cannabis

German party wants 'Cannabis Clubs'

The Left party in Germany has called for a change in the states attitude towards drugs, they have said they want ‘cannabis clubs’ where Germans can become members and grow marijuana plants, they also believe that consumers should be allowed to own 30 grams of cannabis for personal consumption.

Drug use in France

Drug use, smoking and alcohol: What is happening in France?
A recent survey on drug use, alcohol and smoking run in March of 2011 by the French Observatory of Drugs and Drug Addiction revealed very interesting results regarding the addictions of French young people. The French Observatory interviewed 32.000 17 year olds, asking them about their levels of drug use, including levels of alcohol and smoke. The most important results of the survey were the following:
- Alcohol, cigarette and cannabis were by far the substances mostly preferred by the 17 year olds in 2011.

A new drug policy in Basque Country

Basque Country parliament proposes an amendment to the Addiction Law during the presentation of the VI Addictions Plan 2011-2015. The proposal to be discussed next year would allow over-18 to cultivate, sale and consume of hashish and marijuana. The bill includes measures for prevention and treatment drug “addiction” and other addictions such as gambling and new technologies.

FAC's president detained for drug trafficking before appearance at the House of Lords

Two days before his appearance at the House of Lords for the Drug Policy Reform, Martin Barriuso, the President of the FAC ( Federation of Cannabis Associations) and Pannagh association was detained in Bilbao (Spain) accused of drug trafficking. His detention was part of a broader operation targeting other cannabis associations of less transparent character.

Madness, Poverty and Drugs

The Centre for Social Justice has just published a very interesting report on mental health called Completing The Revolution, Transforming mental health and tackling poverty which very accurately describes the problems faced by people living with mental health problems.

The Impact of Cannabis on the brain

In 2006 an advert was produced and shown on TV in an attempt to discourage people from smoking cannabis. The ad featured customers in a futuristic ‘brain shop’ with the shop being stocked with brains all suffering from apparent chronic symptoms of cannabis use such as memory problems.

State of Apathy

Eric Perez died in custody the night of his arrest, after six-and-a-half hours of vomiting with guards taking no action. The teenager, from West Palm Beach, Florida, was on probation and stopped for riding his bike without lights and arrested for having less than a gram of marijuana on him. The story was hardly picked up, and as a Florida resident, I can say that the majority of Floridians have not heard it. Many realize Florida has a serious problem staying out of the news, especially with bizarre cases.

Canadian study to examine Marijuana Driving link

A study is to take place in Canada by the University of Victoria’s Centre for Addiction Research B.C (CARBC) and will investigate whether there is firstly a link between marijuana and car crashes but secondly what the risk of impairment is whilst driving at various levels of smoking pot.

Yury Fedatov's reefer madness

In a recent interview Yury Fedatov, head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), made an outlandish statement about cannabis leading to “irreparable brain damage.” Hilarious if it wasn’t frightening.

This followed on from the heavy focus on cannabis and mental health in the World Drug Report with references to psychosis and dependency. Great efforts are made in the report to make it appear that cannabis is dangerous.

French politician Daniel Vaillant for cannabis legalisation

French society is a having major debate on the legalisation of cannabis.

Indeed, Daniel Vaillant,Minister of the Relations with Parliament from 1997 to 2000 and Interior Minister from 2000 to 2002, is trying to convince France legalize cannabis.

The Deputy ( Member of the parliament) of the 18th district of Paris, which has a huge population of cannabis users, has already in 2003 proposed a new cannabis legislation.

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