Global Ganja Report

Venezuela and the US are both seeking the extradition of Walid Makled, a notorious drug lord known as "The Arab" or "The Turk," who was arrested in a joint operation by Colombian police and the DEA in the city of Cúcuta near the Venezuelan border Aug. 19. A federal court in Manhattan has indicted Makled on charges of drug trafficking—allegedly in cooperation with Colombia's FARC guerillas. Venezuela is meanwhile seeking him on multiple murder counts.

Mexico's former president Vicente Fox wrote on his blog Aug. 8 that "we should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs"—the most far-reaching stand for legalization yet in Mexico, where more than 28,000 people have died during the current administration's war against drug cartels. The proposal is sparking the predictable backlash from hardliners, as AP reports...

On Aug. 3, President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 into law, reforming the notorious "100-to-1" ratio between crack and powder cocaine into a fairer 18-to-1 ratio and repealing a mandatory minimum sentence for simple possession of crack.

After three days of searching, Nuevo León state police on July 25 uncovered a total of 51 bodies from a clandestine narcofosa ("narco-grave") in a garbage dump in Benito Juárez municipality, outside Monterrey. There have been numerous such grisly findings in Mexico in recent months, but authorities say this was the biggest.

Costa Rica has granted the US military a six-month window to bring 7,000 Marines, five planes and 46 warships into its territory to help intercept north-bound narcotics. The permission, granted by a 31-8 vote of the Legislative Assembly on July 2, allows the US to use the country's territory through Dec. 31.

Ghanians cheering their national team to victory in the World Cup match in South Africa may have been imbibing in more than just beer. Earlier this month, agents of Ghana's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) discovered 70 acres of land under illegal cannabis cultivation at Omuaran, Ekiti state. The plantations were burned and seven farmworkers arrested. (The Daily Sun, Accra, June 3)

Peru is set to overtake Colombia as the world's top coca producer, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said in its World Drug Report 2010 released this week. The agency cited a 6.8% increase in areas of Peru under coca cultivation in 2009 compared with 2008—despite an overall 5% decrease from 167,000 hectares in 2008 to 158,000 hectares in 2009 across the Andean region generally.

Amnesty International has called for an investigation into the violence in Kingston this week, saying that Jamaican police had a "dire" human rights track record. With the official death toll at 73—including three members of the security forces—the manhunt for Christopher "Dudus" Coke has been suspended. Many Jamaicans believe the government wants Dudus "dead or alive." Authorities, however, insist he will be arrested and brought to justice. (BBC News, May 29)