Global Ganja Report

A US citizen is in court in the Persian Guld emirate of Dubai for possession of gummy-bear sweets laced with hashish, the United Arab Emirate's The National newspaper reported Dec. 20. Prosecutors told the Dubai Criminal Court that the defendant, identified only as "JD," had brought the cannabis candy in from the US. Working as a manager in the Emirates, JD was busted in July at a cafe by narcotics officers acting on a tip. He was apparently intimidated into accompanying the officers to his residence, where he spilled the beans±or the bears. "He opened his fridge and picked up a plastic bag full of gummy bears," testified a police major. Nonetheless, in his court appearance this week, JD pleaded ignorance. "I used it but I didn't know what it was at the time because it was inside the sweets," JD told the judges.  

Egyptian activist attorney Nasser Amin is challenging a law that calls for writers to be imprisoned for words that violate the country's "morals." The challenge comes in the trial of novelist Ahmed Naji, who could face two years in prison and a fine of nearly $1,300 for his work The Use of Life—because of its explicit sex scene and numerous references to hashish use. Amin argues that the law violates the Egyptian constitution, which only permits such punishment for published materials that are defamatory or encourage violence or discrimination.

There have been quite a few histories of cannabis culture and politics, but Bruce Barcott's Weed The People: The Future of Legal Marijuana in America is the first to examine the cannabis industry and its future prospects at a moment when it is taking flight. His opening overview of how we got to this point is engaging if not always strictly accurate (he loans too much credence to the '70s paraquat scare). He notes the litany of US government reports back to the 1920s exculpating cannabis of the calumnies against it—all ignored by the very government that commissioned them. He details the bureaucratic obstacles that have been raised to research on cannabis' medical benefits. And he relates the passing of the torch (or, more literally, the joint) from the jazz scene to the beatniks to the hippies to the mainstream.

Saudi Arabia's Interior Ministry announced last month that authorities in the desert kingdom have seized more than 28 tons of hashish and some 22 million amphetamine pills over the past eight months, as well as 57 pounds (26 kilograms) of heroin. They also  arrested 1,776 suspected smugglers and seized 1,230 weapons, including 184 automatic rifles. This actually represents a drop in interceptions from the previous year's figures, also announced at the end of Islamic calendar. The Ministry's Maj. Gen. Mansour al-Turki attributed the decline to escalated security along the border and harsh punishments for convicted smugglers. (Saudi Gazette, Nov. 17)

Pakistan's Anti-Narcotic Force (ANF) on Nov. 20 announced the latest in a string of of mega-scale hashish busts in recent months. A 4.2-ton haul was reported from a "desolate site" near the mountain village of Tehsil Gulistan, in Qilla Abdullah district of Balochistan province. Authorities said the mega-stash had been deposited along with a smaller quantity of heroin in a hidden spot behind bushes for traffickers to collect for export. (Pakistan Today)

Portugal's Public Security Police (PSP) announced Nov. 19 the seizure of 128,000 "individual doses" of hashish in a Lisbon raid, which also saw one arrest. The operation coincided with Spanish police seizing 1.5 tons of hashish in a joint cross-border maritime raid. Portugal's National Republican Guard (GNR) seized the boat at the fishing village of Isla Cristina after it was intercepted and boarded by the Spanish Coast Guard off Andalusia. It was apparently bound for Portugal when it was intercepted. (Portugal News)

On two separate occasions last week, agents of Pakistan's Anti Narcotics Force raided the offices of another elite police division, the Anti Violent Crime Cell, in the port city of Karachi—seizing large quantities of hashish and heroin. First, Dunya News reported that on Sept. 16, ANF agents arrested an AVCC agent at his office, and confiscated 137 kilograms of hashish. A drug suspect who was said to have been "illegally detained" by the AVCC was also found at the office, and presumably released. The next day, Daily Pakistan reported that the ANF again raided an AVCC office in the city, this time recovering 66 kilograms of hashish and two kilos of heroin.

Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) on Sept. 7 announced the seizure of a huge shipment of hashish, weighing 3.37 metric tons, and said to be destined for international markets. An ANF unit carried out the raid in a remote area of Balochistan province, apparently acting on a tip. The raid targeted what was called a "desolate site" in Qilla Abduallah district, along the border with Afghanistan. The stash was reportedly stuffed in plastic bags at a hidden location.