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Hong Kong Police Seize $83M of Cocaine, Cannabis

May 30, 2023 Published by

Hong Kong police seized HK$650 million worth of cocaine and cannabis in the biggest haul uncovered this year, South China Morning Post reports. Authorities arrested four men aged 25 to 32 on suspicion of drug trafficking. 

Confiscated in a three-day-long operation, which concluded last Friday, the Hong Kong narcotics bureau seized a whopping 592kg of suspected cocaine and 91.2 kilograms of cannabis buds, worth the equivalent of $82.97 million U.S. dollars. 

There are dozens of lists online of the wackiest places people smuggle drugs, everything from breast implants to sharks. This haul included a relative of the latter. Much of the substances were hidden in boxes of frozen fish to avoid detection, as the odor could help mask that of the cannabis buds (obviously, it didn’t work). 

“The cannabis flower buds seized this time were stored among frozen fish,” Chief Inspector Charm Yiu-kwong said in a press briefing. “We believe the drug cartel used this method … in an attempt to cover up the odor of marijuana with the frozen fish’s pungent smell.”

According to Senior Inspector Law Kai-yin, the bureau ran an ambush against a drug syndicate on Wednesday at two industrial buildings in Kwun Tong, on How Ming Street and Wai Yip Street. They stopped a 32-year-old man, a construction worker with the last name So, leaving the industrial unit on How Ming Street. They discovered 120 packs of cocaine, each weighing 1kg, and arrested him for alleged drug trafficking, Law shared. 

The maximum sentence for drug trafficking in Hong Kong is life imprisonment. 

Additionally, the police stopped a pair of men, one 25-year-old with the surname Chan and another 31-year-old named Leung. They led them to 91.2kg of cannabis at the Wai Yip Street warehouse. The two men, one a kitchen worker and the other in construction, were also arrested on suspicion of drug trafficking. After searching different warehouses nearby, assumed to be controlled by the same group, the detectives seized 472 packs of cocaine, each weighing 1kg. 

The fourth man arrested is 32-year-old Chong, who is currently unemployed. Authorities snatched him as he tried to flee Hong Kong. Allegedly, at least some of the four men are associated with a triad drug trafficking group and are scheduled to appear at Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts on Saturday. 

Hong Kong authorities are trying to establish a connection between another case, two weeks ago, which involved 227kg of cocaine and led to the arrests of 10 suspects. On Thursday, Hong Kong customs officials arrested a 20-year-old man on suspicion of trafficking after finding about 3kg of suspected cocaine and 26g of alleged crack cocaine at an apartment in Tai Koo, estimated at HK$3.3 million.

As the bureau’s Senior Superintendent Chan Kong-ming said, Hong Kong is currently turning up the heat in efforts to crack down on drug arrests, with particular attention to cocaine. “Recently, the production of coca leaves in South American countries has continued to increase, resulting in a corresponding reduction in the cost of manufacturing cocaine,” he said, South China Morning Post reports. “The narcotics bureau has stepped up intelligence gathering on the risk of more cocaine flowing into Hong Kong due to the fallen prices.” 

However, with the air of a publicist, Chan continues that drug smuggling and use in Hong Kong was “by and large under control” and did not expect an upwards trend locally.

Back in 2020, the Chinese government imposed the draconian National Security Law (NSL) on Hong Kong with what has been called “devastating consequences for human rights.”

The post Hong Kong Police Seize $83M of Cocaine, Cannabis appeared first on High Times.

Pot Smoking Ban Takes Effect In Amsterdam’s Red Light District

May 26, 2023 Published by

A new era kicked off in Amsterdam’s Red Light District on Thursday, with a ban on smoking cannabis on the streets officially taking effect.

The ban is part of a city-wide effort, pushed by Mayor Femke Halsema, to make the famous area more hospitable to its residents and workers.

According to Reuters, signs “were posted in the canal-lined neighbourhood known for its brothels, sex clubs and marijuana cafes, which attract millions of tourists a year, but are a nuisance to residents.”

Those found in violation of the new law will face a €100 (or about $110) fine.

The law was proposed earlier this year by the Amsterdam city council.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council added.

The city council gave final approval to the proposal earlier this month, setting the stage for Thursday.

According to Reuters, people “will still be allowed to smoke inside and on the terraces of coffee shops selling marijuana and hash in the district and other parts of the city.” 

