Massachusetts police may no longer be able to arrest people for having a small amount of hashish, because a new law that decriminalizes possessing up to an ounce of marijuana could apply to other drugs with the same psychoactive ingredient, according to guidelines issued today.

The guidelines, from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security, say possession of an ounce or less of THC — the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, hashish or hash oil — may now be decriminalized as well.

Voters passed a referendum in November that replaces the criminal penalties for having up to an ounce of pot with the civil penalty of a $100 fine and forfeiture of the drug. The law takes effect Friday, and law enforcement agencies have been awaiting a guide to its practical enforcement.

State officials expect that the judiciary will eventually have to answer specific questions about the law’s scope.

But the guidelines make clear that existing laws prohibiting the distribution of marijuana or operating a motor vehicle under its influence remain unchanged. In addition, all law enforcement officers with civil enforcement powers — including campus officers — have the authority to issue the new $100... [Read More]

The production, trade and sale of the in-drug "Spice" will likely be illegalized from January under German narcotics laws, the country's federal drugs commissioner said in Berlin on Tuesday.

Sabine Baetzing of the Social Democrats (SPD) said that new studies of the herbal drug had shown a synthetic material named JWH-018 was used in its production. The chemical was found to be four times stronger than THC, the natural psychoactive substance contained in cannabis.

She also said that spice contained several other unknown elements, which could be harmful when smoked.

"It has been confirmed that the fashion-drug Spice is indeed not the harmless herbal mixture its manufacturers say it is," Baetzing said. "Tests have shown that smoking the drug can cause undesirable side affects on the heart, circulation and nervous system, in some cases leading to unconsciousness. There is also a danger of addiction."

Offenders under the drug's new classification could face fines or jail terms.

Authorities in several European countries have taken a closer look at the drug since it became popular in early 2008.

The drug -- also known as "Spice Silver,"... [Read More]

Police plan clamp down on shops accused of glamorising drug use



Police are to launch a crack down on retailers who display drug-related paraphernalia, because of fears they are glamorising abuse of illegal substances.

The businesses, known as "head shops", operate entirely within the law but the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) is devising new rules on how police and local councils can work together to combat "community concerns" about the stores.

The guidelines are expected to see police and trading standards officers demanding changes to the way stores operate, and could even lead to the authorities demanding that items are taken off display.

Head shops, which first surfaced in the 1960s, offer a range of products linked with illegal drug-taking such as hookahs, "bongs" or water pipes, scales for weighing drugs and machines to grind substances such as herbal cannabis.

Many also offer "legal alternatives" to cannabis, as well as T-shirts and other products bearing images of cannabis leaves or marijuana cigarettes and which depict drug use in a positive light.

Tim Hollis, Acpo drugs spokesman and chief constable of Humberside, said: "There are concerns that head shops make drugs seem legal.... [Read More]

A record-breaking 5,612 people were executed in Mexico’s drug war in 2008, making the drug war more deadly than the drugs

Mexico's daily El Universal, which began counting drug war executions four years ago, reports that 5,612 people were executed in Mexico’s drug war in 2008. This year’s deaths more than doubled 2007’s total of over 2,700 executions. By El Universal's estimates, about 8,463 drug executions have occurred during the first two years of Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s six-year term in office. Calderon deployed the army and federal police to combat drug cartels almost immediately upon assuming office in December 2006.

The 2008 death toll means that the drug war in Mexico alone (that is, not including the copious number of drug war deaths in Colombia) is more deadly than illicit drugs in the United States, which is the biggest drug market in the world and the destination for the overwhelming majority of the American continent’s drugs.

In 2005, the latest year the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has published statistics for fatal drug overdoses, 22,400 people... [Read More]

Advisory Council has 'pro-drug' agenda, say critics, raising questions over its fitness to advise ministers

By Brian Brady and Jonathan Owen
Sunday, 4 January 2009


An independent committee that advises ministers on drug classification is poised to recommend the controversial downgrading of ecstasy to a class B drug. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is expected to call for ecstasy, a drug blamed for the deaths of at least 30 people a year, to be changed from its top-rated class A category when it reports later this month.


