.: Politics Outside US

News2020.com for the latest sceptical slant on the 'Drugs War' lunacy." Drugs do not kill people. Drug laws kill people.This might seem hard to accept to those raised with strict opposition to all drugs could benefit from the access to higher thought that famous users throughout the ages have experienced. When will we feel we are ready to grow up and enjoy personal freedom? So it seems pretty clear that logically and legally, conducting a war on a vice is misguided, but what about the other issues? What about all the damage illegal drugs do to our communities? What about all those children who would fall prey to nasty drug pushers was it not for those ever-popular "this-is-your-brain-on-drugs" commercials? I would still argue that most, if not all, of the problems with drugs are a direct result of the fact that they have been criminalized by the state. If the criminality associated with "illegal" drug use was removed, the positive effects would be"

Two arrested during search warrant -Operation Plante:18 August 2007

 Two people have been arrested and almost $300,000 worth of cannabis has been seized during a search warrant at a house in south-western Sydney yesterday.
About 4.15pm, police executed a search warrant in Kalang Road, Edensor Park, and allegedly located a sophisticated indoor cannabis cultivation system. Two people were arrested at the house.
Police allegedly seized 145 large cannabis plants with an estimated potential street value of $290,000 and a large quantity of hydroponic equipment.
The two men, both aged 44 years, will appear in Parramatta Local Court today charged with numerous drug offences including cultivating a prohibited plant. The Condell Park man has been charged with seven offences. The Edensor Park man has been charged with six offences.
Operation Plante involves the Wetherill Park Region Enforcement Squad which, with the assistance of local police, has been proactively investigating an organised drug syndicate in
south-western Sydney.
Operation Plante has executed search warrants on 16 hydroponic houses and seized 2938 cannabis plants with an estimated potential street value of about $5 million.
Seven people have been arrested and charged with 32 cultivation and drug-related offences. These figures are inclusive of yesterday's search warrant.
Operation Plante investigations continues.

'cannabis crackdown'
News Agency of Kashmir
July 14th 2007

Srinagar July 13 (NAK): Police today destroyed Cannabis crop spread over hundreds of Kanals of land in parts of Anantnag District and arrested 15 persons in this connection.
Official sources quoting SSP Anantnag told News Agency of Kashmir that a special drive was launched against cannabis cultivation in village Dupatyar in Anantnag during which cannabis crop spread over hundreds of Kanals of land was destroyed in presence of a Magistrate.
They said that during the crackdown, 15 persons including smugglers and land owners involved in the cultivation of cannabis were arrested and booked under NDPS Act.
“Sixty more villages involved in Cannabis cultivation have been identified and similar action will be taken against them in a phased manner”, sources added. (NAK)

' white powder, cash and paraphernalia associated with drug supply'
Salisburyjournal.co.uk
May 20th 2007

2 arrests were made after three warrants were executed by police during drug raids in Durrington last month The raids were carried out on April 19 but police only released details last Wednesday. One of the warrants was executed at premises in Anne Crescent, where police say they found a significant quantity of white powder, cash and paraphernalia associated with drug supply. Two men were arrested and later released on bail and police say they are conducting a thorough investigation into the matter. Community beat officer for Durrington, PC Dave Ridler, said: "Working together with the local community helped the neighbourhood policing team gather the evidence required to carry out this latest series of successful warrants. We value information which comes to us through the community channel and since the roll-out of Durrington's Neighbourhood policing team we have had a number of successes - one case resulting in the closure of a cannabis factory, which was highly adapted for large-scale production of cannabis." Full Tale.......

Colombia Bans Coca Products - Except Coca-Cola
Stop the Drug War
May 13th 2007

While Bolivia's Evo Morales and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, along with hundreds of thousands of Andean coca growers, are seeking to expand legal markets for the venerable leaf, the Colombian government is moving in the opposite direction. For years, Bogota has allowed indigenous coca farmers to sell coca products, promoting the enterprise as one of the few successful commercial opportunities available to recognized tribes like the Nasa, who have grown it for years and regard it as sacred. But in February, the Colombian government quietly imposed a ban on the sale of products outside indigenous reserves.

But Invima said it is merely heeding the wishes of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB). While Colombia formally adheres to the 1961 United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which considers coca a drug to be eradicated, Colombian indigenous communities grow coca legally under indigenous autonomy provisions of the 1991 constitution, and have been selling coca products throughout Colombia. But last year, the INCB sent the Colombian foreign ministry a letter asking whether the "refreshing drink made from coca and produced by an Indian community" didn't violate the 1961 treaty.

While the treaty considers the coca plant a drug to be suppressed and eradicated, it also contains a provision allowing coca products to be used if the cocaine alkaloid has been extracted. That is Coca-Cola's loophole, and the Nasa call it hypocrisy.

"They lose their fight in October and then in February the government decides to prohibit Coca Sek," said David Curtidor, a Nasa in charge of the company that produces the drink. He is leading a legal challenge to the ban. In the meantime, the community is losing $15,000 a month from lost sales of Coca Sek and other coca products. "Why don't they also ban Coca-Cola? It's also made of coca leaves," he complained to the Associated Press .

Coca-Cola wouldn't confirm or deny to the AP that it even uses a cocaine-free coca extract, as is widely believed. It did deny having anything to do with Invima's decision. Invima told the AP Coca-Cola had no role.

But the Nasa are suspicious, and they're not the only ones who think Coca-Cola gets special treatment. Last year, Bolivia's Morales, a former coca grower union leader himself, complained to the UN General Assembly that "the coca leaf is legal for Coca Cola and illegal for medicinal purposes in our country and in the whole world."

And now, whether at the bidding of the INCB or Coca-Cola, Colombia is moving to strangle the legal market for coca, even as it leads the world in coca production despite $4 billion in US aid this decade and the widespread aerial spraying of herbicides. In so doing, it places itself directly against the current in a region where coca is increasingly gaining the respect it deserves and the power of the coca growers is on the increase.

