.: 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

Latin America: Obama Administration Declines to Restore Bolivian Trade Prefer...

President Barack Obama has declined to restore trade benefits under the Andean Trade Preference Act to Bolivia, citing the Bolivian government's acceptance of coca growing. The decision came in a Tuesday report from the office of the US Trade Representative.

coca leaves drying by highway, Chapare area of Bolivia The report also complained about Bolivian nationalization of the hydrocarbon sector and increases in tariffs, but it was the pro-coca policies of the government of President Evo Morales that drew the sharpest language. Even while acknowledging that the Bolivian government continues to undertake significant interdiction efforts against the cocaine trade, the report criticized Bolivia for failing to adhere to US demands to decrease coca cultivation and for expelling the DEA from the country last fall.

Since assuming the presidency, Morales has dramatically changed Bolivian drug policy from "zero coca" to "zero cocaine, not zero coca." Coca production has seen slight annual increases under Morales, but Bolivia remains only the third largest coca and cocaine producer, behind Colombia and Peru.

"The current challenges include the explicit acceptance and encouragement of coca production at the highest levels of the Bolivian government; government tolerance of and attractive income from increased and unconstrained coca cultivation in both the Yungas and Chapare regions; and increased and uncontrolled sale of coca to drug traffickers," the report scolded. "The efficiency and success of eradication efforts have significantly declined in the past few years."

Tensions between La Paz and Washington have been high in recent years as Morales has defended the use and cultivation of coca and expelled US diplomats after accusing them of intervening in Bolivian internal affairs. Bolivia's close relationship with Venezuela under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez hasn't helped, either.

And this won't help, either. President Morales reacted angrily Wednesday, saying the move contradicted Obama's vow to treat Latin America countries as equals. "President Obama lied to Latin America when he told us in Trinidad and Tobago that there are not senior and junior partners," he told reporters. The report, he added, used "pure lies and insults" to justify its decision.

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Portugal has been the subject of a lot of attention lately over its decriminalization of drug possession. Although decriminalization has been in place for eight years now, it is only this year that it has caught the world's attention. The success of Portugal's approach was the subject of a piece by Salon writer Glenn Greenwald commissioned by the Cato Institute that was widely read and commented on earlier this year, and last week it earned kind words from a most unexpected place: the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which could find little to complain about for its 2009 World Drugs Report.

But Portugal isn't resting on its laurels, and at least one political party there is preparing to take the country's progressive approach to drug reform to the next level. The Leftist Bloc (Bloco de Esquerda) is preparing legislation that would legalize the possession, cultivation, and retail sales of small amounts of marijuana, as well as providing for regulated wholesale cultivation to supply the retail market.

The Bloc is also now actively encouraging the participation of ENCOD, the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies, in developing new drug laws. The alliance comes too late to influence the marijuana bill, but will provide an entree for drug reformers in the process in future drug legislation, or even revising the current marijuana bill if it does not make in through parliament this year.

"The contacts between ENCOD and the Bloc were arranged by common activists and members," explained ENCOD steering committee member and Portuguese law student, journalist, and activist Jorge Roque.

Under the draft bill, a copy of which was made available to the Chronicle, marijuana consumers could purchase "the amount needed for the average individual for a 30-day period," as determined by the existing decriminalization law, or 15 grams of hashish and 75 grams (almost three ounces) of marijuana. The average daily dose is a half-gram of hash and 2.5 grams of pot. Individuals would be allowed to grow up to 10 plants, and could possess the 30-day amount as well as up to 10 plants.

The draft bill calls for licensed retail sales outlets authorized by municipal councils. Such retail establishments would not be allowed to sell alcohol or allow it to be consumed on the premises, would not be allowed within 500 meters of schools, and would not be allowed to have gambling machines. No one under 16 would be allowed to enter, nor would people adjudged to be mentally ill.

The draft bill prohibits advertising, but requires that packaging for marijuana products intended for retail sale clearly reveal the source, the amount, and a statement giving the World Health Organization's position on the effects and risks of consumption.

The bill also provides for the Portuguese National Institute of Pharmacy and Medicine to license the wholesale cultivation of marijuana to supply the retail trade. And it provides for an excise tax on cannabis sales to be determined during the budgetary process.

