Related Posts
Eventful in terms of legalisation, we are noticing more reason which gradually erodes the war against some drugs. Still astonishing news in the last weeks keep reminding us that some stones have been put a-rolling, a view shared by ENCOD (European coalition for just and effective drug policies): “The international trend of reforming drug policies has started and is irreversible”(encod.org). There is mostly encouraging news about Cannabis. Take Europe, go to Berlin, a district parliament is actually considering to open the first coffee shop trying to cope with the problem of the quite open illegal sale of it by hundreds of African men in the so called Görlitzer Park – sueddeutsche.de/panorama/drogenpolitik-berlin-plant-deutschlands-erstes-marihuana-cafe-1.1830889). Go to Switzerland, where smoking pot will be fined but not persecuted (blogs.taz.de/drogerie/2013/10/02/schweiz-fuhrt-busgeldregelung-fur-kiffer-ein/). Take America, go to the USA, and stand back to face legalisation in 2 states and lots of support. A Gallup “poll found that now 58 percent of Americans think marijuana should be legal…That is a ten point jump from only a year ago” (justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2013/10/22/popular-support-for-marijuana-legalization-increases-dramatically/) and ongoing proposals for decriminalization and legalisation in several others states – e.g. Florida. Go the Uruguay, the first country to actually legalise Cannabis (theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/11/uruguay-cannabis-marijuana-production-sale-law). Access a study which concludes: “With few exceptions and despite increasing investments in enforcement-based supply reduction efforts aimed at disrupting global drug supply, illegal drug prices have generally decreased while drug purity has generally increased since 1990. These findings suggest that expanding efforts at controlling the global illegal drug market through law enforcement are failing “ (bitly, frank-tempel.de/nc/politik/drogenpolitik/detail/zurueck/drogenpolitik/artikel/forscher-erklaeren-verbotspraxis-in-drogenpolitik-fuer-gescheitert/). The one potential backlash concerns mushrooms, the discussion in the Netherlands about a total ban is yet without a result but the outlook is decidedly bad (wholecelium.com).
