We can score one for the naysayers
Dan Gardner
Source: [The Ottawa Citizen
>http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/index.html]
Friday, June 15, 2007
A CARD FOR NORMALISATION: SPAIN
Amigos de María, a Spanish association of cannabis consumers offers legal advise to its members in order to deal with fines
COPING WITH A HYPOCRIT POLICY: NETHERLANDS
On June 1st, Dutch police acted against coffeeshop Checkpoint in Terneuzen, close to the border with Belgium. In the shop itself and in a private house related to the shop, an amount of almost 100 kilos of cannabis was found that was meant to be sold through the coffeeshop.
Checkpoint, an ENCOD member, is one of the largest coffeeshops in the Netherlands with an average of 2.500 visitors, most of them from Belgium and France. Checkpoint has always co-operated constructively with local authorities to find practical solutions to public order problems in the city related to the coffeeshop tourism, making Terneuzen one of the places where a tolerant approach to cannabis is proving a success. Therefore this police action may fit in a strategy of police and justice to block this process.
ERRADICATION OR LEGALIZATION: AFGHANISTAN
“Defeating Afghanistan’s Drug Fix- Forced eradication and legalization are attractive options that are bound to backfire.”
Nick Grono and Joanna Nathan, Christian Monitor, 31 May 2007
PUBLIC SUPPORT FOR CANNABIS LEGALISATION IN THE EU
From a survey carried out last year by the EUROBAROMETER it turns out that 26 % of EU citizens is in favour of legalisation of cannabis.
AFGHAN GOVERNMENT INCAPABLE OF DISTRIBUTING ANTI-DRUG FUNDS
Cash fails to reach Afghan drug farmers
Financial Times
May 29, 2007
HARM PRODUCTION BY UK GOVERNMENT
UK Government obsession with drug crime has overshadowed the needs of the truly marginalised
BUYING OPIUM WOULD HURT TALIBAN, US GENERAL SAYS
INTERVIEW
Buying Afghan drug crop would hurt Taliban: General William Hobbins of the US Army
THE US IS LOSING ITS WAR ON COCAINE
America has spent billions battling the drug industry in Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. And the result? Production as high as ever, street prices at a low, and the governments of the region in open revolt.
NO INCREASE IN COCA CULTIVATION IN BOLIVIA IN 2006
ONDCP REPORTS NO INCREASE IN COCA CULTIVATION IN BOLIVIA IN 2006
By Kathryn Ledebur (AIN) and Coletta A. Youngers (WOLA)