People who traffic in marijuana outside the parameters set down in the draft would face four to 12 years in prison for serious offenses, and up to four years for less serious offenses. Licensed retailers or wholesalers who breach the regulations could face imprisonment for up to three months or a fine of up to 30 days' minimum wage.

The bill's immediate prospects are uncertain. The Leftist Bloc is a small party, holding only eight seats in the 230-seat parliament. But the government is controlled by left-leaning parties, and the Bloc has a reputation as a "hip" party in the vanguard of political change in the country.

"Honestly, at first I thought this would never pass, but with time and after discussing this with the deputies, I am much more optimistic," said Roque. "Of course, the Left Bloc alone cannot get it passed, but as usual, they provoke the debate of ideas, and then, since they are seen as an intelligent and humane group, they can pick up support among other political parties."

While it is too late for ENCOD to influence this legislation, the group can still play a role in the debate, said ENCOD coordinator Joep Oomen. "ENCOD could contribute with information on the need to make consistent moves and no half-measures, as has been the case before with the decriminalization of possession. Portugal should learn from the experiences in the Netherlands. Here liberal cannabis policies that have proven successful during more than 30 years are now in danger of being abolished because of the pressure of Christian parties who continue blaming these policies for problems that in fact are caused by prohibition," he said.

Oomen was alluding to Holland's "backdoor problem," where the sale of marijuana is tolerated, but there is no provision for legally supplying Dutch cannabis cafes. That has led to the growth of organized crime participation in the pot business in Holland.

"It is quite simple," Oomen said. "When you allow people to use, you should allow them to possess, and if you allow them to possess, you should allow them to cultivate, produce, buy or sell. If you only go halfway, and refuse to regulate the first necessary element in the process (cultivation or production) you create more problems than solutions."

For Roque, Portugal's experience with decriminalization was critical in laying the groundwork for the legalization bill. "Decriminalization helped us lose the taboos and break the fear of being persecuted for drugs, and Portugal nowadays is much more ready to move forward," said Roque.

One big remaining taboo is the UN drug conventions, but neither Oomen nor Roque appeared to be very concerned about them. "Portugal does not need to openly challenge the UN conventions," said Oomen. "As long as the new bill is aiming at regulating cultivation of cannabis for personal use, it cannot be considered as a violation of international conventions, which leave it up to national authorities to deal with the status of drug use."

Roque was a bit more combative. "The international conventions and the Lisbon treaty don't provide solutions in these matters, and the UN conventions were ratified by the specific will of one country," said Roque. "When the UN conventions don't present any solutions that are good for the national interest, only a stupid country will follow them forever."

Now, Portugal can put the conventions and their interpretation to the test, if its parliament so chooses.

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Gretchen Peters certainly has a sense of timing. She spent the last decade covering Afghanistan and Pakistan, first for the Associated Press and later for ABC News, and managed to bring "Seeds of Terror" to press just as the US and its NATO allies in Afghanistan begin lurching toward a new approach to drug policy there. Just this past weekend, the US announced it was giving up on trying to eradicate its way to victory over the poppy crop, and for the past few weeks, news accounts of US and NATO attacks on traffickers, opium stockpiles, and heroin labs have been coming at a steady, if not escalating, pace.

Afghan opium Peters' thesis -- that the immensely lucrative opium and heroin trade is funding the Taliban and Al Qaeda to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, which they use to wage their insurgency against the West and allies in Afghanistan -- while portrayed as stunning and shocking, is nothing new to readers of the Chronicle, or anyone else who has been following events in Afghanistan since before the 2001 US invasion.

But where "Seeds of Terror" shines is in its unparalleled detail and depth of knowledge of the drug trade, the Taliban/Al Qaeda insurgency, the Pakistan connection, and the intricate and complicated linkages between the actors. With access to government and security officials from the US, as well as Pakistan and Afghanistan, and through interviews with everyone from simple famers to fighters to opium traders and even some amazingly high-up people in the international heroin trade, Peters is able to navigate and share with readers the murky, ever shifting nature of the beast.