'15,000 cannabis plants and 250 kilos of herbal cannabis'
Ukcia.org
May 10th 2007

Fourteen people have been arrested as part of a major operation targeting cannabis factories. Four hundred officers took part in early morning raids on 20 houses in London, Hampshire and Dorset. Those arrested were taken to police stations in Hampshire and forensic
teams are searching the properties. Police said they are trying to smash an organised crime syndicate controlling cannabis factories in Hertfordshire Hampshire, London, Norfolk and Sussex. Police said the 14 people, who were arrested during raids in Southampton, Fareham and Portsmouth, all in Hampshire, and Bournemouth and Swanage, both in Dorset. Det Insp Dave Powell said: "These arrests are part of a lengthy investigation into an organised crime syndicate, producing cannabis on a massive scale. "The profits realised from this enterprise are vast." In Southampton alone about 15,000 cannabis plants and 250 kilos of herbal cannabis have been discovered and destroyed in the last 18 months, according to police.

' 20 times more money from poppy cultivation than from rice '
Fayaz Bukhari
Ndtv.com
May 3rd 2007

The Jammu and Kashmir government has launched a massive drive against poppy cultivation as more and more farmers in Kashmir cultivate the crop as a means of quick buck. For personnel of the Excise department the ongoing drive against poppy cultivation is proving hectic. Every day hundreds of men take to the fields to destroy the standing crop and so far only 50 acres has been covered.
''There is a lot of money in the cultivation that is why large number of people are shifting to poppy cultivation. Another reason is that we were launching a drive,'' said Qasim Wani, Deputy Excise Commissioner. A farmer gets 20 times more money from poppy cultivation than from rice and that too with minimal efforts. There's no need to bother about irrigation facilities, de-weeding and pesticides, that's why over 3,000 acres of land in South Kashmir is under poppy and cannabis cultivation. Every year more farmers are taking to this illegal yet lucrative cultivation, which has become a headache for the law-enforcing agencies. ''We thought it would be cultivated in two-three villages. Now it's the eighth village. Last year we destroyed poppy cultivated on 100 acres of land,'' said Sardar Khan, SP, Awantipora. The drive against poppy cultivation is launched every year here but these fields re-appear without fail as farmers never give up.

More Trouble in Peru's Coca Fields
StopthedrugWar
April 21st 2007

Tensions continue to rise in the coca fields of Peru's Upper Huallaga Valley, with a coca eradication team attacked over the weekend, a strike by growers bubbling up in Huanuco state, more tough talk from President Alan Garcia, and a Wednesday announcement by the Peruvian police that they had found the link between growers and the violent remnants of the Shining Path guerrilla movement. The unrest comes just three weeks after a similar strike in Tocache province in San Martin state. That strike was settled by an agreement to halt forced eradication of coca crops, but the Garcia government ended that moratorium last week, with the president himself calling for the "bombing" of coca fields and maceration pits.

Last weekend, as eradication commenced again, a team of almost 200 civilian and police eradicators were ambushed in Yanajanca in the Tocache district, leaving one civilian eradicator dead and five police wounded. While the identity of the attackers remains unknown, police were quick to note that the area where the attack occurred is an area where a Shining Path remnant led by "Comrade Artemio" operates.

On Tuesday, coca farmers in Tingo Maria and Aucayacu went on strike, as did their comrades in Leoncio Prado province. Few reports were in by mid-week, but farmers had vowed to block highways. Among other things, they are asking for a meeting with a high-level government delegation.

But President Garcia Tuesday dismissed that call . "What delegation of high ranking officials?" he scoffed. "There is nothing to dialogue about because Peru needs to promote responsible agricultural development with alternative crop programs that will help put an end to drug production."

Drug traffickers are behind the strike, Garcia claimed. "It is evident that drug lords are orchestrating the strike. Just as in Colombia where drug lords have purchased the protection of para-military guerrilla groups to protect their illicit operations, they have done same with groups of coca farmers who run around protesting, 'let me grow whatever I feel like growing' and I am here to tell you that is not how it works," the Peruvian leader said.

By Wednesday, Peruvian authorities had switched from traffickers to the Shining Path as the culprits. In a loudly trumpeted (and conveniently timed) bust , Peruvian Police announced they had "finally placed the link" between restive coca farmers and the Shining Path. Police claimed two Shining Path members were arrested in Aucayacu as they awaited a meeting with coca farmer representatives. Police said they found weapons, ammunition, Shining Path propaganda, and detailed plans for blocking roads during protests.

Peru is the world's second largest producer of coca behind Colombia. Some 60,000 peasant families grow about 100 tons of the bushy plant, much more than is bought up by the state coca monopoly as a legitimate crop.

South Australia's Adelaide Hills
Abc.net.au
April 20th 2007

A man and woman aged in their 60s from South Australia's Adelaide Hills have been arrested and charged over the production of cannabis. Police say they found 103 cannabis plants and 33 kilograms of dried cannabis when they searched the pair's house at Foreston in the Adelaide Hills yesterday. The 68-year-old man and 64-year-old woman have been bailed to appear in the Holden Hill Magistrates Court at a later date.

Police raids smash Perth drug ring
Thewest.com.au
April 19th 2007

Police claim to have broken up a drug manufacturing ring they allege could have produced $1 million worth of methylamphetamine after raids on a number of homes in Perth and Mandurah yesterday.
Four people were arrested after police and customs investigators swooped on a Barragup home, allegedly discovering a clandestine drug laboratory at the semi-rural property near Mandurah. As a result of their investigations, police then raided homes in Halls Head, Wembley, Girrawheen and Mandurah, a vehicle and self-storage unit. During their raids police allegedly seized 450g of the precursor chemical ephedrine - used to manufacture methylamphetamine - $4500 cash, a handgun and a small quantity of cannabis and methylamphetamine.
A police spokesman said the ephedrine seized had the potential to produce approximately 3.6kg of methylamphetamine, which would have a street value of up to $1 million. A 35-year-old Wembley woman, a 49-year-old Halls Head man, and a 25-year-old man and a 30-year-old man, both from Queensland, have been charged with manufacturing a prohibited drug.

