To the Presidency of the Italian Council of Ministers
To the Heads of Parliamentary Groups
To the Regions’ Presidents
To the President of ANCI (National Association on Municipalities)
To Italian City Majors
cc: Anti-Drugs Policy Department (DPA)
For Mexico, Legalization is Freedom
February 17th, 2014
By Vicente Fox
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?”
The Italian Supreme Court abolishes the 2006 antidrug legislation
15 February 2014
On February 12th, the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that the 2006 Italian drug legislation (the so called Fini Giovanardi law) is uncostitutional. Consequently, the 1990 legislation, as emended by the 1993 popular referendum (which decriminalized possession for personal use), has been restored.
Mujica: US and Europe must change their drug policy
Thursday, February 13, 2014
By Malena Castaldi and Felipe Llambias
MONTEVIDEO – The United States and Europe need a new strategy in the war on drugs and should look at alternatives such as the regulated sale of marijuana, says Uruguayan President Jose Mujica, whose country recently legalized the production and sale of cannabis.
AND NOW HEMP AS WELL
6 February 2014
The United States federal government may not be ready to sanction marijuana use, but a new agriculture bill is set to legalize preliminary stages of hemp production in states that allow the practice. A new farm bill, passed by Congress on Tuesday, would allow universities and state agriculture departments to establish industrial hemp growing programs. If these research programs go well, they could pave the way for commercial hemp farming to become a reality.
Nope, still no such thing as a fatal marijuana overdose
6 February, 2014
By David Bienenstock
By all accounts, 31-year-old mother of three Gemma Moss recently smoked half a joint to help her sleep, and then she never woke up. It’s a tragic passing that quickly yielded giddy tabloid headlines touting her as “the first woman in Britain to be poisoned to death by cannabis”, as though some incredible sports record had just been achieved.
Czech police chose “wrong weapon” in raids on marijuana cultivation suppliers
3 February 2014, by Ian Willoughby
In November, the Czech police’s drugs unit raided dozens of “grow shops”, businesses that sell products necessary for the cultivation of marijuana. The police justified the large-scale confiscation of goods on the grounds that a court had ruled it was illegal for the shops to offer in one place everything needed to grow the drug, from seeds to literature. This is disputed by the grow shop owners, including my guest today, Michal Otipka, who runs four in Prague. Before we got on to the legal niceties, I asked Otipka how he’d first got into the business.
Why Dutch mayors want to cultivate cannabis
3 february 2014
Dutch laws governing marijuana use are so liberal
that even the US pop star Miley Cyrus failed to
spark too much controversy when she lit a joint
on stage in Amsterdam last year.
Now, 35 mayors are urging the government to take
it a step further and let them grow cannabis too,
as a global shift in favour of legalisation is
leaving the once forward-thinking Netherlands lagging behind.
End the Ban on Psychoactive Drug Research
Feb 1, 2014
Discovery of new psychiatric medication, whether for the treatment of
depression, autism or schizophrenia, is at a virtual standstill. As just one
example, the antidepressants on the market today are no more effective at
reversing the mood disorder than those that first became available in the
1950s.
Dutch town halls demand powers to decriminalise cannabis production
Twenty-three local mayors have drawn up plans to authorise and regulate the production of cannabis in the Netherlands.
The manifesto aims to resolve a long-standing anomaly in Dutch drugs policy. Small amounts of soft drugs can be purchased by individuals in licensed coffeeshops, but the wholesale trade remains illegal and criminals run the supply chain.
27 January 2014
Written by Gordon Darroch