A hemp field in the Alpujarra mountains in the southern Spanish province of Granada. Credit: Courtesy of AEPTC

By Inés Benítez
MALAGA, Spain, May 22 2014 (IPS)

Spain is experiencing a resurgence of hemp, one of the species of cannabis with the lowest THC content, which has been used for millennia to produce textile, medicinal and food products.

“Hemp has been planted since the beginning of time for its nutritional properties and health benefits,” said Pilar López with the Galihemp Cooperative, which makes and sells hemp products in the northeastern Spanish city of Lugo. “It’s a plant that remineralises the soil.”

The European Union allows the industrial and agricultural production of hemp with a concentration of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the chief psychoactive constituent of marijuana – no higher than 0.2 percent.

Varieties of cannabis sativa used to produce marijuana and hashish contain 0.5 to 10 percent THC.

Royal Decree 1729/1999 of Nov. 12, 1999 authorises the cultivation of 25 varieties of industrial hemp in Spain and establishes guidelines to grant subsidies to producers of fibre flax and hemp.

For thousands of years hemp was used to produce clothing, food and products like ship sails. And in Spain, hemp products experienced an upsurge during the country’s 1936-1939 civil war.

But in 1937 the United States banned all cannabis, including hemp, to benefit the production of cotton and synthetic fibres.

The age-old hemp industry collapsed, leading to a rural exodus of farmers who grew it. The final nail in the coffin in the United States was the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, in conjunction with international conventions.

Chemist Josep María Funtané from Catalonia in northeastern Spain told IPS he discovered the therapeutic properties of hemp when he was diagnosed with cancer and found that it helped ease the side effects of chemotherapy.

In 2011, in the Catalonian city of Barcelona, he founded Vitrovit, a company that produces medicinal products, cosmetics and fertilisers derived from hemp.

Patients generally only need cannabis with the lowest levels of THC and the highest possible content of cannabidiol, a major, non-psychoactive constituent of cannabis with anti-inflammatory and analgesic effects."Hemp production could be a green revolution that would help reduce unemployment in rural areas in these times of economic crisis." -- Fernando Montero

Funtané is drawing up a map of Spain to boost the recovery of the cultivation of industrial hemp, offering detailed information by community and province.

Producers of industrial hemp, a fast-growing crop adaptable to most kinds of terrain, underscore its enormous potential and complain that they are subject to confiscation of merchandise and even arrest.

On May 7, the authorities closed down a therapeutic grow-shop that sold cannabis-derived products in Calahorra, a town in the northern region of La Rioja. “Two civil guards showed up without a warrant and closed the shop,” the owner of the business, who only gave his first name, Dionisio, told IPS.

And a producer of hemp-derived products, Miguel Arrillaga, complained to IPS that “since January, the authorities have seized three of my shipments of industrial hemp when they confused it with marijuana, causing problems for shops and customers.”

There is “an epidemic of ignorance” about a crop whose growers even receive state subsidies, he argued.

Arrillaga, like other producers who spoke to IPS, buys legally certified seeds from France, because Spain does not certify seeds. His seeds are planted by farmers in the southern region of Andalusía.

He sells all parts of the hemp plant – seeds, leaves and stems – which are used to make “hemp milk” (a drink made from seeds that are soaked and ground into water), infusions, soap, and skincare products.

“Hemp production could be a green revolution that would help reduce unemployment in rural areas in these times of economic crisis,” the president of the Spanish association of hemp producers (AEPTC), Fernando Montero, told IPS.

The AEPTC was created in 2012 in the village of Bubión, in the heart of the La Alpujarra mountains in the southern Andalusían province of Granada.

Montero, who sells hemp along with his son in their company LaKaraba, said that even though they “meticulously” comply with all of the legal requirements, they are always a bit nervous when they plant, for fear that the authorities will swoop in at any given moment.

Civil guard lieutenant Pablo Cobo in the Andalusían city of Algeciras told IPS that “even though it isn’t what it looks like,” a package of industrial hemp has the same appearance and smell as marijuana.

When the authorities find a shipment of a package of hemp leaves, the results of the analysis come up positive for THC, no matter how low the percentage.

That automatically leads to confiscation of the product and the submission of a sample to the health authorities for a second lab test.

“The problem is that the initial test and identification of the product by the authorities“ are not reliable and must be contrasted by a second test, a lawyer who asked to remain anonymous told IPS.

And while the tests determine whether or not the cannabis complies with the legal limits for THC content, the product can languish in a warehouse for weeks or even months, Arrillaga complained.

He also cited Juan Zurito, a Granada farmer who was arrested several times for crimes against public health, and who has been in prison since February.

Spain is a signatory to the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, which ban the cultivation, production and sale of cannabis as a drug, but do not restrict the production of industrial hemp.

Hemp fibre can be used to make clothing, rope and paper, while the oil from the seeds can be used to produce biofuel or animal feed.

“What could be better than working with something so good,” argued López, of the Galihemp Cooperative, which will produce hemp pulp to make paper, using a special machine.

She told IPS that “the ignorance about this plant in some places in Spain, at the level of the civil guard [police force], is a disgrace.”

The hemp sector faces numerous hurdles in Spain, where it is even hard to find hemp seed dehulling machines. In other EU countries like France, Germany or Austria, meanwhile, the number of hectares dedicated to hemp production is growing fast.

Nevertheless, López believes industrial hemp has a “splendid” future in Spain and says she has “no doubt” that it will prosper, although she admits that ignorance about hemp and the interests of big industry are obstacles.

Funtané concurred. “There are a number of powerful industries, like the textile or steel industries, which are not interested in the potential of hemp and won’t let it steal markets from them,” he said.

Hemp can be used to make components for the car industry, and durable insulation material is made from hemp fibre for the building industry.

“We are making history: Uruguay approves the regulation of marijuana” reads this poster by an advocacy group that lobbied for state regulation and control of marijuana. Credit: Courtesy Proderechos.

By Inés Acosta
MONTEVIDEO, Jan 12 2014 (IPS)

Uruguay, about to become the first country in the world where the state will fully regulate production, sale and distribution of marijuana, will spend the next few months selecting a good quality strain of the crop that can be sold at a price similar to current illegal prices.

Uruguayan President José Mujica signed law 19.172 on the regulation of marijuana on Dec. 23. But it won’t go into effect until April, 120 days after it was approved by Congress on Dec. 10, and once the government has established specific regulations for the new legislation.

Since the 1970s, consumption and possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use have not been penalised in this South American country of 3.3 million people sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil. But cultivation, sale and distribution of the drug have been illegal up to now.

When the 44-article law enters into force, the entire sector will be under the regulation and oversight of the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis, a new government institution created by the law.

But there is much to do before April. Among the most important steps are to decide the type of marijuana to be planted, who will grow it and at what cost, and what price it will fetch in the pharmacies.

The registries of users and others involved in the different marijuana-related activities also have to be created, as well as the so-called cannabis clubs, to ensure the traceability of the legal strain of marijuana.

Social organisations and activists are studying the best way to produce competitively-priced high-quality marijuana while involving small and medium Uruguayan producers and preventing foreign companies from taking over the activity.

The aim of the law is to “put the availability of marijuana for users in the hands of, or under the control of, the state,” Senator Roberto Conde of the left-wing governing Broad Front told IPS.

“A free market of marijuana or other drugs is not being created here,” Conde explained. “People will have access to marijuana by planting it themselves, in cannabis clubs, or from pharmacies, by presenting their ID card.”

Legal marijuana – up to 40 grams a month (around 40 joints) – will only be available to residents of Uruguay who have signed up for a federal registry.

Individuals will be allowed to grow up to six plants or 480 grams a year.

“That is what is technically estimated as reasonable, to keep someone from falling into problematic use of the drug,” the senator said.

Martín Collazo, with the Proderechos human rights group, said public health will be the area that most benefits from the law. “Eighty-five percent of users of illegal drugs in Uruguay only consume marijuana,” which means the illegal market could shrink by a similar percentage, he argued.

“Contact with the clandestine market facilitates access to other substances, like cocaine or ‘pasta base’ [a cheap cocaine derivative], which are sold in the same places,” said Collazo, who also belongs to the Responsible Regulation coalition, made up of organisations and personalities in favour of the regulation of marijuana.

The price of marijuana to be sold in authorised pharmacies has not yet been set. Collazo estimates that the price per gram should be between 1.00 and 1.50 dollars – the current cost of illegal cannabis.

“There is a big comparative advantage in terms of quality, because illegal marijuana is very bad,” the activist said. But he warned that it can’t be more expensive than on the illegal market, “because there would be a segment of the population that would continue to buy it on the black market.”

Proderechos has been working with agronomists and economists since November, and has formulated production models that confirm that marijuana could be produced in Uruguay at that price.

The Drug Policy Research Centre based in Santa Monica, California says illegal production and sale of drugs is more expensive because of the high costs of security, transport and protection of merchandise.

Collazo believes practice will show to what extent that is true. If marijuana has to be cheap, he said, the quality is likely to be inferior to what is sold in the Netherlands, where the drug is legally sold in special coffee shops.

