Cannabis Politics and Government Policies, a veiw from the public gallery

'A slice through the politics and policies with regard to cannabis from accross the Globe, a sideways swipe at grass stupidity and the hidden agendas with a political slant, cannabis politics with a
whiff of the of hypocrisy, cannabis politics of the Christian right, cannabis politics of the far left, read on......

Charges were filed against two brothers Friday in the third major marijuana-growing bust Columbia County has seen this year. The two, Michael, 42, and Mark, 44, Shymanski, were each charged with the manufacture/delivery of marijuana, maintaining a drug trafficking place, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia. If convicted, they each face up to 15 years in prison and $35,000 in fines. Authorities were tipped off in the case by a landlord and plumber who were at the Shymanskis' rented home July 27 to do some work and allegedly stumbled upon numerous marijuana plants in various stages of growth. After completing work upstairs in the house, the landlord David Otto and plumber Kevin Pertzborn, went into the basement to check the pipes when they came across "lush green" plants, court documents stated, Full Grass.........

British Columbia (Reuters) - Police raided the headquarters of the British Columbia Marijuana Party on Friday at the request of U.S. investigators targeting one of Canada's best-known advocates of legalizing marijuana. U.S. officials have charged Marc Emery, founder of the Marijuana Party, and two other people with conspiracy to manufacture marijuana, distribute marijuana seeds and money laundering. The charges are in connection with a business that Emery has operated for years over the Internet from offices in Vancouver, on Canada's Pacific Coast. Emery, who has been nicknamed the "Prince of Pot," was arrested in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he was on a visit. He is expected to have a hearing in a court in Vancouver next week for extradition proceedings, according to police officials. Full Raid............

'Drug operations hub moves to Africa'
Scotsman.com
Nick Tattersall
July 29th 2005:

South American drug cartels are moving their logistics bases to West Africa, lured by lax policing in an unstable region and the presence of small, underground criminal groups, United Nations experts said yesterday. Drug cartels are increasingly using West Africa as a hub for smuggling, working with criminal networks from the region who market cannabis, cocaine and heroin in Europe and North America, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). "If you look at recent seizures of cocaine, the biggest are all linked to groups with operations on the West African coast," Antonio Mazzitelli, head of UNODC's regional office for West and Central Africa, said. Consignments of cocaine would mainly come in from Latin America through the Cape Verde islands off the Atlantic coast, or through Ghana, Nigeria and Togo, from where they would be re-exported to markets including Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom. Full Move............

'loads arrested in bikie crackdown'
News.com.au
July 28th 2005:

A crackdown on the illegal activities of bikie gangs in South Australia has resulted in almost 300 arrests, the State Government said. Premier Mike Rann said today 51 arrests in the 12 months brought the total to 296 since Operation Avatar was launched four years ago. In that time police had also seized 300 firearms, 2709 cannabis plants, 559kg of cannabis, 3.2kg of amphetamines, 8894 ecstasy tablets, 107 litres of fantasy and $2.7 million worth of vehicles. "Operation Avatar has achieved terrific results and should be commended for its incredibly diligent work in watching over our outlaw motorcycle gangs," Mr Rann said. "This Government makes no apologies for its tough stand on outlaw bikie gangs as part of our law and order agenda. Full Crack....

Court Nominees Should State Their Positions
Capitolhillblue.com
Paul Campos
July 27th 2005:

The nomination of John Roberts to the Supreme Court raises this issue in a particularly pointed way. What are

Roberts' views on the constitutionality of abortion restrictions, or affirmative action, or federal laws overriding state statutes on issues like medical marijuana or assisted suicide? These are just a few of the issues in regard to which Roberts has never made any public statement. The answer is, no one knows or, if they do know, they're not saying. Yet many of my legal academic colleagues take the view that those charged with determining whether Roberts should be made one of the most powerful persons in the country for the next three decades or even longer shouldn't even inquire into such matters. Full Position............

