Marijuana and cocaine for personal use should be decriminalised because the "war on drugs" has been a disaster, according to some of Latin America's most powerful politicians and writers. The current international policy on drugs encourages corruption and violence that is threatening democracy throughout the continent, according to the former president of Brazil, Fernando Enrique Cardoso, who is a co-president of the Latin American commission on drugs and democracy. As well as politicians, the commission includes the writers Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Paulo Coelho of Brazil. [continues 541 words]
The regulated legalisation of drugs would have major benefits for taxpayers, victims of crime, local communities and the criminal justice system, according to the first comprehensive comparison between the cost-effectiveness of legalisation and prohibition. The authors of the report, which is due to be published today, suggest that a legalised, regulated market could save the country around UKP 14bn. For many years the government has been under pressure to conduct an objective cost-benefit analysis of the current drugs policy, but has failed to do so despite calls from MPs. Now the drugs reform charity, Transform, has commissioned its own report, examining all aspects of prohibition from the costs of policing and investigating drugs users and dealers to processing them through the courts and their eventual incarceration. [continues 334 words]
. Boom In Stimulants Sold On Websites As Plant Food . Dangers Unknown Due To Lack Of Trials, Say Experts Legal alternatives to cocaine, ecstasy and amphetamines that are sold online are the latest in a new wave of stimulants that could change the way drugs are bought and sold. The drugs are available to anyone with an email address and a PayPal account. The fact that they are legal and that other stimulants are being developed could alter the whole drugs scene, according to research carried out by DrugScope, the independent information centre on drugs. People who have tested one of the drugs describe sensations similar to those of illegal class A drugs. [continues 510 words]
The UN strategy on drugs over the past decade has been a failure, a European commission report claimed yesterday on the eve of the international conference in Vienna that will set future policy for the next 10 years. The report came amid growing dissent among delegates arriving at the meeting to finalise a UN declaration of intent. Referring to the UN's existing strategy, the authors declared that they had found "no evidence that the global drug problem was reduced". They wrote: "Broadly speaking, the situation has improved a little in some of the richer countries while for others it worsened, and for some it worsened sharply and substantially, among them a few large developing or transitional countries." [continues 588 words]
Last-minute negotiations on a new UN declaration on drugs, which is due to be agreed and signed this week in Vienna, were still in the balance last night with the deadline looming. Deep divisions have opened up between countries that favour continuing the "war on drugs" strategy, led by the US and Russia, and those, including most EU and Latin American countries, that seek a recognition that "harm reduction" in the form of needle exchange programmes and drug treatments should be addressed. [continues 176 words]
The Vatican has been accused of putting the lives of thousands at risk by attempting to influence UN drugs policy on the eve of a major international declaration. The Vatican's objection to "harm reduction" strategies, such as needle exchange schemes, has ignited a fierce debate between the US and the EU over how drugs should be tackled. A new UN declaration of intent is due to be signed in Vienna on 11 March. However, there are major disagreements between member countries over whether a commitment to "harm reduction" should be included in the document, which is published every 10 years. [continues 423 words]
Narcotics Board Targets Cannabis For Strong Action Drugs Reform Group Hits Out At 'Irrational' Approach The internet is playing an increasing and "alarming" role in the trafficking of both illegal and unauthorised prescription drugs, according to the body that monitors the trafficking and use of narcotics. Chemicals used for making heroin and cocaine and a range of drugs from methadone to amphetamines are being sold online by organisations that hide their identities from the authorities. The report, compiled by the International Narcotics Control Board, paints a picture of an ever-expanding and increasingly violent drugs market, with new trafficking routes being opened regularly. It calls for governments to take stronger measures against drugs, in particular cannabis. The board was criticised by drugs reform groups last night for taking an "irrational" approach. [continues 744 words]
A rift between the EU and US over how to deal with global trafficking in illicit drugs is undermining international efforts to agree a new UN strategy. The confrontation has been heightened because of suggestions that the US negotiating team is pushing a hardline, Bush administration "war on drugs", in contrast to the EU position which supports "harm reduction" measures such as needle exchanges. Talks are said to be at breaking point in Vienna where representatives have gathered to hammer out a new UN declaration in time for a signing ceremony at a drugs summit in mid-March. Negotiations, which have been going on for three months, are due to resume tomorrow with no indication of a breakthrough. [continues 350 words]
There'll Soon Be a Former Dope Smoker in the White House. But Will Politicians Ever Grasp the Nettle of Drug Reform? Whoever wins the American presidential election next month, there will be a dope smoker in the White House next year. Both Barack Obama and Sarah Palin have admitted that, in their youth, they smoked marijuana. British politicians are also becoming marginally franker about their own use of the drug, although the standard term is to "experiment" with cannabis; strangely, no-one talks about their student days "experimenting" with beer and wine. [continues 437 words]
A report on cannabis prepared for next year's UN drug policy review will suggest that a "regulated market" would cause less harm than the current international prohibition. The report, which is likely to reopen the debate about cannabis laws, suggests that controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements and labelling could be explored. The Global Cannabis Commission report, which will be launched today at a conference in the House of Lords, has reached conclusions which its authors suggest "challenge the received wisdom concerning cannabis". It was carried out for the Beckley foundation, a UN-accredited NGO, for the 2009 UN strategic drug policy review. [continues 353 words]
