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Health Ministry to launch new unit to oversee production in 2012; imports would be tenfold more expensi Dr. Ronni Gamzi, director-general of the Health Ministry, decided on Thursday to establish a unit within the ministry to manage the supervision and supply of medical marijuana and to serve as an agency for this purpose according to the demands of an international agreement on the subject. The unit will begin operating in January, 2012. It was also decided that medical cannabis will continue to be grown in Israel for at least two years, because imports would be tenfold more expensive.

Government Senator Marc Bean recently called for a debate on the merits of decriminalising drugs in the wake of a report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy. A distinguished panel that wrote the report said the war on drugs had failed and recommended partial legalization as a solution to the blight of the illegal drugs trade on communities around the world. Not so fast, warn medics. Side effects of marijuana can include a heightened risk of psychotic illnesses like schizophrenia, depression, damage to memory and judgement and heart problems. Neurologist Dr Keith Chiappa said: “The use of marijuana, especially...

I’ve been to Amsterdam and the revolution is a lie. Troubled by the Netherlands failed social experiment on teenagers, however, the Soros-backed Cato Institute and other Woodstock libertarians have been singing the praises of socialist Portugal’s soft-on-drug ethos, and hoping to hell we wouldn’t ask too many critical-thinking questions. The faithful still claim that crime in Portugal has gone done since their nation went soft on drugs. But what’s gone down is their economy, an economic basket case. Moreover, the Portuguese have a history of fiddling with crime statistics. Or to quote my local newspaper: A Melbourne woman was murdered...

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – The Dutch government on Friday said it would start banning tourists from buying cannabis from "coffee shops" and impose restrictions on Dutch customers by the end of the year. The Netherlands is well known for having one of Europe's most liberal soft drug policies that has made its cannabis shops a popular tourist attraction, particularly in Amsterdam. Backed by the far-right party of anti-immigrant politician Geert Wilders, the coalition government that came into power last year announced plans to curb drug tourism as part of a nationwide program to promote health and fight crime. "In order to...

“He might look rather pleased with himself in this picture - but it's likely he regrets posing for this snap now,” reports the Mail Online, UK. “For when police raided the home of drug dealer Darren Ellis, 35, they found this photograph of him holding up his stash of cannabis.” Also, in stupidity-related news, the Herald Sun, Australia, reports two “women are due in court today on cannabis possession charges after one of them repeatedly set off a metal detector at an airport in New Zealand, allegedly leading to the discovery of foil-wrapped cannabis in her bra.” Talk about stupid:...

What struck me most about this contract is that we are going to teach the Moroccans "critical thinking skills."

My surname is a giveaway. But in case you don’t know, I’m from a Dutch background and have a genuine interest in what Larry Collins described as “Holland’s Half-Baked Dutch Experiment” (Foreign Affairs May/June 1999). For sure, the worst kept secret has been out for decades. “Our liberal drug policy has been a failure, but its advocates are so rooted in their convictions they can’t bring themselves to admit it,” explained Dr. Franz Koopman, director of De Hoop drug rehabilitation center in Dordecht. “First, we banalized cannabis use. We have left our kids with the idea that it’s perfectly all...

At 39, Anjem Choudary should be a symbol of success. Born into a working-class family, he has risen - thanks to opportunities offered by the British education system - to become a lawyer. Instead, Mr Choudary preaches hatred and murder in the streets of Britain to the next generation of young, impressionable Muslims. This week he stood outside Westminster Cathedral to call for the execution of the Pope as punishment for 'insulting Islam'. He fulminated against Benedict XVl, adding: "Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment." It's a long way from days as...

This morning, I noticed this message on Google: "President Obama is taking questions on YouTube. Submit yours now." The words in the above google message, "Submit yours now" are for a live link to this page: Your Interview with the President, State of the Union 2011 Most of the questions are asking to have marijuana legalized. That's Obama's fan base, it would appear. What gets to me is the way google happily makes itself into Obama's servant for sludge like this.

It would be really nice if libertarian think-tanks stood with small free-market businesses against welfare-dependent marijuana addicts, period. Or if Reason magazine stopped banning anti-drug voices because “bans don’t work”. To the best of my knowledge, professional libertarians are so emotionally invested in pretending that socialist Europe’s soft-on-drugs experiment was groovy, that they’ve lost the plot.

Coffee shops legally selling cannabis have been a feature of Amsterdam’s streets for more than 30 years, both a magnet for younger tourists and a symbol of the Dutch brand of liberal exceptionalism. But the fragrant haze found in the city’s 200 or so establishments could be dispersed under plans by the incoming government, which is looking to roll back the “tolerance policy” that has allowed such coffee shops to operate since 1976. Coinciding with a tightening of laws around prostitution – another tolerated industry – the authorities’ new stance on cannabis is raising questions as to whether Dutch society...

