CANNABIS users in County Durham who grow the drug for their own consumption will no longer be targeted by the police after the force declared the illegal activity was not a priority. In a move, which will be seen as a further step towards decriminalisation, Durham Constabulary declared it would only go after people using the drug if there was a complaint or if they were being "blatant". While the force insisted it would continue to tackle commercial cannabis farms and other areas of criminality associated with the production of the drug, those who grow and use at home will not be actively targeted and pursued. [continues 442 words]
Martha Fernback was just 15 when she took the fatal dose of ecstasy that was 91 per cent pure, and her mum Anne-Marie Cockburn believes, had regulations been in place, she might still be alive On a sunny day two years ago Anne-Marie Cockburn's phone rang. At the end of the line was a stranger who told her that her 15-year-old daughter was gravely ill and and they were trying to save her life. Martha had swallowed half a gram of white powder. [continues 935 words]
POSSESSION of all drugs, including heroin and cocaine, would be decriminalised under radical plans tabled by the Liberal Democrats today. The party's push, led by ex-police chief Brian Paddick, will attempt to ambush a Government Bill to ban the sale of legal highs when it is debated by the Lords. Under their proposals, nobody would be arrested or prosecuted for possession of drugs - even the hardest Class A substances. Instead, police 'may' ask the offender to attend a drug awareness course or treatment programme. [continues 415 words]
Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, by Johann Hari, is published by Bloomsbury, priced UKP18.99. A DOCTOR hounded from Britain by the establishment has revealed how he slashed heroin addiction and crime by doling out the drug to addicts. Psychiatrist John Marks now works in Vienna. But in 1982 the South Wales Valleys-raised medic was working in Widnes, in the Wirral. In a new book, Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs, he reveals how he became the accidental pioneer of an initiative to give free heroin to addicts and that it worked. [continues 651 words]
The Hippies Drug of Choice Was Banned in 1966 but Is Now Undergoing Trials As a Cure for Depression and Addiction. Charlie Cooper Spoke to Some Volunteer Users. LSD is often associated with trippy songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", "Purple Haze" and "White Rabbit". But before it became the drug of choice for the 1960s counterculture, lysergic acid diethylamide had a previous existence - as an experimental medicine for a broad spectrum of psychological problems ranging from depression and addiction, to schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder. [continues 830 words]
Psychedelic Drugs May Have a Role in Medical Treatment On balance, you would not be in your right mind, as the saying goes, to voluntarily take psychedelic drugs. Though the long-term physical and psychological effects of LSD are sometimes exaggerated in the public mind, a bad "trip" carries risks. In a medical context, however, psychedelic drugs may be beneficial. That, after all, is where LSD and others have their origins, before their widespread abuse and subsequent prohibition. The British Medical Journal hardly populated by ageing, addled hippies - carries an article by a leading psychiatrist suggesting that a change in the law should foster more research into a neglected arm of the pharmaceutical industry, and allow the legitimate prescription of LSD and other substances where they clearly do serve a medical purpose. [continues 147 words]
Decriminalisation Would Safeguard Families and Drive the Gangs Out of Business Outside of their families and friends, few tears will have been shed for the eight heroin smugglers just executed by firing squad in Indonesia. They may have claimed to have become reformed characters in jail, but they knew the Indonesian penalty for trafficking drugs. Yet the pantomime of death played out in the full glare of the global media reminded us of two things: first, the hideous barbarity of the death penalty; and second, the dreadful futility of the war on drugs. [continues 827 words]
Astonishing claim of the arrogant cannabis campaigners who intend to light up in public THOUSANDS of illegal drug users plan to flout the law by smoking cannabis in public tomorrow. Activists who want the Class-B substance legalised will taunt police by lighting up at the 'Cannabis Celebration' in Glasgow's George Square - claiming 'they can't arrest us all'. Nearly 4,000 people have pledged to attend Scotland's biggest pro-cannabis rally in front of the City Chambers. Speakers will promote the so-called health benefits of the plant - including incredible claims it can cure cancer - as well as encouraging people to 'grow their own'. [continues 787 words]
The web's two largest drug markets go down, panicking dealers and buyers "I JUST can't bear this any longer," writes "Megan" in an anonymous internet forum. Waiting for online shopping to be delivered is frustrating. But for drug users it can be agony. Megan's vice is OxyContin, an addictive prescription painkiller. Like many users, she buys her illicit supply on the "dark web", a hidden corner of the internet accessed with anonymous browsing software. In the past month the online market for drugs has been rattled, after the two main drug-dealing sites suddenly locked buyers and sellers out. "If you know anyone...who would sort something out for me tonight or tomorrow I'll drop dead of gratitude," pleads Megan. [continues 416 words]
Fury as drugs activists get free airtime for election PRO-DRUGS campaigners in Scotland are to be given a prime-time slot on television to call for the legalisation of cannabis. A radical new political party has been set up with the sole purpose of making drugs laws more lenient. Funded by an internet millionaire, CISTA - short for Cannabis Is Safer Than Alcohol - is fielding candidates across the country in the General Election. It will be able to exploit electoral rules to air its controversial ideas, which include giving cannabis to sick children. [continues 591 words]