Couple face two drug charges
News2019.com
April 10th 2007

SUNGAI PETANI: A couple were charged yesterday with two counts of trafficking in more than 10kg of cannabis. In the first case, Mazmin Murad, 50, and his wife, Zaiton Hassan, 48, were charged with trafficking in 9,680g of cannabis at the Sungai Merbok jetty complex here at 2.25pm on March 26. In the second case, they were charged with trafficking in 960g of cannabis at an unnumbered house in Kampung Pengkalan Langgar, Bedong, about 3.30pm on the same date. The couple, who were unrepresented, nodded to signify that they understood the charges when they were read to them. Both cases will be mentioned on June 10.

'cannabis as a 'cure' gets 3 years jail'
Georgetown
April 2nd 2007

Magistrate Geeta Chandan sentenced a woman to three years imprisonment after she told the court that she is sick and uses cannabis as a cure. According to the Fort Wellington Court report Jennifer Glasgow of Lamaha Springs, Georgetown, pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of narcotics for the purpose of trafficking when she appeared at court. She was also fined $10,000 or an additional 20 days imprisonment. Glasgow on Wednesday had in her possession 2.2 kilograms of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking. Police Prosecutor, Sergeant Hatty Anthony, told the court that the woman was travelling in a minibus which was stopped and searched during a police roadblock and she was found with the items that included weeds, seeds and stems. Glasgow told the magistrate that she was sorry for the offence and that she is sick and takes the drugs to cure her fibroids.

The Independent's born-again drug war: Round Two
Transform-drugs.blogspot.com
March 26th 2007

The Independent on Sunday have followed on last week's Cannabis panic front page splash with another front page splash. This time it is 'The Great Cannabis Debate'. Inside we get more news coverage revelling in the faux-controversy they have stirred up, scary brain scans showing how cannabis 'may' melt your brain, two opinion pieces; one by the head of the UN drug agencies Antonio Costa, another by child psychotherapist Julie Lynn Evans, and another leader defending their retraction of support for cannabis law reform (on the basis that it is more dangerous than they thought).

Jonathan Owen from the Independent on Sunday, who is apparently taking the lead on this latest salvo of cannabis coverage, rang me on Friday. He had read the Transform blog critique on last weekend's IOS cannabis 'apology' and wanted a response for this weeks 'Great Debate' follow up piece. This is what I sent in:

"The IOS makes the mistake of confusing their legitimate concern with the health impacts of cannabis misuse amongst a small group vulnerable young people, with support for the failed ideological policy of prohibition. Rather than supporting an evidence-led regulatory response based on public health and harm reduction principles, they advocate a policy that has not only failed to address the problems they describe (and has arguably created many of them), but also one that offers no prospect of sorting them out. The blanket criminalisation of millions of non-problematic occasional users that the IOS has now re-stated its support for, cannot be justified on the basis of a relatively tiny vulnerable population, especially of teenage heavy users, who have serious problems with the drug (even if this group has grown proportionally with the overall population of users over the last three decades). This is akin to prohibiting cars because of a small population of teenage joy-riders.

Cannabis use undoubtedly involves risk, as does all drug use, legal or illegal. But these risks have been well documented and well understood for generations. The debate around our response to cannabis use is not well served by hype and misrepresentation of statistics on potency, impact on mental health, or treatment and addiction – all of which last week’s IOS coverage was guilty of. This was scaremongering in the cause of an attention grabbing headline, very much in the pattern of many previous cannabis scares and precisely the sort of moral-panic the recent RSA report criticised for historically distorting policy priorities. The IOS also perpetuate the misunderstanding that the cause of cannabis law reform is predicated on the fact that cannabis is harmless. On the contrary – the exact opposite is true: Is precisely because drugs are dangerous that the need to be appropriately regulated and controlled by the State rather than be left in the hands unregulated criminal profiteers. This remains true however harmful a particular drug is shown to be.”
Whilst they have printed some..Full Blog....

Greek drug agents fight uphill battle on border smuggling
Monstersandcritics.com
March 22nd 2007

Ioannina, Greece - Sitting in an unmarked car a few metres away from the Greek-Albanian border, the head of Ioannina's narcotics police spots a driver behind the wheel of a silver Mercedes moving past customs officials at the entry point at Kakavia. Speaking into his two-way radio he alerts his fellow anti-drug officers stationed nearby to move into action.
'We have received a tip from one of our informants that something big will be coming through here from Albania in the next few days so we are not taking any chances,' says the Greek officer, who asked that his identity be withheld.
Within a matter of seconds, drug officials begin tailing the foreign-plated Mercedes through the remote mountainous hills of north-western Greece and quickly close in on the suspect as he approaches a roadblock on the outskirts of the city of Ioannina.

Forcing the car to the side of the road, drug officers armed with hand-guns and sporting bullet-proof vests, order the man out of the vehicle and sniffer dogs are immediately called in to conduct a thorough search.
'Every day there is a huge line of cars at the Greek-Albania crossing point - this makes it almost impossible for customs officials to do a proper check of all the cars coming into Greece because people are constantly finding new ways to hide drugs - so this is where we take over,' says the narcotics agent, who often goes undercover as a buyer.

With a 125-kilometre border that continues to be difficult to patrol, Albania, with its poverty, anarchy and hard-to-reach hills has flourished in recent years into one of the biggest exporters of drugs, mainly cannabis, into Greece and the rest of Europe.
Given its geographical position, Greece lies at the crossroads between countries that produce illegal substances and the markets that consume them.
'Large quantities of cannabis are smuggled every year into Greece and Italy from Albania which over recent years has become a major source country,' says Athanasios Palaiopanos, Ioannina police chief. 'Trafficking is controlled by Albanian organized crime groups that co-operate closely with Greek nationals.'