Marijuana Decriminalization Bill C-17
The Hill Times
Kady O'Malley
July 26th 2005:

The controversial Marijuana Decriminalization Bill has already died twice on the Order Paper. It's up before the House Justice Committee this fall, but lobbyists say there's little support for the bill, on either side of the decriminalization debate. The highly-controversial Marijuana Decriminalization Bill C-17 has remained in suspended animation since its reintroduction last fall, despite meriting a specific mention in Prime Minister Paul Martin's most recent Speech from the Throne, but lobbyists on either side of the debate say the bill is seriously flawed, is a "half-baked measure" and should be killed. Bill C-17, which is the latest incarnation of legislation that has already died on the Order Paper on two previous occasions, was referred to the House Justice Committee last November, but has yet to make it onto the meeting schedule. Full Bill..........

Schapelle

Corby's Indonesian lawyer says a member of a Sydney drug ring has agreed to testify via video-link to a Bali court that she had been an unwitting drug mule for corrupt baggage handlers in Australia. However, the mystery witness will only testify if Australian authorities grant him immunity from prosecution, counsel Hotman Paris Hutapea said. Mr Hutapea said the potential witness claims he was part of a group in Sydney that was supposed to have received the 4.1kg of marijuana found in Corby's luggage at Bali airport last October. "He was involved. He was one of the ones who were supposed to receive the drugs in Sydney," Mr Hutapea said by phone from his Jakarta office. He has no doubts about the man's story or his motivation for coming forward. "I do not believe he is a nutcase," Mr Hutapea said. "He has seen the suffering of Corby and he is showing his humanity. It is very touching." "But whether he is stupid or whether he's legitimate, how do you know without testing him?" Full Case.............

Drugs have been found hidden in nappies, birthday cards, and even a legal letter during a Queensland prison

smuggling blitz. Visitors and friends are resorting to drastic measures to get contraband to inmates. Official government figures show 1000 illegal items have been found on visitors, or detected in mail sent to Queensland prisons in the past two years. "The message is clear – if you're going to smuggle contraband into Queensland jails, you will get caught," Corrective Services Minister Judy Spence told The Sunday Mail. Among the more unusual smuggling attempts identified during a special Corrective Services investigation were: A nappy – fortunately not being worn by a baby – containing a syringe loaded with unidentified drugs. A tube of sunblock containing a syringe, three tablets and compressed marijuana, More......

There has

been a big improvement in the way most schools teach you about drugs, say the schools inspectors Ofsted. It says pupils in England now have a better understanding about drugs, and how they can harm your health. But the report also said lessons focus too much on illegal drugs, even though you are more worried about the effects of alcohol and cigarettes. It also found out that not many schools were interested in random drug testing or using sniffer dogs. The study was based on visits to 60 schools, along with evidence from 200 school inspection reports. Although the report generally found that pupils have a greater understanding of drugs, around one in 10 schools still don't give enough time to drugs education. Teachers and parents seem to be more worried about illegal drugs, but young people see tobacco and alcohol as the biggest threat. David Bell, chief inspector of schools in England, said that not very many children will go on to abuse hard drugs, but are more likely to be affected by alcohol and cigarettes.

Mexico has held nearly 500 people in an ongoing operation against drug-related violence, the government says.

Authorities say they have confiscated more than four tonnes of marijuana in the first week of the offensive by Mexican forces along the US border. The focus is Nuevo Laredo, where about 700 police are being investigated over alleged roles in drug-related crime. The city is a key transit point for drugs into the US and cartels have been fighting for control of the market. A bbc correspondent in Nuevo Laredo says this weekend saw the 71st death this year from the violence. The Mexican army and federal police are deployed in the states of Baja California, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas. Mexico has asked the US to boost border security to stop weapons-trafficking, following criticism from Washington over the way Mexico manages security. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration was increasingly concerned about drug-related violence along the Mexican border.

Seattle> U.S.

government agents have shut down a drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border between Aldergrove, B.C., and Lynden, Wash. Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, a government employee, who had been briefed by local law-enforcement officials. The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90 metres from the border, the source said. The Seattle Times' website reported that investigators used a machine that can "see" underground, a video-equipped robot, a drug-sniffing dog and an air horn to find it. The tunnel was almost a metre wide and 1.5 metres high with a concrete floor, the Times reported. It had wood-beam supports, fibreglass walls, ventilation, video security and groundwater-removal systems. Several altars with flowers and pictures of saints also were found inside, Full Vision.