YVONNE MacLean left the SNP to stand for CISTA in Rutherglen and Hamilton West. The 41-year-old single mother admits being a 'criminal' for 'self-medicating' to alleviate depression with cannabis she buys from a drug dealer. Miss MacLean, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire, believes legalising the Class B drug would be 'good for the environment, the economy and the community'. She said: 'I don't think people should be criminalised for their choices. They should be trusted to use drugs sensibly and addicts should be helped. People can get addicted to coffee, cigarettes and alcohol if they have that type of personality. [continues 125 words]
Almost One in Ten Adults Admits to Using the Drug Scientists Warn of Deadly Potential Side-Effects Cocaine use, once the preserve of celebrities and the wealthy, has spread throughout British society, drug advisers say. A report by the government's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) found that although consumption of the drug had fallen slightly from a peak in 2008-09, its use has permeated a wide social demographic that includes the middle classes and those on lower incomes. This has been driven by the emergence of a "two-tier" market; one selling very low purity, cheaper cocaine alongside a smaller trade in a more expensive, purer version. [continues 729 words]
Further to Janet Street-Porter's column on pain-killer abuse (7 March), new research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that US states with open medical marijuana access have a 25 per cent lower opioid overdose death rate than cannabis prohibition states. The protective effect grows stronger with time. States with established cannabis access showed a 33 per cent reduction in deaths. This finding has huge implications. The substitution effect was documented by California physicians long before the JAMA research. Legal cannabis access is correlated with a reduction in opioid and alcohol abuse. The cannabis plant is incapable of causing an overdose death. Not even aspirin can make the same claim, much less alcohol or painkillers. The phrase "if it saves one life" has been used to justify all manner of drug war abuses. Legal cannabis has the potential to save thousands of lives. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, DC [end]
FACING a wipeout at the General Election, Nick Clegg is busy finding ever more desperate ways of appealing to the young voters who have abandoned his party in droves. Having betrayed them over his manifesto pledge to abolish tuition fees, his latest wheeze is to target the druggie vote by reaching out to students who smoke cannabis. The Lib Dems have pledged that personal possession and the use of drugs - not just marijuana, but even heroin - would no longer be a criminal offence. Even by Clegg's standards, this is a proposal of such reckless imbecility that it makes you wonder what he's been smoking. [continues 323 words]
Isn't it about time we acknowledged that 99 per cent of us take drugs? It's just that some are legal and therefore "acceptable". But if all drugs were defined by the harm they can cause, then the current rankings and legal penalties would be pointless. Dealing with the long-term effects of alcohol and tobacco costs the NHS far more than dealing with those addicted to class-A drugs. Apart from liver disease and heart failure, alcohol abuse causes death on the road, domestic violence, murders and absenteeism from work. Not to mention the damage to family life and relationships. Can we put on a price on all of this and be sure it's less than the cost of illegal drug use? [continues 1180 words]
Charlie Cooper Takes a Trip to Meet Professor David Nutt - and Finds Out Why the Former Government Czar Believes That Mind-Altering Drugs Have a Place on the Prescription Pad Professor David Nutt has been no stranger to controversy over the years. So the psychiatrist and former Government drugs tsar, will not have been fazed when he raised eyebrows recently by drawing a parallel between the repression of research into the effects of psychedelic drugs like LSD with the censorship of Galileo and the banning of the telescope. [continues 1114 words]
Sir Richard Branson and Nick Clegg are urging the UK to begin decriminalising the use and possession of almost all drugs, following the example of Portugal. The Virgin founder and deputy prime minister are to address a conference on fighting drug addiction today, and in an article on the Guardian website they write: "As an investment, the war on drugs has failed to deliver any returns. If it were a business, it would have been shut down a long time ago. This is not what success looks like. [continues 402 words]
A FORMER UK Government adviser has said Scots should go Dutch and open cannabis cafes. Professor David Nutt, who has advised the Department of Health, said it could be "very good" for the economy. Prof Nutt sacked by the UK Government in 2009 for saying horse riding was more dangerous than ecstasy also blasted plans to ban legal highs. Speaking ahead of a talk in Edinburgh, Prof Nutt said: "If Scotland had a sensible medical cannabis policy you'd get a lot of health tourists and that would be very good for your economy. People could have a cuppa in cafes in Edinburgh and Glasgow and have a spliff as they do in Amsterdam." [end]
George Square Event Criticised by Politicians DRUG users are planning to stage a "cannabis celebration" in Glasgow's George Square. The annual '420 event' sees campaigners gather in a public place on April 20 to call for the legalisation of the Class B drug. Last year Glasgow Cannabis Social Club held a gathering of 150 people at Glasgow Green and five were reported to the procurator fiscal for flouting the law by lighting up in full view of police. The maximum penalty for possession of cannabis is five years in prison. [continues 448 words]
CAN you put two and two together? Have a try. The authorities, and most of the media, cannot. Did you know that the Copenhagen killer, Omar El-Hussein, had twice been arrested (and twice let off) for cannabis possession? Probably not. It was reported in Denmark but not prominently mentioned amid the usual swirling speculation about 'links' between El-Hussein and 'Islamic State', for which there is no evidence at all. El-Hussein, a promising school student, mysteriously became so violent and ill-tempered that his own gang of petty criminals, The Brothers, actually expelled him. [continues 571 words]
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