SYDNEY, Australia - The question from the debate moderator in New Zealand was simple and to the point: "Jacinda Ardern, have you ever used cannabis?" "Yes I did," said Ms. Ardern, the country's popular prime minister, "a long time ago." The moderator paused, looking surprised. Then the audience applauded. Ms. Ardern later declined to say whether she supported the legalization of marijuana, which New Zealanders will decide in a referendum with the national election on Oct. 17. But by that point in the debate on Wednesday, she had already won another smiley-face emoji from the global left, while reminding voters that she hadn't always been so earnest. [continues 865 words]
Early on a December morning, Robert Coogan pulled his red Chevy hatchback into the parking lot of the state prison in Saltillo, Mexico. It was frigid outside, the sun had not yet cleared the reddish mountains, and Coogan lingered, staring at the tall black letters on the prison's high walls: "CERESO" - Centro de Reinsercion Social, the place where criminals are supposed to be reformed. Coogan, who has served as chaplain at the prison for a decade, slowly pulled himself from the warm car. In dark jeans, brown boots and a thick gray sweater, he looked more like a factory foreman than a Brooklyn-born priest. [continues 5076 words]
Uruguay moved a step closer to becoming the first country to legalize marijuana, with lawmakers introducing a bill that outlines how the drug would be produced, sold and regulated. The bill introduced Thursday in the lower house of Congress would allow citizens to grow up to six marijuana plants and to buy 1.4 ounces of marijuana every month. It would also allow for the licensing of marijuana clubs with up to 15 members, 90 plants and an annual production limit of nearly 16 pounds. Advertising and exports would be banned, and a regulatory institute would be created to control the drug's production and distribution. President Jose Mujica has promoted the legalization of marijuana as a way to reduce the addiction and crime associated with harder drugs. Supporters expect the bill to become law by early next year. [end]
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras - The Honduran Air Force pilot did not know what to do. It was the dead of night, and he was chasing a small, suspected drug plane at a dangerously low altitude, just a few hundred feet above the Caribbean. He fired warning shots, but instead of landing, the plane flew lower and closer to the sea. "So the pilot made a decision, thinking it was the best thing to do," said Arturo Corrales, Honduras's foreign minister, one of several officials to give the first detailed account of the episode. "He shot down the plane." [continues 2530 words]
Montevideo, Uruguay - The government in Uruguay may soon get its hands dirty with marijuana as part of a rising movement in Latin American nations to create alternatives to the U. S.- led war on drugs. Uruguay President Jose Mujica first called for "regulated and controlled legalization of marijuana" in a security plan unveiled last month. U.N. officials say no other country has seriously considered creating a completely legal state-managed monopoly for marijuana or any other substance prohibited by the 1961 U. N. Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. [continues 365 words]
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay - The agricultural output of this country includes rice, soybeans and wheat. Soon, though, the government may get its hands dirty with a far more complicated crop - marijuana - as part of a rising movement in this region to create alternatives to the United States-led war on drugs. Uruguay's famously rebellious president first called for "regulated and controlled legalization of marijuana" in a security plan unveiled last month. And now all anyone here can talk about are the potential impacts of a formal market for what Ronald Reagan once described as "probably the most dangerous drug in America." [continues 1257 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Rhino trucks, narco tanks, Mad Mex-inismos? No one can agree on what to call the armored monster vehicles that Mexican criminal groups have been welding together in recent months, but this much is clear -- they are building more of them. Over the weekend, Mexican authorities found two more of these makeshift road warriors in Tamaulipas, the same northern border state where the first armored vehicle appeared in April after a battle between the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas gang. In the latest case, the Mexican Defense Department said, the armored trucks were found in a metalworking shop in Camargo, which also held at least two other partly modified monsters and 23 additional trucks. [continues 220 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen on a highway in northern Mexico killed an agent with United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Tuesday and wounded another, in an attack that signaled the escalating risk for American officials fighting Mexican crime gangs that move drugs and migrants into the United States. The United States homeland security secretary, Janet Napolitano, said in a statement that the agents were assigned to the customs agency's attache office at the American Embassy in Mexico City, and that they had been shot in the line of duty while driving between the city and Monterrey. [continues 363 words]
MEXICO CITY -- Gunmen blockaded President Felipe Calderon's hometown on Thursday, forcing drivers from their cars, trucks and buses, then setting the vehicles ablaze in the middle of major intersections. Jonathan Arredondo, a spokesman for the attorney general's office in Michoacan State, where the blockade occurred, said the brazen effort stopped traffic around 11 a.m. at all five entrances to Mr. Calderon's hometown, the colonial city of Morelia, ending only after the fires died down. It appeared to be a show of force by La Familia, a drug gang. Several of its leaders have been arrested in recent months, but the criminal outfit -- notorious for beheadings, methamphetamine production and brash attacks on government forces -- continues to fight for control of the area west of Mexico City that it has dominated for years. [continues 193 words]
Prescription Drugs in 3 Times More Deaths Than Illicit Ones. MIAMI - From "Scarface" to "Miami Vice," Florida's drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by illicit ones. Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it. [continues 653 words]
MIAMI -- From "Scarface" to "Miami Vice," Florida's drug problem has been portrayed as the story of a single narcotic: cocaine. But for Floridians, prescription drugs are increasingly a far more lethal habit. An analysis of autopsies in 2007 released this week by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission found that the rate of deaths caused by prescription drugs was three times the rate of deaths caused by all illicit drugs combined. Law enforcement officials said that the shift toward prescription-drug abuse, which began here about eight years ago, showed no sign of letting up and that the state must do more to control it. [continues 482 words]
NEWARK, Oct. 26 - Gov. James E. McGreevey signed an executive order on Tuesday that aims to decrease the spread of AIDS by making it legal for drug addicts in three cities to exchange their used syringes for new ones. The order, issued under the governor's power to declare a health emergency, authorized the Department of Health and Senior Services to oversee needle-exchange programs in cities that meet specific guidelines. Syringes were expected to be available in Camden and Atlantic City within weeks; a third city has yet to qualify. The order, which some critics immediately denounced, leaves Delaware the only state that both prohibits such exchanges and criminalizes the possession or purchase of syringes without a prescription. [continues 947 words]
The War On Drugs Is Preventing Many Americans From Getting Desperately Needed Pain Medicine After three decades of chronic, searing pain, Marie Dabrowski was finally able to sleep. She was able to think. And sometimes, thanks to her new pills, she could almost forget about her fibromyalgia, a mysterious nerve disorder characterized by fatigue, migraine headaches and full-body aches. But Dabrowski's respite did not last. The medication responsible for her two-year break from daily misery was OxyContin. And about a month ago, Dabrowski's doctor cut her off. The move had nothing to do with callousness or lack of concern, says Dabrowski, who asked that her doctor remain anonymous. Instead, the doctor was spooked by a proposed Virginia law designed to intensify scrutiny of physicians who prescribe the drug. In the end, says Dabrowski, it was the prospect of police interrogation that pushed her doctor over the edge. [continues 1062 words]
After more than a two-year battle, legalized marijuana is still far from a reality, but its advocates continued the fight Wednesday, speaking before the media and a N.H. House Criminal Justice subcommittee. Two bills -- one to decriminalize marijuana possession, another to allow its cultivation and possession for medicinal uses -- are on the legislative calendar, both sponsored by Rep. Timothy N. Robertson, D-Keene. Robertson has proposed similar bills in past sessions. This time, five or six of the full committee's 22 members listened to a pair of experts in the field. Most of the discussion centered on the medical uses of marijuana. [continues 407 words]