In 2005, Greek law enforcement agencies seized 8 tons of cannabis, up from 4.2 tons the year before, the majority of which originated in Albania. Cannabis is normally transported by foot or vehicle from Albania to Greece across the border through unguarded or steep paths or by speedboat. There have also been cases where drug smugglers used donkeys without riders to transport goods across the border.

'We just had a recent case where we confiscated 120 kilos of cannabis which was transported using mules from Albania over a mountain into Greece. The mules made their way to a remote area where the drug smugglers were waiting to unload the goods,' says the narcotics agent, who is responsible for monitoring five main points along the border.
Apart from cannabis, both Greece and Italy are increasingly affected by the trafficking of heroin which enters the country via Albania or from the Evros area in north-eastern Greece.

'Greece forms part of a southern Balkan axis and this is one of the main axes for transporting heroin from Afghanistan and other Asian opium producers to Europe. The drugs reach Turkey, then Greece and Italy where they are distributed to other European countries,' said Palaiopanos. 'The drugs are purchased cheaply in Turkey and the profits to be made are huge.'
Greek authorities insist that many parts of Albania, which are either beyond the control of authorities or are embedded with corruption, serve as an easy access route for heroin to make its way from Turkey and then for it to be transported into Greece.

Situated just 15 minutes from the Greek-Albanian border, the remote southern Albanian village of Lazarat is known as a drug traffickers' haven despite a recent clamping down on cannabis cultivation by Prime Minister Sali Berisha. Lazarat residents have become beholden to smugglers whose activities pump cash into the community, and in 2004 villagers reportedly shot at an Italian drug-spotting helicopter as it tried to photograph marijuana fields. 'The drug smugglers own the place and walk around the town with automatic machine guns. For many years the area was a no-go zone for Albanian police and in many ways still is,' says another undercover officer.

'These drug trafficking rings are big and the village is only a stone's throw away from the Greek border,' he adds.
While Greek and Albanian police chiefs have met on several occasions to discuss issues concerning organized crime as well as drugs and arms' trafficking, the problem will likely not fade unless Albania commits itself to meeting European Union regulations.
'In almost every case the drug smuggler that we encounter, whether he enters the country on foot or by car, will be armed with either a rifle or a hand grenade,' says the head of the narcotics police.
'In many cases, drug traffickers are more afraid of being killed and having their stuff taken away than being caught by police,' he says. 'It seems dirt can only be fought with dirt.'

UN warns of looming social crisis
Eastandard.net
March 19th 2007

Kenya is slowly becoming a country of drug abusers. It is now easier to obtain drugs on the streets, and a United Nations (UN) report has warned that a "spillover effect" of drugs being trafficked through Kenya and other African countries could cause a social crisis.
The report, by the UN’s International Narcotics Control Board names Nairobi as a hub for trafficking of cocaine and heroin and urges action and increased surveillance at airports. The effect of drugs on people and families is demonstrated by a shockingly high number of patients seeking treatment following mental imbalance after drug abuse. The report says more than 7,000 drug abusers made use of one outreach project in just a year. More than half of them were referred for voluntary counselling and testing, says the INCB’s annual report for last year, released two weeks ago.
It also shows how easy it is to obtain drugs. When we set out to investigate, it cost us just Sh20 to buy a roll of bhang (cannabis), which is cited in the report as the biggest challenge for anti-abuse campaigners and law enforcers across Africa., Full Crisis....

Macedonian border police seize cannabis on border with Greece
News2020.com
March 16th 2007

Skopje. The Macedonian border police have detained last night two illegal immigrants on the border with Greece smuggling 5 kg of cannabis, the correspondent of Focus Agency in Skopje reports.
The Interior Ministry announced the two were noticed in the region of Star Dojran where they tried to illegally cross the border. The police found 5 kg of cannabis, packed in 5 packages.

Police launch anti-drugs programme in schools
Caymannetnews.com
March 16th 2007

The 2007 Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) programme has kicked off in all primary schools across the Cayman Islands and it is hoped that, throughout the year, hundreds of children will benefit from the training.
Neighbourhood Policing Officer, PC Rob Stewart is delivering his first DARE course on Cayman Brac after qualifying as an instructor at the National Air Guard Base in Minnesota.
“I have been assisting with DARE for a while and have now begun teaching the course to a class of 16 children at Spot Bay School,” he said, adding, “I really enjoy teaching the course and take great pride in knowing I am helping young people learn about the dangers of drugs and alcohol.”
PC Stewart has also asked the DARE Headquarters in the USA to recognise his newly formed Little Cayman class as the smallest group ever to be taught under the programme. “We have two pupils in the class on Little Cayman and I am pretty sure there has never been a class so small,” he explained, Full Programm...

Cruise ship crew arrested for cannabis
Antiguasun.com
March 14th 2007

Two Ukrainians are now in police custody after being arrested last Friday for possession of cannabis. The two, Shshchuk Igor, 26, and 28-year-old Shumouyah Ruslan were passengers on board the Carnival Destiny, which had docked in St. John’s on Friday. The men, who had disembarked the ship and were touring the city, were arrested after being found with the illegal drug. They are expected to make an appearance before a St. John’s Magistrate.

'a tonne of cannabis in south-west Western Australia'
Abc.net.au
March 13th 2007

2 men will face court over the seizure of more than a tonne of cannabis in south-west Western Australia. Police estimate the haul is worth more than a million dollars. A police aircraft was used to find the plants, which were in 15 different locations in state forest at Nannup, Augusta and Margaret River. A 52-year-old man and a 48-year-old man have been charged with cultivating cannabis with intent to sell and supply. The 52-year-old has also been charged with possessing cannabis and will appear in court later this month.