TO truly consider the merits of Proposition 19, you must check your morals at the door. Because the heart of the Nov. 2 ballot measure is not about whether marijuana is no worse than alcohol or whether the law should allow for small amounts of personal pot. The real question of this initiative is whether California wants to take on the federal government and allow any and every city in the state to make up its own rules about selling, manufacturing and transporting an illegal substance. And the Daily News thinks the answer to the question is an emphatic "no."...

Marijuana is causing America to be more and more dysfunctional. Its time we recognize that we have a problem. Educational info on marijuana

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS 5 / AP) - The California Republican Party is just saying no to a November ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in the state. The less-than-surprising news that the state GOP would oppose a measure known as the Tax Cannabis Act was announced Wednesday on the party's Web site. ... Party chairman Ron Nehring said the health and public safety costs of expanded marijuana use would far outweigh any tax revenue raised from legalizing the drug.

Nothing on the wires yet. No more news given than what I put in the headline.

Marijuana advocates are hailing the Mile High City as "America's Cannabis Capital." Denver smokes mega-cities like Los Angeles -- which has "Hollywood hype" and an estimated 1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries -- when the number of medical pot dispensaries are calculated per capita... That means Denver pot dispensaries outnumber by nearly 2-to-1 the 208 Starbucks in state of Colorado. And there may be more dispensaries operating in Denver that haven't applied for a sales-tax license... So, while the city of Los Angeles, with a population of 4.02 million, has one dispensary for every 4,065 residents, Denver (Pop. 598,707) boasts 1 dispensary...

A CONVICTED drug dealer was able to grow a potent marijuana plant inside his UK prison cell. Prison guards were clueless that drug dealer Mohamed Jalloh was growing marijuana in his cell - and even decorated a four-foot plant as a Christmas tree. It was only when a jealous inmate raised the alert that prison staff realised the plot that had unfolded under their noses. However, prison guards had to use a Google image search to identify the cannabis plants.

The British Government's chief drug adviser has sparked controversy by claiming ecstasy, LSD and cannabis are less dangerous than cigarettes and alcohol. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, attacked the decision to make cannabis a class B drug. He accused former home secretary Jacqui Smith, who reclassified the drug, of "distorting and devaluing" scientific research. Prof Nutt said smoking cannabis created only a "relatively small risk" of psychotic illness. And he claimed advocates of moving ecstasy into class B from class A had "won the intellectual argument". All drugs, including alcohol and tobacco,...

The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors on Monday. Two Justice Department officials said prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws. The new policy is a significant departure from the Bush administration, which insisted it would continue to enforce federal anti-pot laws regardless of state codes. Fourteen states allow some use of marijuana for medical...

WASHINGTON: Scientists have come closer to engineering drug-free cannabis plant after identifying genes that produce psychoactive substance in marijuana. University of Minnesota researchers have identified genes producing tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive substance in marijuana, which could lead to new and better drugs for pain, nausea and other conditions. The study showed that the genes are active in tiny hairs covering the flowers of Cannabis plants. In marijuana, the hairs accumulate high amounts of THC, whereas in hemp the hairs have little. Hemp and marijuana are difficult to distinguish apart from differences in THC. With the genes identified, finding a way...

Some people cancel holidays abroad, others stage yard sales or start shopping at low-cost supermarkets. To that list must now be added a new way to get through economic hard times: grow cannabis. Law enforcers on the west coast of the US and in the middle states straddled by the foothills of the Appalachian mountains are reporting a common trend. It is boom time for marijuana cultivation, and much of the incentive they say is to beat the recession. So far this year, police in parts of the country where cannabis is traditionally grown have chopped down plants with a...

More than 140,000 cannabis plants destroyed in police operation 18-Aug 11:22 More than 140,000 cannabis plants were seized and more than 1100 people arrested in police's national cannabis operation. The number of plants destroyed during the 2008-09 operation increased by 17,000 from 2007-08, Detective Senior Sergeant Scott McGill at Police National Headquarters said. More than 820 searches had been conducted in this year's operation, leading to about 141,000 plants being destroyed , 1125 people arrested, 191 firearms seized and about $400,000 worth of stolen property recovered. Based on the New Zealand Drug Harm Index, it was estimated that $379 million...