Officials dismiss prospects for hemp crop
Cyprus Mail
Stefanos Evripidou
July 20th 2005:

The cultivation of hemp is just not viable in Cyprus, despite the availability of European Union (EU) subsidies for

hemp production, said the acting head of the Agriculture Department, Takis Antoniou, yesterday. Within the EU, farmers can obtain a subsidy for the cultivation of hemp and flax (used to make linen). The motive behind the subsidy was to enable farmers a decent income from flax or hemp and to compete with world market prices. France, Spain, the UK, the Netherlands and Germany all cultivate hemp to sell as a natural fibre source.The EU regulations refer to the cultivation of industrial hemp, cannabis sativa l., which contains less than one per cent of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), a psychoactive component. Marijuana contains THC, Full Dismissal.......

'bill sends a false message'
Crime.co.nz
July 19th 2005:

National

says it will not support the new cannabis reform bill suggested by Green MP Nandor Tanczos. National has been the first to deny the Greens cross-party support for its new cannabis reform bill. Nandor Tanczos has proposed a bill which he says meets everyone's concerns about decriminalising the drug. The bill would introduce a system of fines for cannabis possession, along the same lines as current speeding tickets. However, National families' spokeswoman Judith Collins says the that cannabis is harmless. She says her party does not plan to see more New Zealand children exposed to drugs. She says the only cross-party support the bill has is with Labour but adds even then, many in Labour would not agree with this move. United Future leader Peter Dunne has also come out against the new bill.

Washington>

The Netherlands has agreed to reduce the use of drugs within its borders, bowing to a long-standing

demand from the United States. The United States has been trying for seven years to convince the Dutch authorities to control their cannabis cafes and ecstasy factories that target Americans and other foreigners. The agreement was announced by visiting Dutch Health Secretary Hans Hoogervorst and John Walters, the new U.S. drug chief, The Washington Post reported Monday. It comes on the heels of President George W. Bush`s message to Congress that the Netherlands remains a "dominant source country" for "club drugs." The agreement paves the way for a summit this fall between U.S. and Dutch researchers. The plan calls for information sharing between drug addiction experts and the assignment of a Dutch researcher to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

San Francisco> When California considered becoming one of the first states to allow the sale of medicinal marijuana a decade ago, nearly three-fourths of this city's voters embraced the idea. Elected officials, including the district attorney, the city's top law enforcer, openly campaigned for passage of the statewide measure. But now nearly as ubiquitous as coffee shops in some San Francisco neighborhoods, marijuana dispensaries are the subject of increasing scrutiny by city officials who say the proliferation of so-called pot clubs has gone unabated for too long. In April, the city imposed a moratorium on new pot clubs.''We have more medicinal cannabis clubs than Burger Kings and McDonald's combined," said Sean Elsbernd, a member, Full Meal..........

Santa Cruz: Calif. > Organizers of a medical marijuana march in Santa Cruz Saturday promise a festive atmosphere and a bit of reverence for their deceased colleagues. Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana spent its day preparing for the downtown march and rally. About 150 members of the cooperative plan to march through downtown starting at noon, with participants carrying about 25 live pot plants. The Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana said the march will be a"solemn event," honoring the 154 alliance members who have died since the group's inception 12 years ago. Another reason for Saturday's march is a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that dealt the state medical marijuana law a huge setback because federal laws trump the efforts of California and other states to permit marijuana for sick and dying patients.