The pot smoking ban is part of an effort led by Halsema, Amsterdam’s first female mayor, to improve conditions in the Red Light District. 

CNN reported in 2019 that Halsema had “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district.” 

“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created,” according to CNN. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”

The Red Light District, known locally in Amsterdam as the De Wallen neighborhood, has long been a popular destination for tourists visiting the city. 

CNN reported earlier this year that it is “estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district.”

“City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs,” CNN reported at the time. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.

In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.”

The post Pot Smoking Ban Takes Effect In Amsterdam’s Red Light District appeared first on High Times.

Irish Authorities Seize Over $3 Million Worth of Weed at Dublin Port

May 23, 2023 Published by

Law enforcement officials in Ireland on Sunday seized hundreds of pounds in “herbal cannabis” at a Dublin port, leading to the arrest of “a man in his 40s.” 

According to a press release from the Irish Tax and Customs, revenue officers in the country “seized approximately 142kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €2.84 million at Dublin Port.” (That breaks down to about 313 pounds and $3.06 million).

“The illicit drugs were discovered when Revenue officers stopped and searched a vehicle which had arrived from France. A man in his 40s was arrested by An Garda Síochána [the national police service of Ireland] and is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 at a Garda Station in Dublin,” the customs and tax office said, noting that investigations remain “ongoing.” 

The release said that the seizure was “part of Revenue’s ongoing joint investigations targeting organised crime groups and the importation, sale and supply of illegal drugs,” and the agency urged any “businesses, or members of the public” to come forward if they “have any information regarding drug smuggling.” 

An Garda Síochána orchestrated a similar bust on Friday in south Dublin. As part of an intelligence operation, officers “seized approximately 16kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €316,000,” which was “made as a result of a joint operation involving Revenue’s Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and the Terenure District Drugs Unit.”

“A woman in her 30s was arrested by An Garda Síochána and is currently detained under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice (Drug Trafficking) Act 1996 at a Garda Station in South Dublin. Investigations are ongoing,” the tax and customs office said in a press release.

And on Thursday, revenue officers “seized approximately 54kgs of herbal cannabis with an estimated value of €1,080,000 in Dublin.”

‘“The seizure was made as a result of a joint operation conducted by Revenue’s Customs Service, the Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau (GNDOCB) and the DMR North Central Divisional Drug Unit,” the press release said.

Recreational cannabis is illegal in Ireland, as per An Garda Síochána’s official website: “It is an offence to cultivate, import, export, produce, supply and possess cannabis except in accordance with a Ministerial Licence. Policy to date has not permitted the cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes and no licences have been issued for this activity.”

The website notes that the Irish government “has no plans to legalise cannabis.” 

There are reform-minded Irish lawmakers who would like to end the prohibition, however. Last year, a bill was introduced in Irish parliament that sought to legalize cannabis for “adults of at least 18 years of age to possess up to 7 grams of cannabis or 2.5 grams of cannabis resin (hashish),” according to Forbes.

The bill did not “include the sale of cannabis products or the cultivation of cannabis plants for personal use,” according to Forbes, which means that “cannabis users will likely continue to purchase cannabis from the illegal market.”

If the bill were to pass and become law, it would change the so-called Misuse of Drug Act, the 1977 law that enshrined the prohibition on cannabis in Ireland.

The post Irish Authorities Seize Over $3 Million Worth of Weed at Dublin Port appeared first on High Times.

U.K. Lawmakers Mull Psychedelics Reform

May 23, 2023 Published by

Lawmakers in the U.K. are warming to the idea of relaxing the restrictions on psychedelics such as psilocybin. 

Benzinga reports that Labor MP Charlotte Nichols “opened the discussion around the need for medical access to psilocybin-assisted therapy” by supporting “the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), the Conservative Drug Reform Group and several other organizations” in their push for reform.

Nichols said it’s time for the U.K. to reschedule psilocybin under the country’s two-decade-old drug statute.

“There are serious and considerable barriers to legitimate research, associated with Schedule I regulations,” Nichols said, as quoted by Benzinga. “While current legislation does not preclude scientific research with these drugs, it does make them significantly more difficult, time-consuming and costly to study.”

More from Benzinga:

“She provided an example of a researcher that found he had to invest £20,000 to apply for a Home Office Schedule I license and retrofit his lab to current standards to study psilocybin therapy for Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) while being able to work with substances like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine with no similar restrictions. Nichols further denounced the currently existing ‘huge credibility gap’ between psychiatry and politics for this matter.”

