cocaine

Senate Judiciary Committee approves bill on cocaine sentencing disparities

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , .

cocaineThe US Senate Judiciary Committee on March 11 unanimously approved a bill to reduce sentencing disparities for powder and crack cocaine offenses. The Fair Sentencing Act, introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), is intended to bridge the gap between crack and powder cocaine sentencing by amending the Controlled Substances Act and the Controlled Substances Import and Export Act.

Coca production down in South America, up in Peru: UN

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , .

cocaThe UN International Narcotics Control Board, in its annual report released Feb. 24 called on Peru's government to take measures to reduce the country's growing illicit coca cultivation. The 2009 report finds that the area under coca cultivation decreased in South America by 8% to 167,800 hectares in 2008, largely due to a major decline in Colombia, the world's top producer. But for a third consecutive year, cultivation increased in Peru, the second largest producer.

FARC commander "Ivan Vargas" gets 20 years in US prison

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , .

ColombiaColombian guerilla leader Jorge Enrique Rodríguez Mendieta AKA "Ivan Vargas" was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a District Court in New York March 19 for conspiring to import cocaine into the US. Mendieta, who was extradited in 2007, pleaded guilty in December to the charges, admitting that he was commander of the FARC's 24th Front from 1998 to 2004.

Jamaica: "Shower Posse" kingpin Vivian Blake dead at 54

Posted on March 26th, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , .

CaribbeanVivian 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.

Know The Law: International

Posted on March 22nd, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , .

Europe Chills Out

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.

Know The Law

Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , .

 

Global Prohibition Regime

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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