"They're pretty sneaky"
Dailynews.com
Angie Valencia-Martinez
July 16th 2005:

Thousand Oaks>

In the first raid of the growing season, Ventura County sheriff's deputies and federal agents on Friday seized as many as 800 marijuana plants, valued at $1.5 million.
Servondo Ponce Villa, 22, was arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana, and police were searching for a second suspect. "It's really hard to grab these guys," said Eric Nishimoto, a spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department. "They're pretty sneaky. It's easy for them to take off. We hardly ever catch anybody." Authorities spent two months tracking the suspected growers, using ground and air surveillance. The crop was located on an acre of public parkland, tucked between Rancho Conejo Boulevard and Hill Canyon -- a mountainous area near homes, an apartment complex and an industrial building. Full Story..

Mycoherbicide Redux
Jeremy Bigwood
Special to The Narco News Bulletin
July 15th 2005:

U.S. Congressmen Declare Biological War on South America in New Antidrug Proposal
The Dr. Strangelove fringe of the drug warrior lobby is at it again. Dan Burton and Mark Souder, both Republican Bible Belt U.S. Congressmen from Indiana, are amending the drug czar office’s budget in an attempt to breathe Congressional life into a moribund Frankenstein’s monster scheme. They want to revive mycoherbicides (toxic fungi that kill plants) for use against drug crops. Even U.S. government drug enforcement officials have rejected the proposed mycoherbicides because of their toxicity to humans and the environment. Their use has also been banned throughout the Andes by the governments there. The once-secret mycoherbicide program has a long history. The concept was first proposed during the 1970s and sounded like a good idea to naïve do-gooders and unschooled drug warriors. The government would develop a fungus that would only attack certain drug plants; it would be specific, and leave everything else healthy. It would kill the target marijuana, coca or poppy plants within a couple of weeks, but would linger in the soil and kill any successive plantings for several years. If none of the target plants were grown in the area where it had been applied, after a few years it would die off. The mycoherbicide “silver bullet” would banish illicit drug crops forever. All over the world. End of the drug problem for all time, they said…Full Skullduggery......................

The American

Civil Liberties Union’s Drug Law Reform Project and the Drug Policy Alliance are threatening to sue California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for suspending a program that issues state IDs to those determined to be eligible to legally use medicinal marijuana. Schwarzenegger’s administration suspended the ID program just days before it was set to expand statewide from a four-county tryout and a little more than a month after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that federal antidrug laws banning any marijuana use always trump state-level measures permitting medicinal use. State health director Sandra Shewry said the program, which issued ID cards to residents determined eligible to grow, buy, and smoke medical marijuana, was suspended until the attorney general can determine if participants and state employees are at risk of federal prosecution.

Pot shops soon will be prohibited from operating anywhere in the city of Roseville, under a new ordinance that some medical marijuana advocates say violates state law. The Roseville City Council last week unanimously approved the first reading of a new law permanently banning medical marijuana dispensaries. Other California communities, including nearby Rocklin and Lincoln, have similar bans. "Other cities around here have done it, and I think people in Placer County, which is a conservative community, don't want (marijuana dispensaries)," Roseville City Councilman F.C. "Rocky" Rockholm said. "That's what the constituents are telling me." Leaders with Oakland-based Americans for Safe Access, however, claim such ordinances conflict with state law, because they restrict safe and legal access to medical marijuana. "If you cut off the means to allow collectives and cooperatives from establishing, by extension you're cutting off patients' safe access to medicine," Kris Hermes, legal campaign director for the organization, said this week. Americans for Safe Access recently filed a lawsuit against the city of Fresno challenging its restrictions on medical marijuana dispensing collectives.

Clarissa Goldsmith, 41, said she was arrested in March for smoking cannabis in front of an East Harlem Taco Bell. She said she pleaded guilty to a drug-possession charge that was the latest in a series of narcotics-related run-ins with the law. She was sentenced to serve more than a month at Rikers Island, where she underwent at least her fifth gynecological exam at the hands of jail medical authorities. She said the doctor who examined her was courteous and respectful, but the procedure was painful and humiliating. "How does it make me feel to have to come into a prison to get my vaginal area searched?" she said. "That's private." Goldsmith said she was unaware that she had a choice about being examined. "If you do not do that you automatically get confined to isolation," she said. "You don't get a bed." Full Search.............