The proposal will bring the council into direct conflict with the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith (below), who is expected to veto any such move, and propel the Government into a row over its treatment of expert bodies charged with advising ministers on key issues. The controversy comes just months after the Home Office ignored ACMD opposition to the decision to move cannabis from class C to class B.

Senior Home Office sources said they "fully expected" the ACMD to call for the relaxation of ecstasy's classification. Professor David Nutt, chairman of the committee, which is reviewing ecstasy at the... [Read More]

Controlled substances may be illegal, but the government still taxes them.

This Catch-22 in Iowa law is getting many people charged with a Class D felony.

"The law requires that, after a certain amount of controlled substance is obtained - the amount varies depending on the substance - a tax stamp must be adhered to the drug," said Sgt. Luke Fleener, Webster County Sheriff's Department.

Failure to have a drug tax stamp on the controlled substance will result in a charge, in addition to being charged with possession of the illegal substance.

People can get the drug tax stamp at the Iowa Department of Revenue Office in Des Moines or send in a request form.

Paul Benson, manager of taxpayer service, said the stamps can be obtained anonymously to protect the citizen's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. The only time he would need a name or address is to send the stamp to them through the mail, he said.

He said, despite the promise of no prosecution for ordering the stamps there have been no tax stamps sold in 2008.

"I've only sold two batches in the past four years," Benson said.

He said people may shy away from getting... [Read More]

15 officers caught in FBI drug sting
Cops allegedly were hired by dealers for protection

"I ain't always been in law enforcement," a Harvey cop allegedly bragged to the drug dealer whose business he was paid to protect. "I sold a lot of weight at a young age, I just never got caught." His luck ran out Tuesday, though, as federal authorities unsealed charges against the Harvey police officer and 14 other law-enforcement officers. The drug dealer was an undercover FBI agent who secretly recorded his conversations. Two civilians were also charged.

The FBI said it launched the yearlong sting after widespread reports from informants and other cops that law-enforcement officers in southern Cook County were engaging in robbery, extortion and distribution of narcotics and weapons.

"When drug dealers deal drugs, they ought to be afraid of the police—not turn to them for help," U.S. Atty. Patrick Fitzgerald said during a news conference announcing the charges.

Authorities charged 10 Cook County corrections officers and sheriff's deputies, four Harvey police officers and one Chicago officer with providing protection for what they thought were a dozen... [Read More]

German Police Paid Informants in Drugs

Police in the north German city of Bremen have been paying informants in drugs. The practice may have helped fight drug crime but was itself illegal -- six officers are now under investigation.



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If you want information out of someone, then it makes sense to give them something they really want in return. With police informants from the drug scene, what better reward than narcotics themselves? But, as six German police officers have discovered, there's one small problem with the approach -- it's completely illegal.

The public prosecutor's office in the north German city of Bremen announced Wednesday that it is investigating six police officers for using drugs to "pay" their informants. Between 2003 and 2007, the accused are said to have compensated contacts in the drug scene with marijuana and hashish for information on drug offenses.


On Tuesday, the six officers were interrogated and their homes and offices were searched. Marijuana and hashish were found in the offices, and an illegal firearm was found in one officer's home.
One of the officers is alleged to have misappropriated 15 grams of confiscated marijuana for his own purposes... [Read More]

This article is from 2006, but it is a good read nonetheless. The way in which marijuana is concealed is very imaginative.

[top]Marijuana gumballs at Howard High attract DEA

Comments
Jul 26, 2006 5:00 AM (891 days ago) by Luke Broadwater, The Examiner


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Related Topics: Howard County

(Photos courtesy of the DEA)
The yellow gumballs from Howard High School which were stuffed with marijuana.


Howard County (Map, News) - At first glance, the yellow smiley face gumballs confiscated from Howard High School seem innocent enough. But stuffed in the so-called “Greenades” was something that caught the attention of... [Read More]

Ont. shop owner charged with selling addictive poppy derivative



Last Updated: Tuesday, December 23, 2008 | 10:42 PM ET CBC News

A popular but addictive preparation made from parts of the poppy flower has been found to contain enough illegal ingredients to sustain criminal charges against some of those accused of selling it.

