Topic: DRUGS - on October 1, 2013 at 3:13:00 PM CEST
Forscher erklären Kampf gegen Drogen für gescheitert
Heroin, Kokain und Cannabis kosten immer weniger. Die Qualität der Substanzen ist hingegen deutlich gestiegen. Das belegt eine groß angelegte Studie. Die Forscher glauben deshalb: Der globale Kampf gegen die Drogenmafia ist verloren.
Mit aller Härte vorgehen gegen illegale Drogen und die Kartelle dahinter - was Politiker und Polizei propagieren, zeigt offenbar kaum Wirkung. Der globale Krieg gegen Drogen steht einer Studie zufolge vor dem Scheitern. Nicht nur sei das Angebot von Heroin, Kokain und Cannabis in den USA und der EU weiter ungebrochen, zudem seien die Preise gefallen und die Qualität habe sich verbessert, heißt es in der am Montag in der Fachzeitschrift "BMJ Open" veröffentlichten Studie. Die Forscher untersuchten dafür Daten von sieben staatlichen Programmen, die über mehr als ein Jahrzehnt die Entwicklung auf dem internationalen Drogenmarkt verfolgten.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 26, 2013 at 3:24:00 PM CEST
Man Tried Floating to U.S. on Bag of Pot
A man was arrested off the coast of San Diego trying to swim into the U.S. while floating on a duffle bag full of pot, officials said.
U.S. Border Patrol Agents arrested the unidentified man Sept. 19 after spotting him approximately 600 yards from shore just north of the U.S./Mexico border.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 25, 2013 at 2:47:00 PM CEST
The Heretic
For decades, the U.S. government banned medical studies of the effects of LSD. But for one longtime, elite researcher, the promise of mind-blowing revelations was just too tempting.
At 9:30 in the morning, an architect and three senior scientists—two from Stanford, the other from Hewlett-Packard—donned eyeshades and earphones, sank into comfy couches, and waited for their government-approved dose of LSD to kick in. From across the suite and with no small amount of anticipation, Dr. James Fadiman spun the knobs of an impeccable sound system and unleashed Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op. 68.” Then he stood by, ready to ease any concerns or discomfort.
For this particular experiment, the couched volunteers had each brought along three highly technical problems from their respective fields that they’d been unable to solve for at least several months. In approximately two hours, when the LSD became fully active, they were going to remove the eyeshades and earphones, and attempt to find some solutions. Fadiman and his team would monitor their efforts, insights, and output to determine if a relatively low dose of acid—100 micrograms to be exact—enhanced their creativity.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 17, 2013 at 3:54:00 PM CEST
EU will neuartige Drogen stoppen
Neuartige Drogen, die sich immer schneller ausbreiten, sollen in Europa künftig rascher verboten werden. Die EU-Kommission will dies durch beschleunigte Verfahren erreichen. Die Substanzen werden oft übers Internet mit falscher Kennzeichnung vertrieben.
Brüssel - Die EU-Kommission verlangt ein schnelleres Vorgehen gegen neue Drogen. "Die neuen Suchtstoffe werden in Europa immer problematischer und gefährden vor allem junge Menschen", warnte Justizkommissarin Viviane Reding. Dabei geht es um Stoffe, die oft legal als Wirkstoff in Arzneimitteln dienen, aber als Alternative zu illegalen Drogen wie Kokain oder Ecstasy missbraucht werden.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 17, 2013 at 3:53:00 PM CEST
Washington: Finale Regeln für die Cannabisregulierung – Maximale Produktion: 40 Tonnen Marihuana
Die Kontrollbehörde für Alkohol – und jetzt auch Cannabis – im Bundesstaat Washington hat die finalen Regeln für die legale Cannabisindustrie verkündet. Hier sind einige Details: Limitierung der Geschäfte
Die Konsumenten in Washington werden ihr Cannabis von bis zu 334 Läden beziehen können. Diese werden auf die Counties und Städte aufgeteilt. In Seattle werden 21 legale Cannabisläden erlaubt sein, eine großer Unterschied von den geforderten 100 Läden plus Abgabestellen für Medizinalhanf, den die Stadtbewohner wollten.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 15, 2013 at 1:54:00 PM CEST
Legal cannabis market 'would be worth £1.25bn a year to government'
The report, by the Institute for Social and Economic Research, quantifies for the first time the revenue to be gained from the regulation and taxation of the cannabis market in England and Wales.