“But we don’t have to reach that level of quality in the first year,” he said. “This has to be seen as a gradual process of developing the chain of production.”

He explained that the production of one ton of good-quality marijuana could cost around 250,000 dollars – between 0.25 and 0.30 cents per gram – “in a low-tech setting, with one or two harvests a year.”

The expert said that in the current clandestine market, the marijuana comes from Paraguay, and includes “leaves, stems, really bad quality flowers, and additives like ammonia, which are put on the compact bricks to keep them from drying out in transportation.

“Now we’re talking about selling buds,” without leaves or stems, which, “even if they are not big and beautiful are an excellent quality flower,” he said.

“We are generating our own information, with the support of different professionals, and we are coming up with proposals that we will formally present later,” Collazo said.

The aim, he said, “is to generate production schemes that can easily be followed by small and medium producers at a reasonable cost, and that will put marijuana on the market at a price similar to those on the black market.”

There are already people planting marijuana in Uruguay, producing supposedly standardised varieties.

Regarding the possibility of guaranteeing traceability of the drugs circulating in the new regulated market, Collazo suggested “trying to get growers who produce for the pharmacies to always plant the same strains.

“If the growers take the authorised strains and use cuttings from the mother plant, they’ll always have the same crop, genetically,” he said.

That traceability would only be lost when producers introduce new varieties, he added.

Collazo said it would be easy to maintain traceability in sales through pharmacies in the tightly regulated and controlled new market.

But “other solutions would have to be studied for people who grow their own pot, and for the cannabis clubs, because those are much more difficult to control,” he added.

Senator Conde, on the other hand, said it would be easy “because from a scientific point of view, the advances made today are so huge that molecular traceability of the substance is possible, and in Uruguay we have sufficiently developed technology, and whatever we don’t have, we can ask for.

“Instead of setting a price, a fee will be set for users to pay for the public service of making a product that is chemically controlled from every point of view available to users,” he said.

Conde added that whether or not the state will subsidise marijuana in any form “is being debated” in the government.

“This will be decided within the 120 days we have for creating the regulations for the law. I don’t know if a subsidy will be necessary to implement it. If it is, it wouldn’t be an isolated subsidy, but just one more cost in our overall health policy,” he said.

There are between 18,000 and 20,000 habitual consumers of marijuana in Uruguay, and between 79,000 and 100,000 people who use it a few times a month.

Female cannabis plant. Credit: Bokske/CC BY 3.0

By Emilio Godoy and Inés Acosta
MEXICO CITY/MONTEVIDEO, Sep 27 2013 (IPS)

In Latin America, where marijuana is the most widely consumed illegal drug, there is basically no home-grown research into its effects and properties. But possible legalisation in Uruguay and the Mexican capital could open the door to new studies.

“We can’t close our eyes to serious research in other parts of the world,” Rodolfo Rodríguez, a scientific researcher at the department of pharmacology in the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) medical school, told IPS.

Rodríguez, who has been studying different psychotropic substances for 45 years, is one of six experts making up the Marijuana and Health Group at the National Academy of Medicine who are completing a theoretical study on the medicinal and therapeutic effects of Cannabis sativa.

One of Rodríguez’s interests is to learn about the drug’s effects in patients with chronic or terminal diseases, such as fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, or certain kinds of cancer.

The results of their work, set to come out in October or November, will inform the debate that Mexico City authorities are holding with a view to legalising the medical use of marijuana.

The left-wing city government of Miguel Mancera and the Mexico City legislative assembly are assessing the health, economic and security aspects of legalisation.

“It’s a plant with more than 400 chemical substances and more than 70 cannabinoids,” Rodríguez said. “When it is consumed, the effects aren’t only due to the delta-9 [tetrahydrocannabinol or THC, the primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana], but to the combination of all of the chemical compounds.”

Marijuana is mostly grown in the western and southern states of Mexico, largely to supply the lucrative U.S. market. Tens of thousands of small and large farmers and rural workers depend on the illegal crop for a living.

It is used by four million people in this country of 118 million, making it the most widely consumed drug, followed by cocaine, according to the health ministry’s National Addiction Survey 2011.

In Uruguay, far to the south, it is also by far the drug of choice, consumed by slightly over eight percent of the population. But almost all of the marijuana used in the South American country is smuggled in from outside, especially from Paraguay.

Consumption and possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use are not penalised in Uruguay, a country of 3.3 million people sandwiched between Argentina and Brazil.

And the lower house of Congress has approved a draft law that would legalise and put the production, distribution, and sale of marijuana in the hands of the state. It is expected to make it through the Senate shortly and be passed into law, with the votes of the ruling left-wing Broad Front party.

More than 6,000 studies on the properties and effects of cannabis were published in scientific journals from 2010 to 2012, according to NORML, an organisation that advocates the legalisation of marijuana.

Uruguayan biologist Cecilia Scorza, assistant researcher at the Clemente Estable Institute for Biological Research, said “it’s not worth working on something that has been studied for so long, because it would not be original research.

“With marijuana, there can be differences in terms of the quantity of the active ingredient. But it’s always the same ingredient, and the effects are the same too,” she told IPS.

She pointed out that this is not at all the case for the cheap cocaine derivative known in South America as basuco, paco or pasta base, which poses a great potential risk to the user’s health.

The drug’s impact on the region and the lack of scientific research on it have made it a prime focus of studies. “In 2005, we began to research the chemical composition of the drug and its pharmacological effects on the central nervous system,” Scorza said.

But she said it would be original to study the chemical composition of the marijuana that has begun to be produced in Uruguay, “because it would give us a notion of what people will be consuming under the new law.”

Psychologist Gabriela Olivera, a technical adviser to Uruguay’s National Secretariat on Drugs, said research was indispensable to help users stay safe.

The draft law foresees the provision of “information and education that would make it possible, for example, for a person in certain health conditions who consumes marijuana to know that if they use such and such a quantity there is an active ingredient that could provide benefits, but would also have negative consequences,” Olivera told IPS.

To carry out experiments with psychoactive substances, a permit is currently needed from the National Secretariat on Drugs, which only exceptionally makes available a small quantity from drugs that have been confiscated.

“That makes systematised research impossible,” Olivera said.

Once it is passed, the law will create the Institute for the Regulation and Control of Cannabis (IRCCA), whose mission will include advising the government and providing scientific evidence.

The evidence would involve “all aspects, from the chemical composition of the marijuana that will be sold, to the effects on people, depending on its different uses – medicinal or recreational,” Olivera said.

In addition, the Technical Forensic Institute, the Technical Police laboratory, and the Chemistry Faculty of the University of the Republic are designing a research protocol on the potency of THC and other components of the marijuana that is trafficked illegally today, the director of the Uruguayan Observatory on Drugs, Héctor Suárez, told IPS.

Research on the varieties produced and sold legally would be regulated once IRCCA was up and running, he said.

In Mexico City, meanwhile, even if the medicinal use of marijuana is legalised, patients would not start receiving prescriptions overnight, Rodríguez said.

“We are not prepared for that,” the UNAM researcher said. “We have the knowledge and the infrastructure, but it would imply an educational process in health institutions.”

Treatment with marijuana “cannot be within reach of just any doctor, and learning about it can take months or even years,” he added.

Marijuana grown for medicinal purposes. Credit: Coleen Danger/CC by 2.0

By Carey L. Biron
WASHINGTON, Aug 30 2013 (IPS)

The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday issued surprise guidance directing its attorneys not to sue states that have moved to decriminalise the recreational use of marijuana, so long as those states implement strict regulatory regimes.

The announcement marks a turnaround for the administration of President Barack Obama, who in January refused to explicitly support cannabis legalisation. Yet analysts are also suggesting that the new policy stance will have significant repercussions for countries that have been at the receiving end of the U.S. “war on drugs”.

“This action is of enormous significance, especially in Latin America, where the United States has for decades been the chief cheerleader for and major exporter of its own punitive drug policy,” John Walsh, a senior associate for drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a rights group, told IPS.

“Latin American and other countries have felt bound by various treaties not to experiment with regulatory approaches that they think could do a better job, so the significance here is in providing space in the knowledge that the U.S., at least, is not in a position to pressure them anymore.”

Indeed, the United States is seen as the major architect of three United Nations treaties that codify four decades’ worth of “prohibitionist” anti-drugs policies. While these policies today constitute the global norm, some analysts suggest it is currently breaking down."As the so-called 'war on drugs' enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective."
-- Eric Holder

In the United States, strict “mandatory minimum” jail sentences have brought the federal prison population to record numbers in recent years. Of the country’s 219,000 inmates – called “historically unprecedented” numbers – half are locked up on drug-related and overwhelmingly non-violent charges.

Earlier this month, U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder rescinded mandatory minimum sentence guidelines for a range of crimes, including non-violent drug offences.

“As the so-called ‘war on drugs’ enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective,” Holder stated on Aug. 12, “and … to usher in a new approach.”

