The criminalization of illicit drug use provides positive health and social benefits by deterring nonmedical use of substances that cause great harm to HIV/AIDS-affected individuals. Incarceration that respects human rights and provides drug treatment services can accelerate an individual’s recovery from drug dependence and prevent drug-related harms to HIV/AIDS-affected individuals and prevent further proliferation of both diseases – HIV/AIDS and substance abuse.

http://www.globaldrugpolicy.org/3/2/2.php   Andrea G. Barthwell, M.D.   Michael C. Barnes, Esq. DCBA Law & Policy   The Scientific Process   Crude Herbal Cannabis and Unstandardized Cannabis Preparations Do Not Meet the Standards of Modern Medicine. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has recognized that crude herbal cannabis has little future as a true medication:   Although [...]

Cannabis dispensaries are proliferating at a rapid rate — a cause for concern, given the potential for such operations to take advantage of desperate patients and put seriously ill patients at affirmative risk. Local jurisdictions do not have sufficient resources to deal with these abuses. Requiring the DEA unequivocally to take a “hands-off” approach, no matter how egregious the dispensary’s practices, will not serve the best interests of patients.

Over the past week the issue of legalizing marijuana has been at the forefront of the media. In New York State, Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried has sponsored a bill that would make marijuana available to individuals who he claims might benefit from its possible therapeutic effects.

Dope legalization suffered a setback in Iowa on March 13, when state Sen. Joe Bolkcom withdrew a bill he had filed only a week earlier to legalize so-called medical marijuana. [...]

Philippe Courroye, a leading French judge and prosecutor of the Nanterre Court, said drug trafficking should be fought at by attacking its financial circuits. [...]

Carlo Giovanardi, Undersecretary of State responsible for drug policies, chaired a national conference on narcotic drugs on March 12-14 in Trieste, Italy. In an interview with the daily {Il Giornale}, he endorsed the UN Vienna conference, in which he participated, saying that the UN program “reflects fully the position of Italy [...]

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Afghanistan produces over 90% of the world’s heroin supply and that yields 52% of the country’s GDP; it is severely dysfunctional and beset by problems relating to weaknesses in both Central and Provincial Government which are compounded by systemic corruption at all levels and in almost all aspects of society. [...]

The document, “Drugs and Democracy: Toward a paradigm shift: Statement by the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy,” that was sent to us by our DW member in Mexico, is very typical of papers written collectively by political leaders unwilling to assign or accept responsibility for some of their own shortcomings. [...]