I am sick of these low-lifes stealing my things
Smh.com.au
March 10th 2007

A 75 year old New Zealand woman rang police to report a theft of cannabis plants she had been growing in buckets at her North Island home, local media reported today.
The crying woman told a constable at the police station in the city of Napier the plant theft was the fourth from her property in four years.
The woman lamented someone had again sneaked on to her property at night to steal her three carefully nurtured marijuana plants.
"I am a good person. I am sick of these low-lifes stealing my things," the unnamed woman told a police communications officer.
Senior Sergeant Mal Lochrie told local media late today the officer found it hard to stop smiling as the woman gave details of the theft over the phone. A community constable who visited her to take details of the theft had also warned her that her horticultural pursuits could have legal consequences, Snr Sgt Lochrie said. Police had decided no action would be taken against the gardener, he said.

'amphetamines, daggers, swords, fake handguns'
Yourguide.com.au
March 10th 2007

A Kangaroo Flat man charged with drug trafficking after this week's raids was yesterday bailed.
Nicholas Ferrari, 49, was arrested on Thursday after police seized about 60 grams of amphetamines, daggers, swords, fake handguns and other property when they swooped on his Mockridge Drive address. Ferrari is charged with 13 offences including trafficking amphetamines, possessing amphetamines and possessing prohibited weapons. He was remanded in custody on Thursday, before making a bail application yesterday in the Bendigo Magistrates Court. The application was not opposed by the prosecution. Magistrate Richard Wright bailed Ferrari until April 3. Bail conditions include that he report to Bendigo police station twice a week, abstain from the use of illicit drugs and not contact prosecution witnesses or co-accused, Full Stash...

'cannabis weighing about 10 quintals'
Dnaindia.com
March 10th 2007

A huge cache of cannabis weighing about 10 quintals was unearthed by police during a raid today on a house on the city's outskirts. The raid was carried out after four days of surveillance by sleuths of the anti-narcotics department engaged in an intensive combing operation in and around the city in the wake of the busting of a rave party on March four. Around 280 youths, including girls, were nabbed at the party for drug consumption. When police reached the house-cum-godown on the bank of a canal in Hadapsar, it was found abandoned by the peddlers, Deputy Commissioner of Police (anti-narcotics) Sunil Phulari said. The market price of the haul, according to a preliminary estimate, was put at least Rs 10 lakhs, he said. No arrests have been made in this connection, Phulari said.

40 Kgs at the port of Turku
Newsroom.finland.fi
March 10th 2007

Helsinki police said Thursday they had seized 40 kilogrammes of hashish at the port of Turku in early February. The drugs were found in a stash built in the place of the backseat of an estate driven by a Dutch man. "In Finland's scale, we are talking about a sizeable shipment," Inspector Juha Piippo told the Finnish News Agency (STT). Earlier in the week, Finnish police announced they had seized 30kg of hashish in Sipoo in what reportedly was the biggest cache discovered last year. Inspector Piippo said the cannabis seized from the Dutchman had been bound for the capital region's market, adding the Helsinki street value was at least 250,000 euros. "It goes without saying that a seizure of this quantity will be seen on the street for quite some time." The Dutch national, 60, is held suspected of an aggravated drug offence and will in due course face the charge before the Turku district court.

.: The News from Drug Policy Central

Stop the Drug War (DRCNet) - Politics Outside US

Press Release: Mexican President Proposes Decriminalizing Small Amounts of Drugs

For Immediate Release: October 3, 2008
For More Info: Tony Newman (646)335-5384 or Ethan Nadelmann (646)335-2240

Mexican President Proposes Decriminalizing Small Amounts of Some Drugs, Including Marijuana and Cocaine despite U.S. Opposition

New Law Would Prioritize Going after Major Drug Dealers and Violent Crime, not People who Use Drugs

International Drug Policy Expert Ethan Nadelmann Available for Comment on Significance and Impact of Proposal

President Felipe Calderon on Thursday proposed decriminalizing small amounts of some drugs, including cocaine and marijuana. The legislation would offer treatment instead of incarceration for people who are struggling with drug addiction. A recent survey found that the number of Mexicans addicted to drugs doubled in the past six years to more than 300,000.

President Calderon has made a crackdown on Mexico?s drug cartels a cornerstone of his administration since taking office. He has sent 30,000 troops around the country to try to stop the violence. But armed attacks and executions have only increased with more than 3,000 people dying from violence related to drug prohibition this year alone.

The United States is already criticizing the new proposal. One official who did not want to be identified said they oppose the policy because it ?rewards the drug traffickers and doesn?t make children?s lives safer.? Mexico?s Congress passed a similar decriminalization bill in 2006, but the bill was eventually dropped because of U.S. opposition and pressure.

Statement from Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance (see description below).

?President Calderon?s proposal to decriminalize personal possession of illicit drugs is consistent with the broader trend throughout Western Europe, Canada and other parts of Latin America to stop treating drug use and possession as a criminal problem. But it contrasts sharply with the United States, where arrests for marijuana possession hit a record high last year ? roughly 800,000 annually ? and now represent nearly half of all drug arrests nationwide.

?Mexico is trying to make the right choices on law enforcement priorities; it?s time for the United States to do the same,? said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

?The White House Drug Czar John P. Walters should think twice before criticizing a foreign government for its drug policy, much less holding the United States out as a model. Looking to the United States as a role model for drug control is like looking to apartheid South Africa for how to deal with race. This country leads the world in per-capita incarceration rates, with less than five percent of the world?s population but almost 25 percent of the world?s prisoners. About 500,000 people are in U.S. prisons and jails today simply for violating a drug law; that's almost 10 times the total in 1980,? said Nadelmann.

