The way to deal with drugs gangs is through their bank accounts by legalising certain drugs, Independents 4 Change TD Clare Daly told the Dail. During a debate on criminal gangs following the feud in Dublin in which seven people have been killed, she said there were "massive profits in the drug trade as a result of our policy of prohibition". The Dublin Fingal TD said legalising cannabis would develop a revenue stream for the State and would also be a "lucrative first step into the profits of many of these gangs. If we really want to deal with them, we must deal with them through their bank accounts." [continues 199 words]
BERLIN - The German government gave the go-ahead yesterday to relax rules on cannabis use by the seriously ill from early next year if they have no other treatment options. Dried cannabis flowers and cannabis extracts will be available in pharmacies on prescription and the public health system will cover the cost, according to the draft bill that is expected to come into force next year. Other countries that allow cannabis use for medical purposes include Italy and the Czech Republic. Some U.S. states have decriminalised cannabis completely. Portugal has decriminalised all drugs for personal use, but does not allow cannabis use for medical purposes. [continues 74 words]
First Minister Makes Controversial Health Announcement As She Confirms Dundee Will Get Its Own Trauma Centre Nicola Sturgeon would back decriminalising cannabis for medicinal use. The First Minister said there was a "specific case" for relaxing laws to treat people with conditions such as multiple sclerosis but reaction to her announcement split the audience of around 150 activists in Dundee's Queen's Hotel. A wide range of topics were covered in the hour long question and answer session, with the SNP leader committing to building a trauma centre in Dundee and said she would "love" to implement Frank's Law but stopped short of committing herself to a fairer care system. [continues 254 words]
Synthetic Cannabis Has 'Devastating Impact' On Jails, Says Chief Inspector Synthetic cannabis is having a "devastating impact" in British prisons and making it difficult for normal life to continue in some facilities, the chief inspector of prisons has warned. Sold as "spice" and "black mamba", synthetic cannabis has been blamed for deaths, serious illness and episodes of self-harm among prisoners. Some prison officers have reported falling ill from exposure to the fumes. High demand for the compound has fuelled more severe problems in the prison system than officers have faced from any other drug, with prisoners racking up greater debts and suffering worse bullying and violence, Peter Clarke told the Guardian. "Prison staff have told me that the effect on individuals and prisons as a whole is unlike anything they have seen before," said Clarke, who took up the post in February. [continues 674 words]
SOME things are unsayable in British politics. One such is the truth that cannabis has been, for many years, a decriminalised drug. The police, the CPS and the courts have given up any serious effort to arrest and prosecute users, just as evidence starts to pour in that it is extremely dangerous. Instead our elite moan about 'prohibition', which does not exist, and the cruel 'criminalisation' of dope-smokers, which would be their own fault if it happened, but actually doesn't. Arrests for this offence are rarer every week, and some police forces openly say they don't do it any more. [continues 211 words]
Laws on Tobacco Smoking Should Extend to Marijuana It's time to legalise marijuana, then ban it again. Here's why. The Canadian government chose April 20 to make the announcement that cannabis will be legalised next spring, in the latest progressive move by the new Liberal government. The news had been coming for a while, because it was an election pledge last year but the date was significant because it was "4-20", when weed enthusiasts get together to call for changes in the law. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government beat them to it with a morning announcement. [continues 277 words]
The Islamic State and its terrorist proxies would suffer if cannabis were decriminalized, Italy's top prosecutor argues. In a recent interview, Franco Roberti also pointed out the links between the extremist group and organized crime in his country. Roberti is Italy's anti-terrorism and anti-mafia chief, a joint portfolio that was created last year. He said decriminalizing marijuana - or even making it legal - would dent the illicit networks that profit from its sale and production. The Islamic State, in particular, gleans money off smuggling routes from parts of Libya into Europe. [continues 355 words]
Nick Clegg has accused the home secretary, Theresa May, of attempting to delete sentences from a Whitehall report after it concluded that there was no link between tough laws and levels of illegal drug use. The former deputy prime minister also said senior Conservatives, such as David Cameron and George Osborne, have failed to act on drug reform because they see the issue as a "naughty recreational secret" at Notting Hill dinner parties instead of a public health crisis. In an interview with the Guardian before a major UN conference on the global drug problem, Clegg said the Tories were failing to listen to warnings that the war on drugs had failed. [continues 638 words]
