That's billion with a B. Two tons of cocaine. Just so you know, the GDP of Gambia is $800 million. The cocaine found is worth more than the entire country of Gambia makes in a year.

indiatimes.com
afp
portalangop.co.ao
bbc.co.uk

On June 9th, the Dutch get to vote their 28th cabinet. With the economic recession as the main issue, the story of coffeeshops in these elections is grossly overlooked.

For a long time, the use of soft drugs for grown ups has been part of a policy of toleration. Especially the last couple of years, political parties haven been in favor or against coffeeshops. In 2008, the CDA wanted to ban them completely. In February 2010 minister under resignation André Rouvoet (Youth and Family) wanted to raise a minimum distance between schools and coffeeshops. In the same month Job Cohen, then mayor of Amsterdam and now running for prime minister for the PvdA, declared that he didn’t feel for closing down the coffeeshops near schools, which was another plan from the government.

demotix.com

Calexico downtown port of entry discovered more than 9,000 pounds of marijuana concealed inside an open-top rail car — known as a gondola — that was destined for the U.S., officials announced today.

On Friday, June 4, at about 4:30 p.m., a commercial train coming from Mexico entered the Calexico downtown port of entry for inspection. Officers with the port’s Anti-Terrorism Contraband Enforcement Team screened the rail cars with an x-ray imaging system that detected anomalies with the gondola’s contents.

tribwekchron.com
kxoradio.com

Several times a week, drug smugglers somewhere along Mexico's border with the United States strap themselves into low-flying ultralight aircraft and take off with loads of marijuana.

They usually fly at night with no lights and often, they're guided only by the dim screen of a handheld satellite navigation tool, looking for a precise spot in the desert.

.miamiherald.com
vancouversun.com

The Los Angeles City Attorney's office on Tuesday released a list of 439 marijuana dispensaries that have been ordered to shut their doors after a new city council ordinance went into effect beginning this week. [Updated at 6:06 p.m.: ]

latimes.com

Photo Gallery: Medical Marijuana Dispensaries

In some of the most spectacular examples of adaptive reuse, medical marijuana dispensaries have cropped up across the Pacific Southwest, staking out vacant commercial space for pop-up pot shops delivering high-grade cannabis to California patients. But not for long; an ordinance passed yesterday will shutdown more than 400 stores over the next six months.

flavorwire.com

Loophole in LA's New Marijuana Ordinance

Los Angeles's new medical marijuana ordinance has a loophole that allows dealers to sell pot over the internet and deliver it to their customers, and a city council member wants to put a stop to that.

Councilman Jose Huizar filed a motion on Tuesday that would ban so-called mobile dispensaries.

"The city has received dozens of complaints regarding this new ruse that has arisen in an attempt to circumvent city and state regulations governing the city's collectives," Huizar said in the motion.

myfoxla.com

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