LONDON - The normal bustle of London's financial district has been quieted by the latest national lockdown, with businesses shuttered and work shifted to home. But the sudden lull and the unexpected vacating of prime real estate has seen at least one venture (albeit an illegal one) thrive: an indoor weed farm. That ended this past week when police officers discovered the criminal operation, which they called a "cannabis factory," in a basement equipped with wired lighting and ventilation tubes in a commercial building not far from the Bank of England. [continues 318 words]
GLASGOW - Every Friday for the past two months, Peter Krykant has parked his white van on Parnie Street in central Glasgow, around the corner from a games shop and several art galleries, and waited for people to come by and inject illegal drugs. Inside the van are two seats and two tables, each with a stainless steel tray and hypodermic needles, as well as several biohazard trash cans. The van is also equipped with naloxone, the medication used to reverse an opioid overdose, and a defibrillator. (There are Covid-19 safety precautions, too: hand sanitizer and a box of masks.) [continues 1349 words]
SKOPJE, North Macedonia - In a desolate industrial zone of this capital city, a cannabis grow house is under construction that, when finished, will span 178,000 square feet, about the size of a Walmart superstore. At full capacity, 17 tons of marijuana a year, worth about $50 million, will be harvested. Among the planned offerings is an American strain known as Herijuana, a portmanteau of "heroin" and "marijuana," which has received some rhapsodic online reviews. "I feel blown to the dome omg," wrote a fan on Leafly, a cannabis review site. "It also gave me the ability to rap." [continues 1635 words]
SKOPJE, North Macedonia - In a desolate industrial zone of this capital city, a cannabis grow house is under construction that, when finished, will span 178,000 square feet, about the size of a Walmart superstore. At full capacity, 17 tons of marijuana a year, worth about $50 million, will be harvested. Among the planned offerings is an American strain known as Herijuana, a portmanteau of "heroin" and "marijuana," which has received some rhapsodic online reviews. "I feel blown to the dome omg," wrote a fan on Leafly, a cannabis review site. "It also gave me the ability to rap." [continues 1639 words]
ROME - Growing small amounts of marijuana at home for private use is not a crime, Italy's top court has ruled, putting an end to a years-long legal dispute and adding Italy to the short list of countries to allow cultivation of recreational cannabis. A 1990s law prohibits the cultivation and sale of marijuana in Italy, but conflicting court decisions, and a 2016 amendment that opened a loophole in the law, created confusion over how it should be interpreted. The country's highest court appears to have settled at least part of the question, writing in a one-page statement of its findings that "at home, small-scale cultivation activities are to be considered excluded from the application of the penal code." [continues 599 words]
LONDON - Homeless drug users in Scotland will be allowed to inject pharmaceutical-grade heroin twice a day under the supervision of medical officials as part of a new program intended to reduce drug deaths and H.I.V. infection. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week, a $1.5 million facility in Glasgow that opened on Tuesday will allow a handful of drug users to receive doses of the drug alongside other treatment for their physical and psychological health, according to Glasgow City Council. [continues 841 words]
LONDON - Cannabis-based medicines were approved on Monday for use by the National Health Service in England and Wales, a milestone decision that could change the lives of thousands of patients. Three treatments using medicinal cannabis were authorized by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, a public body that provides guidance on health care practices. The decision comes a year after Sajid Javid, then the British home secretary, said that some doctors could legally prescribe the drug in special cases. [continues 702 words]
The bare, dusty ground is littered with rusty blades and crack pipes. The area reeks of urine and garbage. At least three times a day, Charly Roue is drawn to this neighborhood, one of the most sordid in Paris, always following the same ritual. After panhandling tens of euros at cafes not far from some of the most popular tourist spots, he heads to the northern edge of the city, where he can buy crack cocaine at La Colline, or the Hill, France's largest open-air market for crack. [continues 1108 words]
Drug laws should be designed to minimise damage. This might sound obvious. But the UK's drug laws - along with those of most other countries - arguably do not have this effect. Indeed there is a strong argument that in many respects the blanket prohibition, under criminal statutes, of substances from cannabis to heroin along with the myriad synthetic substances now widely used to mimic their effects, does more harm than good. This is not a novel point of view. Drug experts in the UK and around the world have been pointing out the flaws and inconsistencies in current policies for ages, with former Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, among those who have argued for a new approach focused on human rights and public health. In the UK, polls show a majority supports liberalisation of the law on cannabis, following the example of countries including Portugal. But since this shift in public attitudes has so far been ignored by the Home Office, which instead brought in a sweeping ban on so-called "legal highs"=9D in 2016, this week's call for reform by a cross-party trio of MPs is refreshing. [continues 302 words]