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Faced with a mounting death toll in his war with powerful drug trafficking organizations, Mexico President Felipe Calderon has moved to decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs, according to a Reuters report Thursday afternoon. The only other source reporting the news Thursday evening was the Mexican news agency Notimex.

The measure comes as part of a public security proposal aimed at combating the traffickers with better coordination among security forces. But Calderon's moving to decriminalize drugs was a surprise move. His predecessor, Vicente Fox, sent a similar bill to congress in 2006, only to pull it in the face of pressure from the US and critics in both countries who said it would create "drug tourism."

Under the proposed legislation, people carrying up to 2 grams (0.07 ounces) of marijuana or opium, half a gram of cocaine, 50 milligrams of heroin or 40 milligrams of methamphetamine would not face criminal charges -- if they voluntarily agreed to undergo medical treatment "for their pharmaco-dependency." Those amounts are considered "for immediate personal consumption."

"What we are seeking is to not treat an addict as a criminal, but rather as a sick person and give them psychological and medical treatment," said Sen. Alejandro Gonzalez, head of the Senate's justice committee.

People caught possessing up to a thousand times the personal dose units (about 4 ½ pounds of pot, a bit more than a pound of cocaine, or about two ounces of heroin or speed) would face criminal charges as drug possessors by the Common Public Ministry (or local courts). People caught possessing quantities larger than that would be treated as drug traffickers and dealt with by the Federal Public Ministry (or federal courts).

The idea is to free up police to go after the drug traffickers -- in other words, to intensify the deadly battle against the drug gangs. Prohibition-related violence has killed more than 3,000 people in Mexico this week, including nine persons whose executed bodies were found in Tijuana Thursday morning, making a total of 33 people killed in the last four days.

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While most Americans are keeping a close eye on the November 4 elections here, Canadians will also be heading to the polls in a national election later this month. Conservative Prime Minister Steven Harper hopes to see his minority government become a majority one, while the opposition Liberals and New Democratic Party (NDP) dream of winning enough parliamentary seats to form a governing alliance, and the third-tier Green Party hopes to actually win some seats.

Conservative Party leaflet demonizing drug users Recent Canadian opinion polls consistently show the Tories pulling down nearly 40% of the popular vote, the Liberals at around 25%, the NDP at around 18%, the Greens at about 9%, and the Bloc Quebecois at about 8%. How that will translate into parliamentary seats remains to be seen, but the Conservatives appear poised to retain control of the federal government. The good news is that they aren't doing it on the basis of their drug policies.

While earlier in this decade, Canada had been a hot-bed of drug reform, that issue is playing little role in this election, and to the degree that it has been part of the campaign, it has been largely negative. The formerly governing Liberals, who only a few years ago were calling for marijuana decriminalization, have retreated into silence and the Conservatives have been sparing in trying to advance their prohibitionist agenda during the campaign, although they have launched some broadsides at Insite, the Vancouver safe injection site, and they have run at least one series of campaign ads calling for the rounding up of "junkies" for treatment or imprisonment.

The NDP, which has officially embraced marijuana regulation in the past, no longer mentions it on its campaign web site issues page, but the Green Party calls openly for marijuana legalization and a harm reduction approach to other drugs. (Green Party leader Elizabeth May has publicly apologized for not having smoked pot.)

"Drug policy hasn't played much of a role in the campaign," said Eugene Oscapella, head of the Ottawa-based Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy, noting that, as in the US, the state of the economy is overshadowing all other issues. "Harper has railed about getting tough on young offenders, but there really hasn't been a lot of talk about drug policy."

But a convincing Conservative victory could herald a renewed push to get tough on drug offenses, Oscapella said. "They introduced a bill to toughen up drug penalties, including some mandatory minimum sentences, and if they win a majority, they will go ahead full steam with that. The Tories aren't into sensible drug policy; they're into punishment," he said.

Where drug policy most prominently reared its head this campaign season was in the imbroglio over NDP Vancouver area former candidates Dana Larsen and Kirk Tousaw. Both are long-time prominent marijuana or drug law reform activists, both have associations with Marc Emery and the BC Marijuana Party, both are members of the NDP's anti-prohibitionist wing, and both were forced to resign last month as candidates after Youtube videos of past drug use surfaced. Larsen was also lambasted for his part ownership of a shop that sold various seeds, including those for coca plants.

Tousaw declined to comment on the affair until after the election, but Larsen, a former editor of Cannabis Culture magazine, was less reticent. He was not bitter, he said.

"My resignation was a strategic political decision in consultation with the party," said Larsen. "I could see how things were going -- continuing my candidacy would make it more difficult for the NDP in the election. I'm a former leader of the BC Marijuana Party, I've smoked pot all my life, and I've been quite open about it, but I'm not sure my friends in the NDP were aware of all the things I've done over my career. I didn't want to see [NDP leader] Jack Layton have to spend his time defending a candidate who sold 'cocaine plants' or who apparently drove while smoking pot," he explained.

"My store sold coca seeds, and while we know that the coca plant has a long history of beneficial traditional use that goes back thousands of years, I don't know that the public is ready for a candidate who sold 'cocaine plants.' If I stayed in, I would end up hurting more than helping the NDP," Larsen said.

Larsen said he had learned a lesson in hardball politics. "I should have released all of that stuff to the media on a busy news day when I first became a candidate," he said. "By the time the election came around, nobody would have cared. But it was all released the same day by my opponents. I got outmaneuvered," he observed.

"I remain a loyal member of the NDP; it is by far the best political option for the drug reform movement in Canada," said Larsen. "The NDP has a platform of taxing and regulating marijuana and ending the war on drugs. A lot of people in the drug reform and marijuana community are all excited thinking the NDP did me wrong, but I don't feel that's the case at all. If they really support drug reform, they should stick with the NDP, or work with another party that also supports it."

