I have just been reading the Coalition Government’s new Drugs Strategy. It is described by the Home Secretary as fundamentally different to what has gone before; it is not. To the extent that it is different, it is potentially harmful because it retreats from the principle of harm reduction, which has been one of the main reasons for the reduction in acquisitive crime in recent years.

However, prohibition has failed to protect us. Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit. We spend billions of pounds without preventing the wide availability of drugs. It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children. We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.

transform-drugs.blogspot.com
drugwarrant.com
granthamjournal.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk 2
independent.co.uk
midhurstandpetworth.co.uk
stuff.co.nz

Over the last few years, a new trend has emerged. There is emerging evidence that young people are taking new legal chemicals instead of or as well as other drugs. Most of these substances have never been tested for use by humans. The immediate risks they pose or the long term damage they are doing, are often not immediately apparent as their harms are unknown.

* If the problem is “young people”, why not restrict it like alcohol?
* Even if legal highs were trialled like pharmaceuticals, they’d still never be approved for consumption because they’re largely recreational

This Government is committed to an evidence-based approach. High quality scientific advice in this complex field is therefore of the utmost importance. This is why we value the work and independent advice of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), which has experts from fields that include science, medicine, law enforcement and social policy. We are committed to both maintaining this expertise and ensuring the ACMD’s membership has the flexibility to respond to the accelerating pace of challenges. The proper consideration of that advice is at the heart of enabling us to deliver this strategy, including the reforms required to tackle the problem of emerging new psychoactive substances (‘legal highs’).

synchronium.net

4:20 statt Spice

A pleasant surprise from last month’s elections was a big “no” vote in California on a ballot measure that would have created the first jurisdiction in the world to fully legalize marijuana.

The state most identified with “recreational” drugs sent a strong signal to all the nation’s politicians that – maybe, just maybe – pot isn’t heading toward social, and ultimately legal, acceptance.

Ah, if it were that simple.

The pro-pot lobby isn’t taking “no” for an answer. The legal buying and selling of marijuana, like alcohol or tobacco, is only a matter of when, not if, say backers.

csmonitor.com

A £1m taxpayer-funded anti-trafficking campaign to stem the flow of cocaine into the UK through Ghana's busiest airport is beset by corruption, with drugs police sabotaging expensive British-bought scanning equipment and tipping off smugglers, leaked US embassy cables reveal.

Ghana president John Atta Mills even worried that his own entourage could be smuggling drugs through his presidential lounge at Accra's Kotoka airport and asked a senior UK customs official last November for help to screen them "in the privacy of his suite to avoid any surprises if they are caught carrying drugs", according to the US embassy in Accra (cable 234015).

guardian.co.uk
modernghana.com
thestar.co.za
monstersandcritics.com
This cable was created on 08 October 2009, according to WikiLeaks

Mexico's Congress voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to strip parliamentary immunity from a congressman accused of links to a drug cartel, the first time a sitting Mexican lawmaker has faced charges of ties to organized crime.

Legislators voted 384-2 to lift the immunity of Julio César Godoy, a congressman from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution. Mr. Godoy, 45 years old, has been accused by Mexican prosecutors of ties to La Familia, a violent cartel based in the western state of Michoacán.

wsj.com

Apologists for Mexico’s horrifically violent war against drugs ought to check out the latest cables released by WikiLeaks, which offer a sobering reality check. Just under three months ago, articles like this one from Newsweek’s Malcolm Beith took stock of the escalating violence in the country and suggested that the carnage may actually be a sign that the Mexican government, rather than losing control, is winning. This line of reasoning strikes me now, as it did then, as specious at best. Doubly so when we consider that Beith’s argument is based solely on one source—a former high-ranking government official within the Mexican establishment.

guatemala-times.com

* Cannabis Skunk David Watson drug Genetic engineering monopoly patents control tax and regulate Money California backing no on marijuana legalization Proposition 19 Drug Policy Alliance MPP NORML George Soros Monsanto Bayer GW Pharma HortaPharm GMO Termina
* Guerrilla Radio

PROPOSITION 19, MONSANTO, AND GMO TERMINATOR CANNABIS

An article by D.M. Murdock written in August 2010 and entitled “Why hemp could save the world” states:

“Hemps prohibition has led to untold suffering around the globe. If we—the global human population—had been able to grow the miracle plant hemp (Cannabis genus) locally and to use it for local industries and businesses, including and especially for fuel, we would never have needed to be addicted to oil, for one, an addiction that is at the root of much misery. We would never have allowed ourselves to be lorded over by international oil-mongers whose crimes against humanity have become legion, including wholesale invasion of other lands and slaughter of countless people.”

“None of this oil-related horror—along with the deplorable degradation of the environment globally—would have occurred if hemp had not been prohibited but had been used wisely and intelligently as a major foundation of human society. Indeed, hemp-based economies could still save the human world, while hemp planting could go a massively long way in rescuing the natural world as well.”

“It is said that hemp has up to 50,000 uses, from fiber to fuel to food, but I'll just provide a taste here:”

“In modern times, hemp has been used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, biodegradable plastics, construction, health food, fuel, and medical purposes.”

“Hemp is one of the faster growing biomasses known, producing up to 25 tons of dry matter per hectare per year, and one of the earliest domesticated plants known. “

kpfz.org

'THE wheels have fallen off'' a $20 million federal program to fight the booming amphetamine trade in Australia, amid a massive surge in drug labs run by outlaw bikie clubs and other crime groups.

Secret NSW and Victorian police force briefings obtained by The Age reveal senior police in both states believe Australia's amphetamine drug-busting program has fallen into disarray.

The Age has also obtained confidential police figures from the state forces across the nation that estimate 756 drug labs will be detected this year, almost double the number found three years ago.

theage.com.au