New trials have shown the drug psilocybin to be highly effective in treating depression, with Oakland the latest US city to in effect decriminalise it last week. Some researchers say it could become 'indefensible' to ignore the evidence - but how would it work as a reliable treatment? Lying on a bed in London's Hammersmith hospital ingesting capsules of psilocybin, the active ingredient of magic mushrooms, Michael had little idea what would happen next. The 56-year-old part-time website developer from County Durham in northern England had battled depression for 30 years and had tried talking therapies and many types of antidepressant with no success. His mother's death from cancer, followed by a friend's suicide, had left him at one of his lowest points yet. Searching online to see if mushrooms sprouting in his yard were the hallucinogenic variety, he had come across a pioneering medical trial at Imperial College London. [continues 2146 words]
Paris, France -- France's fight against cannabis, through tough laws to punish users, has long been a failure -- the French remain among Europe's biggest dope smokers. So will a change of strategy under President Emmanuel Macron have more success? The new centrist government is preparing to soften legislation, making users caught with cannabis liable for an instant fine of 150-200 euros ($180-250) instead of prosecution and the threat of a one-year jail term. The change was an election campaign pledge from Macron last year, justified on the grounds that it would reduce the time spent by the police and judiciary on criminal cases involving recreational smokers. [continues 604 words]
The Global Commission on Drug Policy has issued recommendations on tackling North America's opioid crisis, calling for the immediate expansion of harm reduction services, the decriminalization and regulation of currently illicit drugs and an initiative to allow interested cities to de facto decriminalize as federal debates over drug policy continue. The position paper, to be released on Monday, comes in advance of the final report of the White House opioid commission, led by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, due out in November. [continues 699 words]
A teenage law student from Britain died while on holiday in Ibiza after five bags of ecstasy exploded in her stomach, an inquest heard. Rebecca Brock, 18, was discovered with a pool of blood next to her head in a hotel room after traveling to the party island for a friend's birthday. Nottingham Coroners' Court heard staff found the "academically gifted" student unresponsive in her room at the Hotel Marco Polo on Sept. 28, 2015. Spanish police began an investigation after the amount of the class-A drug in her system was "double the level" of a normal fatal dose. [continues 691 words]
Taking party drug ecstasy may help boozers break their addiction to alcohol. Scientists are set to carry out the first ever trial to see whether the controlled substance can help treat heavy drinkers. A group of patients from England will be given two doses of MDMA -- another name for ecstasy -- over the course of two months. The trial has just received approval from regulators in the United Kingdom. It is the first in the world to use ecstasy to treat alcohol addiction. [continues 379 words]
Meth is not good -- and a community in Montana, US, used a young woman who looked oddly like Elsa from Frozen to remind its citizens. An anti-drug campaign called the Montana Meth Project (MMP) erected some billboards and signs calling on people to "just let it go" -- "it" being meth, an illegal substance that causes misery around the world. On the boards was a blonde girl, visibly blighted by drug abuse, with a tired face and jumbled hair. She was shackled, too, apparently caught for possession by police. [continues 216 words]
[photo] Duterte tells civilians 'don't get yourselves kidnapped' as he orders troops to BOMB hostage-takers and threatens to declare martial law as part of Philippines' drug war * President Rodrigo Duterte say kidnap victims may become 'collateral damage' * Abu Sayyaf, which is linked to al-Qaeda, earns millions kidnapping for ransom * Duterte also threatened to bring in martial law in his campaign against drugs * His government also acted at the weekend to ban Filipinos watching Pornhub President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the military to 'blast' Islamist militants who have been on a kidnap-for-ransom spree in the Philippines, even if hostages would also be killed. [continues 759 words]
I've only just started! Filipino President Duterte's bloody war on drugs has claimed 6,000 lives and seen 900,000 addicts surrender in just six months -- as he claims his country is now safer for normal people * The Philippines government has claimed it is winning the war on drugs after a brutal crackdown on dealing * 6,000 people have been killed by police or vigilantes in a six month campaign ordered by President Duterte * The Filipino government has said that thanks to the crackdown, the country is now a safer place for residents [continues 1462 words]