She is especially useful in unraveling the various groupings that are simplistically referred to as "the Taliban." There is no single Taliban, Peters explains; there are rival warlords (Hekmatyar, Haqqani, Mullah Omar) running their drug empires and fighting to drive out the Westerners, their jihadist convictions clouded more each year in a haze of opium smoke and illicit profits. And then there are what are in essence criminal drug trafficking organizations. They, too, will identify themselves as Taliban for pragmatic reasons -- the intimidation factor, mainly -- but have little interest in holy war, except as it provides the chaotic cover for their underground trade.

Actually, as Peters details, the story goes back a generation further, to the last great American intervention into this Fourth World country on the other side of the planet. Then, during the Reagan-era sponsorship of the Afghan mujahedeen fighting to drive out the Soviet Red Army, millions of Afghans fled into refugee camps in Pakistan, and would-be warlords and foreign jihadis (including a young Osama bin Laden), tussled for the billions of dollars coming from Washington and doled out by Pakistani intelligence, or, alternately, from funding sources in Saudi Arabia.

Those warlords turned Pakistan, particularly the refugee-ridden Northwest Frontier territories into a leading opium producer during the 1980s, to ensure sources of funding for their armies, and secondarily, to turn as many Russian soldiers into junkies as they could. The Pakistani drug trafficking networks, including some very highly placed army and other officials, set up then are still the main conduits for the opium and heroin leaving Afghanistan today. Man, talk about your blowback.

Peters has a keen grasp of local affairs, knows how to write, and has constructed a gripping and informative narrative. But, faced with a counterinsurgency effort that has floundered, in good part because of profits from the illicit drug trade keeping the Taliban well-supplied with shiny new weapons, she cannot resist the temptation to try her own hand at recommending more effective policies. Here, unfortunately, she is decidedly conventional and unquestioning of the prohibitionist paradigm.

For example, the proposal floated by The Senlis Council in 2005 to simply buy up the poppy crop and divert it into the legitimate medical market gets remarkably short shrift. Peters devotes a mere paragraph to the plan, dismissing it as not pragmatic -- a position not universally held by experts.

Similarly, her policy prescriptions, while including such progressive developmentalist planks as alternative livelihood programs, strengthening institutions, and opening new markets for new crops, also include a call to "arrest or kill" drug kingpins, heroin lab chemists, and even mid-level traffickers. She also advocates air strikes against smuggling convoys, "smarter" counterinsurgency, and beefed up law enforcement against the "bad guys."

Peters' thinking on drug policy may be decidedly inside the box, but her contribution to our understanding of the complex nexus between the illicit drug trade in Afghanistan, local insurgencies, and global jihadi ambitions is important and chilling. This is the best layperson's guide to that nexus out there.

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Thousands of US Marines poured into Afghanistan's southern Helmand province this week to take the battle against the Taliban to the foe's stronghold. But in a startling departure from decades of US anti-drug policy, eradicating Helmand's massive opium poppy crop will not be part of their larger mission.

US envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke told members of the G-8 group of industrialized nations Saturday that attempting to quash the opium and heroin trade through eradication was counterproductive and bad policy. Instead, the US would concentrate on alternative development, security, and targeting drug labs and traffickers.

Afghan anti-drug artwork, Nejat Center, Kabul "Eradication is a waste of money," Holbrooke told the Associated Press during a break in the G-8 foreign ministers meeting on Afghanistan. "The Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure. It might destroy some acreage, but it didn't reduce the amount of money the Taliban got by one dollar. It just helped the Taliban, so we're going to phase out eradication," he said.

"The farmers are not our enemy; they're just growing a crop to make a living. It's the drug system," Holbrooke continued. "So the US policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."

The Taliban insurgents are estimated to earn tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year from the opium and heroin trade, which generates multiple streams of income for them. Taliban commanders tax poppy farmers in areas under their control, provide security for drug convoys, and sell opium and heroin through smuggling networks that reach around the globe.

As late as last year, US policymakers supported intensifying eradication efforts, with some even arguing for the aerial spraying of herbicides, as has been done with limited success, but severe political and environmental consequences in Colombia. That notion was opposed by the Afghan government of President Hamid Karzai, as well as by the US's NATO partners, particularly Britain, which supports expanded manual eradication of the poppy fields.