“Affirmatively addressing” priorities

Thursday’s announcement will remove several significant hurdles for lawmakers and entrepreneurs in the states of Washington and Colorado, where in November voters approved the legalisation of the production, distribution and use of non-medical marijuana. Such policies would be among the most permissive anywhere in the world, but they also directly contradict federal law.

In the context of this discrepancy, in recent years the Justice Department has continued to carry out irregular raids and harassment of growers and distributors of medical marijuana even in the 21 states that have formally authorised the physician-prescribed use of the drug. (Sixteen states have also decriminalised first-time offences for small amounts of cannabis.)

The new guidelines now direct federal attorneys not to pursue litigation so long as marijuana is not being sold to minors or funnelled into states that have not legalised its recreational use.

While the Justice Department memorandum will provide increased legal certainty for those involved in these new experiments in regulation, it goes much further than offering mere grudging promises not to interfere. Rather, officials suggest that de-criminalisation of marijuana could ultimately be more successful than criminalisation in achieving a menu of stated federal policy aims.

“A robust system may affirmatively address those priorities,” the memo states, “by, for example, implementing effective measures to prevent diversion of marijuana outside of the regulated system and to other states, prohibiting access to marijuana by minors, and replacing an illicit marijuana trade that funds criminal enterprises with a tightly regulated market in which revenues are tracked and accounted for.”

Long-time critics of the United States’ punitive approach to drugs interdiction have lauded the move, noting the heavy toll that communities in and out of the country have been forced to pay for drugs policies originating in Washington.

“Existing policies that rely heavily on criminalising drug use undermine human rights and have entailed serious costs in terms of violence and abuse,” Maria McFarland, deputy U.S. programme director at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy group, said Friday.

“It’s encouraging that the Justice Department memo recognises that a regulated drug distribution system may be helpful in reducing the power and wealth of criminal groups. Violent organised crime, well financed by revenues from illicit drug markets, poses a real threat to human rights and the rule of law globally. It’s crucial that governments look at alternative ways of regulating not only drug use but also the drug trade.”

New paradigm?

Several Latin American countries are already actively looking at such alternatives. Most notable is Uruguay, which earlier this month approved draft legislation that would both legalise and nationalise the production and distribution of marijuana.

Several possible regulatory approaches are also being discussed in the Mexican Congress, while leaders in several other countries, from Colombia to Guatemala, are also increasingly exploring alternatives.

“Other governments have been less outspoken than Uruguay but they are nevertheless watching what happens there very closely, hoping to learn from Uruguay’s experience and see how similar approaches may work in their own countries,” WOLA’s Walsh says.

“As a result of the new U.S. decision, these countries will now enjoy greater political space to pursue similar legalisation proposals of their own.”

Such moves have been bolstered by a recent landmark series of reports by the 35-member Organisation of American States (OAS). Those reports (available here and here) were notable in appearing to explicitly advocate for alternatives to the longstanding U.S.-led model of criminalisation.

“Decriminalisation of drug use needs to be considered as a core element in any public health strategy,” one of the reports states, noting in particular that “it would be worthwhile to assess existing signals and trends that lean toward the decriminalisation or legalisation of the production, sale, and use of marijuana.”

At a summit in Guatemala in June, the OAS member states approved the reports’ policy vision of drug use as a health rather than criminal issue. Over initial U.S. resistance, they also agreed to devote a General Assembly next year to coming up with a new drugs-related action plan.

“We are potentially on the cusp of the collapse of the existing international counter-narcotics regime,” Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, told IPS when the OAS reports came out. “And it looks like the Latin Americans could be the ones to pull the plug.”

Cannabis sativa leaf. Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Aug 14 2013 (IPS)

Marijuana and the closely related hemp can provide medicinal, food and textile industrial materials that could attract substantial investment and development in Mexico if cannabis were legalised and its cultivation and sale regulated, experts say.

“Cannabis presents possibilities for large-scale agricultural production, as it grows everywhere, and its current and potential uses represent an undeniable opportunity that is very attractive for economic development,” filmmaker and photographer Julio Zenil, one of the most active advocates for the legalisation in Mexico of marijuana, popularly known here as “mota”, told IPS.

Zenil, who in the late 2000s imported apparel made out of hemp fabric, is a co-author with Jorge Hernández and Leopoldo Rivera of the book “La mota. Compendio actualizado de la mariguana en México” (Mota: Current Compendium of Marijuana in Mexico), which the authors say attempts “to demystify a plant whose main problem is the hysteria and media manipulation it provokes in our society.”

Cannabis sativa is a versatile plant with different uses, depending on the strain and the environmental conditions. Tall varieties (commonly called industrial hemp) are cultivated mainly for the fibre in the stems, which have very little resin (the psychoactive portion).

Lower-growing, spreading varieties are grown for the psychoactive chemical compounds found in resin glands on buds and flowers, from which marijuana and hashish are extracted and consumed for recreational, medicinal and spiritual purposes.

The sturdy hemp plant grows almost everywhere in the world, maturing within a year and attaining heights of up to five metres, without the application of chemical fertilisers or pesticides. It also has the ability to sequester large amounts of carbon.

Hemp fibres are longer, stronger, more absorbent and more insulating than cotton fibres. The plant can be used for food, animal feed, cosmetics, oils, textiles, paper, rope-making and biofuels. The seeds, a source of hempseed oil, are very nutritious, containing high levels of essential fatty acids, vitamins and dietary fibre.

Mexico’s anti-drug strategy is riddled with contradictions. The General Health Law permits possession of five grams of marijuana for personal use, but production, distribution and sale are banned.

The country’s laws also ban production and transformation of industrial hemp, in spite of agreements with other countries, like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Canada and the United States, in force since 1994, and an agreement with the European Union, which allow trade in several of its by-products.

The Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971 do not restrict industrial hemp production, but they do ban the cultivation, production and trade in cannabis as a drug.

Some countries ban hemp because they confuse it with marijuana, which is produced from the flowers of the female cannabis plant.

Hemp production “has economic aspects that should be addressed. We will have to see how to regulate it,” economist Pedro Aspe, a former finance minister under conservative president Carlos Salinas (1988-1994), told IPS.

Use of the hemp plant goes back 8,000 years in China, where it was employed to make paper. There is also evidence of its existence in other parts of the world. The Spanish colonisers introduced hemp into Mexico in the 16th century and 200 years later encouraged its cultivation as a source of raw materials.

The Mexican government first restricted production and sale of marijuana in 1920, ahead of the U.S. Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which made possession or transfer of cannabis illegal throughout the United States under federal law, except for medical and industrial uses.

Illegal cultivation of marijuana is concentrated in the western and southern states of Mexico and is aimed at the lucrative U.S. market.

The Latin America Hemp Trading, a company based in Montevideo, Uruguay that is working to establish large-scale hemp cultivation in the region, and the campaign for the International Year of Natural Fibres 2009, estimated the global hemp fibre market at over 90,000 tonnes a year, with China producing 50 percent, the European Union 25 percent, and Canada, Chile, South Korea, Australia and other countries the rest.

Optimum yield of hemp fibre is over two tonnes per hectare, while the average yield is 650 kg. Average seed yields are one tonne per hectare, according to figures published for the International Year, which was promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO).

Mexico allows imports of seeds, raw hemp, textiles, twine and cordage for rope-making.

At least eight initiatives for the decriminalisation of marijuana have been presented to the Mexican Congress and state legislatures since 2007. Three of them proposed industrial uses of cannabis.

These proposals argue that allowing and regulating legal cultivation of hemp would create a development opportunity for thousands of rural producers and stimulate new industries, such as paper-making, textiles, and the food, medical, cosmetics and construction industries.

If marijuana cultivation were allowed in Mexico, one of the first to be interested in investing in its production is agricultural businessman Guillermo Torreslanda.

“We must legalise it,” Torreslanda told IPS. “We could copy what has been done elsewhere and adapt it to conditions here. We could think about production schemes that include agricultural support and financing.”

He suggested a scheme with separate arrangements for production and distribution, in order to avoid monopolies and encourage competition.

Zenil said: “The case of Mexico is paradoxical. Trade in hemp products is perfectly legal, but since it is legally impossible to cultivate or profit from the cannabis plant, it is also impossible to create a normal hemp industry.”

Former finance minister Aspe said: “In other places, there are authentic import substitution programmes, and they are succeeding.”

The controversial topic of medical cannabis has been put under a microscope after the internationally known neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta came out in support of its use this week.

An ounce of “Green Crack” bought from a dispensary in California. Credit: Coaster420/public domain

In a lengthy opinion piece on CNN, Gupta outlines the benefits of medical cannabis, claims that U.S. citizens have been misled by the government for years, and apologises for his role in that. This reversal of opinions occurred during the yearlong production of his documentary “Weed”, which premiers this Sunday on CNN.

“Gupta literally made a 12 or 13 year turn on this,” the executive director of the advocacy group NORML, Allen St. Pierre, told IPS. “But as a really genuine doctor who is a scientific minded person, he really did want to see the science and let it led him to a different standing.”