Foreign governments are keeping noticeably quiet as the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte is leading one of the world's bloodiest anti-drug campaigns [photo] Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte salutes with other military officers during an anniversary celebration of the Armed Forces. Photograph: Erik de Castro/Reuters Even the most adamant supporters of the war on drugs agree that it is failing. At a major UN summit on drug policy earlier this year, many member states argued forcefully for a more balanced and humane approach. But there's one anti-drug crusader who refuses to face the facts. For the past six months Rodrigo Duterte, president of the Philippines has waged one of the world's most vicious counter-narcotics campaigns. [continues 1085 words]
* Phylos Bioscience is attempting to map the genetic data for every marijuana strain in the world * The team has so far sequenced over a thousand different kinds, which they plot on the interactive 'Galaxy' * Genetic report reveals a strain's closest relatives, clonal relationships, its uniqueness, origin, and more * The researchers say this could one day help scientists to achieve 'unthinkable' strains of marijuana Scientists may soon be able to achieve 'unthinkable' strains of marijuana thanks to new efforts in DNA sequencing. [continues 634 words]
A California company is selling a MARIJUANA monthly subscription box packed with curated cannabis products * San Diego-based Club M requires a California medical marijuana license to join and delivers boxes each month for $97 * The packages include marijuana, edibles, vapes, and other 'gear' for using * Each box is worth about $200 and can be purchased without a subscription, except for the new limited-edition boxes for $1,000 each There seems to be a subscription box service for everything these days, from cosmetics to snacks to alcohol -- so really, it was only a matter of time for the medical marijuana community got in on the monthly shipment craze. [continues 465 words]
Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs also suggests supervised injecting rooms to combat rising number of drug deaths Heroin on prescription and supervised injecting rooms are among a range of measures that the government's drug advisers have suggested to reverse the UK's soaring numbers of drug deaths. Responding to a sharp rise in the number of heroin-related deaths in recent years, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs said maintenance of drug treatment programmes was essential to prevent further increases. [continues 465 words]
With its open-air marijuana stalls festooned in psychedelic colors and its freewheeling, self-governing structure, the Christiania neighborhood in Copenhagen has been for decades emblematic of Danish liberalism and tolerance. On Friday morning, however, a symbol of hippie hedonism came crashing down - at least temporarily. At about 9 a.m., hundreds of residents began dismantling the drug market on Pusher Street in the heart of the city, where men in masks usually peddle marijuana and hashish from stalls. Video footage showed residents hauling away plants and using saws, drills and bulldozers to demolish the stands. Signs saying "no photography allowed" were ripped down. [continues 737 words]
THE narcotics trade provides the financial basis for almost every other form of organised criminality in this country and abroad. The scale is staggering: the global drugs market is worth UKP375 billion every year, and an estimated UKP7 billion a year in Britain alone. Britain spends a further UKP7 billion policing the drugs problem - and that's without the associated costs of imprisonment and public health and everything else. It might not seem visible to the majority of ordinary, law abiding citizens, yet drugs and the gangsters who deal in them blight our towns and cities and dominate our criminal system. More than half the inmates in British prisons are there for drug-related offences. [continues 1605 words]
THE most sinister thing I have heard all year was this week's revelation that British government doctors secretly sought to drug troublesome teenagers in the 1960s and we have only just found out. One of the pills they wanted to use was called Haloperidol. Its side effects include incurable lifelong twitching, delirium and rigid muscles. This plan was stopped, but another worrying substance, Beclamide, was given to boys at a Yorkshire 'Approved School' (a state-inspected home for troubled teens). Neither the boys nor their parents were told of this experiment. [continues 500 words]
LONDON - While Amazon and the British government are looking into how to use drones to deliver parcels to customers, criminals are already exploiting the technology to send drugs to accomplices in prison. Police on Monday said they recovered two drones carrying mobile phones and drugs near London's Pentonville prison and have set up a special task force - Operation Airborne - to catch offenders trying to get contraband into the jail. In the early hours of Aug. 17, police saw a man acting suspiciously near the prison. He ran away, dropping two bags containing drugs and mobile phones and managed to evade arrest, according to a police statement. [continues 186 words]
CBD Oil Reduces Seizure Activity but Without the Side Effects of Cannabis Preparations of the leaves and resin of the cannabis plant have been in use for more than 2,000 years. First introduced into western medicine in the mid-19th century, cannabis was prescribed in the past for a diverse range of complaints including anxiety, arthritis and rheumatic disorders, migraine and painful menstruation. A cannabis derivative, nabilone, is effective in treating nausea and vomiting brought on by chemotherapy treatment in cancer patients. The benefits of cannabis in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) have been well described. It reduces muscle cramps and relaxes bladder and bowel sphincters. And it has been shown to reduce the pressure in the eyeball that leads to glaucoma. [continues 371 words]
