Police in northern Tanzania on Saturday announced to have confiscated 12.4 tons of marijuana, the biggest seizure of the illicit drug of the year in the East African nation.

The more that hunter-gatherers in the Congo smoke cannabis, the less they are infected by parasitic intestinal worms, according to Washington State University (WSU) researchers who say that the tribe may unconsciously be, in effect, smoking medical marijuana.

Ed Hagen, a WSU Vancouver anthropologist, explored cannabis use among the Aka foragers to see if people away from the cultural and media influences of Western civilization might use plant toxins medicinally. "In the same way we have a taste for salt, we might have a taste for psychoactive plant toxins, because these things kill parasites," he said. Hagen's study appears in the American Journal of Human Biology.

By Njabulo Majola.

When Dana Beal was locked up in Nebraska and Wisconsin a few years back, facing hard time after being busted transporting hundreds of pounds of marijuana, friends and allies from across the world flew to the Midwest to speak on his behalf. 

These days, all the backup Beal, 68, who ended up serving about three years, says he needs is five or six people to join his bi-weekly pickets outside of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in lower Manhattan. 

Rabat – Hamid Chabat, Secretary General of the Istiqlal Party, one of Morocco’s major opposition political parties, has again called for amnesty for Cannabis growers.

Speaking during a pre-election rally over the weekend in Ouzzane, northern Morocco, Hamid Chabat called for the adoption of a bill granting amnesty to small cannabis growers in the north of the kingdom.

He said that nearly 80,000 cannabis growers are released on bail and risk going back to prison at any moment because of their involvement in the cultivation of cannabis, while “corrupt and money launderers enjoy amnesty.” He added that the majority of these small growers lack identity documents and cannot exercise their voting rights.

Rabat- Hamid Chabat, Secretary General of the Istiqlal Party, one of Morocco’s major opposition political parties, has once again called for the legalization of Cannabis.

Chabat called over weekend for the legalization of cannabis and the reorientation of its cultivation to the pharmaceutical industries.

He called for the outright legalization of cannabis, calling the government’s proposal to replace the cultivation of the plant by raising goats, a ‘lie’.

This call comes just few months before the municipal elections scheduled for next September. The Istiqlal party denies any attempt to use the issue for electoral purposes.

JOHANNESBURG: To legalize or not to legalize marijuana is a question for South Africans.

Amid a heated debate on the issue, Head of the Cannabis Working Group, Andre du Plessis made headlines last week when lighting up dagga joint live on air while discussing the legalization of cannabis on a TV program run by the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Du Plesssis demands that South Africa government consider the legalization of cannabis for recreational and medical purposes.

He told Xinhua that the decriminalization of smoking the herb would be positive as it would also reduce the number of people who were imprisoned for smoking the “blessed herb”.

Global patterns of cannabis cultivation have followed a fascinating development, from highly concentrated production in certain developing countries to decentralized production in almost every country around the world (UNODC, 2014). Historically, the spread of cannabis cultivation across the globe reflected the industrial utility of hemp; the widespread use of cannabis as a recreational drug did not appear until much later (Abel, 1980, Booth, 2003). It is with the emergence of modern patterns of cannabis use in the developed world that we have seen major changes in patterns of cannabis production. As demand for cannabis increased globally, fuelled by the developments of the “counter-culture” of the 1960s and 1970s, so cultivation in the developing world began to take on new dimensions.

Shaheed Elhafed — The drug seizures in the region countries have reached alarming proportions in recent months, according to press sources of the countries affected by the cannabis trafficking.

"The plague is gaining ground and taking dangerous proportions," said the press highlighting that "inquisitors investigations were often revealing and the discoveries confirm the transformations in the matter" in reference to changes in the methods used by traffickers to route their poison.

With marijuana becoming increasingly accepted and legalised in certain international destinations, an Airbnb-type website has been created which helps you look for marijuana-friendly accommodation.

Bud and Breakfast gives users the ability to search for cannabis accommodation and "kush tourism" in countries like Jamaica, Canada, Holland, Uruguay and Spain, as well as the US states Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, California and Hawaii.

"We want to provide an accessible network of accommodations that meet high standards of quality, reliability, and satisfaction for travelers who also enjoy the benefits of this wonderful healing plant marijuana," the site's owners said.