Authorities in the Philippines say a series of drugs raids have netted nearly a tonne of methamphetamine, with a street value of UKP#120m ($147m). Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre said the haul was the biggest in the country's history. Mr Aguirre said 10 people had been charged. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has pursued a bloody war on drugs since taking office six months ago, encouraging police to shoot on site. More than 6,000 drug users and dealers are suspected to have been killed by both police and vigilantes since the crackdown began. [continues 193 words]
A Businessman Has Been Jailed Following One of the Biggest Seizures Of Cannabis Kent Police Has Ever Made. John Read 54, of Marine Parade, Whitstable, was sentenced to nine years in prison for conspiracy to produce cannabis worth an estimated UKP2m. The father-of-four was also jailed for one year for attempting to pervert the course of justice, to run consecutively. He was convicted following a five-week trial at Canterbury Crown Court. Read was was arrested after raids at Higher Shelvin Farm, Wootton, near Dover, in August 2009, and industrial units in Coombe Valley Road, Dover and at Joseph Wilson Industrial Estate, Whitstable, in April and May 2010. 'Largest cannabis finds' [continues 231 words]
President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending "indefinitely" the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia. Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September. He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca-growers have been pressing him to do. Bolivia's first indigenous president once served as the leader of the country's union of coca-growers. Relations between Bolivia and the US have been strained since Evo Morales won presidential elections in January 2006. [continues 226 words]
Cannabis Is to Be Reclassified As a Class B Drug, Jacqui Smith Has Said. The home secretary said that because of the "increased strength" of some types, she wanted to reverse Tony Blair's 2004 downgrading of the drug to class C. She highlighted "uncertainty at the least" on the future impact on young people's mental health from cannabis. Her statement to MPs came despite the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs' review - commissioned by Gordon Brown - saying it should stay class C. [continues 695 words]
The legalisation of all drugs is "inevitable", according to the Chief Constable of North Wales. Richard Brunstrom, who has campaigned for drugs like heroin to be made legal, says he believes the move towards decriminalisation is "10 years away." The chief constable said repealing the Misuse of Drugs Act would destroy a major source of organised crime. He also said he thinks ecstasy is safer than aspirin. Drugs charity DrugScope said legalisation is "unlikely". Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, the controversial chief constable acknowledged that his was a minority view, but he said attitudes were changing. [continues 436 words]
USA -- A compound found in cannabis may stop breast cancer spreading throughout the body, US scientists believe. The California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute team are hopeful that cannabidiol or CBD could be a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy. Unlike cannabis, CBD does not have any psychoactive properties so its use would not violate laws, Molecular Cancer Therapeutics reports. The authors stressed that they were not suggesting patients smoke marijuana They added that it would be highly unlikely that effective concentrations of CBD could be reached by smoking cannabis. [continues 285 words]
North Wales Police chief constable Richard Brunstrom has said he will be "campaigning hard" for drugs such as heroin to be legalised. In the past, Mr Brunstrom has said drugs laws are out of date and that the police are engaged in a battle which they cannot win. He is now campaigning for drugs to be legalised, and for the class A, B and C system to be scrapped. Mr Brunstrom's suggestions have already been criticised by some politicians. In a report to be presented to the North Wales Police Authority next Monday, he says the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 should be replaced by a new "Substance Misuse Act". [continues 403 words]
The number of people treated for heroin addiction in Scotland has reached record levels, according to figures. About 21,000 people are now said to use heroin substitute methadone - 10% more than previously thought - with a third of them caring for children under 16. The statistics are contained in a series of reports published by the Scottish government. A review was ordered after the death of toddler Derek Doran. Ministers have backed the continued use of the drug. Derek died after drinking methadone he found in his home two weeks after his second birthday. [continues 486 words]
Buildings are expected to feature as a crucial area for energy-saving in the UN's third report on climate change this week. Russian design for houses made from sand and seawater blocks (image: Unido) Unido says Russian sand and seawater blocks fit like Lego Encamped on the edge of London's docklands development, a bazaar of corporate stalls is pursuing the green pound in Britain's ever-hungry construction industry. Production of concrete, that staple of modern building, alone accounts for up to 10% of man-made greenhouse gas, US scientists believe. [continues 860 words]
Scientists have shown how cannabis may trigger psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia. An Institute of Psychiatry team gave healthy volunteers the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). They then recorded reduced activity in an area of the brain which keeps inappropriate thoughts at bay. THC levels are thought to have doubled in street cannabis in recent years - at the expense of other ingredients which may have a beneficial effect. A separate study has shown that one of these ingredients - cannabidiol (CBD) - has the potential to dampen down psychotic symptoms, and could form the basis of new treatments. [continues 445 words]