Psychedelics have emerged as a central focus of the drug reform movement around the world. The University of Exeter, located in the United Kingdom, announced last month that it will offer one of the first postgraduate qualifications on psychedelics in the world.

The Guardian reported at the time that the “certificate from Exeter University cements psychedelics as an area of scientific importance in the U.K.,” and that it “could help pave the way for clinical therapies becoming available within the next five years, with some treatments being in the final stages of clinical trials.”

“The programme will capitalise on Exeter’s world-leading psychedelics research, and will be named Psychedelics: Mind, Medicine, and Culture. It was unveiled at Breaking Convention, Europe’s largest psychedelics conference,” The Guardian reported. “The programme is targeted at healthcare workers and therapists, as well as anyone interested in the emerging potential of psychedelics, including those who wish to tap into a psychedelic healthcare market predicted to be worth £8.4bn by 2028. The certificate will cover a broad range of topics, including teaching about existing psychedelic therapies and research in psychology, psychiatry and neuroscience, as well as modules on philosophy – such as the insights into consciousness and metaphysics that psychedelics give – and discussions of decolonising psychedelic research and practice, including an anthropological look into cultures which have used psychedelics for centuries. Students will also learn practical skills, such as therapeutic techniques and research skills.”

There’s been a similar flowering of psychedelic research in the United States, where lawmakers have also pushed for reform.

In Minnesota, lawmakers created a so-called Psychedelic Medicine Task Force that will “advise the legislature on the legal, medical, and policy issues associated with the legalization of psychedelic medicine in the state.”

The task force’s duties include examining “existing studies in the scientific literature on the therapeutic efficacy of psychedelic medicine in the treatment of mental health conditions, including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder, and any other mental health conditions and medical conditions for which a psychedelic medicine may provide an effective treatment option.”

Earlier this year, Oregon became the first state in the U.S. to legalize psilocybin for personal use among adults aged 21 and older. In Colorado, psychedelics, including psilocybin, have been decriminalized after voters there approved a measure last year. 

The post U.K. Lawmakers Mull Psychedelics Reform appeared first on High Times.

Costa Rica Grants First Medical Cannabis Cultivation License

May 22, 2023 Published by

Just over a year after legalizing hemp and medical cannabis, Costa Rica’s Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Victor Carvajal signed a resolution to grant authorization to Azul Wellness S.A. to cultivate and process medical cannabis, The Tico Times reports. 

It marks the first medical cannabis license granted in the Central American country.

Azul Wellness S.A. is Costa Rican owned and backed by the family of José Álvaro Jenkins, president of the Costa Rican Union of Chambers and Associations of the Private Business Sector. Azul reportedly is planning to establish an 800-square-meter production and processing facility, located in Costa Rica’s Guanacaste province.

The firm also partnered with U.S. private equity firm Merida Capital Holdings, which specializes in medical cannabis. According to the Times, the collaboration is meant to help Azul cultivate two varieties of psychoactive cannabis to start, with a focus on exporting the produced material.

Jenkins himself expressed optimism about the endeavor and said he envisions eventually establishing a medical cannabis laboratory in Costa Rica. He has also publicly supported the government’s efforts to legalize recreational cannabis in the past.

While Azul received the first medical cannabis license, Carvajal has issued eight authorizations for hemp cultivation. There are still two applications for hemp cultivation and processing and one medical cannabis license under evaluation.

Costa Rica legalized hemp and medical cannabis in March 2022. President Rodrigo Chaves unveiled a draft law several months later to lay the legal foundation for the country’s medical cannabis and hemp markets, specifically looking at production and sales. The Costa Rican government controls the cannabis industry — including granting permits related to industrial hemp and medical cannabis — under regulation of the Ministry of Health and the minister of agriculture and livestock.

Around that same time, Chaves also presented a bill to the Legislative assembly to legalize the recreational use of cannabis in Costa Rica. He promised the initiative shortly after taking his role, nodding to the fact that recreational use of cannabis is a reality we cannot turn away from.

“It is no secret to anyone that marijuana is consumed in Costa Rica, more and more openly in the streets and parks. It is a reality,” Chaves said in a translation during a press conference.

He’s admitted that he personally does not agree with the consumption of cannabis, though he believes that it’s best to regulate the market so Costa Rica can reap the benefits.

