Mexico City - WHEN the Mexican Army actually allows journalists to watch its soldiers in action, it's often to see them burning marijuana crops. It's strictly for show, but it's fun. You get to fly in a military helicopter over the Sierra Madre, then touch down to see troops posing with their rifles as they walk into green marijuana fields. And the highlight: You watch hundreds of pounds of grass go up in flames. Mexican soldiers have been conducting this ritual for decades, and the photos have come to define the country's war on drugs. But amid a wave of drug policy reform, those photos may soon disappear from news pages and be relegated to historical archives. [continues 777 words]
Ex-Mexican President Says Both Sides of the Border Should Be Scared Former Mexican President Vicente Fox isn't the guy you would expect to see sporting a bright pink Donald Trump brand tie. Fox has had plenty to say about the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee - and none of it is complimentary. But then he has a point he wants to make: "Look at the back, hidden here," he says, pointing to the manufacturer's label. "'Made in China.' So he's really protecting workers in the United States, protecting jobs in the United States." [continues 1005 words]
Former Supreme Court Justice Louise Arbour is among a host of international jurists, politicians, celebrities and sports stars to sign a letter that denounces the "disastrous" war on drugs and urges the United Nations to lead the world toward a more enlightened drug policy. "Humankind cannot afford a 21st century drug policy as ineffective and counter-productive as the last century's," reads the letter, delivered to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in advance of next week's UN special session on drugs. [continues 347 words]
New Rules in 2 States Could Attract Major Outside Investors. SEATTLE - When the legal pot industry began to boom in Washington state, big-money investors predicted the cannabis trade in the Northwest would soon be the darling of corporate America. Former Mexican President Vicente Fox appeared at a Seattle news conference in 2013 along with pot entrepreneur Jamen Shively, who laid out plans to create the first national brand of marijuana and promised Big Tobacco-like growth. "Yes," he said, "we are Big Marijuana." [continues 1123 words]
Mexico may soon enter an elite club composed of Holland, Portugal, Uruguay and Colorado, Oregon and Washington state: It's on the verge of excluding marijuana from the destructive war on drugs. But will the United States stand in its way? On Nov. 4, Mexico's Supreme Court voted by a wide margin to declare unconstitutional the country's ban on the production, possession and recreational consumption of marijuana. A group of citizens had banded together in a so-called cannabis club (named SMART, for the initials in Spanish of its full title) and requested permission to grow and exchange marijuana among themselves; the government's health agency (the equivalent of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration) denied them permission; the group sought a writ of habeas corpus, and went all the way to the Supreme Court, which granted them the writ and ordered the agency to legalize the club and allow it to function. [continues 538 words]
The end of the second prohibition era draws near. The disastrous consequences of the misbegotten "War on Drugs," with its focus on marijuana, are now widely recognized. More humane approaches to drug use are being implemented as states ease restrictions. But not if the bitter-enders prevail - as witness Gov. Chris Christie's struggle with the issue in the most recent GOP debate. President Nixon declared war on drugs in 1971, placing the counter-culture's favored drug, marijuana, on Schedule I of controlled substances. Since then, countless lives have been ruined, not so much by the drug itself, but by the legal regime that followed. [continues 658 words]
How many wars can we fight? Our presidential candidates demand "stronger action" against both illegal immigration and illegal drugs. But those goals conflict. The War on Drugs makes border enforcement much harder! America's 44-year-long Drug War hasn't made a dent in American drug use or the supply of illegal drugs. If it had some positive effect, prices of drugs would have increased, but they haven't. American authorities say drugs are more available than ever. Drug prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, creates fat profits that invite law-breaking. [continues 621 words]
MONTEVIDEO (AFP) - After Uruguay first moved to legalize marijuana in 2013, the approach has taken root in Latin America with several other countries now considering a revamp of their own drug laws. "Someone has to start in South America," Uruguayan President Jose Mujica said in late 2013 as he unveiled plans to make cannabis legal in his country. Under Mujica, Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize marijuana all the way from the cannabis field to the joint, setting up a regulated market for cultivation, sales and use. Though marijuana is not yet being sold in pharmacies, the National Drug Council, or JND, already counts 1,300 of the country's 3.3 million inhabitants registered as self-producers. There are also six clubs of up to 45 consumers. [continues 609 words]
Here's the biggest irony of Tuesday's mid-term elections: the US government will continue demanding that Mexico, Colombia and other countries fight the marijuana trade as part of its "war on drugs," while Washington voters have just approved making pot legal in the US capital. Under an initiative passed by DC voters in Tuesday's elections, residents aged over 21 will be able to possess two ounces of marijuana and grow up to six plants for recreational consumption outside federal lands, pending congressional approval of the measure. [continues 633 words]
Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted - they stop after using a few times. It is also true - and regrettable - that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry - Big Tobacco 2.0 - intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 861 words]
Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted - they stop after using a few times. It is also true - and regrettable - that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry - Big Tobacco 2.0 - intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 1244 words]
Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted --- they stop after using a few times. It is also true - --- and regrettable --- that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry --- Big Tobacco 2.0 --- intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 580 words]
IF YOU THINK BIG TOBACCO WAS BAD, WAIT TILL YOU GET A WHIFF OF BIG MARIJUANA, SAYS KEVIN SABET Proponents of legalization and other drug policy reforms make some important points. It is true that most people who try drugs do not get addicted - they stop after using a few times. It is also true - and regrettable - that America's incarceration rate is embarrassingly high and that blacks and Latinos bear the brunt of harsh arrest policies. And, finally, despite our best efforts, fully eradicating drug use and its consequences remains a distant dream. But placing faith that legalization will help any of these issues is misguided. In fact, legalization threatens to further contribute to disproportionate health outcomes among minorities, all the while creating a massive new industry - Big Tobacco 2.0 - intent on addicting the most vulnerable in society. [continues 1245 words]
Trapped in a war on drugs, we can never defeat the enemy. American prohibition only works for the criminals I recently had the opportunity to meet with Jim Pattison, one of Canada's most powerful and influential business people. While sitting in his office overlooking Burrard Inlet and the mountains of Vancouver, Mr. Pattison asked me a most timely and intriguing question: "President Fox, I have read recently that you are in favour of the legalization of marijuana. Is that true?" [continues 738 words]
They Now Work in Legalized Pot Trade SEATTLE - In a decade with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Patrick Moen rose to supervise a team of agents busting methamphetamine and heroin rings in Oregon - before giving it all up to join the nascent legal marijuana industry in Washington state. In November, the former federal drug agent quit his post to work for a marijuana industry investment firm and says he relishes getting in on the ground floor of a burgeoning industry he was once sworn to annihilate. [continues 714 words]
A self-described aging hippie friend posted this New Year's message on Facebook that made me laugh, and then made me think: "Twenty years ago, if someone had told me I would live to see the day that marijuana would become legal for recreational use, gays not only were out of the closet but could legally marry, an African-American president would be elected and re-elected ... I'd have said: dream on." "Bring on 2014," she wrote. With gay people marrying, even in Utah (the Supreme Court has that on hold), pot-for-pleasure legal in Colorado and soon to be decriminalized in Washington state, and medical marijuana legal in 18 other states, two issues that once drove social morality campaigns are on their way to becoming obsolete. Not only will that profoundly change the way life is lived around America; it's also shaking up politics and robbing the culture warriors of a rallying cry. [continues 600 words]
The year began shortly after Colorado and Washington altered the drug-policy landscape by legalizing weed the previous November. At the start of 2013, both states got down to writing rules to implement the will of the voters. By year's end, both states had created a framework for regulating the commercial production, processing and selling of recreational marijuana. Along the way, milestones occurred here in Washington and as far away as Uruguay. Jan. 24 The state Liquor Control Board, charged with implementing Washington's legal pot law, begins holding public hearings. Seattle City Hall is packed to capacity on Jan. 24. John Eskola, representing small medical-marijuana growers, seems to speak for many when he tells board members: "The war is over. We won. Don't punish us, take our money." [continues 547 words]
Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field. The small -- population 3.4 million -- Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana. The country's senate narrowly, 16-13, approved a law allowing individuals older than 18 to buy up to 40 grams -- just over 1.4 ounces -- a month from state-licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up to 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram. [continues 303 words]
Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field. The small-population 3.4 million-Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana. The country's senate narrowly, 16 to 13, approved a law allowing individuals over 18 to buy up to 40 grams - just over 1.4 ounces - a month from state licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram. [continues 332 words]
Uruguay has volunteered to be the canary in the cannabis field. The small - population 3.4 million - Latin American nation has voted to legalize the growth and sale of marijuana. The country's senate narrowly, 16 to 13, approved a law allowing individuals over 18 to buy up to 40 grams - just over 1.4 ounces - a month from state licensed dealers. Individuals also have the alternative of growing up 1.06 pounds of pot for their own use. The price is likely to be around $1 a gram. [continues 404 words]