Available for as little as $20 in some flea markets and smaller grocery stores in South Asian neighbourhoods, doda is made by grinding the husk and seeds of the poppy flower — the same plant that produces opium. It's often taken with tea or water and produces a quick high followed by a sense of calm.

While charges against those who sell doda have proved difficult to uphold without scientific proof that the substance contains opium, a Brampton, Ont., shop owner is facing jail time for allegedly selling doda that Health Canada says tested positive for codeine and morphine. Both are opiates and considered controlled substances under Canadian law.

Police have laid charges in relation to doda before, but say this is the first time they are likely to stick after Health Canada delivered lab certificates to substantiate the accusations earlier this week.

Ashwani Bhangal, owner of Brampton's Nath Meat and Chicken Deli, has been charged with three counts of drug... [Read More]

Full title: Tracking Community-wide Drug Use By Testing Water At Sewage Treatment Plants - Environmental Science & Technology Journal

Scientists in Oregon and Washington State are reporting the development and successful testing of a new method for determining the extent of illicit drug use in entire communities from water flushed down toilets that enters municipal wastewater treatment plants. The technique may be an effective tool for comparing drug use in different regions of the United States and the world, they note in a study is scheduled for the December 15 issue of ACS' Environmental Science & Technology, a semi-monthly journal.


In the study, Aurea C. Chiaia and colleagues note that the new test eliminates the need for sample preparation - saving time and money and decreasing the risk of sample contamination. They proved the test's effectiveness by measured levels of illegal drugs like methamphetamine and legal drugs like prescription painkillers in wastewater from seven U.S. municipalities. The research team also tested the levels of 'urine indicators' such as... [Read More]

Nano device 'times drug release'

US researchers say they have harnessed the power of gold nanoparticles to devise a better way of delivering drugs to treat diseases such as cancer.

The fledgling system could release a number of drugs in a specific part of the body at desired intervals, the MIT team wrote in the journal ACS Nano.

The device makes use of the fact that different particles melt when exposed to different levels of infrared light.

Different drugs on the particles could thus be released in a controlled way.

One of the advantages of being able to deliver drugs directly to a specific site within the body is that you can use relatively toxic drugs without fear of causing widespread damage to other, healthy tissue.

A number of trials are using nanoparticles, sometimes as small as one nanometre - or a billionth of a metre - to take drugs directly to the site of a tumour and avoid many of the side-effects associated with traditional chemotherapy.

Near-infrared light is shone on the site, penetrating the skin to reach the tumour. At the... [Read More]

A day in the life of an ordinary school: drugs, violence and intimidation

Documents released to the Sunday Telegraph paint a disturbing picture of the challenges facing Britain's teachers.



It is 9am, the start of the school day, and already an English teacher has been on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse from a 15-year-old boy. Outside on the playing field, the PE teacher has stopped a lesson to deal with teenage pupils who are swearing and not doing as they are told.

Later that afternoon, three more members of staff will report being verbally abused by their charges, and the day will end with a pupil vandalising the library.

This is just another typical day at Northfields Technology College in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. It is not a particularly extreme example of the unruliness that many state schools have to deal with on a regular basis, but it is a snapshot that will horrify parents as they prepare their children for the new term.

Records of classroom and playground incidents, known as behaviour logs, from five schools on the National Challenge list (those in which fewer than 30 per cent of pupils leave with five "good" GCSEs, with grades A* to... [Read More]

Health group angered by 99p pint

A pub chain is cutting the price of a pint to 99p to cheer cash-strapped drinkers - but the move has sparked criticism from an alcohol charity.

JD Wetherspoon, which operates 713 pubs across the UK, is offering "indefinite" reductions on some beer, bottled lager, wine and spirits, plus £2.99 meals.

Health campaigners fear other pub chains could follow.

Alcohol Concern says pricing drinks at 1989 levels could cause more people to drink too much and end up in hospital.

Nicolay Sorensen, from the charity, said prices across the industry were already 65% lower in real terms than in 1980.

"The number of alcohol-related hospital admissions is continuing to rise at an astonishing rate," he said, adding that treating drink-related illnesses costs the NHS £2.7bn per year.