The benefits

Illinois is the most recent state to legalise medicinal marijuana, making a total of 20 U.S. states and the District of Columbia that allow its medical use. Approval conditions, regulations and quantity limits can vary from state to state.

The federal law enforcement agency, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), has classified marijuana as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has no medical benefit and has a high potential for abuse, with nine to 10 percent of its adult users becoming addicted.

Cocaine, according to the DEA, is less dangerous than marijuana and is a Schedule II drug even though 20 percent of its users become addicted.

“They didn’t have the science to support that claim [of marijuana as a Schedule I drug], and I now know that when it comes to marijuana neither of those things are true,” wrote Gupta in his CNN piece. “It doesn’t have a high potential for abuse, and there are very legitimate medical applications.”

Gupta uses Charlotte Figi, a patient in Colorado, as an example of the benefits. She began having seizures soon after birth, and by age three she was having up to 300 a week despite being on seven different prescription medicines. Medicinal cannabis calmed her brain and limited her seizures to two to three times per month.

According to NORML, cannabis is specifically used to alleviate pain from nerve damage, nausea, spasticity, glaucoma and movement disorders. It is also a powerful appetite stimulant, which is beneficial for patients suffering from dementia, HIV and AIDS.

“The government and some of our opponents will say with a straight face that it [medical marijuana] has no utility,” St. Pierre told IPS. “It is cheaper than most pharmaceuticals and can be used for over a dozen aliments. The utility combined with the price makes it hard for them to make a convincing argument.”

A new survey done at the nonprofit organisation The Partnership at Drugfree.org found that 70 percent of respondents support the medical use of marijuana and 50 percent support decriminalisation. Forty percent of respondents supported the legalisation of marijuana altogether.

“Most frightening to me is that someone dies in the United States every 19 minutes from prescription drug overdose, mostly accidental,” Gupta wrote. “It’s a horrifying statistic. As much as I searched, I could not find a documented case of death from a marijuana overdose.”

The consequences

According to a study done in the United Kingdom, people who smoke marijuana regularly tend to produce less dopamine, a feel good chemical in the brain that plays a large role in reward-driven behaviour and motivation. Regular marijuana use can also lead to inflammation in the brain, according to the study, which can affect coordination and learning.

Gupta also admitted in his CNN piece that regular marijuana use in younger and developing brains can lead to a permanent decrease in IQ. There is also clear evidence that some users can experience withdrawal symptoms including insomnia, anxiety and nausea.

“Much in the same way that I wouldn’t let my own children drink alcohol, I wouldn’t permit marijuana until they are adults,” wrote Gupta. “If they are adamant about trying marijuana, I will urge them to wait until they’re in their mid-20s when their brains are fully developed.”

Project SAM, the nonprofit organisation advocating for the responsible use of medicinal cannabis, is urging Gupta to clarify what he is referring to when he says marijuana. According to the organisation, CBD is a non-intoxicating element found in medically used cannabis whereas street bought marijuana contains THC, which is specifically used to get a high.

“Dr. Gupta is a person Americans looks up to with high esteem. And for good reason – he is thoughtful, thorough and dispassionate about the science. That is why we are troubled by how people might interpret his comments,” Project SAM said in a press release.

Despite the highly documented consequences and concerns, marijuana is the third most popular recreational drug in the United States, behind alcohol and tobacco. About 100 million citizens use it, and about 14 million do so regularly.

Some 50,000 people each year die from alcohol poisoning and 400,000 people die from tobacco each year, but marijuana is a non-toxic drug that cannot cause death by overdose.

“The fact that this guy [Gupta] enjoys a really wonderful national reputation, and now he is saying ‘my bad’ in a culture where alpha males don’t usually admit that they are wrong, will…affirm that we are in an era of change,” St. Pierre told IPS.

Dried cannabis flowers. Credit: CC BY 2.5

By Emilio Godoy
MEXICO CITY, Aug 6 2013 (IPS)

If marijuana is legalised in the Mexican capital, as the local government proposes, this country would have to review its adherence to the three international drug control treaties, a trail already blazed by other nations.

The Mexico City Federal District city council and the leftwing government of Mayor Miguel Mancera announced that debates would begin in September on health, economic and security aspects of marijuana, popularly known here as “mota”, and medical use might by approved by the end of the year.

“Several countries have questioned the drug control treaties for health reasons,”
lawyer Fernando Gómez-Mont, former interior minister in the government of conservative president Felipe Calderón (2006-2012), told IPS. “This creates tension for the operation of the U.N. conventions,”

Under the General Health Law, amended in 2009, state governments have the authority to legislate on health issued related to illegal drugs. The law permits possession for personal use of five grams of marijuana, 500 milligrams of cocaine and 50 milligrams of heroin, but bans production, distribution and sale of these substances.

This country of 118 million people is a party to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, the United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances of 1988 and the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971.

“In Mexico, intermediate steps (on drug decriminalisation) may be taken without neighbouring countries necessarily having to follow suit. It is far more viable in the capital,” writer Jorge Castañeda, former foreign minister in the conservative government of Vicente Fox (2000-2006), told IPS.

“For example, in the United States some states have taken decisions of this kind,” said Castañeda, who has become a staunch advocate of decriminalisation.

Marijuana is the illegal drug that is most widely consumed in this country, followed by cocaine and inhalants, according to the 2011 National Addiction Survey published by the health ministry. Production of marijuana is concentrated in western and southern states.

Mexico is in urgent need of new approaches to illicit substances because of the humanitarian crisis unleashed by the repressive anti-drug strategy applied by Calderón throughout his presidency, which resulted in a high death toll and the spread of drug trafficking and drug use.

In 2012 there were 26,037 recorded homicides, a slight decline from the previous year, when there were 27,213. However, this remains one of the highest murder rates in Latin America, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

President Enrique Peña Nieto has rejected decriminalisation as a means of combating drug trafficking and is in favour of what he calls “a security strategy based on intelligence” – not very different from the policy enforced by his predecessor.

But changes in the global vision of the fight against drugs that are still illegal, especially marijuana, are exerting pressure for a shift towards policies based on prevention rather than repression and law enforcement.

“We will be very responsible in this debate,” Manuel Granados, chair of the city council Governance Committee, told IPS.

“In Mexico City we agree on replacing criminal policies with health policies. We are ready to hold this debate and, at the right time, to legislate,” said the city council member, who belongs to the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) which governs the capital.

The Federal District of Mexico City has been in the vanguard of decriminalising abortion and legalising same-sex marriage.

In September, when city council sessions resume, a high-level meeting will be held with delegates from the United Nations and the Organisation of American States to discuss new approaches to drugs.

Since 2007, at least eight initiatives to decriminalise marijuana have been presented in Mexico’s Congress and in state parliaments, but none has even reached debate in a plenary session.

“We wish to propose a new approach to marijuana. It is possible to create a different kind of regulatory system. We want rights for users,” Jorge Hernández, the head of the Collective for a Comprehensive Policy toward Drugs (CUPIHD) and a co-author of the book “La mota. Compendio actualizado de la mariguana en México” (Mota: Current Compendium of Marijuana in Mexico), told IPS.

Hernández proposes creating cannabis clubs, like those in Spain, where the drug can be grown and consumed privately in a regulated manner and in accordance with international regulatory treaties.

“The state must take responsibility and provide enough information. There should be the same regulation as for alcohol and tobacco. It is time to review the law. The Federal District could be a good starting point,” said Gómez-Mont.

Mexico was the only Latin American country to object in January to Bolivia’s reservation of the right to traditional uses of coca leaf, such as the age-old custom of chewing the leaves. Bolivia won the concession, which allowed the Bolivian state to re-accede to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs.

Women and children from the village where the Esparza family was murdered by soldiers in Mexico's "drug war" demand justice outside the schoolhouse.Mónica González /IPS

By Joe Hitchon
WASHINGTON, May 25 2013 (IPS)

Following the release of a major draft report on drug policy in the Americas, the secretary-general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Jose Miguel Insulza, called for the beginning of debate aimed at reforming those policies throughout the region.

“Delivering this report today,” Insulza said Wednesday, “we are encouraged by the sincere aspiration, which I now have the privilege of presenting to the entire hemisphere, that this is not a conclusion but only the beginning of a long-awaited discussion.”"A one-size-fits-all response won’t work for complex problems that affect different countries in various ways.” -- John Walsh of WOLA

The draft report was shared with the 35 member countries of the OAS and is now scheduled to be discussed in depth at the upcoming organisation’s general assembly, on Jun. 4 in Guatemala.

The call for a new debate comes in light of a strengthened resolve on the issue throughout the region. This relates to the violence associated with drug trafficking as seen along the U.S.- Mexico border, as well as an increased prevalence of drug use and growing demand for health care services to treat addictions.

While acknowledging shortcomings in the implementation of current policies, some countries are continuing to defend the overall approach, and are encouraging a plan of action adopted by the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) branch of the Washington-based OAS. This approach calls for the continued concentration of efforts to reduce both supply and demand, as well as measures in line with United Nations conventions on drug law.

