Cocaine is a central commodity of the neoliberal age; so, too, its re-processed form (“crack”) for the desperately poor in de-industrialized cities of the North and South Atlantic. First announced by Richard Nixon in 1971, the “War on Drugs” predates the rise of cocaine and crack by nearly a decade, but in the 1980s and 90s the “War on Drugs” was redoubled in response to the explosion of the cocaine business. It now ranks as the U.S.’s longest-running military-police campaign. Thus if we look at cocaine as a social hieroglyph—not as a thing, but as a complex relation between networks and organizations of people, as well as between states and bureaucracies—we may glimpse some of the distinguishing features of the contemporary world.

brooklynrail.org

Los Angeles County, which has seen a whirlwind expansion in medical marijuana dispensaries this year, has notched another marijuana milestone. The county has moved to No. 5 for the amount seized in the state's annual eradication campaign, with 340,187 pot plants uprooted -- more than a fourfold increase.

Statewide, the 27-year-old effort, known as the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, found and destroyed almost 4.5 million plants in 41 counties, up from 2.9 million seized in each of the two prior years' growing season. The amount has climbed steadily since 1996, when California voters approved the nation's first medical marijuana law.

latimes.com

U.S. authorities found five tons of cocaine aboard a semi-submersible boat during a joint operation conducted last month by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Guatemalan army off Guatemala’s Pacific coast, a prosecutor said.

“Based on the report we received from the DEA, the submarine was transporting 4,992 kilos of cocaine,” the head of Guatemala’s drug crimes prosecutor’s office, Leonel Ruiz, told Efe.

laht.com

While cocaine to-date is mainly concentrated in western Europe, the study showed new trafficking routes through eastern Europe "may have impeded interdiction efforts."
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Brussels -- Cocaine's relentless march through Europe's social strata showed no sign of abating in 2009, an annual report into drug use and addiction showed on Thursday.

"Cocaine and heroin continue to maintain a firm hold on Europe's drug scene, and there is little to suggest at present any improvement regarding their use in Europe," said Wolfgang Goetz, who heads the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

expatica.com

The Dutch are among the lowest users of marijuana or cannabis in Europe despite the Netherlands' well-known tolerance of the drug, according to a regional study published on Thursday. Among adults in the Netherlands, 5.4 percent used cannabis, compared with the European average of 6.8 percent, according to an annual report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, using latest available figures.

reuters.com

The report on the state of the drugs problem in Europe presents the EMCDDA's yearly overview of the drug phenomenon. This is an essential reference book for policymakers, specialists and practitioners in the drugs field or indeed anyone seeking the latest findings on drugs in Europe. Published every autumn, the report contains non-confidential data supported by an extensive range of figures.

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emcdda.europa.eu

Die europäische Beobachtungsstelle für Drogen und Drogensucht (EMCDDA) hat am gestrigen Mittwoch in Brüssel den aktuellen Jahresbericht vorgestellt.

In der Pressemitteilung (Direktlink zur deutschsprachigen Pressemitteilung im PDF-Format) wird u.a. auf folgende zentrale Punkte des Jahresberichts eingegangen:

Kokain und Heroin stehen nach wie vor im Zentrum der europäischen Drogenproblematik.

Kokain ist dabei nach wie vor (vor allem in den westlichen europäischen Ländern) die populärste Droge unter den illegalisierten Stimulanzien.

Die Zahl der europäischen Erwachsenen, die im Laufe ihres Lebens Kokain konsumierten, wird mit 13 Millionen beziffert, die der jungen Erwachsenen (15-34 Jahre) mit 7,5 Millionen. Die Konsumprävalenz unter den jungen Erwachsenen für die letzten zwölf Monate beträgt dabei zwischen 3,1% und 5,5% (Dänemark, Spanien, Irland, Italien und Vereinigtes Königreich).

emcdda.europa.eu

Britain has become the online "designer drugs" capital of Europe with more than a third of all internet retailers that sell "legal highs" based in the UK, according to a report from the European Union's drug agency.

This new generation of online "head shops" is at the centre of a rapidly growing market in highly potent synthetic drugs, such as Spice, that mimic the effects of illegal substances such as cannabis and ecstasy.

guardian.co.uk

4:20 statt Spice