“That they pay taxes, that generates formal employment; It is very clear that it is not an easy issue, many people of good faith have doubts,” he said.

As of January 2023, the government was set to present a substitute text to the recreational legalization bill after receiving feedback from different institutions, according to The Tico Times. Originally, the plan would have allowed recreational cannabis companies to operate under the Free Trade Zone regime, meaning consumers could feasibly go to clubs, coffee shops and other businesses to buy cannabis products. 

A number of institutions, including The Judicial Investigation Organism (OIJ), the Medical Association, the College of Psychiatrists, the Institute of Alcoholism and Drug Addiction (IAFA), the Evangelical Alliance Federation and some municipalities, shared their opposition and requested the proposal’s dismissal.

And even though a number of other institutions and businesses in the country support the proposal, citing similar benefits as Chaves like economic growth and opportunity, citizens aren’t quite on board. According to a survey conducted by the School of Statistics of the University of Costa Rica, 76.5% of Costa Ricans approve of medical cannabis, but only 35.4% support recreational legalization.

Costa Rica joins a number of other Latin American countries with legal medical cannabis, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay and Peru. Uruguay is the only Latin American country with legalized recreational cannabis.

Regarding hemp, Costa Rican law defines industrial hemp as the plant or part or the plant and its derivatives, with extracting to contain no more than 1% THC by dry weight. The U.S. currently defines hemp as 0.3% THC or less, though farmers have advocated to change the limit to 1% as well with the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill.

The post Costa Rica Grants First Medical Cannabis Cultivation License appeared first on High Times.

Singapore Hangs Second Man in Three Weeks on Cannabis-Related Charges

May 18, 2023 Published by

For the second time in three weeks, Singapore officials executed a man by hanging for a nonviolent cannabis-related charge in what critics are calling a “killing spree.”

A Malay man in Singapore, 37, whose family asked for him not to be named, was executed at Changi Prison Complex in the eastern part of the city for allegedly trafficking 1.5 kilograms (3.3 pounds) of cannabis. That would be considered a commercial delivery in one of the U.S. legal markets.

He was executed despite a last-minute attempt to appeal his case, which was rejected by the court without a hearing. Al Jazeera reports that ​​Singapore officials hanged 11 people last year—all for drug-related charges—after a brief pause of killing during the COVID pandemic.

Just over one pound of pot warrants a death sentence: Under Singapore’s abnormally strict drug laws, trafficking more than 500 grams (1.1 pounds) of cannabis can result in the death penalty. “Drug traffickers are less likely to traffic drugs and reduce the amount of drugs trafficked if they are aware of the penalties involved,” the Singapore Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) claims, referring to its use of capital punishment by hanging. 

Kokila Annamalai of the Transformative Justice Collective said was convicted in 2019 of trafficking about 1.5 kilograms of cannabis.

“If we don’t come together to stop it, we fear that this killing spree will continue in the weeks and months to come,” Annamalai told The Associated Press.

According to the man, authorities lied about the amount of cannabis involved, and that it was actually a smaller amount than they claimed. The man appealed to reopen the case, based on DNA evidence and fingerprints that linked him to a much smaller amount of pot—which he admitted to possessing—but the court rejected it.

Tangaraju Suppiah, 46, was executed at dawn on April 26, rejecting a growing number of anti-death penalty campaigners to end the country’s cruel use of capital punishment.

Tangaraju was originally sentenced to death on October 9, 2018 for attempting to traffic more than 1 kilogram of cannabis to Singapore. He was originally detained in 2014 for drug consumption and failure to report for a drug test. 

Tangaraju was also held at Singapore’s Changi Prison Complex.

British billionaire Sir Richard Branson, a long opponent of the death penalty, and a group of world leaders called for action for what they describe as a disturbing case of what may be an innocent man.

The hanging took place in a country that canes people for tagging walls with punishments much harsher than you’d see in the U.S.

Nagaenthran Dharmalingam, a Malaysian with learning disabilities, was executed on a drug charge last year, but his case prompted protests, which is a rarity in Singapore. Through the years, Singapore has dealt with “Malayophobia,” another factor that complicates cases such as this.

In a report in March, Harm Reduction International (HRI) found that despite a worldwide shift towards abolishing capital punishment, there were at least 285 executions for drug-related charges last year, more than double the number the year prior.