Cbd Oil Dispensed in Several US States but No Doctor Here Will Prescribe It Cork Mother Made Plea to Minister for Health but Says His Hands Tied by Law The mother of a six-year-old girl with a rare and catastrophic form of epilepsy fears her daughter will die unless a consultant goes out on a limb and prescribes cannabis oil to lessen her seizures. Ava Barry from Aghabullogue in Co Cork endures hundreds of seizures every year. Her mother, Vera Twomey, fears her daughter's life will be cut prematurely short unless a doctor prescribes cannabis oil which has been known to control the severity and number of seizures. [continues 541 words]
Music festival Secret Garden Party allowed people carrying illegal narcotics to test the quality and strength of the drugs over the weekend. The pioneering scheme had the support of local police, and was run by the drugs charity The Loop. Thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, the project appears to have been a success. Festival-goers were able to have their stash tested without handing over the rest. It was reported that over 200 people had their drugs tested. Finding over 80 suspect substances, over a quarter was disposed of after testing. The Transform Drugs Policy Foundation, who assisted in the scheme, claimed that it was an attempt to "undo the damage the War on Drugs had done." [continues 302 words]
The progress towards a peace deal between the Colombian government and the Farc guerrillas is greatly to be welcomed (Editorial, 21 July). The terms are inevitably controversial and many who have suffered at the Farc's hands will find it hard to see them pass directly into politics. But that is the price of peace. The cocaine trade has fuelled this conflict over the last 35 years or so. You are absolutely right to propose that governments which wish to support peace in Colombia should consider backing President Juan Manuel Santos's efforts to reform the UN system of drugs prohibition and open the door to experiments in regulated markets in drugs like cocaine, just as is already happening with cannabis. Keith Morris British ambassador to Colombia 1990-94 [end]
Amputee's Plea to Legalise Medical Marijuana A WAR hero who lost both legs in an Afghan bomb blast is forced to break the law to get cannabis to ease his pain. Lance Corporal Callum Brown is now leading calls to legalise the drug for medical use. He wants to see cannabis made available to patients like him who suffer agonising pain 24 hours a day. Callum, 28, also shattered his pelvis in the huge explosion after he stepped on a boobytrap bomb while on patrol in Helmand five years ago. Speaking exclusively to the Record, he said: "As well as my other injuries, I have no skin on my backside it's just thin scar tissue so the nerve damage and the phantom pains are the main reason for smoking. [continues 883 words]
PN Deputy Leader Beppe Fenech Adami said that government's war on drugs in the Corradino Correctional Facility has failed. He was speaking in Parliament, and reminded people of government's pledge to reform the prison, and end drug abuse there. In this, he said, government has failed. "In November 2013, government hired an ex-US soldier to bring discipline to the prison. Former Home Affairs Minister Manuel Mallia had said he was starting a war to end drugs in prison. [continues 282 words]
Legislation criminalising the possession of illegal drugs reinforced the stigma associated with addiction, Independent Senator Lynn Ruane has said. She said the relentless war on drugs had failed long ago, with the addict becoming collateral damage. "We cannot continue to separate the addict from the dealer," she said. Ms Ruane told the Seanad she had dozens of conversations in recent weeks with people who both sold and used substances. Ms Ruane was speaking during a debate on the Misuse of Drugs (Amendment) Bill, including prescription drugs sold illegally within the remit of existing legislation. [continues 151 words]
GLOBAL opium production plunged almost 40% last year but the world remains awash with heroin, the narcotic that still kills the most people worldwide, the United Nations said yesterday. UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) head Yury Fedotov said: "Heroin continues to be the drug that kills the most people and this resurgence must be addressed urgently." A UNODC report said production of opium, which is processed into heroin, had fallen to 4 770 tons last year, a 38% plunge from 2014. [continues 145 words]
Stanton Also Wants Traveller Ethnicity Recognised A NEWLY appointed junior justice minister wants personal possession of all illegal drugs to be decriminalised as part of the Government's plan to tackle gangland crime. Minister of State for Equality, Migration and Integration, David Stanton, also plans to use his new position to convince Fine Gael colleagues to recognise the Travelling Community as a distinct ethnic minority group. Speaking for the first time since taking office, Mr Stanton also revealed Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald is supportive of both proposals. [continues 517 words]