A man allegedly caught trying to smuggle 13kg of cannabis through Sydney's domestic air terminal was arrested during

a police operation targeting inter-city drug trafficking, a court has heard.
Hoang Chilong, 48, of Kingsford, in eastern Sydney, was arrested at Sydney airport yesterday after arriving on a flight from Adelaide. Police allege Mr Chilong was carrying $300,000 worth of cannabis in 26 vacuum-sealed plastic bags within his luggage. Mr Chilong faced Waverley Local Court today, charged with supplying an indictable quantity of a prohibited drug. According to a New South Wales Police statement of facts tendered to the court, he was arrested during Operation Flora. More Smuggling.........

Attorneys for a Fairfax County man scheduled to be put to death this month have filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of execution. Justin Michael Wolfe, 23, of Centreville was convicted in 2001 of the murder-for-hire shooting of his cannabis supplier, 21-year-old Daniel Petrole Jr. Wolfe is scheduled for execution July 27. Wolfe, Petrole and gunman Owen Merton Barber IV of Chantilly had been members of a cannabis ring operating throughout Northern Virginia. Barber agreed to plead guilty to first-degree murder and testify against Wolfe in exchange for a life sentence, which he is serving at Wallens Ridge State Prison in Wise County.

Accra> Mr Patrick Kwateng Achemapong, Inspector General of Police, on Monday said the scourge of terrorism

has links in several forms to the wealthy aprons of drug traffickers. "I would like to reiterate the fact that drug trafficking is not an isolated national or regional problem," he said. Mr David Asante-Apeatu, Director of Criminal Investigations Department (CID), said the security agencies in the country were rigorously combating the menace of drugs. He said in Ghana, the mere illegal possession of a narcotic drug carried a minimum sentence of 10 years. Mr Asante-Apeatu said cultivation and consumption of cannabis was prevalent in Africa and called for concerted efforts by Africa Heads of National Drugs Services to formulate strategies to reduce this trend. He noted efforts by the Police and the Narcotics Control Board in destroying cannabis farms in some parts of the country. Full Terror.........

Hundreds of multiple sclerosis (MS) sufferers fear they may have to turn to drug dealers after police stopped a supply of cannabis-laced chocolates used to ease their pain. The THC4MS group(therapeutic cannabis for MS) has been sending out free chocolate bars for over ten years to those whose doctors confirm they have the condition. However the group, based in the north of England, was raided by police recently and equipment confiscated.The service was a first point of contact for sufferers who saw cannabis as a medicine.Cannabis chocolates were first made by Biz Ivol in Orkney, who sent them to fellow MS patients. Ms Ivol, who died last year, was charged in 2003 with cultivating, possessing and supplying the drug, although the case was later dropped. THC4MS began making the cannabis chocolates after Ms Ivol's death, and renamed the product Canna-biz.Mark Gibson, who runs the service with his wife Lesley, an MS sufferer, told The Scotsman the raid followed a package containing the chocolates bursting open in the post. "We were an open secret. We were sending to people from Orkney to Penzance and were tolerated. But this hiccup got the police interested," he said.He and his wife were arrested and bailed. Three more people have since been arrested, though no charges have yet been brought. A Cumbria Police spokesman confirmed five arrests. One woman was later released without charge and the others were bailed until 25 and 26 July for further inquiries.

BC.>If your

neighbour's electricity meter is spinning like a whirling dervish, Chilliwack police and fire officials may soon have the power to inspect that home for possible fire hazards - and maybe shut down a cannabis grow-op in the process. The city is looking at a recent pilot project in Surrey that saw the electricity cut off to about 78 homes that didn't respond within 48 hours to an inspection request to check for fire hazards due to increased electrical consumption. Surrey fire chief Len Garis says most cannabis growers among the 119 homes served with inspection notices during the project had fled by the time inspectors arrived, but preventing fires sparked by grow-ops is the primary goal. Certainly there were cases where the tenant had fled and the owners attended and let us in for the inspection and we found active grow-ops," he said, but the goal is electrical safety. Full Dervish......