Singapore isn’t the only country employing medieval punishments for drugs. HRI reminds readers that China, Vietnam, and North Korea also execute people for nonviolent drug charges.

The post Singapore Hangs Second Man in Three Weeks on Cannabis-Related Charges appeared first on High Times.

Study Says Cannabis Legalization Could Net Western Australia $243.5 Million Windfall

May 18, 2023 Published by

A newly released study found that legalizing marijuana could be a major economic boon in Australia.

ABC Radio Perth reports that the study, which comes via the University of Western Australia, found that cannabis legalization could bring $243.5 million per year in the first five years to Western Australia. 

According to the outlet, the study “quantified the revenue the state could make through legalising cannabis,” and “considered data about the form and frequency of cannabis use, as well as the estimated cost of enforcing current laws that prohibit cannabis use.”

“We wanted to find out the actual truth on this, and we commissioned this not expecting any particular result,” Brian Walker, leader of the Legalise Cannabis WA Party, the group that commissioned the report, told ABC Radio Perth.

“This is the first time anyone has shown their working, and set out exactly how their figures were arrived at. On the spending side we’ve got stuff like your police — for chasing a cannabis crime — the courts and the corrective services for managing that. Altogether, that’s about $100 million per year.”

Cannabis is illegal in Australia, with penalties varying from state to state. In Western Australia, according to the Guardian, “[f]ines range from $2,000 to $20,000 and up to two years in prison,” but for “possession up to 10g police [law enforcement] can use discretion to order the person to a counselling session (one for adults, two for children).”

Walker told ABC Radio Perth: “When you engage in something illegal, there’s a price to be paid. How do you account for the losses if you’ve been raided and you’ve lost a million dollars in crop? That all has a cost associated with it. Once you legalise, that risk premium falls away.”

ABC Radio Perth has more background on the study: “The data for the report — An Economic Case to Legalise Cannabis in Western Australia — came from a wide range of sources including the Australian National Drug Strategy Survey, Australian Crime Commission, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, and the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre at the University of NSW. The report, which looked at projected figures for a five-year period after legislation, found a moderate 25 per cent tax on adult-use recreational cannabis would generate approximately $137 million of direct tax revenue in WA based on annual sales of ‘around $686 million.’ Licensing fees for businesses intending to sell cannabis would generate an estimated $6.5 million for the economy each year.”

Cannabis legalization in Australia may soon move from the realm of the theoretical and into actual policy. The Greens, the minor party in Australia, said last year that the country’s constitution empowers parliament to override states and legalize pot for recreational use.

According to the Guardian, the proposal from the Greens would “allow for the regulation and sale of approved cannabis strains for recreational consumption in Australia, joining the handful of countries (and US states) that have already moved to legalise it.”

“Greens senator David Shoebridge plans to introduce the bill to the Senate once the party has taken on board the results of that consultation,” the Guardian reported last month. “To get anywhere, the bill would need government support and Labor hasn’t yet given any indication it would throw its weight behind the legislation.”

As the Guardian explained, “under the constitution [in Australia], the states have responsibility for criminal law,” but the Greens “think that once cannabis was legalised federally, the commonwealth would have the power to create a national, legal cannabis market.”

The post Study Says Cannabis Legalization Could Net Western Australia $243.5 Million Windfall appeared first on High Times.

Ban on Outdoor Pot Smoking in Amsterdam’s Red Light District To Begin This Month

May 16, 2023 Published by

A new ordinance banning cannabis use on the streets in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is slated to take effect later this month. 

The ban, officially approved by Amsterdam’s city council last week, will “come into effect from May 25 and will be enforced by police and local officials,” according to Bloomberg, which noted that violation of the new law will result in a €100 (or $109) fine.

The law was offered up by the Amsterdam city council in February, with local officials decrying the “nuisance” and “grim” atmosphere of the famous district at night.

“Residents of the old town suffer a lot from mass tourism and alcohol and drug abuse in the streets. Tourists also attract street dealers who in turn cause crime and insecurity. The atmosphere can get grim especially at night. People who are under the influence hang around for a long time. Residents cannot sleep well and the neighborhood becomes unsafe and unlivable,” the city council said in a statement at the time.

“A smoking ban on the street should reduce nuisance. We are also looking at a pick-up ban at certain times for soft drugs. If the nuisance does not decrease enough, we will investigate whether we can ban smoking on terraces at coffee shops,” the council continued.