On Sunday, Afghan counternarcotics minister General Khodaidad disputed Holbrooke's claims that eradication was a failure, telling the Canadian Press that Afghanistan had achieved "lots of success" with its anti-drug strategy, which relies heavily on manual eradication of poppy fields. Still, he said he was open to the new American strategy. "Whatever program or strategy would be to the benefit of Afghanistan, we welcome it," Khodaidad said. "We are happy with our policy... so I'm not seeing any pause or what do you call it, deficiency, in our strategy. Our strategy's perfect. Our strategy's good."

Britain and US are at odds over opium field eradication plans. According to the London newspaper The Independent, British officials said Sunday they would continue to fund manual eradication in areas under their control. Those officials downplayed any dispute, however, saying details remained to be worked out.

But eradication has met with extremely limited success. According to the UN Office on Crime and Drugs, eradication peaked in 2003, while the Taliban were in retreat, with more than 51,000 acres destroyed. By 2007, that figure had declined to 47,000 acres, and last year, it was a measly 13,500 acres. Similarly, a survey of villages that had participated in eradication last year found that nearly half of them were growing poppy again this year.

The shift in US policy drew praise from observers across the ideological spectrum. It also aroused speculation that it could be emulated elsewhere, particularly in Latin America.

"The new counternarcotics strategy in Afghanistan which scales down eradication and emphasizes rural development and interdiction is exactly right," said Vanda Felbab-Brown, a drugs, development, and security expert with the Brookings Institution. "Under the prevailing conditions in Afghanistan, eradication has been not only ineffective; it has been counterproductive because it strengthens the bond between the rural population dependent on the illicit economy and the Taliban. Backing away from counterproductive eradication is not only a right analysis, it is also a courageous break on the part of the Obama administration with decades of failed counternarcotics strategy worldwide that centers on premature and unsustainable eradication," she added.

"This is clearly a positive, pragmatic step," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "It seems that the Obama administration is so deeply invested in succeeding in Afghanistan that they're actually willing to pursue a pragmatic drug policy. This is an intelligent move," he added. "It is an implicit recognition that you are not going to eradicate opium production in this world so long as there is a market for it. Given that Afghanistan is the dominant opium producer right now, the pragmatic strategy is to figure out how to manage that production rather than to pursue a politically destructive and ineffective crop eradication strategy."

"This administration is finally showing some pragmatism," said Malou Innocent, a foreign policy analyst for the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. "We are beginning to understand that our policies are affecting the policy outcomes we want. We didn't see this under the previous administration, so this is definitely very promising," she added.

But it doesn't necessarily mean there is light at the end of the tunnel, she was quick to add. "Sadly, this doesn't make me more optimistic about our prospects," she said. "This will win us more hearts and minds on the ground, but it also has to be linked to fewer targeted killings, fewer airstrikes that generate civilian casualties, or any good will is likely to be canceled out," she said.

Similarly, Felbab-Brown cautioned that the Obama administration must be prepared to defend the shift at home. "It is imperative that the administration lay down the political groundwork and inform Congress, the public, and the international community that it is unlikely that the new policy will result in a substantial reduction of cultivation or of the dependence on the illegal economy any time soon since rural development is a long-term process dependent on security," she said. "Setting the right expectations now is necessary so that accomplishments of the new strategy in two or three years are not interpreted as failures since the numbers of hectares cultivated with poppy has not dramatically decreased."

Nadelmann suggested that the new strategy is not likely to significantly impact the drug trade. "With the alternative measures they're proposing, such as the focus on traffickers, there's not much reason to think it will have any significant impact on Afghan opium and heroin exports, but it will enable the US, NATO, and the Afghan government to pursue a more discriminating and productive strategy, at least at the political level," he said.

"The really potentially interesting implication of this is for Latin America," said Nadelmann. "It makes one wonder if the Obama administration might come to realize that the same strategy they are pursuing for opium in Afghanistan makes sense in Latin America for coca cultivation in the Andes."

That may be premature. With analysts predicting no decrease in the poppy crop and little impact on the drug trade, in the medium term, the only political selling point for the move away from eradication will be success in defeating or significantly weakening the Taliban insurgency. That will be a difficult task, one whose success is by no means guaranteed.

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