The new OAS discussion will inevitably be energised by the recent surprise legalisation of marijuana in two U.S. states in November.

“A one-size-fits-all response won’t work for complex problems that affect different countries in various ways,” John Walsh, a senior associate with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), an advocacy group here, told IPS.

“The report points to the need for flexibility to pursue options that may imply national and international reforms, including legal and regulated cannabis markets. And it emphasises that this more open debate is really just now beginning.”

Many of the region’s leaders have expressed frustration with the limits and exorbitant costs of current policies and their desire for a fuller and more creative debate.

But according to Walsh, who participated in writing the OAS report, there is a lot of scepticism over whether the OAS will be up to the task, especially given U.S. domination of the issue. But he also emphasises that the new report represents a good first step in the direction of a more constructive and nuanced debate.

“Drug policy is an international issue as well as a domestic issue and it can be hard to separate them, especially when you’re talking about drugs trafficking across borders – if it’s an issue in Colorado, chances are it is related to the issue in Mexico,” Walsh, who released a paper on this issue earlier this week, told IPS.

“In the case of cannabis in particular, the U.S. has been the chief advocate for international drug conventions that place strict controls on cannabis. However, as the U.S. begins to revisit and alter its cannabis laws, this will certainly have an effect on how the drug conventions are seen within the U.S. – and, and in turn, in Latin America, because all countries in the Americas are signatories of the same treaties.”

The OAS draft report even explores the potential creation of legal and regulated markets that would reflect these changes taking place in the United States.

“Changing U.S. public opinion towards cannabis is being reflected in changes in state policy, which has already placed the U.S. at odds with the drug conventions,” Walsh notes. “And while some of the Latin American states might be feeling a bit puzzled by the U.S.’s new approach to drug policy, others are seeing an opportunity to have similar proposals.”

Yet significant differences remain in public attitudes on this issue outside the United States. Walsh suggests that while public opinion has led government policy in this county, governments would need to lead public opinion towards legalisation in many Latin American countries.

Cannabis disconnect

Following the November elections here, a looming disconnect has opened up between where the United States seems to be going on cannabis policy and how the U.S. is asking other countries in the region to act. This is most evident in the case of Mexico, with Washington continuing to push the Mexican government to use its security institutions to forcefully crack down on the illicit cross-border drug trade.

For the moment, it appears unlikely that this policy will change. Yet some analysts say they are already seeing a fundamental shift in this dynamic, with Latin American governments taking the lead for the first time, in trying to define drug policies in the region.

Depending on how it proceeds at the meeting on Jun. 4, the new OAS report could be a central component of this shift. Beyond the cannabis issue, for instance, the OAS report offers a range of proposals and alternatives to be considered which, if adopted, would dramatically change the way drug policies are implemented.

This is happening after years in which the U.S. government was able to largely dictate such policy. Very recently, however, Latin American countries have been examining the drugs problems they’re dealing with on an individual level – and to decide on the most appropriate policy responses.

“Most of the considerations of new cannabis policy involve examining the potential to separate the cannabis market from the wider black market for illicit drugs,” Colletta Youngers, a long-time Latin American drugs expert with WOLA, told IPS.

“This is both to protect the people who want to obtain cannabis from having to go into criminal markets, and also to the extent that cannabis is a big part of illicit drug revenues that are for now entirely in criminal hands and to put those revenues into the hands and control of the state.”

Still, she admits that for the time being the issue of legal, regulated cannabis markets is a priority for some U.S. states, but not yet for the national government. But Youngers also points to countries such as Uruguay – where such a law is currently pending – and others that are currently exploring such issues.

Various strains of medical marijuana. Credit: scpr.kpcc/cc by 2.0

By Matthew Charles Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia, Jan 30 2013 (IPS)

Since the U.S. states of Colorado and Washington fully legalised marijuana via ballot initiatives in the November 2012 elections, efforts to medicalise, decriminalise, or legalise marijuana at the state level are sprouting up like so many hemp stalks on a sunny day.

Eighteen out of 50 U.S. states now allow medical marijuana, used to help cancer patients and others, and 15 others have decriminalised it, meaning that possession is a civil offence that carries no jail time.

“In terms of getting federal law change, we need to get maybe half of the states before we get congress to take some action,” Keith Stroup, founder and legal counsel of the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told IPS.

“We tend to focus primarily on full legalisation, regardless of why one smokes,” he added. “The primary reason people smoke, 99 percent of them, is because they enjoy getting high. We’re not going to eliminate the high number of arrests until we completely legalise marijuana.”

In 2006, the group notes, more than 829,000 people were arrested in the United States for marijuana-related offences alone.

National organisations like the Marijuana Policy Project and NORML have both short and long-term strategies to press for continued policy change at the state level.

In the short term, MPP seeks to make New Hampshire the 19th medical marijuana state in the U.S., and to make Vermont the 16th state to decriminalise it.

Illinois is also believed to be on the verge of enacting medical marijuana legislation this year.

In the longer-term, MPP is eyeing ballot initiatives where citizens will have the opportunity to vote on whether to legalise marijuana like alcohol in 2016, including in such states as California and Oregon, two states which have declined to legalise marijuana in previous years.

MPP and NORML believe that it is better to wait until 2016 to attempt to pass these full legalisation initiatives because marijuana-related initiatives tend to do better in presidential election years, which also drive more young voters – who tend to support marijuana legalisation – to the polls.

In the meantime, bills to allow medical use of marijuana have already been introduced in 10 U.S. states, including Alabama, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, and West Virginia, according to a list provided to IPS by MPP.

Legislators have already announced their intent to introduce medical marijuana bills in another six states, including Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

In the last Congressional Session, US Reps. Barney Frank, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Ron Paul, a Republican from Texas, introduced legislation to legalise marijuana at the federal level – meaning that states will get to decide their own policies altogether – but it only received 19 additional co-sponsors.

Frank and Paul both retired from the U.S. House at the end of last year. Numerous bills dealing with marijuana policy at the federal level have been introduced over the years.

“We’ve never had a hearing, or got them out of committee. This year we may get some hearings,” Stroup said.

“Every time a state supports medical use, it puts pressure on Congress to legalise it federally,” he said.

Stroup predicts that medical marijuana will be legal federally within three to four years, by the end of the Barack Obama presidency.

NORML expects to see between eight and 10 full legalisation bills in state legislatures this year as well, although it is not clear whether they will pass as soon as this year.

States where full legalisation is expected to easily pass include Alaska, California, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, and Rhode Island. In California, Massachusetts, Nevada, and Oregon, the plan is to seek ballot initiatives for 2016.

“We’re waiting to see whether a bill will be introduced in Alaska, but if not we’re going to do a ballot initiative there,” Morgan Fox, communications director for MPP, told IPS.

In Hawaii, legislation to completely legalise marijuana at the state level has already been introduced in the State House by the House Speaker Joseph Souki.

In Rhode Island, MPP is lobbying the State Legislature to legalise marijuana, which it believes could happen as soon as 2014 or 2015.

A federal court ruling on Jan. 22 against Americans for Safe Access (ASA) presents a minor setback on the issue of federal policy and medical marijuana, but will have no impact on the various state and federal legalisation initiatives from going forward.

ASA had appealed the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s refusal to grant its petition to recognise marijuana’s medical value and federally reclassify it from a “Schedule 1 substance” – which includes drugs like heroin and LSD – to a Schedule 3, 4, or 5 substance.

ASA can still appeal to a full appellate court panel and then to the Supreme Court of the United States.

The DEA also has the discretion to reschedule voluntarily at any time, even without congressional action or court order.

And if the U.S. congress passes legislation to legalise marijuana for medical purposes, removing it from the Controlled Substances Act altogether, it would make the ASA case and the other rescheduling petitions moot.

A youth smokes diamba (marijuana) at a gang base in Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS

By Tommy Trenchard
FREETOWN, Jan 9 2013 (IPS)

The air is heavy with the smell of marijuana as Gibrilla (23) expertly rolls a large joint at the Members of Blood (M.O.B) gang base in a poor neighbourhood of Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown.

He is part of a generation of young people faced with a chronic shortage of jobs, many of whom have turned to routine drug use as a way to pass the time and deal with the stresses of life in what is still one of the poorest countries in the world.

“Most of the young guys smoke diamba (marijuana) here,” says Gibrilla, gesturing towards the slum neighbourhood of Susan’s Bay. He says he has been smoking since he was 11, and usually smokes about 15 joints every day. “I have my first one at about five o’clock in the morning when I wake up,” he told IPS. “It makes me feel good.”

Sierra Leone’s high unemployment rate is fuelling a culture of drug use among the country’s urban youth. Experts say the trend is responsible for acts of violent crime, while medical practitioners are concerned about serious health repercussions for long-term users, which the country is poorly equipped to address.

In another part of the city, Patrick, who estimates his age as “twenty-something”, swigs from a plastic sachet of gin as he talks of his relationship with drugs.

