Will Legalizing Marijuana in Uruguay Trigger a Global Revolution? Updated 03/05/2014, 11:06AM Uruguay is poised to legalize recreational marijuana on Tuesday, an experiment that will force the United States to reevaluate its own international drug policies. The Uruguayan government will oversee the cultivation and distribution of pot, and residents will be able to purchase up to 1.4 ounces of marijuana each month. Along with Uruguay, other nations are considering marijuana law reforms. Last month, Jamaica’s Parliament endorsed decriminalizing pot, and lawmakers in Morocco are drafting a plan to legalize marijuana cultivation. Are these signs that the United States is de-escalating the global war on drugs? When it comes to marijuana, yes. Don’t expect overt policy change from federal agencies yet. “The U.S. is going to be in a weak position to pressure other countries,” said John Walsh, a drug-policy expert with the Washington Office on Latin America. So the legalization programs in Colorado and Washington aren’t just breaking federal law. The U.N.
L'Uruguay va vendre un cannabis légal à 0,75€ le gramme pour lutter contre le trafic de drogue Les autorités de l’Uruguay veulent mettre en place une nouvelle stratégie pour combattre les trafiquants de drogue. Si le Sénat valide leur proposition, l’État pourrait autoriser dès 2014 la vente du cannabis à 0,75 euro le gramme. Le texte proposé par le gouvernement prévoit trois moyens encadrés de se procurer le produit. L’autoculture d’abord avec six plants maximum par consommateur, la culture dans les clubs de membres avec un maximum de 45 personnes pour 99 plants et enfin la vente en pharmacie pour 40 grammes maximum chaque mois. Les parlementaires ont déjà approuvé le projet de loi le 31 juillet dernier. Luis Gallo, un sénateur de la majorité a indiqué que le projet de loi pourrait être approuvé dans les prochains jours, le vote devant intervenir début novembre. Cette loi pourrait rapporter entre 30 et 40 millions de dollars par an à ce petit pays d’Amérique du Sud. Source : AFP
Uruguay’s president nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for legalizing marijuana Published time: February 06, 2014 09:18 Edited time: February 07, 2014 12:49 Jose Mujica (AFP Photo / Miguel Rojo) The president of Uruguay has been nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. According to his advocates, José “Pepe” Mujica's much talked-about marijuana legalization is in fact "a tool for peace and understanding." For the second year in a row, the Drugs Peace Institute, which has supported Mujica’s marijuana legalization drive since 2012, insisting that the consumption of marijuana should be protected as a human right, has endorsed his candidacy, along with members of Mujica's leftwing political party the Frente Amplio, the PlantaTuPlanta (Collective of Uruguayan growers) and the Latin American Coalition of Cannabis Activists (CLAC). Despite an avalanche of global criticism, in late December Uruguay became the first country in the world to fully legalize the production and sale of the popular herbal drug. AFP Photo / Desiree Martin
Nobel for legalization of drugs: bad joke or pragmatic consideration? In recent years and even decades, the authority of the Nobel Peace Prize was shaken. And its supervisors have nobody to blame but themselves. This one-time serious international prize awarded to the best of the best now more and more frequently depends on political situation and some apparently purely pragmatic considerations. Suffice it to recall the 2009 award, when it was given to the newly elected US President Barack Obama, who just could not physically managed to achieve any success on this post. But he achieved it later, for example, in Afghanistan. In 2012, the prize was awarded to the European Union for the protection of human rights. Moreover, President of Institute of National Strategy Mikhail Remizov believes that it has never been ranged among authoritative prizes. "It was, in fact, usurped by representatives of the European left-wing liberal intelligentsia, who use very subjective, arbitrary criteria while selecting nominees and winners.
Cost of Marijuana Prohibition: Economic Analysis Legalize All Drugs Legalize it? We think so. | Help to raise awareness of WORLDWIDE legalization Violent Crime Drops Where People Have Access to Marijuana, Study Suggests April 11, 2014 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. Opponents of marijuana legalization, particularly members of law enforcement, frequently claim that liberalizing cannabis laws will lead to an increase in incidences of criminal activity, such as burglary, robbery, and driving under the influence. In the most recent paper, published online in March in the scientific journal PLoS ONE, researchers at the University of Texas at Dallas reported that the enactment of laws legalizing people’s access to medical marijuana is not associated with any rise in statewide criminal activity, and that it may even be related to reductions in incidences of violent crime. Authors reported that the passage of medical marijuana laws is not associated with an increase in any of the seven crime types assessed, but that liberalized laws are associated with decreases in certain types of violent crime. They concluded:
Marijuana News, Cannabis Culture, & Medical Marijuana | The Weed Street Journal Grass (1999 film) The film presents this map of US states with non-medical marijuana decriminalization laws. State-level but not federal decriminalization of non-medical marijuana No federal or state level decriminalization of non-medical marijuana The film follows the history of US federal policies and social attitudes towards marijuana, beginning at the turn of the twentieth century. The history presented is broken up into parts, approximately the length of a decade, each of which is introduced by paraphrasing the official attitude towards marijuana at the time (e.g. "Marijuana will make you insane" or "Marijuana will make you addicted to heroin"), and closed by providing a figure for the amount of money spent during that period on the "war on marijuana." The film places much of the blame for marijuana criminalization on Harry Anslinger (the first American drug czar) who promoted false information about marijuana to the American public as a means towards abolition.
FBI 'weed' problem in cyber-war - Gadgets and Tech - Life & Style According to The Wall Street Journal, director James Comey has acknowledged strict FBI rules about hiring people who smoke cannabis could have complicated efforts to recruit cyber-security specialists. The agency’s policy prohibits anyone working for it who has used cannabis in the past three years. Unfortunately, hackers like their weed. “I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cyber-criminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” the newspaper quoted Mr Comey as saying at the White Collar Crime Institute’s annual meeting in New York. It added that when one person asked how a cannabis-using friend interested in working for the FBI should now act, Mr Comey replied: “He should go ahead and apply.” “The sort of hackers you want to hire tend to be young; the young tend to have bad habits such as smoking marijuana, and over time you’d expect them to do this less,” Dr Richard Clayton of Cambridge University said.