Drugs policy in the UK is not actually made in smoke-filled rooms but it might as well be. The mixture of befuddled optimism with a lack of urgency that characterises official thinking about cannabis has had dangerous results. Getting on for 50 years of prohibition, vigorously defended in principle but lackadaisically enforced in practice, have produced a situation that combines the disadvantages of tolerance and criminalisation. Two generations of parents now know that it is not as dangerous as official propaganda told them, but this leads to a reluctance to admit that the habit has any real dangers at all. That in itself is dangerous to their children. [continues 473 words]
HOW on earth did I end up on friendly terms with Howard Marks, the drug smuggler and pro-cannabis propagandist who died last week? Yet I did. You might think we would loathe each other. He stood for almost everything I am against. But not quite. He was a fierce and instinctive defender of free speech, a rare and precious quality. I learned this one long-ago evening in Blackpool, when a squawking rabble of ignorant, intolerant students succeeded in having me driven off the stage at a debate. [continues 519 words]
The president of Colombia will this week present a plan for the complete and radical overhaul of global policy towards drug trafficking and organised crime at a special session of the United Nations general assembly. Unveiling his proposals in the Observer today, Juan Manuel Santos said urgent measures were needed to bring about "a more effective, lasting and human solution" to the misery and crisis of narco-traffic. The most sensational element in Santos's presentation is the announcement that his government will - as a result of a four-year peace process soon to bear fruit as a peace treaty be implementing its own domestic struggle against narco-traffic alongside its bitter enemies, the Marxist guerillas of Farc. The group admits to having funded its war by what it calls "taxation" of narco-profits. [continues 355 words]
Juan Manuel Santos, the president of Colombia, argues that his country's narco-related violent history illustrates exactly why a global rethink on prohibition should be the key discussion at this week's UN general assembly special session on drugs How does one explain to a Colombian peasant in a rural community in the south-west of the country that he will be prosecuted under criminal charges for growing marijuana plants, while a young entrepreneur in Colorado finds his or her legal recreational marijuana business booming? [continues 1116 words]
Colombia's president, Juan Manuel Santos, arrives in New York this week with a clear message to the UN general assembly special session on drugs: the failure of the "war on drugs" to deal with the human cost of narco traffic and drug abuse. Santos's message will be: the whole policy needs to be rethought, with a different set of priorities. President Santos first called for an overhaul in policy towards drugs in an interview with this newspaper in 2011, urging that "a new approach should try and take away the violent profit that comes with drug trafficking". He has continued to drive that conversation forward with the moral authority bestowed by leading a country that was nearly destroyed by the violence and corrupting influence of cartel money on the police, judiciary and the body politic. It was close to a failed state in the late 90s and it was drugs that did that damage. [continues 194 words]
UN Meeting to Discuss Growing Drugs Problem Up to Quarter of Psychosis Cases Could Be Prevented The risks of heavy cannabis use for mental health are serious enough to warrant global public health campaigns, according to international drugs experts who said young people were particularly vulnerable. The warning from scientists in the UK, US, Europe and Australia reflects a growing consensus that frequent use of the drug can increase the risk of psychosis in vulnerable people, and comes as the UN prepares to convene the first special session on the global drugs problem since 1998. The meeting in New York next week aims to unify countries in their efforts to tackle issues around illicit drug use. [continues 1160 words]
A CHIEF constable who wants to legalise drugs has been charged with overseeing how officers tackle the menace nationwide. Mike Barton believes some Class A and B drugs should be made legal and, in some cases, handed out for free to addicts. Despite his controversial views, the officer has now been quietly elected to an influential role at the National Police Chiefs' Council (NPCC). The move provoked fury from critics who warned legalising drugs would simply create a new set of challenges. [continues 200 words]
Jamie Doward's admirable special report rightly stressed the importance of the UN general assembly special session on drugs (Ungass) to be held in New York later this month.("Is the prohibition era finally coming to an end?", News, last week). As Doward makes clear, the international drugs trade is an ongoing problem that affects all countries but reaches crisis level in producer and transit countries. It is to a very large degree the product of the well intentioned but misguided UN conventions that imposed drugs prohibition on all countries without regard for their cultures or traditions. [continues 185 words]