CNN reported at the time that if the outdoor smoking ban failed to achieve the desired results, the “municipality said it would also consider banning take-out purchases of soft drugs at certain times, and banning smoking marijuana at coffee shops’ outdoor seating areas.”

“It is estimated that about 10% to 15% of Amsterdam’s tourist industry is based in the red light district,” according to CNN. “City officials want the De Wallen neighborhood, as the district is known in Dutch, to draw visitors who can appreciate its unique heritage, architecture and culture rather than sex and drugs. Over the past few years, there have been multiple initiatives to reduce the impact of mass tourism and nuisance visitors, and to revamp the area’s image.

In 2020, guided tours were prohibited from passing sex workers’ windows, and there was talk of moving the window brothels to a neighborhood outside of the city center—conversations that continue to this day.” 

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has prioritized cleaning up the Red Light District since becoming mayor nearly five years ago.

In 2019, Halsema, who is Amsterdam’s first female mayor, “presented four options aimed at protecting sex workers from degrading conditions, tackling crime, and reducing the impact of tourism in Amsterdam’s De Wallen red-light district,” CNN reported at the time.

“For many visitors, the sex workers have become no more than an attraction to look at. In some cases this is accompanied by disruptive behavior and a disrespectful attitude to the sex workers in the windows,” Halsema’s office said, as quoted by CNN, which outlined some of the mayor’s proposed reforms:

“Four scenarios have been proposed for discussion including closing the curtains on the windows so sex workers can’t be seen from the street, fewer window-style rooms, moving the brothels to new locations elsewhere in Amsterdam and the possibility of a sex worker “hotel” being created. The plans aim to protect sex workers from gawking tourists and their camera phones, and also to combat a rise in abuses such as human trafficking. The four proposals will be discussed with sex workers, residents and businesses in July, before being taken to the city council in September. The plans will ultimately be developed into a new policy on sex work, the mayor’s office confirmed.”

The post Ban on Outdoor Pot Smoking in Amsterdam’s Red Light District To Begin This Month appeared first on High Times.

Switzerland Continues to Expand Cannabis Research Trials

May 16, 2023 Published by

One cannabis trial covering the areas of Bern, Lucerne, and Biel, and another in Geneva, were recently approved in Switzerland.

According to a press release on May 10, the SCRIPT study (safer cannabis research in pharmacies randomized controlled trial) that will cover Bern, Lucerne and Biel received approval from the both the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (BAG), the Cantonal Commission of Ethics and the Ethics Commission of Northwest and Central Switzerland.

Research will be conducted by the Bern Institute for Family Medicine at the University of Bern, which is expected to begin in October 2023-April 2026. The program expects the sample size number of participants to be 1,091.

The head of the SCRIPT study at the university, Reto Auer, explained that the goal is to examine “health and social effects” of a regulated cannabis industry at local pharmacies. “These elements are intended to make the products less attractive, especially for young people—we know that from tobacco prevention,” Auer said in a press release. “Our study therefore does not aim to legalize cannabis in the free market—but to be able to address the problems caused by prohibition and the black market and to test possible harm reduction approaches, as well as a strict control of supply and distribution use demand for cannabis.”

Auer added that education through pharmacy sales staff could help prevent harm caused by preventable harm from tobacco or other substances. “Dispensing at the pharmacy allows for better information and the possibility of reducing damage. Users often do not know what is contained in their cannabis. On the illegal market there is cannabis that contains synthetic cannabinoids, pesticides or fungi—some of which are very dangerous.”

Adults 18 years or older will be allowed to participate in the study. Half of participants will get to purchase cannabis during the first six months of the study. “The comparison of the fate of people in the two groups should make it possible to obtain study results that are as scientifically rigorous as possible,” the study announcement states. 

An additional study initiative called “The Cannabinotheque: a pilot trial for the regulated sale of cannabis in the canton of Geneva” was also approved by BAG. Beginning in June 2023 through June 2027, this study will “improve knowledge of the substance and its associated issues and concerns and may help reduce the health and social risks that drug consumption usually entails” with a sample size of 1,080 participants.