The committee on drugs policy recommends making the coffee shops members-only clubs, and experimenting with legal cannabis production. Neither will pass the European test. We can't go on like this, but where do we go from here? That has been the miserable state of the Dutch policy on drugs for years. Supporters of prohibition and tolerance have each other pinned down. They know that the production of cannabis invites crime, that the Netherlands has become a large-scale exporter of cannabis, that cannabis consumption leads to children dropping out of school, and aggravates social problems, and home-growing runs down neighbourhoods. The...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday it's time for California to study whether to legalize and tax marijuana for recreational use, though he's not yet advocating for such a change. The governor was asked about a recent Field Poll showing that 56 percent of registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise revenues for cash-strapped California. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, has proposed legislation that would legalize the drug for recreational use, rather than just medical purposes. "Well, I think it's not time for that, but I think it's time for a debate," Schwarzenegger said. "I think all of those...

PORT PERRY, ONT. and TORONTO -- An hour and a half after walking Cally at the nearby park Monday evening, Kim Reeves noticed her poodle was shaking. She jumped in the car and drove Cally to the emergency veterinary clinic in Whitby. "She kept getting worse and worse. It was horrible," Ms. Reeves said. "She was getting non-responsive almost. Her eyes were closed. She was curled up. ... She was just lying there. Her head kept kind of flopping around. She couldn't stand any more." Six-year-old Cally was one of three dogs poisoned by tainted chocolate cupcakes and brownies at...

LAGOS - NIGERIA'S anti-drugs agency has arrested a 114-year-old Nigerian man after discovering 100 bags of cannabis behind his house in south-west Ogun state, a senior official said on Saturday. NDLEA Ogun state director Chinyere Obijuru said Sulaimon Adebayo who denied ownership of the illicit drug was arrested early in the week at Odeda following a tip-off. 'Imagine what could have happened if this drug had not been seized. Imagine the lives that would have been destroyed by this illicit drug,' she queried. Last November, the agency seized 30,000 kilogrammes of cannabis contained in 5,923 bags in southern Edo state,...

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of a landmark scientific studyTen years ago today, the use of medical marijuana went from fringe to mainstream. March 17, 2009 marks the 10-year-anniversary of the publication of the Institute for Medicine's landmark study on medical cannabis: Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base. At the time this report was commissioned, in response to the passage of California's Compassionate Use Act of 1996, many in the public and the mainstream media were skeptical about pot's potential therapeutic value. The publication of the Institute for Medicine's findings—which concluded that marijuana possessed medicinal properties to treat and control...

THIS is the astonishing picture which could destroy the career of the greatest competitor in Olympic history. In our exclusive photo Michael Phelps, who won a record EIGHT gold medals for swimming at the Beijing games last summer, draws from a bong. The glass pipes are generally used to smoke cannabis. And after sporting chiefs announced laws which mean four-year bans for drug-taking, Phelps’ dreams of adding to his overall 14 gold medal tally at the 2012 games in London could already be OVER. GOLDEN BOY: Phelps at Beijing Those dreams seemed the last thing on his mind when he...

Bungling police raided the home of an elderly couple after they mistook the smell of a common garden plant for cannabis. Ivor and Margaret Wiltshire bought 'moss phlox' four years ago for £2 and spread it through their front and back garden. But the plant - which grows vivid pink flowers in the spring and looks nothing like cannabis - gives off a pungent aroma similar to the drug. vor and Margaret Wiltshire have launched an official complaint against the police after they raided their home because a garden plant smelled like cannabis The smell was so strong the couple's...

Report: Cannabis Less Harmful Than Alcohol, Tobacco Friday, October 3, 2008 9:19 AM Cannabis is less harmful than alcohol or tobacco, according to a report by a research charity Thursday, which called for a "serious rethink" of drug policy. The Beckley Foundation, a charity which numbers senior experts and other academics among its advisors, said banning cannabis has no impact on supply and turns users into criminals. "Although cannabis can have a negative impact on health, including mental health, in terms of relative harms it is considerably less harmful than alcohol or tobacco," says the report by the Foundation's Global...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers from Spain have found a strong and independent link between cannabis use and the onset of psychosis at a younger age. The association, they say, cannot be explained by chance, and is not related to gender or the use of other drugs. It is, however, related to the amount of cannabis used.

The public health impact of the Government's decision to downgrade cannabis is disclosed today in official figures showing a 50 per cent rise in the number of people requiring medical treatment after using the drug. Since cannabis was downgraded from a Class B to a Class C drug, the number of adults being treated in hospitals and clinics in England for its effects has risen to more than 16,500 a year. In addition, the number of children needing medical attention after smoking the drug has risen to more than 9,200. Almost 500 adults and children are treated in hospitals and...