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, has been warned by the European Union's drugs agency that Britain's new blanket ban on so-called "legal highs" may not work. The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) said it was "unlikely" that any new regime could stem the tide of designer drugs, which emulate the effects of controlled substances such as cannabis or heroin. It comes weeks before the Government's Psychoactive Substances Act becomes law. More than 100 new legal highs were recorded by authorities last year and more than 560 are being monitored by the EMCDDA. "It is unlikely that any regulatory system can be designed to sufficiently limit the stream of new substances being manufactured without resorting to a ban on a huge range of chemicals," it said. [end]
When the Home Office decided to impose a blanket ban on synthetic drugs known as legal highs, it must have thought this would be a reasonably straightforward matter. These substances are harmful to those who take them and have been blamed by police for an upsurge in violence among young people. But drafting legislation has not proved an easy task. There was concern in the Church, for instance, that incense would be proscribed since it is capable of producing a psychoactive effect. Assurances have since been offered by ministers that vicars would not be caught up in the ban. [continues 175 words]
THERE are fears that cannabis is being legalised by the back door, after figures showed that arrests for possession have dropped by almost 50 per cent over the past five years. The number of people being charged or cautioned for having the Class B drug has also fallen significantly, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. However, data from the annual Crime Survey of England and Wales suggest that the drop in offences has not been matched by a reduction in the number of people who admit using the drug, with around 7 per cent of adults saying they regularly smoke cannabis. [continues 356 words]
The year 2008 was momentous. Lehman Brothers collapsed, Radovan Karad i was arrested, Russian troops massed on the Georgian border, and Barack Obama beat John McCain to the White House. But 2008 was also significant for something that didn't happen. It was the year that the world didn't eliminate the illicit drugs problem. This quixotic goal had been set a decade earlier at a United Nations general assembly special session when, under the vainglorious slogan "We can do it", the supranational body pledged that, by 2008, the world would be "drug free". [continues 2177 words]
Experts Urge Reversal of Policies That Have Driven Violence and Deaths An international commission of medical experts is calling for global drug decriminalisation, arguing that current policies lead to violence, deaths and the spread of disease, harming health and human rights. The commission, set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University in the US, finds that tough drugs laws have caused misery, failed to curb drug use, fuelled violent crime and spread the epidemics of HIV and hepatitis C through unsafe injecting. Publishing its report on the eve of a special session of the United Nations devoted to illegal narcotics, it urges a reversal of the repressive policies imposed by most governments. [continues 709 words]
Global Report Urges UN to Back Decriminalisation Commission Backs Move to Legal, Regulated Markets Medical experts are calling for global drug decriminalisation, arguing that current policies are leading to violence, death and the spread of disease, harming both health and human rights. The experts, working as an international commission, set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University in the US, find that tough drug laws have caused misery, failed to curb drug use, fuelled violent crime, and helped spread HIV and hepatitis C epidemics perpetuated by unsafe injecting. [continues 626 words]
A BATTLE to legalise cannabis is set to start in Parliament as Liberal Democrat MPs propose a major shake-up of the UK's drug laws. Norman Lamb wants the drug to be legalised in order to stop money going into the pockets of criminals and to prevent the lives of people who are prosecuted for possession of the substance from being "blighted" by a criminal conviction. The former LibDem health minister said: "A regulated market in the UK will take profits out of the hands of organised crime and reduce both health and social harms. "I've argued for a long time that our laws on drugs are outdated, harmful and well overdue for reform." [end]
Samples Collected at Nightclubs Can Provide Data on Which Substances Are Being Used and Where For decades, the war on drugs has been fought on fronts from the jungles of Latin America to the classroom. But now the struggle to understand the use of illegal substances has reached a new low - the nation's urinals. Scientists in charge of tracking drug use across Europe, in particular the booming use of so-called "legal highs", have put forward proposals to use samples from urinals in locations such as nightclubs and music festivals to try to work out which illicit substances are being consumed. [continues 414 words]
Progressive Plan Earns Eruption of Applause The Liberal government used its first foray into the global anti-narcotics arena this week to signal a clear shift from the war on drugs philosophy, promising more safe-injection sites, promoting "harm reduction" and touting its plan to legalize marijuana. The speech by Hilary Geller, an assistant deputy minister of health, caused a stir at the generally staid Commission on Narcotic Drugs conference in Vienna, observers said. The audience of government and non-governmental organization officials from around the world "erupted in applause" midway through the address and gave a prolonged ovation at the end, said Jason Nickerson, an Ottawa-based researcher who is attending the meeting. [continues 551 words]
