JUST two of South Australia's 40 hydroponics shops have applied for a licence to sell equipment that is used almost exclusively for the production of cannabis crops.

From Tuesday, retailers caught selling a range of proscribed equipment, such as halide lights and carbon filters, face fines of up to $20,000 - as do employees working in the shops without a licence.

So far, police have had no licence applications from individuals wanting to continue working in hydroponics shops, while six exemptions have been granted to retailers who sell some of the proscribed goods - such as high-powered globes for tennis court lighting.

adelaidenow.com.au

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has recently released a report on illicit drug trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean, and it is ugly.

Since the mid-1970s, the U.S. government has invested billions of dollars in Latin America for anti-drug assistance programs aimed at reducing the flow of Latin American-sourced drugs to the United States. What have been the results?

freemarketmojo.com

Most of these programs have emphasized supply reduction tools, particularly drug crop eradication and interdiction of illicit narcotics, and have been designed on a bilateral or subregional level. Many would argue that the results of U.S.-led drug control efforts have been mixed. Temporary successes in one country or sub-region have often led traffickers to alter their cultivation patterns, production techniques, and trafficking routes and methods in order to avoid detection. As a result of this so-called “balloon effect,” efforts have done little to reduce the overall availability of illicit drugs in the United States. In addition, some observers assert that certain mainstays of U.S.-funded counterdrug programs, particularly aerial spraying to eradicate drug crops, have had unintended social and economic consequences.

assets.opencrs.com [pdf]

DPA introduces a new video featuring Sting, George Soros and Montel Williams. Each of them believes that our drug policies must be grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. And each believes that only by working together can we end the failed war on drugs.

Laut dem DeutschlandTrend vom 27.5. haben 54% der befragten angegeben, daß sie denken, dass ihr Lebensstandard in den nächsten Jahren sinken wird. Die “Kriesenangst” greift um sich. Spaniens Parlament erstellte einen “Rekord-Sparplan“. Aber wann ist Deutschland dran, mit dem Einsparen? Gleich vorab ein Vorschlag: Fangen wir doch mal mit der unsinnigen und menschenverachtenden Verfolgung von Drogenstraftaten an. Mit der “Zaubersteuer” kommt sogar noch etwas Geld ‘rein.

hanfplantage.de

Hooray! The War on Drugs is over! It must be true; it’s in the Irish Examiner!

norml.org
irishexaminer.com
old zack

Russia's top drugs official gave a list of Afghan and Central Asian drug barons to U.S. anti-drugs tsar Gil Kerlikowske Sunday, but criticized U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan for failing to stem opium output.

Russia is the world's biggest per capita user of heroin -- all of it flowing from Afghanistan -- and President Dmitry Medvedev has called drug abuse among the country's youth a threat to national security.

theusdaily.com

Bayern ist für gewöhnlich bekannt für seine schönen Landschaften und gutem Bier. Leider gibt es in dieser Gegend auch eine sehr hohe Repression – und dadurch viel mehr Personen, die ein Problem mit ihrem Drogenkonsum bekommen als zum Beispiel in Tschechien. Dies belegen leicht nachvollziehbare Statistiken und genau das habe ich die Drogenbeauftragte Mechthild Dyckmans, Mitglied der christlichen Fraktion in der FDP, auf Abgeordnetenwatch gefragt.

hanfplantage.de