He said that by selling beer at 99p per pint, pubs were not acting responsibly.

"The drinks industry isn't able to regulate itself responsibly and it's for the government to take action."

... [Read More]

Counterfeiting gangs based in China are producing sophisticated copies of the world's bestselling pharmaceuticals. In 2008 an estimated 8m of these potentially deadly pills found their way to NHS patients. The health of millions of people is at risk

They were made in China, labelled in French and then shipped to Singapore. They ended up in Liverpool and from there were sold straight into the heart of the NHS. As the criminal investigation continues into how a fake consignment of Zyprexa, an anti-psychotic treatment prescribed for schizophrenia, infiltrated Britain's healthcare system last year, evidence is mounting that sophisticated counterfeiting syndicates are increasingly targeting Britain's network of high-street chemists, hospitals and GP surgeries.

Figures collated for the first time reveal that British border officials seized more than half a million counterfeit pills destined for the NHS and high-street chemists last year, an amount equal to the quantity of counterfeit drugs found in the whole of Europe in 2005. So vast is the scale of the threat from fake medicines that public confidence in the NHS could be "completely undermined", according to legal experts. Health officials also warn that the health of millions of Britons is potentially at risk.... [Read More]

The narcotic leaf is a time-honored tradition in Africa but illegal in the U.S., where demand is growing

Reporting from Washington — In the heart of the Ethiopian community here, a group of friends gathered after work in an office to chew on dried khat leaves before going home to their wives and children. Sweet tea and sodas stood on a circular wooden table between green mounds of the plant, a mild narcotic grown in the Horn of Africa.

As the sky grew darker the conversation became increasingly heated, flipping from religion to jobs to local politics. Suddenly, one of the men paused and turned in his chair. "See, it is the green leaf," he said, explaining the unusually animated discussion as he pinched a few more leaves together and tossed them into his mouth.

For centuries the "flower of paradise" has been used legally in East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula as a stimulant and social tonic.

But in the United States khat is illegal, and an increased demand for the plant in cities such as Washington and San Diego is leading to stepped up law enforcement efforts and escalating... [Read More]

JD Wetherspoon unveils the 99p credit crunch pint

But licensee warns of pressure promotion puts on JDW's rivals

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon has said it is dropping beer prices to encourage more people to the pub.

The price of certain drinks at all 713 pubs in the company’s estate is expected to be reduced in the move which comes into play on Monday.

Changes at some of the pubs include Greene King IPA being reduced to 99p a pint and a bottle of San Miguel being available at the same price.

A bottle of Blossom Hill Rose wine will be available at £4.99, a single measure of Sailor Jerry Rum at £1.29 and a 750ml bottle of Jacques Cider at £3.99.

Chief executive John Hutson said the price-promotion would run “indefinitely”.

“People enjoy going to the pub, however I appreciate that the economic downturn means that they now have to be more careful with their money,” he said.

“I believe the new food and drink prices will allow people to visit the pub without it costing them too much.

“Unlike most sales that start in... [Read More]

Boozy Britain's bloody New Year: A 999 call every seven seconds in alcohol-induced mayhem

Violence scarred celebrations and led to a bloody New Year across the country as emergency services endured a chaotic end to 2008.

Ambulance control centres reported receiving 999 calls as often as once every seven seconds - the second highest volume of calls since the Millennium - as binge drinkers turned nasty in the freezing temperatures.

Many of the calls related either to alcohol-fuelled assaults or excessive drunkenness.


Bloodbath: A victim of a bottle attack at a club in North London

Booze contributed to time-wasting calls to 999 operators too, with one man calling to ask if New York was in America, and what time it was there.

Elsewhere, while large numbers were ferried to hospitals, in some areas injuries were treated by paramedics in 'booze buses' to leave ambulances free for more serious emergencies.

In Essex, so many drunk people were arrested that all 200 of the constabulary's cells were filled, and overflow revellers had to be shipped to neighbouring Kent to be held for the night.