Cannabis contains a chemical called THC, which binds to, and activates, proteins in the brain known as 'CB1 cannabinoid receptors'. Activating these receptors can relieve pain and prevent epileptic seizures; but it also causes the mood-altering effect experienced by people who use cannabis as a recreational drug. (Credit: iStockphoto/Dmitriy Norov) ScienceDaily (Nov. 30, 2007) — Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London, have discovered a new way to separate the therapeutic benefits of cannabis from its mood-altering side-effects. Cannabis contains a chemical called THC, which binds to, and activates, proteins in the brain known as ‘CB1 cannabinoid receptors’. Activating...

Smoking a single joint of cannabis has the same impact on breathing capacity as up to five cigarettes, a new study shows. The researchers say this may be because cannabis users tend to inhale more deeply and, because joints are smoked without a filter, the smoke is hotter when it hits the lungs. Researchers from the Medical Research Institute of New Zealand publish their findings online in the journal Thorax. Doctors recruited 339 volunteers who were divided into four categories: those who smoked only cannabis, those who smoked only tobacco, those who smoked both, and those who smoked neither. Cannabis-only...

A single joint of cannabis raises the risk of schizophrenia by more than 40 per cent, a disturbing study warns. The Government-commissioned report has also found that taking the drug regularly more than doubles the risk of serious mental illness. Overall, cannabis could be to blame for one in seven cases of schizophrenia and other life-shattering mental illness, the Lancet reports. The grim statistics - the latest to link teenage cannabis use with mental illness in later life - come only days after Gordon Brown ordered a review of the decision to downgrade cannabis to class C, the least serious...

LONDON (Reuters) - Brain scans showing how cannabis affects brain function may help explain why heavy consumption of the drug triggers psychosis and schizophrenia in a small number of people, scientists said on Monday. Psychiatrists are increasingly concerned about the mental health impact of smoking large amounts of modern super-strength marijuana, or skunk, particularly among young people. Until now, the mechanism by which cannabis works on the brain has been a mystery but modern scanning techniques mean experts can now detect its impact on brain activity. Professor Philip McGuire and Zerrin Atakan of London's Institute of Psychiatry said their work...

A sky-high Swedish farewell cake poisons 13 Fri Oct 29, 3:14 PM ET STOCKHOLM (AFP) - Thirteen employees of a botanical garden in Stockholm ended up in the hospital showing symptoms of drug poisoning after a departing intern served them cake as a goodbye gesture, police said. A 27-year-old intern at the Bergianska traedgaard in Stockholm had baked a cake for his colleagues on his last day of work. After eating the cake with their morning coffee, "five people became ill. They showed signs of having been drugged. Later on, more people got sick," Stockholm police spokesman Bjoern Pihlblad told...

Libertarian Party candidates may have cost Senators Jim Talent (R.-Mo.) and Conrad Burns (R.-Mont.) their seats, tipping the Senate to Democratic control. In Montana, the Libertarian candidate got more than 10,000 votes, or 3%, while Democrat Jon Tester edged Burns by fewer than 3,000 votes. In Missouri, Claire McCaskill defeated Talent by 41,000 votes, a bit less than the 47,000 Libertarian votes. This isn’t the first time Republicans have had to worry about losing votes to Libertarian Party candidates. Senators Harry Reid (Nev.), Maria Cantwell (Wash.), and Tim Johnson (S.D.) all won races in which Libertarian candidates got more votes...

It was only after his murder last week that the wider world got to hear about the life of Stevens Nyembo-Ya-Muteba, aged 40, a notably good and clever man. In 1998, he had fled the war in Congo for the apparent safety of Britain, where he started a maths course: his talent was such that he was offered a place at Cambridge but preferred to study at the University of London, closer to his home in the Holly Street estate in Hackney. Mr Nyembo-Ya-Muteba, a regular churchgoer, supported his wife and two daughters by working as a delivery driver at...

10) MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY: A massive study of California HMO members funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) found marijuana use caused no significant increase in mortality. Tobacco use was associated with increased risk of death. Sidney, S et al. Marijuana Use and Mortality. American Journal of Public Health. Vol. 87 No. 4, April 1997. p. 585-590. Sept. 2002. 9) HEAVY MARIJUANA USE AS A YOUNG ADULT WON’T RUIN YOUR LIFE: Veterans Affairs scientists looked at whether heavy marijuana use as a young adult caused long-term problems later, studying identical twins in which one...