The college aims to give pupils a Roman Catholic

education
A leading Catholic independent school is investigating allegations of drug taking by students.
Ampleforth College near Thirsk in North Yorkshire said the inquiry concerns possible cannabis and cocaine use by a small number of sixth formers. Two students have been put on temporary suspension and a further three have been withdrawn by their parents. In February, 21 pupils were suspended after allegations of cannabis use at the £20,520-a-year boarding school. A spokesman for the school said the two students who had been suspended had admitted taking cannabis and the action was in line with the school's disciplinary guidelines. Full Inquiry............

Coming less than 24 hours after the US Supreme Court supported the federal government’s right to prosecute sick people who use marijuana to control their discomfort, the Rhode Island Senate’s emphatic June 7 vote in support of medical marijuana may have come as a surprise — to everyone but Rhode Islanders. On the surface, the tremendous 34-2 bipartisan support shown for the medical-marijuana bill was curious. After all, Rhode Island is a heavily Catholic state where, despite an independent streak and an overwhelmingly Democratic General Assembly, most legislators are social conservatives, and the popular Republican governor, Donald L. Carcieri, strongly opposes the very concept. Then again, in the smallest of states, where everyone, it seems, knows someone who might benefit from medical marijuana to treat cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, or some other debilitating illness, the bill’s passage makes perfect sense. Full Suprise........

Conservative Case for Drug Legalization :Cannabis.
S. Newhart
July 6th 2005:

When Bill Buckley came out for drug legalization and declared the “drug war” a failure, the issue of drug legalization ceased to be a left-right issue. Mr. Buckley wrote, “So what has the drug war done? It has made a mockery of an anti-drug law that is simply ignored by millions; it has induced violent felonies in pursuit of drug profits; and it is self-evidently powerless to do anything about the recent increase in marijuana use by reckless adolescents.” Mr. Buckley makes the conservative case against the drug war by evaluating “The practicality of a legal constriction, as for instance, what those states ought to do whose statute books continue to outlaw sodomy, which interdiction is unenforceable, making the law nothing more than print on paper.” He added, “I came to the conclusion that the drug war was not working, and that it would not work absent a change in the structure of the civil rights to which we cling as a valuable part of our patrimony.” We need to calculate the cost to society by outlawing drugs and weigh it against its legalization. Full Case...........

The biggest and most dangerous drug problem in Indonesia is that of the killer drug, nicotine. Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, strokes, premature death, impotence, asthma and lung diseases, gangrene, stunts growth and harms unborn babies, among other effects. Heroin is definitely a killer drug, but it is not in epidemic proportions as is smoking. Marijuana is an abused drug here in Indonesia and the laws of this country carry stiff penalties for importation. It has harmful effects on the body causing lung cancer and diseases, but so too does nicotine found in cigarettes. Marijuana also has harmful effects on the brain and on motivation. It is not a killer drug like heroin. It does not kill as many people as smoking cigarettes does. I am bewildered by sentences of death or 20 years for smuggling marijuana, but only a few years for the main perpetrator of the Timor Leste massacre, a few years for some rapists and not much time for embezzlers.

'a million marijuana plants destroyed'
Dallas Morning News
Lennox Samuels/Laurence Iliff
4th July 2005:

Mexico finally is fighting the war on drugs that the U.S. government has demanded for decades, a frontal assault

on drug barons, their organizations and their merchandise, using the police and military in concert with U.S. intelligence. The results, Mexican and U.S. authorities say, have been impressive. Forty-six thousand people jailed on drug charges, President Vicente Fox said in a recent speech, 97 tons of cocaine seized, more than a million marijuana plants destroyed. It's been four years, Fox and U.S. officials said, of steady progress. But a rising chorus of voices in Mexico and the United States says the real results are record levels of violence, instability and corruption in Mexico, resurgent drug cartels, nearly 200 dead police officers and soldiers, along with millions of wasted dollars in a country where half the population of 105 million is poor. Mexico receives almost no aid from the United States. Full War........