Firm Says Drug Reduced Seizures in Children With Dravet Syndrome by 39 Per Cent From page 2 A British company that has been working for 18 years to find medicinal uses for marijuana has had a major breakthrough in the treatment of childhood epilepsy. Yesterday GW Pharmaceuticals, which has a licence from the Home Office to grow cannabis, announced final-stage tests on 120 children with Dravet syndrome (a type of epilepsy) had successfully reduced seizures by 39 per cent. The phase 3 trial of the drug known as Epidiolex has been extremely closely watched in the medical community, due to the current absence of a cure for the painful and dangerous condition. Currently, Dravet sufferers have to take a cocktail of medicines but still suffer an average of 13 seizures a month. [continues 408 words]
SIR - It is disturbing to hear that delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference have called for the legalisation of cannabis (report, telegraph.co.uk, March 12). This decision indicates a lack of research on their part as well as an ignorance of the connection between cannabis and mental health disorders. Those working in this field are aware that cannabis can trigger the onset of schizophrenia, particularly in the young. It can also seriously reduce the efficacy of the medication that is prescribed to alleviate the distressing symptoms of this condition. David Orfeur London N21 [end]
A petition launched by the former Solidarity MSP seeks to legalise what he calls the "non-criminal action" of using cannabis, instead directing the money raised from taxing the drug into drug treatment programmes. Only 98 people have so far signed his petition on change. org since Saturday. The petition, called "Legalise, regulate, license and tax cannabis. Drop the stupid 'war' on drugs. Wise up", is directed at the UK Parliament. [continues 62 words]
Lib Dems' Conference Decision Is a Totemic Policy That Would Also Raise Ukp 1bn Tax, Says MP Norman Lamb The Liberal Democrats have become the first major party to support the legalisation of cannabis, a move, they argue, that will reduce drug- related crime and raise around UKP 1bn in tax revenue. The policy was overwhelmingly approved by delegates at the Lib Dems' spring conference in York yesterday. It follows a review of soft drugs set up by the former health minister Norman Lamb, one of the eight MPs who survived the party's general- election rout last year, and chaired by Steve Rolles, a senior policy analyst from the Transform Drug Policy Foundation. [continues 713 words]
LIB DEMS yesterday overwhelmingly backed the legalisation of cannabis. Just a handful of members at their spring conference in York opposed the motion. Heal th spokesman Norman Lamb said: "It's long overdue that we call time on the most discredited, most stupid, most dangerous so-called 'war on drugs'. "I want this party to lead the way to a new approach, based on evidence, which is liberal, and which protects public health." Selling the drug in regulated shops and clubs could raise UKP1billion tax, he said. In a speech today Lib Dem leader Tim Farron vows to "fight this Government's short-sighted cuts to school budgets" in a speech. [end]
THE Liberal Democrats yesterday become the first mainstream political party to call for the legalisation of cannabis. In a landmark vote at the party's spring conference, delegates voted in favour of licensing shops to sell cannabis in plain packaging and with health warnings to adults in Britain. Householders would also be allowed to cultivate marijuana and harvest the drug for personal consumption. said the MP had offered advice at last Thursday's meeting but was not planning a formal, paid relationship with the Seattle-based Privateer Holdings. [continues 165 words]
Last week, I had dinner with an American actor who was enthusiastically extolling the benefits of state-controlled cannabis. He was describing how, in places where it is legal, customers can go into a shop and choose a product to give exactly the effect they want to achieve, like with wine or fine Scotch. His personal aim was "to feel mellow - and have great sex". If legalising dope would make everyone in Britain just one per cent more smiley and less hostile, can you think of a better reason to bite the bullet and change the law? We are definitely going through fearful times, guaranteed to increase our levels of anxiety. Turn on the telly or radio and politicians on all sides compete to ramp up the doom-laden consequences of leaving (or staying in) Europe. Depending on who you listen to, we'll either be paying more for food (or less), be out of work (or have more opportunities), and be over-run with immigrants no wonder most people I meet can't make up their minds which way they want to vote. [continues 936 words]
LIBERAL Democrats say there's a case for setting up cannabis shops allowing people to buy the drug in their local high street. But how many people in the West Midlands take cannabis or other drugs - - and is drug use rising or falling? Here's what the official figures tell us about drug use in the West Midlands. In the West Midlands, 6.9 per cent of the population aged 16 to 59 say they have taken cannabis at least once last year. That's about one in 15 people. It's about the same as the national average. [continues 791 words]