Although the Greens are now officially more progressive on drug policy issues, the NDP remains the best place for drug reformers, Larsen argued. "While the Greens have a great marijuana policy, and that might help push other parties to adopt those ideas, the Greens are not going to elect anybody," said Larsen. "Will the Greens do a better job than [NDP Vancouver East MP and ardent drug reformer] Libby Davies? Part of being an MP is being a member of a party team."

And, he said, there was a silver lining. "This has certainly heightened my profile," he laughed. "I got a lot of support and almost no negative comments. I'll continue to go to NDP conventions, and now people will recognize who I am."

"I can understand the NDP's concern over Dana Larsen," said Oscapella. "Driving while smoking pot and taking hits of LSD and posting that stuff on Youtube doesn't look good, and the NDP would have found itself in the position of having to make clear it doesn't support drug use, just sensible drug policies. It would take a lot of explaining to undo the potential damage."

Still, said Oscapella, the NDP remains a good bet for people interested in drug reform. "I don't think at all they're moving away from sensible drug policies," he said. "While the optics of getting elected may make them want to make this low-profile, they have too many good people like Libby Davies who are very good on drug reform. If you raise the drug reform flag during an election, you risk getting shot at."

Since the Conservatives came to power, the politics of marijuana and drug reform has gone in the wrong direction, said Oscapella. "The Conservatives have gone absolutely backwards on marijuana. They want nothing to do with any liberalization, but they do want to increase penalties on what they call major criminals, including some marijuana offenders," he noted.

Canadian Parliament, Ottawa (courtesy Library of Parliament) "The Greens' drug policy is the most open and sensible of any of the parties, but the NDP is also actually pretty good," said Oscapella. "The Greens are up front about it; they say legalize it, embrace harm reduction for other drugs, and move toward a regulatory model."

Both the Greens and the NDP have performed better on drug policy than the Liberals, said Oscapella. "The Liberals a few years ago were talking about decriminalization, but then they backed away from that and said they would just reduce penalties, perhaps because of political pressure from Washington," said Oscapella. "But that never passed, and I haven't heard a peep out of the Liberals about that since."

Though mostly under the radar, drug war politics did make it into some electioneering pamphlets produced by the Harper campaign and mailed to voters by Conservative candidates around the country, reading "Junkies and pushers don't belong near children and families. They belong in rehab or behind bars."

Terry McKinney, a Vancouver resident and activist, received the pamphlets and was not happy. "I wanted to sue the bastards for attacking my human rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights," he said.

McKinney clarified, "the first pamphlet was a direct attack aimed at anyone using drugs and their (addicts) total lack of humanity." It was followed by "several more attacking addicts, drug use, juvenile crime, you get the picture," he said.

"These people claim to be born again Christians," McKinney continued, "but all you ever hear from them is the moral dogma. There is no trace of compassion,caring or sympathy for their fellow man. As a person with addiction issues for almost 40 years, I have never seen such a rejection of research and science for purely personal religious beliefs in a ruling party."

Canadian voters go to the polls in less than two weeks. A Conservative majority government would be bad news for drug reform, a Liberal-NDP government might take some steps in the direction of reform, but for this election cycle at least it looks like drug reform is on the sidelines.

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Smoking marijuana is less harmful than smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol, said the British think-thank the Beckley Foundation in a report announced Thursday. (The report is not online -- it will be published by Oxford University Press -- but see the foundation's Cannabis Commission web page for its outlines.)

"Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," said the report. "Many of the harms associated with cannabis use are the result of prohibition itself, particularly the social harms arising from arrest and imprisonment," it said.

The report comes as the British government is moving to reschedule marijuana from a Class C drug to a more heavily-punished Class B drug. British officials have expressed great concern over the potency of marijuana, especially "skunk," which is apparently their generic name for any high-potency, home-grown weed, and its links to mental health problems in some users.

Rescheduling marijuana is the wrong way to go, said the foundation. "It is only through a regulated market that we can better protect young people from the ever more potent forms of dope," it said.

Now, we will see if the British government pays any attention. So far, it has resolutely ignored repeated reports finding that marijuana should be a Class C drug, or even legalized and regulated.

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As Mexican President Felipe Calderón's war on drug trafficking organizations nears the two-year mark and the violence shows no sign of letting up, a new BBC World Service poll shows that Mexicans are increasingly concerned and preoccupied by the toll the drug trade and the drug war is having on their daily lives. Nearly 6,000 people, including hundreds of police officers and soldiers, have been killed since Calderón enlisted the military in the drug war in 2006, and the numbers are higher this year than last.

Mexican anti-drug patrol Given the upsurge in violence in what is only the latest chapter of the quarter-century struggle against drug trafficking organizations enriched by the flow of Colombian cocaine beginning in the early 1980s -- an unintended consequence of the Reagan administration's crackdown on Caribbean drug trafficking routes -- a healthy number of Mexicans now say they favor legalizing drugs. Some 44% said legalize them, while 46% said no.

But in a sign that wishful thinking about drug policy is not limited to north of the border, 58% said they thought the war on drugs could be won. An even higher number -- 68% -- approved of Calderón's use of the military to fight drug traffickers. Still, 80% said the government should consider alternative policies.

Support for the drug war is driven by fear and public safety concerns. Nearly half (42%) of poll respondents said they felt less safe than last year, while only 10% said they felt safer. More than one-third (37%) of respondents said the influence of the drug cartels had made them think about emigrating. Drug trafficking ranked above worries about the economy, general crime, education and social inequality, with 20% of respondents listing it as their main concern. Only concern about corruption, listed by 28% as their primary worry, came in higher, and corruption and the black market drug trade are inextricably intertwined.

With some 3,000 drug war deaths reported so far this year, or an average of more than 300 a month, the prohibition-related violence in Mexico is reaching levels generally associated with war zones. By way of comparison, Iraq Body Count, a nonprofit organization monitoring violence in Iraq, put the civilian death toll there in July at 460. Human Rights Watch put the number of civilian deaths in Afghanistan during the first eight months of this year at 540.