More than $2 million worth of cannabis found
El Paso Times
Zahira Torres
4th July 2005:

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers confiscated 2,279 pounds of marijuana during 28 seizures last week, officials said. The street value of the drugs was estimated at $2,279,000. Marcos Adrian Fernandez Arzate of Chihuahua City, Chihuahua, was arrested in the largest seizure of the week. On June 26, officers at the Ysleta Port of Entry, along with a drug-sniffing dog,named Waldo found 365 pounds of marijuana while inspecting a furniture-filled truck that Fernandez was driving. About 40 bundles of marijuana were removed from hidden compartments in the wooden furniture.

Tony Blair was warned by his strategy adviser, Lord Birt, that cannabis was responsible for more mental health

emergency hospital admissions

than crack cocaine seven months before the Government downgraded the drug's illegality. Secret reports by Lord Birt, released under the Freedom of Information Act, conclude that cannabis leads to long-term mental damage, has more than one million users and is responsible for 674 admissions to mental health wards in an average year. That compares with 137 admissions for crack, 518 for methadone and 146 for LSD, according to the former BBC director-general. Only heroin was higher with 3,480. Cannabis, which was downgraded from a class B drug to class C in January 2004, was ranked alongside ecstasy and LSD on a harm chart. "Very heavy use may affect ability to work and care for others," the May 2003 report says. Another confidential report by Lord Birt on the health service reveals his doubts about the increased use of the private sector to deliver improvements in the NHS, one of the central planks of Mr Blair's reforms. Full Act...........

Over 3,000

hectares of cannabis-cultivated land was destroyed in northern Morocco, said local authorities Thursday in Tangier. Some 2,041 of cannabis were destroyed in several rural localities of the Larache province (north) and 1,460 hectares in Ksar-Kebir province (north) as part of a campaign launched on June 07 to crack down on the cultivation of this plant. Authorities used agricultural engines, manual lifting and pesticides to destroy these crops. They have also launched an awareness campaign among farmers to convert them to alternative agricultural activities. Some 96,600 families live on cannabis cultivation in Morocco. Morocco has made the fight against drug cultivation and production a national priority, which resulted in a 10% decrease of cannabis cultivated land in 2004.

KOSTANAI (Kazakhstan) The illicit drug transit from Afghanistan is set to increase soon, Russian Interior Minister

Rashid Nurgaliyev said at a bilateral border cooperation conference here. "The situation will aggravate in that direction soon and we should expect an inflow of drugs from Afghanistan, which will threaten not only the Central Asian region, but the whole world," Nurgaliyev said. According to the Russian Interior Ministry, special operations in Kazakh-Russian border regions between January and May resulted in the confiscation of more than 9,000 firearms, some 15 kilograms of explosives, 31 explosive devices, 120 kg of heroin, some 800 kg of raw opium and some 300 kg of hashish and marijuana. Five drug couriers and 33,000 administrative offenses were uncovered in the first quarter of 2005 and 125 people suspected or accused of committing crimes in Russia were detained. The UN said Afghanistan's production accounts for more than 75% of the illegal production of opium in the world fell. According to UN data, in 2004, 4,200 tons of opium was produced in Afghanistan. Russia's Drug Control Service predicts that by the end of this year, some 5,000 tons of opium will have been produced in Afghanistan. Illicit drugs arrive in Central Asia and the CIS via the Tajik-Afghan border and continue on to Europe later.

Hanoi - As

part of an ongoing crackdown on "social evils," a Canadian-Vietnamese owner of a karaoke bar in the country's capital has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for cannabis related offenses, court officials said Friday. Canadian citizen of Vietnamese origin Nguyen Thi Huong Xuan and 11 other employees of Huong Xuan karaoke bar were convicted of "organizing people to take drugs," and sentenced to a total of 91 years in prison, said Nguyen Van Hoi, a official from Hanoi People's Court. Xuan was sentenced in absentia, and police are looking for her, the court official said, following the two-day trial that ended Thursday in Hanoi. Drugs were not for sale at the 10-roomed karaoke parlour, but staff and owners permitted young people to use them. The high-profile bust at the karaoke bar was one of the first in a campaign against drug use by young people, and dozens of people were arrested, then released in April. More Porridge.............