Vivian Blake, a former top leader of Jamaica's "Shower Posse," which US prosecutors say was responsible for more than 1,400 drug-related killings within the United States in the 1980s, died March 20 in Kingston. Blake, 54, was rushed to an emergency room with breathing problems before he died. His daughter, Dominique Blake, said he had been suffering from kidney failure and diabetes.
Not all countries conform to the Single Convention’s “schedules,” and some now have today adopted very tolerant enforcement policies—although (contrary to popular belief) cannabis is technically illegal even in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, cannabis is a Schedule 2 drug and opiates are Schedule 1, in a reversal of the UN (and US) policy. Under the “Dutch model,” cannabis is decriminalized, and the fines that are technically on the books for possession are generally not enforced. Other European countries that have decriminalized include Spain, Italy and Belgium—although the enforcement policy in these countries is nowhere near as liberal as in the Netherlands. Italy especially has been cracking down in recent years.
Although levels of tolerance for cannabis vary widely worldwide, nearly every nation on earth is a party to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, which establishes uniform “schedules” for controlled substances—with our favorite herb in the most restrictive schedule. Nations may establish their own enforcement policies, in consultation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
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