A 68-year-old grandmother convicted of growing cannabis at her Northumberland home has been given a 250 hour community service order. Patricia Tabram, from Humshaugh, had denied charges of possessing and cultivating the drug when she appeared at Carlisle Crown Court. She was arrested in 2005 when plants and growing equipment was were seized. Tabram had claimed she used the drug to relieve depression after the death of her son and pain following a car crash. Last year she was spared jail after admitting possessing cannabis with intent to supply. [continues 363 words]
Smoking cigarettes causes the same changes to the brain as using illicit drugs like cocaine, a study suggests. US researchers compared post-mortem brain tissue samples from smokers, former smokers and non-smokers. Their findings, published in Journal of Neuroscience, suggested smoking causes changes to the brain which are evident years after someone has quit. A UK expert said the changes might explain why smokers found it hard to stop - and why they then relapsed. The researchers from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (Nida) looked at samples of human brain tissue from the nucleus accumbens and the ventral midbrain - brain regions that play a part in controlling addictive behaviours. [continues 359 words]
Earlier this week the first funeral took place of one of the five young women killed in Ipswich while working as prostitutes. The deaths of Ipswich prostitutes raised concerns over the link between sex workers and drugs All had been supposedly working on the streets to help finance an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. Their deaths led to calls for heroin to be widely prescribed on the NHS as a way of stopping drug addicts becoming prostitutes. On a cold night in Ipswich's red light district, Janine is working. [continues 909 words]
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called on the US ambassador in Caracas to retract his assertion that drug trafficking in the country is rising. Mr Chavez said the comments were absolutely false and that a retraction would demonstrate that Washington is serious about wanting good relations. William Brownfield said poor police collaboration was making Venezuela a preferred drug route to the Caribbean. The comments follow recent improvements in relations between the two countries. Mr Chavez said the US ambassador's claims were "a lack of respect for the truth" and said they were "absolutely false". [continues 301 words]
Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference. Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers' conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed. He said the treatment would cost UKP12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of UKP45,000 a year. The idea is being piloted in London, the South East and North of England. [continues 415 words]
The Islamist group which controls much of southern Somalia has banned the popular stimulant khat, a day after protests in which one person died. Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said khat was a bad influence. Many Somali men, especially gunmen, spend hours chewing it each day. He also warned squatters to vacate public buildings they have occupied. After 15 years of conflict, many ministries are full of people who have fled fighting in their home regions. Eyewitnesses say one person was shot dead by Islamist fighters on Thursday following protests over khat shortages. [continues 397 words]
The Afghan government has ordered the closure of all offices of a group that wants to promote new ways of dealing with the global drugs problem. The Interior Ministry said the Senlis Council, had been "confusing farmers" and had been a factor in the increase in poppy cultivation. Senlis has suggested the legal use of Afghan opium for medical purposes. A spokesman for Senlis said it had not received any formal notification that its offices were to be closed. He denied its activities had increased poppy cultivation. [continues 58 words]
Taleban fighters using giant Afghan marijuana forests for cover are proving a tough foe to smoke out, the head of Canada's armed forces has revealed. Thickets three metres (10ft) high readily absorb heat, making them hard to penetrate with thermal devices, said Gen Rick Hillier in a speech in Ottawa. "You really have to be careful the Taleban don't dodge in and out of those marijuana forests," he added. Burning them is not an option as they are laden with water, the general said. [continues 227 words]
For Obese People Overeating Is Akin To Drug Addiction, Research Suggests. Scans on seven overweight people revealed the regions of the brain that controlled satiety were the same as those in drug addicts craving drugs. The US team who carried out the research said the findings could potentially help to uncover new treatments for obesity. The work, led by a New York scientist, is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers looked at brain impulses in seven overweight individuals. [continues 334 words]
Senior Liberal Democrats have urged the party's leadership to consider backing the legalisation of all drugs. Chris Davies MEP said the "war on drugs" had been lost and the only way to undermine the criminals controlling the trade was legalisation. Speaking at a fringe meeting at the party's Brighton conference, he urged Lib Dems to lobby home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg to change policy. He was backed by education spokesman Baroness Walmsley. She told the meeting it was time to "think the unthinkable" on the drugs issue and consider legalisation. [continues 502 words]