THE 'WAR on drugs" has failed in terms of public health and drug use should be decriminalised, two leading organisations have said. The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Faculty of Public Health (FPH) said the personal possession and use of all illegal drugs should no longer be considered a criminal offence. While the bodies still support criminal charges for people who deal drugs, they said users should instead be referred for treatment and help. The recommendation is made in a new UK-wide report, Taking a New Line on Drugs, which has the backing of several charities and law enforcement officials. [continues 109 words]
Britain's two leading public health bodies, representing thousands of doctors and other professionals, are making an unprecedented call for the personal possession and use of drugs to be decriminalised. The Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH) and the Faculty of Public Health say the war on drugs has done more harm than good. They believe drug misuse should be a health issue and not a matter for the courts and prisons. "We have taken the view that it is time for endorsing a different approach," said Shirley Cramer, chief executive of the RSPH. "We have gone to our stakeholders and asked the public, and tried to gain some consensus from our community and the public." The RSPH commissioned a poll of more than 2,000 British adults and found 56% agreed drug users in their local area should be referred for treatment, rather than charged with an offence. Fewer than a quarter (23%) disagreed. [end]
Experts: Jail Bad for Addicts PERSONAL possession and use of all drugs should be decriminalised, public health experts will say today. Users need help not punishment, they say, and 56% of adults in a poll of 2,000 agree. Drug use has fallen in the last decade but related harm including death continues to rise. Jailing users makes things worse, says a report by the Faculty of Public Health and Royal Society for Public Health. But both groups insist dealers must still be prosecuted. Shirley Cramer, of RSPH, said: "The war on drugs has failed... It's time for a new approach, where we recognise those who misuse drugs are in need of treatment not criminals in need of punishment." The report was "very much welcomed" by Parliament's Drug Policy Reform group. Prof David Nutt, of Imperial College London, backed it and Prof Peter Anderson, of Newcastle University, said: "It's the way to go." The Home Office said we must "support people dependent on drugs" and also "tackle organised crime behind the drugs trade". [end]
Ron Hogg Said the War on Drugs Has Failed and the UK's Drug Policy Is 'Unsustainable' As He Called on Colleagues to Back His Views Cannabis should be made legal and used for medicinal purposes, Durham's Police and Crime Commissioner has said. In a letter to the country's 40 PCCs, Ron Hogg said the "war on drugs" has failed and the UK's present approach is "unsustainable". Mr Hogg highlighted the "genuine body of evidence" that cannabis brings pain and symptom relief to sufferers of various conditions. [continues 559 words]
The ban on legal highs will not lead to the disappearance of spice and other synthetic cannabis-like drugs because they are so profitable to dealers, a senior government drugs adviser has warned. Prof Harry Sumnall, a member of the Home Office's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, said the economics of producing the substances - often collectively dubbed "spice" - versus that of growing traditional cannabis made them an appealing proposition. Sumnall said the ingredients were easily available online. "We were making some in the lab the other day. Very, very easy to do, pretty much shake and bake. Really easy to make, highly profitable, these drugs aren't going anywhere." [continues 127 words]
Everyone from the chief inspector of prisons to prisoners themselves is now expressing concerns about the impact that new psychoactive substances are having on prisoners, prison officers and the efficacy of the prison system (Prisoners reveal regular 'spice' habit has tripled, 1 June). Current approaches to addressing their use are not working, and the situation is getting worse. HMP Forest Bank, however, is taking a fresh approach. Using the principles of restorative justice, it is encouraging those prisoners who are using spice and other so-called "legal highs" to face up to the impact of their behaviour on their fellow prisoners and on prison staff. [continues 74 words]
Prison should not be regarded as a punishment (Letters, 2 June). It is place of restraint where those who are incorrigibly violent - such as terrorists and incurable psychopaths - must be kept. Punishment is a consequence of this restraint, but it should not be its aim. Punishment can be achieved by much more effective means, eg ill-gotten gains can be sequestered and subsequent earnings mulcted. The aim must be restitution, reform and rehabilitation, not one-size-fits-all punishment. Magistrates, who can only award useless short sentences, should have this power removed completely. Crown court judges should have their sentencing audited, and where it has proved ineffective they should be held to account. If all drugs were legally regulated imprisonment would reduce by about 65%. [continues 87 words]
