Lawyers, parents attack use of small-time drug offenders as confidential informants for law enforcement

Federal drug policy officials in recent years have done everything they can to send the message that they have a balanced, health-focused strategy that acknowledges drug abuse is a medical problem we can’t arrest our way out of. While Obama administration officials often use fuzzy math or artful language to obscure the fact that most federal drug control funding actually still goes toward failed strategies like arrests, incarceration and overseas interdiction, they rarely lie outright.

But Michael Botticelli, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), did just that at a Congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Despite a decades-long federal ban on the production of hemp, in recent years several states, including Oregon, have begun legalizing hemp cultivation for industrial purposes. This is because while hemp is related to cannabis, the plant marijuana is made from, it does not have the same high-inducing properties. Instead, it is used to make several types of goods, and has been for centuries. 

Cannabis legalisation has finally been realized in various states and nations and it is expected that this trend should continue for quite some time. However, there is a balance to strike between the urgency of implementing reforms and the risks of moving too hastily. The steps forward that any jurisdiction takes will depend on the nature of the existing market, policy frameworks, and social and political environment. Early adopters will doubtless face different challenges to those that come later. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, and no silver bullets.

1. Establish an independent commission of experts to work through the detail of policy development

General cargo vessel MUNZUR was intercepted by Italian police on December 2 in Tyrrhenian sea northeast of Pantelleria island, near Sicily, on a suspicion of drug trafficking.

A huge quantity of hashish was found, some 11 tons divided into 500 parcels. It was a final stage of an international operation, involving Spain, Portugal, Greek and Italian drug enforcement agencies and Europol.

A bill that would allow for stronger varieties of pot as medical marijuana in Florida unanimously cleared its second Senate review panel.

The Appropriations Subcommittee on Criminal and Civil Justice OK’d the measure (SB 460) on Thursday.

State Sen. Rob Bradley, the Fleming Island Republican behind the bill, said it was aimed at allowing stronger but still non-smokeable marijuana for terminally ill patients. It would be made into an infused oil to ingest.

Robert Ticer is no fan of legalized recreational marijuana.

And the Avon, Colo., police chief said Thursday that more pot in Connecticut’s future would increase challenges for cops on this state’s roads.

“It’s mind-boggling,” he said of marijuana’s spread through Colorado, speaking at Webster Arena as part of a traffic-safety summit. “It’s crazy.”

Full legalization was voted as a Colorado constitutional amendment in 2013, and there are now 505 medical dispensaries and 322 retail stores selling recreational cannabis — outnumbering the 405 Starbucks stores and 227 McDonald’s — Ticer said.

A Moroccan journalist has been arrested for his role in a television documentary on cannabis trafficking in his country, the head of the website for which he works said Thursday.

"Mohammed Drissi Kamili was arrested on Monday from his family home in Casablanca," Ali Amar of the website ledesk.ma told AFP, adding that he was moved to prison in Chefchaouen in northern Morocco.

He said Kamili had not taken part in filming or editing the documentary but had provided figures and information for the documentary made for France's Canal+, which was broadcast on November 18.

The documentary unveils the alleged implication of police and the coastguard in the smuggling of drugs to the European continent.

RCMP in B.C. continue to issue warnings and shut down shops selling medical marijuana, most recently in Vernon, despite the new federal government's promise to legalize the drug.

According to Jeff Gaudette, the co-owner of MMJ Total Health Care in downtown Vernon, last week officers issued verbal warnings to five shops selling medical marijuana.

Police made it clear the shops will be shut down if they continue to sell marijuana products, he said.

Gaudette said he's taking precautions by reducing the amount of stock in his store, but will continue to supply customers with medical cannabis.

"Our doors are open and our patients are going to be our voice. And if our doors get closed, I can assure you our patients will take to the streets and be heard."

Every year Colombian mother Ines Cano celebrates her daughter's birthday by getting a butterfly tattoo, her way of giving thanks that little Luna has survived another year of chronic epilepsy.

Ines is up to 12 tattoos now, and is hopeful of adding many more thanks to the medical marijuana treatments she says have changed their lives, and which Colombia is now in the process of legalizing and regulating.

The 12 tattoos could also represent the number of anti-seizure medications she tried previously, to little effect.

"Every day Luna had seizures when she woke up and went to sleep. She could convulse for one or two hours," said Ines, who carried her developmentally delayed daughter on her back for seven years until she learned to walk.