“I use cocaine, marijuana, brown-brown (heroin) and liquor,” he told IPS. “I did not choose to live like this. I was living the street life…sometimes I did not even have somewhere to sleep. I had nothing.”

Patrick now feels he needs drugs and alcohol just to get through the day. “I feel hopeless when I don’t have them,” he explains.

His friend Alimu, heavily tattooed, with the initials of his gang shaved into his hair, speaks of a similar dependence. “I don’t want to stop,” he says. “I need it now.”

Alimu is not sure how much he takes every day, only that he spends all the money he can get on drugs and alcohol.

Assistant Superintendent of the Sierra Leone Police Force, Ibrahim Samura, says he is alarmed by the “spate of drug abuse and addiction”.

“It is worse than before…amphetamines, cannabis and heroin are all a problem,” he says, adding that cannabis is the most widely available. “Cannabis is now grown in almost every district. In some places in the north it is even used as a currency for barter.”

Samura says that there was a large increase in drug use and addiction during and after the country’s eleven-year civil war. “People used drugs to deal with the stress of war,” he explains.

Dr. Edward Nahim at his clinic in central Freetown. Credit: Tommy Trenchard/IPS

Dr. Edward Nahim has been working on drug and mental health issues in Sierra Leone for over 40 years. He agrees that the problem is, to some extent, linked to the civil war. “The conflict itself might be a contributing factor, because once you’ve learnt bad habits it becomes difficult (to stop).”

But he also says that drug addiction in Sierra Leone is tied to a lack of job opportunities. “It is more common amongst the unemployed vagrants, because they don’t have any work to do. (They) are the ones who spend most of their time in the…drug abuse bases or ghettos,” he says.

Impoverished and traumatised youth even use drugs just to “kill boredom”, Samura says.

Youth unemployment in Sierra Leone stands at a staggering 70 percent, according to the World Bank, and many drug users in Freetown say that if the government provides jobs for them, they will no longer feel the need to use drugs and alcohol.

“If I have a job I will stop smoking,” says Gibrilla. “But when I don’t go to work in the morning I just sit down and smoke diamba.”

Ibrahim Jones, a Susan’s Bay resident sporting a ‘Fight Against Drugs’ wristband, also thinks reducing unemployment is crucial to addressing drug use. “People smoke because there are no jobs,” he confirmed.

Samura says he is concerned about the relationship between illegal drugs and violent crime. He sees drug use as closely related to an increase in “gangsterism” in Sierra Leone.

“There are over 250 criminal gangs in this country,” he told IPS, displaying a list with names such as ‘Gang Killers’, ‘Blood Drain’, ‘Hisbola’ and ‘Da Elusive Thugs’.

He believes drug use “spurs them to behave abnormally and do things they wouldn’t do in their right senses.” On drugs, these young people “have the guts to kill, they’ll be brave (enough) to stab.”

The combination of high-grade cannabis and other drugs, together with cheap but potent local liquor, is also having severe mental health repercussions for long-term users.

“Drug abuse is a big problem in psychiatry in Sierra Leone today,” says Nahim, who runs a small mental health clinic in Freetown. He says around 80 percent of his patients, all of whom are between the ages of 10 and 35 years, are suffering from drug-induced psychotic disorders.

“By the time they get to about 40 years they are dead from the physical and psychological complications of these drugs,” he admits.

He adds that the problem is worst with young men, “but the girls are catching up now”.

Sierra Leone lacks the means to effectively treat such victims of drug and alcohol-induced psychosis. Nahim uses what he calls the “cold-turkey method” to treat addicts, physically restraining them and administering “very strong tranquilising drugs” for sedation. “Then after ten days it’s over,” he says.

But relapse rates are high. After treatment there are few safeguards to prevent patients slipping back into drug use.

City of Rest Rehabilitation Centre  is one of only a handful of establishments catering to drug users and the mentally ill on a longer-term basis. More than half of its 40 inpatients are suffering from drug-related problems.

It is run by Pastor Morie Ngobeh, who uses religion and counselling to treat individuals with drug-induced mental conditions. “We rely on prayer, for God to renew their minds,” he says.

Abdulai Bah’s family admitted him to City of Rest to deal with his chronic alcoholism. It is the second time he has been a patient there, but he feels that with a job waiting for him he will be able to stay off alcohol when he leaves in January.

“Some of my relatives promised to help me start my own business. If I start to get myself engaged, I will not drink alcohol again,” he says with conviction.

(END)

While some 200 million people worldwide take cannabis illicitly, Israelis take it seriously - production and use of medical cannabis is legal here. Credit: mista stagga lee/CC-BY-2.0

By Pierre Klochendler
KIBBUTZ NA’AN, Israel , Dec 15 2012 (IPS)

With his shaky hands, eighty-year-old Moshe Roth can barely pour the green powder into his pipe. Seated in a wheelchair, he murmurs in a trembling voice, “Even the scent’s good.”

He survived the Holocaust as a child; he survived a stroke two years ago and almost lost the use of his hands; and he lost his wife last year.

But life’s a bit easier now – with a little help from a pipe packed with pot. “Grieving the loss of a loved one is more bearable with a good pipe between your lips,” he smiles. “It changed my life.

“I imagine you walking with me hand-in-hand, O my forever young, beloved beauty,” says the retired Israeli official and spare-time painter and writer, in a moving eulogy to an old black-and-white portrait of his wife.

Shortly after he takes a hit, Moshe can draw or write with an inspired, confident hand. He’s one of some 10,000 patients who freely, legally consume marijuana in Israel.

At the Hadarim nursing home, cannabis is on the menu of medical treatments. In fact, 19 patients out of 36 use medical cannabis.

“Though we know how to extend life, the pain is great. In geriatrics, the future doesn’t matter any longer. What matters is the now – how to add quality of life to longevity,” explains Head Nurse Inbal Sikorin while opening the safe containing bags of powder and flowers.

Sucked from a syringe, peppered in a yoghourt, administered three times a day in half-gramme doses, cannabis dramatically reduces the need for medication, say doctors, nurses and patients. “Why use painkillers? I feel great with cannabis,” says Rivka Haloup, 85, who suffers from acute arthritis.

Parkinson patients inhale the smoke from a vapouriser six times a day (the nurse wears a mask). But the most potent effect comes from just smoking a joint. “Cannabis doesn’t change reality but makes it easier to accept,” says Sikorin. “At their age, it’s a blessing.”

The “blessing” comes from the pastoral village of Birya, sheltered amidst the Galilee hills.

While some 200 million people worldwide take cannabis illicitly, Israelis take it seriously. Production and use of medical cannabis is legal. A strong medical research sector under adequate government supervision makes Israel one of the world’s most cannabis-friendly countries.

The local industry flourishes. On three acres, the Tikkun Olam farm is the largest of eight greenhouses licenced by the Health Ministry to grow marijuana. Hundreds of kilos are produced year-round from hundreds of heads, all legal.

“Tikkun Olam” stands for “fixing the world” – with a fix of medical marijuana. “We distribute cannabis to patients and through our chain of shops,” explains Research and Development Manager Zach Klein.

The company has a pied-à-terre on Tel Aviv’s Ibn Gvirol Avenue. A guard and closed-circuit TV cameras secure the premises. There’s no sign on the shop, and the metal shutter is pulled down.

But inside, a green world reveals itself. The leafy company logo cites Psalm 118:23:  “This is the Lord’s doing; It is marvellous in our eyes.”

Patients with chronic neurological pain say cannabis is the only drug whose side-effects are welcome. “I’ve tried every pain killer, narcotic and non-narcotic,” says a customer. “This is the first thing that has really helped.”

With all the “holy smoke” paraphernalia on display (bongs, papers, etc), you’d think Tel Aviv was Amsterdam where weed is tolerated (though the sale of the “soft” drug remains technically illegal). People show their medical prescription, and buy the stuff.

The grass comes in all shapes and forms – from chocolate to cake, gum to toffee, honey to balm. At the counter, customers are instructed on how to make the best of it.

Menachem Barabi endured four strokes. He takes 60 grammes of cannabis a month for a mere 370 shekel (100 dollar). “I was in terrible pain, I couldn’t sleep,” he says. “Thank God I take cannabis.”

“I have lymphoma cancer,” says Guy Bar-Yosef. “I lost my appetite and went down 10 kilos. I started smoking joints, and started eating again. It’s healthy, a panacea, a magic potion.”

The twelve strains currently developed by the company’s agronomists often bear names of deceased patients, even eschatological names.

Tikkun Olam Spokesman Shay Amir shows samples neatly arrayed on shelves. ”This is our flagship product – the ‘Erez’, a great analgesic; plus it stimulates appetite, sleep. You ingest it and work without losing your senses. Here, the ‘end times’ – excellent for multiple sclerosis or osteoporosis. This one’s the ‘Raphael’.”

The “Raphael” is named after Raphael Mechoulam, professor of medicinal chemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem – “the grandfather of cannabis”, as they call him. “It’s an excellent drug for certain things. Nothing’s excellent for everything,” Mechoulam says matter-of-factly.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive chemical compound that is the main active ingredient in cannabis, was first isolated by Mechoulam in 1964.