A former senior civil servant who was responsible for coordinating the government's anti-drugs policy now believes that legalisation would be less harmful than the current strategy. Julian Critchley, the former director of the Cabinet Office's anti-drugs unit, also said that his views were shared by the "overwhelming majority" of professionals in the field, including police officers, health workers and members of the government. He also claimed that New Labour's policy on drugs was based on what was thought would play well with the Daily Mail readership, regardless of evidence of what worked. Downing Street policy advisers were said to have suggested stunts such as sending boats down the Thames to catch smugglers to coincide with policy announcements. [continues 470 words]
Governments Urged To Target Traffickers, Not Users West Africa Is New Gateway To European Cocaine Trade The UN will warn today that major drug traffickers are operating with virtual impunity because governments across the world are failing to target cartels. Instead, they are concentrating on small-time users, a strategy the UN says has led to the "rampant flow" of drugs into fresh markets through new international trade routes . According to the 127-page annual report from the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), governments need to make greater efforts to freeze traffickers' assets, improve access to drug treatment programmes and expand the range of non-custodial sentences available for convicted users. [continues 786 words]
The Real 'Softies' Are the Politicians Who Refuse to Engage in a Sober Debate on Cannabis Fifty years ago, Lenny Bruce, the American comedian who was pursued relentlessly by the police for his drug use, remarked that cannabis would be legal soon, "because the many law students who now smoke pot will some day become congressmen and legalise it in order to protect themselves". Since then we have had at least two US presidents and countless congressmen who have used drugs, but changes in the punitive US drugs laws seem as remote as ever. [continues 755 words]
Watchdog Asks Officials to Rethink Use of Statistics Document Obscures Policy Failures, Say Campaigners The Home Office has been accused of misusing its statistics on drugs in order to cover up failures in policy. The independent body responsible for providing and assessing government statistics has now asked the Home Office to "carefully consider" its handling of the figures. In July the Home Office released a consultation paper - Drugs: Our Community, Your Say. It contained a section called "key facts and evidence" in the annexe which put a very positive gloss on the government's policies. [continues 435 words]
It was the drug that fuelled the psychedelic 60s - and was tested as a weapon by MI6. But whatever became of LSD? Duncan Campbell traces its colourful past, and finds that the acidheads are still out there 'I was seeing what Adam had seen on the morning of his creation - the miracle, moment by moment, of naked existence ... flowers shining with their inner light and all but quivering under the pressure with which they were charged ... words like 'grace' and 'transfiguration' came to mind." That was the writer Aldous Huxley extolling the benefits of LSD from his vantage point in the Hollywood Hills in 1953, and he remained, right up to his death - and possibly beyond - an admirer of the substance. He even took it on his deathbed in 1963 so that he could enter the afterlife with, as it were, his doors of perception wide open. Some of LSD's other proponents are still with us. Albert Hofmann, the biochemical researcher credited with discovering LSD in Switzerland in 1943 - he described it as his "problem child" - celebrated his 100th birthday in Basle last year. But where does LSD feature in the drugs firmament today? [continues 1069 words]
Prescribing Drug on NHS 'Would Reduce Crime' Trials Underway at Clinics in London and North-East A top police officer called yesterday for heroin to be prescribed to addicts to cut the link between drugs and crime. Howard Roberts, deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire police, said that making the class A drug available under supervision would save money in the long run. He cited figures showing addicts each commit on average 432 offences a year, "from burglary to robbery, to sometimes murder, to get the money to buy drugs". On average, each addict steals at least UKP45,000 worth of property a year. [continues 380 words]
Bill Clinton smoked it but did not inhale and yesterday Britain's new drugs minister admitted to "one or two puffs" while a student many years ago. Vernon Coaker, who was appointed Home Office minister with responsibility for drugs on May 5, said that he had "not enjoyed" the experience which took place at a party. The MP for Gedling and former deputy headteacher was on his first ministerial outing at a drugs project in the Midlands when he told the Coventry Evening Telegraph: "When I was a student, I took one or two puffs of marijuana but that was it. I think it was once or twice." [continues 161 words]
One of the world's leading cannabis legalisation campaigners, a magazine publisher known as the "Prince of Pot", faced an extradition hearing yesterday in Vancouver, Canada, as American drug agencies sought to put him on trial in the US. Marc Emery's supporters say the move is a first step by American authorities to prosecute foreigners who challenge US laws on cannabis. Mr Emery, publisher of the magazine Cannabis Culture, faces charges of trafficking in marijuana seeds and money laundering. His supporters have been demonstrating outside Canadian embassies in more than 30 countries during the past week to urge Canada's authorities not to yield to pressure from the US and hand him over, arguing he could face a life jail sentence if they did so. [continues 156 words]
One of the world's leading cannabis legalisation campaigners, a magazine publisher known as the "Prince of Pot", faces an extradition hearing today in Vancouver as American drugs agencies seek to put him on trial in the US. His supporters claim the move is a first step by US authorities to prosecute foreigners who challenge the US laws on cannabis. Marc Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture, faces charges of trafficking in marijuana seeds and money laundering. His supporters have been demonstrating outside Canadian embassies in more than 30 countries during the past week to urge Canada's authorities not to yield to pressure from the US and hand him over, arguing he could face a lifetime in prison if they did so. [continues 359 words]
Investors who rely for advice on Forbes, the highly regarded American business magazine, will be tipped off this month about the industry that is now outpacing many others in North America: marijuana growing. The magazine's cover story focuses on "the unstoppable economics of a booming business" and claims marijuana is now Canada's most valuable agricultural product, ahead of wheat, cattle and timber. In the Canadian province of British Columbia, Forbes suggests, the industry is generating US$7bn (UKP 4bn) annually, with signs of growing because of the changing legal climate. "Canadian dope, boosted by custom nutrients, high-intensity metal halide lights and 20 years of breeding, is five times as potent as what Americans smoked in the 1970s," it reports. [continues 195 words]
