteten sie die vier Taschen einfach neben die Autobahn und rollten wohl langsam davon. So könnte es gewesen sein. Tatsache jedenfalls ist, dass ein Zeuge am Dienstag die Polizei auf vier prall gefüllte Eishockeysporttaschen am Autobahndreieck Feldmoching aufmerksam machte und die Beamten darin die Drogen im Wert von rund 250000 Euro fanden.

sueddeutsche.de
bild.de
rtl.de