Switzerland lifted its ban on medical cannabis on June 2022, which paved the way for studies to begin. The country initially announced that it would be conducting a cannabis trial back in September 2021. Switzerland’s medical cannabis law went into effect on August 1, 2022. “Up to now, cannabis for medicinal purposes has not been allowed to be cultivated, imported or processed into preparations without an exceptional permit,” BAG announced last year. “Treatment of patients with cannabis medicinal products that were exempt from authorization was only possible with an exceptional permit from the BAG and only in justified cases. The demand for such permits has increased in recent years. This is administratively complex delays treatment and no longer corresponds to the exceptional character provided for by the Narcotics Act.”

The first cannabis trial in Switzerland, called “Züri Can – Cannabis with Responsibility” launched on March 23, 2023 and covered a total of 2,100 participants. “The City of Zurich Cannabis Study attaches great importance to the self-determination, responsibility and cooperation of all those involved,” the study website stated. “At all reference points, value is placed on individual advice aimed at reducing damage and promoting health. The respective reference points can contribute their different strengths in the area of ​​individual and public health protection.”

The post Switzerland Continues to Expand Cannabis Research Trials appeared first on High Times.

Weed Legalization in Canada Not Linked to Increase in Car Crashes

May 15, 2023 Published by

Neither the legalization of adult-use cannabis nor the uptick in retail sales is correlated with an increase in car accidents, NORML reports. The data comes from a study published earlier this month in the Drug and Alcohol Review.

Canadian scientists looked at the number of traffic accidents in Toronto both in the years prior to and then directly after the city legalized adult-use cannabis. 

According to their report: “[N]either the CCA [Canadian Cannabis Act] nor the NCS [number of cannabis stores per capita] is associated with concomitant changes in (traffic safety) outcomes. … During the first year of the CRUL’s [cannabis recreational use laws] implementation in Toronto, no significant changes in crashes, number of road victims and KSI [all road users killed or severely injured] were observed.”

In the U.S., the risk of increased car crashes due to stoned driving is often cited as a reason not to legalize adult-use cannabis. Throughout the years, various studies have reported conflicting information and led to different results depending on whom you ask and what their position on cannabis is. For example, a 2021 U.S. study suggested that auto accident rates rose in California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, where recreational cannabis use and retail sales are legal, as Newsweek reported. However, if you read the entire article, you notice that at the end, it mentions that the study in question, which used information from injured drivers in emergency rooms in Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; and Sacramento, California, only saw an increase in car accidents when cannabis was paired with alcohol. 

According to the CDC, in 2020, 11,654 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers, which accounted for 30% of all traffic-related deaths in the U.S. The annual estimated cost of car crash deaths involving alcohol-impaired drivers totaled about $123.3 billion in 2020, including the estimate for lives lost and medical bills. Not only is alcohol legal, but it’s not beholden to the same insane tax laws as cannabis, which, by strangling the legal market, only seem to allow the black market to flourish. The cannabis industry paid over $1.8 billion in additional taxes in 2022 alone. 

The findings of the Toronto Drug and Alcohol Review study are consistent with other Canadian research. For instance, a 2021 study in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence “found no evidence that the implementation of the Cannabis Act [which legalized adult-use in Canada] was associated with significant changes in post-legalization patterns of all drivers’ traffic-injury ED [emergency department] visits or, more specifically, youth-driver traffic-injury ED presentations.” As NORML points out, another study published earlier this year similarly concluded, “Overall, there is no clear evidence that RCL [recreational cannabis laws] had any effect on rates of ED visits and hospitalizations for either motor vehicle or pedestrian/cyclist injury across Canada.”

However, in the U.S., insights into the correlation between cannabis legalization and traffic accidents tend to bend to meet Republicans’ regressive and scientifically unsound views. As Benzinga reports, regarding a 2023 bill meant to curb Connecticut’s legal market, State Senator Paul Cicarella (R), a ranking member of the Public Safety and Security Committee, told NBC Connecticut’s Mike Hydeck: “There’s not really a test that can determine when somebody is under the influence of the marijuana,” he said, adding that that the “false positive rate and false negative rate is so high that again, that might be a challenge to be admissible in court as well.” 

The race is indeed on to create a THC breathalyzer. However, anti-cannabis lawmakers fail to grasp that people are already using cannabis, whether it’s legal or not. While cannabis is considered a generally safe substance, like any mind-altering drug, of course, one should consider safety measures such as driving and always using it responsibly. However, if the U.S. truly wants to focus on safety, its priority should be correcting tax laws and legalization on a Federal level because unless that happens, there won’t be a legal market to study. 

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