It is impossible to know how many people have been deterred from using cannabis out of deference to the law. Decades of prohibition have not prevented the drug from establishing itself as a part of the repertoire of psychoactive substances that British people use for leisure and, for a few, non-recreational medication. Despite the theoretical threat of prosecution, cannabis use has become sufficiently uncontroversial for stories about David Cameron dabbling in his youth to have surfaced without measurable impact on his standing as prime minister. [continues 458 words]
LEGALISING THE sale of cannabis could raise UKP1bn a year in tax and help minimise health risks, according to a report. The study, commissioned by the Liberal Democrats and conducted by a panel of scientists, academics and police chiefs, suggests that the drug should be available in specialist shops to over-18s. The party is expected to debate the issue at its spring conference in York this weekend. Lib Dem health spokesman Norman Lamb said: "Every year billions of pounds are put into the pockets of organised criminals selling cannabis and vast amounts of police time and resources are wasted going after those using the drug." [continues 163 words]
Legalising the sale of cannabis in specialist shops would generate UKP1bn a year in tax revenue and reduce the harm done to users and society, according to the most detailed plans ever drawn up for the liberalisation of UK drug laws. The study, which was carried out by a panel of experts including scientists, academics and police chiefs, calls for the UK to follow the lead of some US states and allow the sale of cannabis to over-18s in licensed retail stores. [continues 802 words]
Cannabis should be sold over the counter in plain packaging in specialist, licensed shops to over-18s only, according to an expert panel set up by the Liberal Democrats to examine what a regulated cannabis market in Britain should look like. They suggest cannabis should be sold in three strengths - lower, medium and higher - in prescription medicine-style resealable childproof containers with a health warning. The panel also recommends that smallscale licensed "cannabis social clubs" should be set up, and that home-grown cultivation of up to four plants for personal use should be allowed. [continues 346 words]
PEOPLE caught with drugs for personal use would be referred for health treatment rather than sent to jail under proposals unveiled by the Scottish Liberal Democrats. Leader Willie Rennie said Scotland's current drugs policy "is costly and fails to work for everyone". Drugs misuse costs society UKP3.5 billion a year amounting to around UKP900 for every adult in Scotland, he said. The LibDems will call for drug users to be "referred for treatment, education or civil penalties, ending the use of i mpr i s on ment " , in a ma n i fe sto p ol ic y put forward for discussion at its Scottish spring conference this week. [continues 174 words]
Under Scottish LibDem proposals, possession of small amounts of heroin for personal use would mean a police warning rather than a court appearance HEROIN, cocaine and ecstasy users should face police warnings instead of prison if found with small amounts of drugs for personal use, the Scottish LibDems will argue this week. The party will use its spring conference to advocate decriminalising drug use - as opposed to drug dealing in a fundamental reform of how addiction is dealt with by the authorities. [continues 403 words]
IT'S time for Scotland to change its approach to drug abuse. The current policy towards it is costly and fails to work for everyone. Drugs misuse costs society UKP3.5 billion a year. That's around UKP900 for every adult in Scotland. We're not winning the so-called war on drugs and we have to consider the alternatives. This week, at the Scottish Liberal Democrats' Spring Conference, our manifesto commitment to promote a change in drug policy will be set out. We are proposing a fundamental reform of the way drug users are prosecuted and sentenced. Not drug dealers. We think it is right that they can face up to life in prison. But we do not believe vulnerable people struggling with addiction should be imprisoned simply for possessing drugs for personal use. [continues 568 words]
Parliament Should Allow Doctors to Prescribe Cannabis Those responsible for the Government's drug policies could not be accused of any exaggerated deference to the world of scientific papers, double-blind trials and laboratory-bound research. The Psychoactive Substances Bill - which outlaws anything likely to alter a user's mindset - was described in the New Scientist as one of the "stupidest, most dangerous and unscientific pieces of legislation ever conceived". It demonstrates Parliament moving in the opposite direction to the tonnage of evidence showing that draconian approaches to recreational drug use have failed. [continues 220 words]
A campaign to legalise the medical use of cannabis is launched today amid warnings that up to 1.1 million people across Britain are currently breaking the law by taking the drug to combat the pain of chronic conditions. The drive, which coincides with a Coronation Street storyline focusing on the issue, is being supported by the former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg and senior politicians from all parties. Campaigners hope to attract hundreds of thousands of signatures for a petition backing the move, with the aim of forcing a Commons debate on legalising medicinal cannabis. They are pressing for ministers to follow the lead of several Western European countries and US states in allowing doctors to prescribe marijuana to alleviate the painful symptoms of disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. [continues 435 words]