It estimates that reduced enforcement costs, such as police, court and prison time and community sentences, could save £300m or more alone, with the remaining three-quarters of the net benefit come from tax revenue.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 11, 2013 at 3:01:00 PM CEST
Drogendealer im Görlitzer Park: Das grüne Experiment
Die Grünen wollen Cannabis im Görlitzer Park in Berlin legal verkaufen, die CDU will das Grundstück einzäunen: Am Streit um den richtigen Umgang mit Drogendealern zeigen sich die Linien der deutschen Drogenpolitik. "Ich will den Verkauf kontrollieren", sagt Bezirksbürgermeisterin Herrmann.
Berlin - Bis zum ersten Angebot dauert es keine 20 Schritte: "Dope?", fragt der junge Mann kurz hinter dem Eingang zum Görlitzer Park. Zehn Meter weiter wartet schon der nächste Dealer auf Kundschaft: "Brauchst du was?"
Ein Wochentag im "Görli", wie sie den Park hier in Berlin-Kreuzberg nennen. Es ist gerade mal 10.30 Uhr, doch die Dealer sind schon da. Sie sind immer da, an manchen Tagen bis zu hundert, so schätzt die Polizei. Massive Razzien blieben wirkungslos, nach kurzer Zeit waren die meisten Verkäufer - oder Nachrücker - zurück an ihrem Platz.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 10, 2013 at 4:29:00 PM CEST
Afghanistan's cannabis production rises
The amount of Afghan farmland planted with cannabis fell by nearly a fifth last year after one province launched a fierce eradication campaign, but a bumper crop meant that actual production rose compared with 2011, according to the UN.
Officials in southern Uruzgan province, which borders Kandahar and Helmand, largely stamped out farming of the drug because of worries it was financing the Taliban. In 2011 there were over 1,000 hectares of the crop there, but last year under 100 hectares were sown.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 5, 2013 at 2:44:00 PM CEST
Here Are All The People Who Have Died From A Marijuana Overdose
Just how deadly a killer is marijuana? Here's a GIF showing all of the people who have died after overdosing on pot:
Yeah, not a single person has ever died from a weed overdose. We don't have numbers on pandas, but we're guessing it's about the same. According to one frequently cited study, a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times the amount of THC in a joint in order to be at risk of dying.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 2, 2013 at 1:56:00 PM CEST
Britain named the European capital of drug addiction
This country is now the “addictions capital of Europe”, according to the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), the think tank established by Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary.
The abuse of drugs and alcohol costs the nation a total of £36 billion annually with an “epidemic of drink-related conditions” and an emerging problem from other substances which are currently technically legal.
Christian Guy, the director of the CSJ, said: “While our addiction problem damages the economy, it is the human consequences that present the real tragedy.
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Topic: DRUGS - on September 2, 2013 at 1:54:00 PM CEST
Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s
For at least six years, law enforcement officials working on a counternarcotics program have had routine access, using subpoenas, to an enormous AT&T database that contains the records of decades of Americans’ phone calls — parallel to but covering a far longer time than the National Security Agency’s hotly disputed collection of phone call logs.
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Topic: DRUGS - on August 30, 2013 at 4:34:00 PM CEST
These States Are Most Likely To Legalize Pot Next
Attorney General Eric Holder gave a green light on Thursday to two states whose efforts to legalize marijuana had been locked in by legal uncertainty for more than nine months. With that announcement, Colorado and Washington -- both of which passed pro-pot initiatives at the polls last November -- can now proceed with establishing a framework for the taxation and regulation of legal weed.
The administration's decision holds clear and immediate implications for the two states, both of which had been hesitant to act too quickly over concerns that the government might decide to enforce federal law, which still considers marijuana an illegal substance. But the new precedent also opens the door for other states to pursue similar pot legalization efforts, so long as they include "strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems." Experts on both sides of the issue have already said they expect to see movement come quickly.
Below, the states that are most likely to take the next steps toward legalizing marijuana:
Alaska Arizona California Nevada Oregon Maine Massachusetts Montana Rhode Island Vermont
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