This year, a new strain which contains Cannabidiol (CBD) as an active compound – and no THC – has just been developed for consumption by patients such as children with cancer.

Studies show that CBD relieves inflammation, convulsions, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia and nausea, while inhibiting the growth of cancer cells. It is now used by 500 of Tikkun Olam’s 2,000 customers.

Israel is at the cutting edge of cannabis science, says Mechoulam. “Government officials look at our research data, and they can’t just say no.”

Here, like in most countries, recreational marijuana use is prohibited. “When you want to enjoy yourself, you don’t go to a doctor,” says Mechoulam.

Yet sometimes, the border between recreational and medical use seems blurred. After all, isn’t it the same substance? “Sick people feel down,” says Klein, Tikkun Olam’s research and development manager. “When people get high on THC, they’re up like normal.”

Researchers and growers are now preparing to move the cannabis industry forward. The government is considering distribution through pharmacies starting next year, “like with any other therapeutic drug,” says Mechoulam.

“Israel can be an example, as it provides alternatives to conventional treatment. Cannabis is one of them,” says Tikkun Olam Managing Director Ma’ayan Weisberg. “And it’s organic.”

The legalisation of small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, which will allow the drug to be taxed and regulated, in two U.S. states will prompt debate on anti-drug policies in Mexico as well, and on the coordination of strategies between the two countries, experts say.

“The least bad option is legalisation,” Jorge Chabat, at the Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE), told IPS. “It will have an impact on the way prohibition is designed, because there will be a cascade effect, and we’ll see changes very soon.”

On election day in the U.S. Tuesday, Colorado and Washington became the first states to approve referendums for the legalisation of marijuana – up to one ounce for personal use for adults 21 and over.

Voters in Oregon rejected a similar initiative, while Massachusetts became the eighteenth U.S. state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to allow medical use of marijuana.

In Colorado and Washington, the production, possession and distribution of marijuana will now be regulated, and licensed growers will be able to sell up to one ounce to adults.

Washington will establish a system of state-licensed marijuana growers, processors and retail stores, and the state liquor control board will levy a 25 percent sales tax on the drug.

The tax revenue collected on marijuana sales in the two states will go to state and local budgets, substance abuse and prevention programmes, research, education, healthcare and other areas.

Mexico looks on with interest

“Legalisation doesn’t solve the problem, because cocaine generates the biggest profits,” Jorge Javier Romero, a professor at the department of politics and culture in the Autonomous Metropolitan University in Mexico City, told IPS. “It has to be approached as a foreign policy issue, because Mexico doesn’t have a drug use problem – it’s the United States that has a drug abuse problem.”

Approximately 30 million of the United States’ 312 million inhabitants use a total of 3,700 tons of marijuana a year, which has a retail value of 15 to 30 billion dollars, according to the report “Si los vecinos legalizan” (“if the neighbours legalise”), produced by Alejandro Hope and Eduardo Clark of the non-governmental Mexican Institute for Competitiveness (IMCO).

The study says that, of the marijuana consumed in the United States, 40 to 67 percent comes from Mexico, where drug cartels take in some two billion dollars a year from trafficking the drug, which is mainly grown in western and southern states.

Mexico is a graphic illustration of the mistaken approach used in the repressive drug control policies backed by the U.S. government, according to the experts who spoke to IPS.

The drug war launched when conservative President Felipe Calderón took office in December 2006 put thousands of soldiers on the streets. But the catastrophic results of the strategy include at least 90,000 people killed, 10,000 missing, and 250,000 forced to flee their homes, according to the estimates of human rights groups.

The legalisation of drugs in the United States “would be the most significant structural clash that drug trafficking has experienced in a generation…and would transform the terms of the debate on drugs,” says the IMCO study.

The administration of reelected President Barack Obama can challenge the state referendums in court, but has not announced plans to do so.

“Even if only one U.S. state were to approve legalisation, the decision would reverberate throughout the hemisphere, where the drug policy debate has opened up dramatically,” John Walsh, the drug policy expert at the Washington Office on Latin America, wrote in the article “Taking the Initiative on Legal Marijuana” before the elections.

“The new government could copy what will be done” in the U.S. states that have legalised marijuana use, said Chabat, referring to the future administration of Mexican president-elect Enrique Peña, of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, who takes office on Dec. 1.

Peña has talked about a change in law enforcement strategies, but without giving details.

The IMCO study estimates that as a result of the legalisation of marijuana, Mexico’s criminal organisations will lose 36.5 percent of the market in the northwestern state of Washington, representing 1.4 billion dollars a year, and 37.9 percent of the market in the western state of Colorado, also representing 1.4 billion dollars.

The hardest hit will be the Sinaloa Cartel, considered Mexico’s most powerful organised crime group, and the Los Caballeros Templarios – two of the cartels disputing the smuggling routes to the lucrative U.S. market.

“Mexico’s role as a dike,” imposed by the United States with a view to making it a “bulwark against the transit of drugs,” must be reviewed, said Romero, who argued that “the revenue flows of drug trafficking organisations have to be stopped, and that is done by regulating the trade.”

According to IMCO, the Mexican government should not legalise the production and sale of marijuana until U.S. federal laws on the matter have been clearly defined.

It also recommends that alternative development programmes be implemented in the regions where marijuana is grown in Mexico, and calls for guarding against potential “reverse trafficking” of drugs, from the United States to Mexico.

The legalisation of production and sales of marijuana in Colorado and Washington will take time, because the two states will have to create the necessary regulations and infrastructure in the first half of 2013.

“The consequences of a state-level vote in favour of legalisation will depend on real-world implementation, and that will in turn depend on how the federal government responds to the state action and to the specifics of the state’s new regulatory design,” Walsh wrote.

Close-up of cluster of female cannabis plant. Credit: Bokske/cc by 3.0

By Matthew Charles Cardinale
ATLANTA, Georgia, Nov 7 2012 (IPS)

In addition to the victories of the Democratic Party in retaining the presidency and the U.S. Senate, and of the Republican Party in retaining the U.S. House, there were major issue-related victories in Tuesday’s election whose common threads are personal liberty and human rights.

Chief among these was the approval of state-level referendums for the complete legalisation of marijuana and in support of same-sex marriage.

Comparisons to  alcohol prohibition

Colorado and Washington made history by being the first two states to completely legalise marijuana since the prohibition of marijuana began in the U.S. in 1937.

In Colorado, voters approved Amendment 64, with 55 percent of voters in favour. In Washington, voters approved Initiative Measure No. 202, with 55 percent of voters in favour.

Both measures legalise up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use for adults 21 and over, and allow for marijuana to be taxed and regulated in the same manner as alcohol.

Colorado’s measure allows for the licensing of cultivation and product-manufacturing facilities.

Colorado estimates the measure will raise between four million and 22 million dollars in sales tax revenue and licensing fees annually for the state. The first 40 million dollars of any such funds each year will now go towards school construction.

Oregon voters, however, rejected a similar measure, with only 44 percent in favour.

Meanwhile, Massachusetts became the eighteenth U.S. state, in addition to the District of Columbia, to allow medical marijuana.

Arkansas voters, however, narrowly rejected a similar medical marijuana measure, with only 48 percent in favour. Had the measure passed, Arkansas would have been the first state in the U.S. South to allow for medical marijuana.

The victories in Colorado and Washington are “very similar to when New York repealed their state alcohol prohibition and they did that prior to the federal government lifting their prohibition as well,” Robert Capecchi, legislative policy analyst with the Marijuana Policy Project, told IPS.

Capecchi attributed the shift in public opinion to “a shift in the electorate”, noting that older voters tend to oppose marijuana legalisation. “Older voters, and not to put it too darkly, but they die off,” Capecchi said.

“We got lots of support from younger voters and we’ve seen the Baby Boom generation as well, they’ve grown up with it in the 1960s, 1970s. In the grand scheme of things, people are deciding marijuana is not as injurious as federal and state governments want them to believe. It’s safer than alcohol. You cannot overdose on marijuana,” he said.

“The first states to change their laws are always the hardest. Now we’ve got two states whose voters have pretty overwhelmingly supported reform. I think a lot of other states will see that and have the political courage to change their laws as well,” Capecchi said.

One possibility might be that newly-reelected President Barack Obama will instruct the U.S. Department of Justice to enjoin Colorado and Washington from implementing the distribution components of its legislation.

However, if that happens, individuals in Colorado and Washington will still be protected from civil or criminal penalties under their respective state laws for possessing up to an ounce of marijuana. The vast majority of marijuana-related prosecutions occur at the state, not the federal level, meaning that most citizens of Colorado and Washington will be protected.

The 18 states with medical marijuana now include Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Fourteen states also have decriminalised marijuana, which means marijuana possession in those states still carries of a civil penalty, not a criminal penalty.

Going forward, MPP is continuing to push towards its 25 by 2014 plan, which is to have medical marijuana in at least half of U.S. states by 2014.

