methamphetamine

Oregon's cannabis paradox: legal market depressed; illicit market booms

OregonIndustrial-scale illicit cannabis grow operations are being raided by police in Southern Oregon. Licit-market prices are totally depressed in Oregon, yet the illicit market continues to be evidently lucrative. What explains this contradiction, and what can be done?

Good news, bad news in national study on drug arrests and imprisonment

Posted on March 4th, 2022 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , .

prisonersIn a proverbial case of "good news, bad news," a national study finds that even as overall incarceration rates have dramatically dropped over the past decade, drug arrest rates have remained high—and racial disparities in arrests have persisted. The disparities have, nonetheless, decreased, as have overall cannabis arrests—with a big uptick in meth arrests taking up the slack.

'Kush' scare hits West Africa

Posted on February 15th, 2022 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , .

AfricaThere has been a flurry of vague but lurid reportage about a supposedly addicting and debilitating pseudo-cannabis that is going around in Sierra Leone and other West African countries. This may be akin to products such as K2 and Spice, widely marketed in the US and Europe—but if reports are to be believed, it is far more dangerous.

India: Bollywood scion snared in hash rap

Posted on November 16th, 2021 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , .

South AsiaA Bollywood celebrity was arrested for supposedly using hashish and other drugs on a cruise ship off Mumbai—one of a slew of high-profile cases that have embarrassed India's entertainment industry and political establishment. Apart from providing fodder for the gossip columns, however, the affair raises serious concerns about civil rights in "the world's largest democracy."

The death penalty for cannabis —even now

nooseIt's pretty surreal that even as a legal cannabis industry emerges on a global scale, there are still countries that impose outrageously draconian sentences for the herb—up to and including the death penalty.

The egregious case of a man sentenced to death for smuggling two pounds of cannabis into the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore has focused global attention on the disturbing reality.

Indonesia tightens screws on drug-war police state

Posted on October 9th, 2020 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , .

South East AsiaA British pretty-boy model getting popped for pot and facing a lengthy term in notoriously harsh prisons has again focused international attention on Indonesia's anti-drug police state. But countless others suffer in the shadows—including some 150 on death row for drug charges. And recent progress in official recognition of (at least) the medicinal properties of cannabis has been rolled back.

Cannabis prisoners as geopolitical pawns

Posted on February 10th, 2020 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

prisonersThe global prohibition of cannabis affords the opportunity for imperial powers and authoritarian regimes to exploit those caught in the web of enforcement to advance their own political agendas. The recent case of Naama Issachar was deftly leveraged by Vladimir Putin, and could encourage other depots to similarly use pot prisoners to exact concessions from foreign governments.

Colorado courts tighten legal leash on drug dogs —with contested implications for cannabis

Posted on May 24th, 2019 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , .

scalesColorado's Supreme Court ruled that thanks to the constitutional changes instated by the 2012 cannabis legalization vote, police require probable cause before using drug-sniffing dogs. A dissenting opinion holds that the decision oversteps federal authority, and undermines the jurisprudential basis for Colorado legalization. Are these fears realistic?

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