This Act Drives Users Back Towards Illegal Drugs and Alcohol, the Most Dangerous Substance of Them All With the Psychoactive Substances Act 2016, ministers last week banned the sale or procurement of any substance that has psychoactive activity, regardless of whether it is harmless or even useful. The sole exceptions are alcohol, nicotine products and caffeine. The main justification for this draconian piece of legislation is to make it easy for the police and local authorities to close down "head shops", or at least to stop them selling so-called legal highs: drugs such as nitrous oxide; some synthetic cannabinoids, salvia, and some weak stimulants known as bubbles or sparkle. The act is based on the false premise that legal highs are responsible for up to 100 deaths a year, when in fact the true number is fewer than 10. Media hysteria about the use of nitrous oxide by a few footballers and a dislike of young people doing something different from their parents has also played a part. [continues 735 words]
Sir, As a society, we need a serious and grown-up conversation about the drug policy in this country. I am not going to suggest what should be done, just some facts as I see them. I do this purely in the hope that a full and honest discussion takes place across this republic on how this issue affects people's lives and what policy should in future be pursued. Some drugs bring very serious health issues for people abusing them. Using illegal drugs is, by definition, against the law, and a so-called war has been waged against drugs by the three arms of the State for decades. [continues 231 words]
THE trumpeted 'ban on legal highs' is a fiction, like the rest of our drug laws. The new Act imposes no penalties at all for possessing these dangerous poisons - except for people who are already in jail. This is an amazing giveaway of the Government's real drugs policy, which is to look the other way while pretending to be 'tough'. In fact, simple possession of cannabis, heroin or cocaine is now hardly punished at all, even though it is illegal. [continues 104 words]
The new law (Legal high ban risks creating fresh crisis, 28 May), which criminalises the selling of so-called legal highs, but crucially does not criminalise the user, is the right thing to do. It came out of an independent study into these substances which I set up when drugs minister. A wide range of experts produced a unanimous report and that forms the basis of the law. I was clear that so-called legal highs presented more of a danger to users than many long-prohibited drugs, especially cannabis. [continues 294 words]
Critics of Law Say Trade Will Simply Shift Underground Whipped Cream Chargers May Come Under Suspicion The blanket ban on the trade in legal highs which comes into force today is expected to end their sale through high street "head shops" and UK-based websites almost overnight, police and trading standards officers have said. But there are fears that the trade in new psychoactive substances (NPS) as they are officially known will move underground to illegal street markets and the darknet, the network of untraceable and hidden websites. [continues 886 words]
Most Drug Dealers Don't Live in Some Fine Pad on the Costa Del Sol, They Actually Live With Their Mammies. THE news that another man has been killed in a war fuelled by money made from drug dealing, begs the question how long are we going to tolerate the illegality of drugs. Yes, the word used is tolerate! How long are we going to tolerate a situation where drug money is fuelling the murderous activity of drug gangs, while the use of drugs is not decreasing, but increasing. [continues 1062 words]
I AGREE wholeheartedly with David J Crawford in his exhortation to government it should decriminalise cannabis (Letters, May 23). What did the war on drugs achieve? In the US the prison population has increased by 500 per cent in the last 30 years due almost entirely to drug convictions. In the UK a large number of people now have a criminal record for merely possessing a very small amount of the drug. Vast amounts of money and violence have been the result as the criminal element took control of the supply chain. [continues 94 words]
Critics Say Antisocial Behaviour Powers Are Already Criminalising Vulnerable People, Ahead of All-Out Ban It's just before 11.30am on a Friday morning and I'm standing in Lincoln's city square. With me are police officers Andy Balding and Joel Dowse, an antisocial behaviour officer at Lincoln council. We're on the lookout for socalled legal highs synthetic substances that have similar effects to illegal drugs but have not yet been banned by legislation. We scan the square for anything suspicious. Everything looks in order, but I'm assured it hasn't always been this way. Balding points to a line of benches overlooking the river. "Along here used to be really bad," he tells me. I hear stories about groups of people on legal highs terrorising shopkeepers and falling unconscious in the street. Right now, all I can see is an elderly man peacefully contemplating the river. [continues 1392 words]
Lib Dem's Norman Lamb Urges MPs to Pass the Bill to Create a Regulated Market for the Drug Parliament will be failing in its duty to reflect the will of the people if it continues to resist calls to introduce a regulated cannabis market, a former coalition minister has warned. A 10-minute rule bill proposing the introduction of a legal cannabis market in the UK, something that would constitute the biggest shakeup of the drugs laws in the past half-century, will end its passage through the Commons on Friday. It was tabled by Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrats' health spokesman, and supported by MPs from all parties, as well as experts including a serving chief constable. [continues 473 words]
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