Next year, MPP plans to focus on promoting legislative initiatives to provide for legalisation of marijuana in Rhode Island; to decriminalise marijuana in Vermont; and to provide for medical marijuana in Illinois, Maryland, New Hampshire, and New York.

A “slam-dunk” for gay rights

Also during Tuesday’s election, Maine, Maryland and Washington became the first three states to pass ballot initiatives approving same-sex marriage. And Minnesota rejected a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.

“This is a slam dunk for the LGBT movement, for marriage equality. We had four significant measures on ballots in four states across the country, and we won every single one of them. They mean different things, but the reality is we won every single one of them,” Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, told IPS.

“This is such a historic moment – I don’t think we can fully grasp the impact right now. The ballot measures is just one aspect. There’s the most pro-LGBT president reelected, we’ve got the first lesbian [U.S.] senator in Tammy Baldwin,” Nipper said, referring to the newly reelected Democrat from Wisconsin.

Maine, Maryland, and Washington are the first states to use the ballot initiative process to affirmatively approve of same-sex marriage.

Maine voters approved Question 1, with 53 percent in favour. The question asked voters, “Do you want to allow the State of Maine to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples?”

Maryland voters approved Question 6, with 52 percent in favour. And Washington approved Referendum 74, with 52 percent in favour. Unlike in Maine, the referendums in both Maryland and Washington were to affirm previous legislative approval of same-sex marriage.

Maine, Maryland, and Washington now join six other states – Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont – in allowing same-sex couples to marry. In those states, same-sex marriage has become legal as a result of court rulings or legislative action.

By Coralie Tripier
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 3 2012 (IPS)

“Drugs and crime threaten one of our most important goals – to ensure sustainable development around the world,” United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stated on Jun. 26, during a General Assembly debate on drugs and crime  as a threat to development.

The same day – the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking – the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual World Drug Report, calling for a development-based approach to solving drug problems.

“Drugs continue to kill around 200,000 people a year, shattering families and bringing misery to thousands of other people, insecurity and the spread of HIV,” said Yury Fedotov, executive director of UNODC.

Thomas Pietschmann, drug expert at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Photo courtesy of Mr. Pietschmann

UNODC’s latest report shows that five percent of the world’s adult population are estimated to have used an illicit drug at least once in 2010.

In an interview with IPS correspondent Coralie Tripier, UNODC’s drug expert Thomas Pietschmann explained how sustainable development, moderate sanctions and enhanced security can be tools to combat drug use.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

Q: What is the link between sustainable development and the decrease in illicit drugs?

A: From all the studies that we have been carrying out, it is very clear that when you have sustainable development in a region, you also have a lesser production of illicit drugs.

A recent example of it is Thailand, where, over a period of twenty to thirty years, we completely eliminated opium cultivation by giving farmers real alternatives through investments.

Q: In order to further decrease the production of illicit drugs, are sanctions being increased?

A: Simply cutting and eradicating the fields does not solve the problem.

Eradication should only take place once farmers have already been given the chance to do alternative development. You should not start with eliminating the fields and then see farmers die because they have no steady income.

Eradication should be the last resort. Before that, you have to ensure that farmers have the opportunity to have a decent income out of another activity. You cannot increase sanctions when people are living at the margins.

Q: Is the UNODC setting different policies according to the countries?

A: Yes, and also according to the regions within these countries. For example, Afghanistan is very diverse. If you take eastern Afghanistan, the fields are very small, while in southern Afghanistan, the fields tend to be much bigger.

That’s why in the eastern part of the country, the solution must really be rural development – that is to say, going into services and basic manufacturing to ensure that farmers really have another input, because with such small lands it is pretty difficult to earn a decent income. It has to be a personalised approach.

Q: The UNODC is also stressing the importance of security in its fight against drugs. How are security and drug use related?

A: Security is a key point of the fight against illicit drugs.

In 2010 we carried out a survey, which showed that in the areas where security was low, 93 percent of the farmers produced opium, while in the areas where it was high, it was only around seven percent. You can see a massive discrepancy between those regions. There’s a definite correlation between security and production of illicit drugs.

Q: What is UNODC’s position on the medical use of marijuana?

A: Medical use of marijuana – if properly done – is and can be in line with the UNODC Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961.

But we know that in some states in the United States, so-called medical marijuana is often intended for recreational use.

There are some preconditions. First of all, the harvest of marijuana has to be bought by a national agency. This agency is then responsible for distributing it before the medical body prescribes it.

But in some cases, there is a complete misuse of medical marijuana.

Q: How do you see the situation of illicit drugs evolving in the near future?

A: We are quite optimistic about the evolution of this situation in developed countries.

A lot of factors play into this. For example, we have an aging population in those countries, and we know that drug use is high among young people, so it automatically leads to a decrease in drug consumption.

Unfortunately, we are less optimistic about developing countries, in which we see a push towards urbanisation, and urbanisation generally leads to higher levels of drug use. We see a clear shift away from developed to developing countries, and we are particularly concerned about Africa, where all the risk factors come together.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to increasing levels of drug use in the upcoming years.

Excerpt:

Over the last several years, many U.S. states have quietly adopted laws decriminalising the possession of marijuana or legalising medical marijuana.

Now, a flurry of activity over the last few weeks appears to signal that – perhaps like same-sex marriage – marijuana policies have also reached a tipping point in the U.S.

On Jun. 1, Connecticut legalised medical marijuana, making it the seventeenth U.S. state, in addition to Washington, D.C., to do so.

On Jun. 12, Washington’s government announced four dispensaries eligible to distribute medical marijuana in the nation’s capital. While medical marijuana was already legal there, the dispensaries are new.

Three days later, Rhode Island decriminalised small amounts of marijuana, making it the fifteenth U.S. state to do so.

Also in early June, the governor of New York announced his support for decriminalising marijuana in public view (currently it is decriminalised in private view).

Legislation is pending in Illinois and New Hampshire, ballot initiatives have already qualified in Colorado and Washington, and the collection of signatures for additional ballot initiatives is also underway in several states.

Under the Marijuana Policy Project’s “28 by 2014” campaign, the organisation seeks to legalize medical marijuana in more than a majority of U.S. states by 2014 (half of the 50 U.S. states would be 25).

“For medical marijuana, I think the prospects are pretty good” in terms of reaching the goal, Morgan Fox, communications manager for MPP, told IPS.

“If there is the same activity next year, I don’t think it will be a stretch at all to say 28 by 2014,” Fox said.

Fox noted there are important differences between medical marijuana laws and decriminalisation.

“Decriminalisation is far, far different that a medical marijuana law, in which there is a regulated system to provide medical marijuana to patients,” Fox said. “Decriminalisation doesn’t have to do with the supply side, it only deals with small possession. It doesn’t affect the market.”

Colorado and Washington, which both already have medical marijuana laws and decriminalisation of possession of small amounts, are considering legislation to take it a step further, which is to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol or cigarettes, meaning that it could be sold in stores.

“We have reached a tipping point – more than half of Americans think marijuana should be treated similar to alcohol or tobacco. By regulating it, we’ll be able to ensure criminals won’t control the marijuana market,” Fox said.

Indeed, recent polls by Gallup and Rasmussen have found more than a majority of U.S. residents support the taxation and regulation of marijuana.

One-third of the U.S. population currently lives in a state where medical marijuana is legal.

Meanwhile, more legislative initiatives for medical marijuana are still pending in Illinois and New Hampshire.

In New Hampshire, the legislature passed medical marijuana legislation, although the bill was vetoed earlier this month by Gov. John Lynch, a Democrat.

Advocates there are currently working to find two more state senators to support the bill; at least two more will be necessary to override the veto.

For one co-sponsor of the bill, the issue is not just political. It’s personal. State Rep. Evalyn Merrick, a Democrat from Lancaster, New Hampshire, who suffers from a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma, credits marijuana with saving her life.

“I was given a short time to live if I didn’t have a bone marrow transplant,” Merrick told IPS.

“I had to take heavy-duty chemotherapy for three straight months in preparation for a transplant. They kill my immune system, they go in and kill as much of the cancer as they can, they harvest clean cells, then they gave me back my cells. The hope is my body will accept and re-grow its immune system,” Merrick said.

“The chemo is so intense. The transplant was successful. But the impact on my digestive system, I couldn’t eat. I started starving to death. I could not eat, I could not drink,” she said.

A family friend suggested that Merrick try smoking marijuana to stimulate her appetite, as no traditional pharmaceuticals were working.

“My husband (a doctor) had everything to lose by introducing marijuana into our home. Within 10 minutes, it seemed almost instantaneous, I asked for something to drink,” she said. “My body was like, hey, we know what this (water) is. We need this.

“It’s time to stop denying our sickest citizens what I feel and other people know is a life-saving medicine. We have recognised since the beginning of time the value of this natural medicine,” Merrick said.

“We have to be able to make it available. We have to look beyond the political issues, because quite honestly, I feel it’s no longer a scientific controversy – I think it’s still, inappropriately, a political controversy.”