News from around the world. another IAL update.

[Digit]

Bulletin of the International Antiprohibitionist League on the world campaign for the reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs

#.20 - YEAR I - 22 May 2003

Published in

NEWS FROM THE IAL :

SPAIN
The premiere of the video Cannabis Indoors was shown with the participation of Euro-MPs Marco Cappato (Radicals) and José Maria Mendiluce (Green Party).

NEWS FROM THE WORLD :

2950 09/05/2003
COLOMBIA
CROPS
YAHOO
According to U.S. anti-drug chief John Walters, Colombian heroin production declined by 25% between 2001 and 2002, passing from 15.1 to 11.3 metric tonnes.


2946 13/05/2003
UNITED KINGDOM (Northern Ireland)
BEHAVIOUR
U.TV
Reclassification of cannabis to Class C in Northern Ireland has led many to think that smoking openly in the streets was now allowed. The authorities had to rush to remind people that it was still Oan illegal and dangerous substance¹.


2942 07/05/2003
SWITZERLAND
LAWS
NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG
An overcrowded agenda has forced the National Council to postpone debating about drug law reform to the June session.


2943 09/05/2003
U.S.A. (New York State)
LAWS
NEWSDAY
About two hundred people demonstrated in favour of state drug law reform. The existing so-called ORockefeller laws¹ prescribe very severe penalties and hit ethnic minorities hardest.


2947 12/05/2003
U.S.A. (Rhode Island)
LAWS
DRUGPOLICY.ORG
The Rhode Island Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a law that would allow landlords to evict without prior notice any tenant on whose premises drugs have been found. Many persons feel that this would do nothing save worsen the already harsh living conditions of many addicts.


2945 10/05/2003
AFGHANISTAN
THE MARKET
DAWN (Islamabad, Pakistan)
A kilo of fresh raw opium costs between 220 and 270 euros. In Taliban times it cost more than 520 euros (but the euro was then having about 30% lower than today in relation to the dollar). Dried opium came down in 2001-2002 from about 680 to 450 euros a kilo.


2941 09/05/2003
SWITZERLAND
RECOVERY AND THERAPY
EL PAIS (Madrid)
M.Marset, head of the Swiss programme for controlled distribution of heroin says that not one of the 1,700 addicts under care since 1995 has become infected with HIV, whilst drug-related crime has come down by eighty per cent. Moreover, there has been no fatal overdose and only a few cases of secondary non-fatal toxic opiate effects. Some problems have arisen when heroin was illegally mixed with other substances.


2948 13/05/2003
U.S.A. (New York State)
RECOVERY/THERAPY
THE TIMES UNION (Albany, N.Y.)
Cuts in state funds have had disastrous effects on therapeutic communes. These, not beloved by politicians, were never adequately funded even in fat times, doubtless because of their general opposition to prevailing drug laws.


2949 13/05/2003
SWITZERLAND
REPRESSION
SWISSINFO
The Justice Ministry has asked that the cannabis business be kept under sharp control. Plantations that grow products with a high THC content should be kept under special surveillance.


2944 09/05/2003
SAUDI ARABIA
PUNISHMENTS
ANSA
Two beheadings in the public square. One victim was an Afghan drug trafficker.


2951 09/05/2003
FINLAND
STATISTICS
HELSINGIN SANOMAT (Helsinki)
A poll claims that 12 per cent of Fins have tried an illegal substance at least once. Cannabis is preferred, especially by the 20-to-29-year-old group, among whom 34 per cent of the men and 25 per cent of the woman have used it.


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Director: Vincenzo Donvito
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