In what could be a coup for antimarijuana forces, new research shows that rats exposed to pot's active ingredient at an early age devour more heroin as adults than rats without early exposure. Some experts, though, say the jury is still out on whether the finding is enough to officially label marijuana a "gateway" drug. According to statistics from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, most adults who take illicit drugs start doing so in their early teens. In addition, the earlier kids start smoking dope, the more likely they are to use harder drugs later on. For example, of...

Close window Published online: 5 July 2006; | doi:10.1038/news060703-9 Rats taking cannabis get taste for heroinStudy suggests cannabis-users may be vulnerable to harder drugs.Michael HopkinNeuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs. The discovery hints that the brain system that produces pleasurable sensations when exposed to heroin may be 'primed' by earlier exposure to cannabis, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm,...

New strains of highly potent cannabis are as dangerous as heroin and cocaine and the drug can no longer be dismissed as "soft and relatively harmless", the United Nations said yesterday. In an implied criticism of Britain's decision to downgrade cannabis, Antonio Maria Costa, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said that countries got the "drug problem they deserved" if they maintained inadequate policies. His comments indicated deep unhappiness with the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis from a Class B drug to Class C. Heroin and cocaine are Class A substances, attracting the toughest penalties for...

SMOKING three cannabis joints will cause you to inhale the same amount of toxic chemicals as a whole packet of cigarettes, according to research published in France today. Cannabis smoke contains seven times more tar and carbon monoxide, the French National Consumers' Institute concluded in research published in the April edition of its monthly magazine. The institute tested regular Marlboro cigarettes alongside 280 specially rolled joints of cannabis leaves and resin in an artificial smoking machine. The tests examined the content of the smoke for tar and carbon monoxide, as well as for the toxic chemicals nicotine, benzene and toluene....

Israel's pro-marijuana reform (Green Leaf, or marijuana) Ale Yarok Party is poised to win a pair of seats in the Knesset in elections set for the end of this month, the Associated Press reported. Two years ago, the party came within 7,000 votes of winning a seat, and this year, according to some pollsters, it could go over the top. Headed by 47-year-old Boaz Wachtel, Green Leaf's platform is centered on legalizing marijuana, but also calls for legalizing gambling and prostitution. The party also calls for overall drug policy reform. And Green Leaf takes a dovish stance toward the Palestinians,...

WHILE the main parties compete over who can best handle the Palestinian issue and the economy, Israel's Green Leaf Party is seeking entry into the Knesset on a legalise cannabis platform. Polls show that young voters, disillusioned with the main parties, may give Green Leaf its first foothold in parliament during the elections on Tuesday. However, the ruling Kadima Party is expected to win easily a mandate for withdrawing from parts of the occupied West Bank while annexing the large settlements and their environs. Green Leaf's mastermind is the party chairman Boaz Wachtel, 47, a grass aficionado, inventor and satellite...

North America correspondent Mark Simkin, goes north of the border to report on Canada’s biggest growth industry – dope. He travels to the picturesque province of British Columbia, which is at the centre of the multi-billion dollar trade. Growers specialise in indoor operations, using private homes with powerful lights and carbon dioxide to make the plants grow faster and stronger. The result is some of the most powerful cannabis in the world, known as “BC Bud”. Huge quantities of this powerful “BC Bud” are being smuggled into the US, and the Americans are putting pressure on the Canadian government to...

WAR ON DRUGS A JOKE TO EX-COP In Norm Stamper's world, the "drug store" is a place that is much different from what generally comes to mind. The 28-year police veteran of the San Diego police department and former Seattle police chief wants to see all street drugs legalized, firmly regulated and sold just like we sell alcohol today. And his "shopping list" includes marijuana, cocaine, heroin, even crystal methamphetamine. "The more dangerous the drug, the more addictive and the greater the potential for health risks, the greater the justification for regulation," he said last week in a phone interview...

he government's decision that cannabis should remain a Class C drug came as it accepted it could trigger serious mental illness. Here, one father tells the traumatic story of how cannabis turned his bright and promising teenage son into a wreck. My son James was always a popular teenager. He had masses of friends, was good at sport, and was also intelligent and handsome. Like many boys in their teens, he was constantly going out to meet friends, arrange football or cricket games or see his long-term girlfriend. He'd done well at school with 10 GCSEs and three A-levels, and...

There was far less "buzz" than usual during the NFL season's final regular season Monday night football game between the New York Jets and the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots, and it had little to do with the Jets' dire season record. Rather, the ennui of the tens of thousands of atypically subdued fans in attendance could best be summed up in three words, prominently displayed on makeshift signs throughout ABC's nationwide telecast: "We want beer!" That's right, beer. Following a string of violent incidents - including a pair of stabbings - between rowdy football fans during the...