Billionaire warlords, who started as small-time weed smugglers, have swathes of Latin America under their bloody rule, and the chaos is creeping north. But, says IOAN GRILLO, they owe their power to white-collar crooks from the States, who first set up their deadly networks A chain of crime wars is currently strangling Latin America and the Caribbean, drenching it in blood. And the first link in the chain is found in the US. Specifically, in a Barnes and Noble bookshop in a mall in El Paso, Texas. [continues 2430 words]
A YOUNG man with an inoperable form of bone cancer, who was told he only had a year left to live, claims cannabis oil has given him new hope. Last August, 23-year-old George Blakemore from Torfaen was diagnosed with Stage 2 Chondrosarcoma a rare form of bone cancer arising from the left pubic ramus bone. By October it had spread to his lungs and after undergoing one of the strongest forms of chemotherapy, George was told surgery was no longer an option and he may only have around a year left to live. [continues 757 words]
Nick Clegg and Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka Set Out Their Vision Before a Forthcoming UN Summit Standing on the podium at the United Nations in New York in June 1998, Kofi Annan declared: "It is time for all nations to say 'yes' to the challenge of working towards a drug-free world!" The leaders assembled at that meeting agreed: illegal drugs were to be eradicated from the face of the planet. They even set a deadline: 10 years to rid the globe of this scourge. A drug-free world by 2008. [continues 979 words]
The Conservative MP Crispin Blunt has admitted using the party drug "poppers", while speaking out in parliament against proposed legislation to ban legal highs. The chair of parliament's foreign affairs select committee was speaking during a debate on the government's psychoactive substances bill, which seeks to outlaw certain legal recreational drugs. The legislation would ban alkyl (or amyl) nitrate or "poppers" which can be bought in shops. "There are some times, Madam Deputy Speaker, when something is proposed which becomes personal to you and you realise that the government is about to do something fantastically stupid and I think in those circumstances one has a duty to speak up," said Blunt, who has been MP for Reigate since 1997. [continues 112 words]
The UK taxpayer has given millions of pounds to help Pakistan's counternarcotics force target and arrest drug traffickers, at least five of whom have been sentenced to death. The revelation has raised questions about the UK's commitment to opposing the death penalty in other countries. Last year Sir Simon McDonald, permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office, said that human rights no longer had the profile within his department that they had in the past. The UK's UKP5.6m donation was made to Pakistan's anti-narcotics force, through a five-year UN Office on Drugs and Crime project, despite the fact that the Pakistan government insisted donors could not demand that it be linked to human rights considerations. [continues 266 words]
A CONSERVATIVE MP has revealed he uses amyl nitrate known by the slang name "poppers" during a speech in the House of Commons and criticised the Government's "manifestly stupid" plan to ban sale of the drug. Crispin Blunt, who is gay, warned the proposals would force homosexual men to deal with criminals if selling the drug was outlawed. Poppers is a recreational drug popular in the gay community. In Parliament, Mr Blunt said he was "astonished" at government plans. During a debate about the Psychoactive Substances Bill, the former minister said: "Sometimes when something is proposed which becomes personal to you, you realise the Government is about to do something fantastically stupid. "I use poppers, I out myself as a popper user and would be directly affected by this legislation. I'm astonished to find it's proposing to be banned and frankly so would I think many other gay men." [end]
Roberto Saviano is determined to uncover capitalism's complicity with the narcolords of South America, writes Ed Vulliamy Pablo Escobar was "the first to understand that it's not the world of cocaine that must orbit around the markets, but the markets that must rotate around cocaine". Of course, Escobar didn't put it that way: this heretical truth was posited by Roberto Saviano in his latest book Zero Zero Zero , the most important of the year and the most cogent ever written on how narco-traffic works. It speaks what must be told at the end of another year of drug war spreading further and deeper, that tells what you will not learn from Narcos , Breaking Bad or the countless official reports. [continues 1225 words]
Rethink MacAskill Wants Change FORMER justice secretary Kenny MacAskill has called on the SNP Government to stop treating drug users as criminals. MacAskill, who served for seven years under Alex Salmond, claimed the war on drugs had failed across the world and said that police would be better targeting criminal gangs instead of low-level users. The Scottish Government rejected the call and Labour branded his proposals "potentially dangerous". MacAskill, justice secretary from 2007 to 2014, said the "winds of change are blowing" across the world. [continues 320 words]
Inside Europe