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[Courtesy of The European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies]

At http://www.encod.org/info/EU-COMMISSION-ANNOUNCES-NEW-ACTION.html you can now find all versions of the new EU Action Plan on Drugs.

The five main priorities of the new Action Plan include reducing the demand for drugs and raising public awareness, mobilising European citizens, reducing the supply of drugs, improving international cooperation and facilitating a better understanding of the drug phenomenon.

Actions proposed include measures to improve the quality, availability and coverage of treatment and harm reduction programmes for drug users and the establishment of intelligence-led police and customs operations to counter large-scale organised crime groups both in the EU and on the drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan and Latin America.

The EU Drugs Action Plan 2009-2012 will be presented to the Council and is expected to be adopted before the end of the year.

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Despite having nearly a million heroin addicts, with HIV spreading rapidly through that population, Russia's government has very tragically said no to methadone maintenance. According to a short video posted by the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU), 80% of all new HIV cases in Russia are due to needle sharing by injection drug users.

Check out the video here:

Check out HCLU here.

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Ayurvedic medicine has been practiced for thousands of years in South Asia, but it many of its preparations, which include marijuana, conflict with modern proscriptions against the herb. Now, the Sri Lankan Ministry of Indigenous Medicine and its Department of Ayurvedha are seeking to resolve that conflict.

ayurvedic herbal garden (ayurveda.gov.lk) On Monday, the ministry announced it needs 20 acres of land to cultivate marijuana for use in a number of ayurvedic medications. The ministry has forwarded a cabinet paper seeking permission for the medicinal marijuana garden. It is also discussing the possible grow with the Dangerous Drugs Board.

"We have to consider the security side of cultivating cannabis even if it is for medicinal purposes. People are sure to misuse the permission granted to cultivate the psychoactive drug," said Minister for Indigenous Medicine Asoka Malimage. "It is required to prepare ayurvedic medicines such as Madana Modaka and several other drugs," he said. "We have to address the matter with care."

Malimage said he would consult with his homologues in India about how their program works. India already allows the cultivation of marijuana for ayurvedic preparations.

Ayurvedha Commissioner Ramani Gunawardhana said Sri Lanka needs about 12,000 pounds of marijuana to supply its traditional medicinal needs. He added that the program currently gets most of its marijuana from crops seized by the courts when illegal cultivators are arrested. But the seized pot is often withered and dried and has lost its therapeutic qualities, thus the need for authorized cultivation.

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The Dutch Supreme Court Tuesday upheld an appeals court ruling allowing a patient suffering from multiple sclerosis to grow marijuana for therapeutic purposes. The high court found that while marijuana cultivation is illegal in Holland, patients could use what amounts to a medical necessity defense to avoid prosecution.

California medical marijuana bags (courtesy Daniel Argo via Wikimedia) "An illegal scheme can be justified when committed out of necessity," the court ruled. In the case of the patient, the "exceptional circumstances" of his illness could get him out from under Dutch cannabis cultivation laws. "The state of necessity is established," the court held.

The court upheld an October 2006 ruling in the case of MS sufferer Wim Moorlag and his wife, Klasiena Hooijers, that the couple could grow marijuana for use in alleviating his illness. In trial court, the pair had been convicted of marijuana cultivation and fined $350. But the conservative Dutch government challenged the appeals court ruling, saying it set a precedent that could endanger the country's tolerant approach to marijuana.

Moorlag and his wife argued that they needed to grow their own because marijuana available in Holland's famous coffeeshops could contain fungi and bacteria harmful to MS sufferers.

It is not clear what impact the decision will have on other Dutch medical marijuana patients. But after the 2006 appeals court ruling, Moorlag's lawyer said the decision meant that other patients, such as people with AIDS, would also be able to legally grow their own medicine.

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Brazilian police are responsible for a large number of the 48,000 murders committed in that country each year, the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions said in a report issued late last month. Not only do police routinely resort to deadly violence in the course of their work, they also moonlight as death squad killers for a variety of entities, including drug gangs, said Special Rapporteur Philip Alston.

"In Rio de Janeiro, the police kill three people every day," Alston reported. "They are responsible for one out of five killings," he added in a Monday press statement.

Alston's report came after a fact-finding trip to Brazil last year. While there, Alston met with government officials, including police commanders and senior ministers, as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and over 40 witnesses to human rights abuses.

Brazil's murder rate is among the world's highest, and police vigilantism has played a role for years. Police regularly engage in massive sweeps of poor slum neighborhoods, where drug gangs -- the notorious "commandos" -- often have strong influence or even outright control. Alston was particularly critical of the sweeps, or "mega-operations," which have grown increasingly frequent in Rio de Janeiro.

The report examined one such sweep, a June 2007 operation in Complexo do Alemão. In that sweep, more than 1,450 police attacked the slum, killing 19 people, with independent experts concluding that many of the dead had been executed. But for all the violence, police seized only two machine guns, six pistols, one sub-machine gun, and 300 kilos of drugs.

"Local officials claim that these impressive sounding mega-operations are protecting residents from drug gangs, but the operations have hurt ordinary people far more than they have hurt the drug gangs," Alston said.

The report said there has been little or no outcry over police violence in Brazil because people are skeptical that traditional law enforcement measures are working against the drug gangs. But police death squads have also been implicated in the killings of criminal suspects, the homeless, and even street children, with little outcry.

Police criminality in Brazil extends beyond the job, said Alson. "A remarkable number of police lead double lives. While on duty, they fight the drug gangs, but on their days off, they work as foot soldiers of organized crime," he said. "Clearly, the institutions for holding police accountable are broke, but they are not beyond repair. My hope is that the detailed recommendations in my report will provide a starting point for undertaking the necessary reforms."

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