A huge brawl at a social club in Loughton,... [Read More]

Many of us embedded in modern metropolitan living swoon with shock to learn that many global destinations exist where our beloved cornucopia of beautiful, nurturing, warm, and tingly drugs are not sold on every corner. I like traveling to far-flung places, but I feel the ache when watching the sun melt into the sea without a spliff, and can hardly stomach the blasting house music and buck-toothed teen harlotry of Central Europe’s farm-town discos without some old fashioned MDMA. Plus, maybe an imported bump or two of Ketamine would have kept me from more than a couple of beds that turned hostile come the morning light. I learned my lesson young. Either travel with drugs, or enter the great unknown: a world of endless connections and false promises, a surfeit of shady rides to cinderblock warzones and perpetual rip-offs by gobbledygook-spewing pseudo-pirates whose day-labor tools moonlight as rusty shanks once they get within sniffing distance of money belts and fanny packs.

At 16, I shoved a half-ounce of Aztec brick weed between some tea bags in a box of Celestial Seasonings for a skip across the pond to Spain. España had delicious... [Read More]

Altered states brought on by drugs or drink have always inspired artists. Now a show at Riflemaker allows us all to be armchair trippers

“Humankind cannot bear very much reality.” T.S. Eliot famously captures our predicament with aphoristic concision. No wonder that for generations artists have worked to transcend the limitations of a mundanely normal world as they struggle to visualise those wild possibilities that lie on the far side of the safe garden fence. Fortunately, when it comes to taking a trip to this alternative world, most of us go for the package-tourist's option. We drift away safely into literary fictions; we get lost in films and flow with the music; we go on forget-it-all beach holidays once a year.

But package tours aren't for everyone. Those with a creative bent tend to thrive on a less predictable experience. They set off, often with the help of drink, drugs and other treacherous friends, on the psychological equivalent of the gap-year adventure. Some never come back. Others return with better-than-average holiday snaps.

This month Riflemaker in Soho is inviting us round to look through the... [Read More]

Schools To Use Spray For Drug Detection

Take a walk on the wild side with altered states

Boozy Britain's bloody New Year: A 999 call every seven seconds in...

Family blames drug taking stars like Amy Winehouse for son's fatal heroin...

More Asian women 'use hard drugs'

A day in the life of an ordinary school: drugs, violence and intimidation

Khat - is it more coffee or cocaine

JD Wetherspoon unveils the 99p credit crunch pint

Troops lured by drug trade, report warns

Hospitality Industry Called On To Offer Free Non-alcoholic Drinks For...

Scientists dismiss 'detox myth'

New treatment for blood poisoning could prove instant hangover cure

New cannabis type prompts call for action

Health fears grow as fake drugs flood into Britain

Zolpidem (Ambien/Stilnox) - The paradoxical "miracle" drug for brain...

Cash offered to addicts, alcoholics who agree to long-term birth control

Nano device 'times drug release'

Health group angered by 99p pint

Recent Research on Medical Marijuana

Mind-altering drugs: does legal mean safe?

German police paid informant in drugs

Police Informant's Death Brings New Law, Lawsuit

Going soft on cannabis is the worst thing I've seen in 28 years' policing

Heroin hidden in Monopoly game in Manitoba’s biggest bust

First DMT seizure by police in Western Australia

Germany to Ban Cannabis-Like Drug Spice

Police plan clamp down on (head)shops accused of glamorising drug use

Ont. shop owner charged with selling addictive poppy derivative

Marijuana gumballs at Howard High attract DEA

15 officers caught in FBI drug sting

Iowa’s tax stamp requirement a Catch-22

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith fights move to relax law on Ecstasy

Downgrade ecstasy to class B drug, say ministerial advisers

Mexico's Drug War Deadlier Than Drugs

Why Obama Really Might Decriminalize Marijuana

If Obama Is Pro-Science and Honest, He'll Put the Kibosh on the Drug War

Britain set to be flooded with cocaine, warns George W Bush's drugs tsar

New Massachusetts Rules Allow Having Hashish

Online drugs avoid the law (Spice & kratom)

Goddard might consider legalized marijuana in Arizona

The Most Dangerous Drug in the World

'Ecstasy was for my dog'

thieves blag pot from pigs.

one fucked up Christmas...

Flour-filled condoms!!