Politics Outside US

The Bolivian government has responded to the International Narcotics Control Board's demand last week that coca chewing and growing be banned by publicizing plans to enlarge markets for coca products.

The conservative Dutch government will review the country's 30-year experiment with pragmatic tolerance of marijuana use and sales, and the Justice Minister has announced he wants to ban "grow shops."

The British government unveiled its new 10-year national drug strategy last week. For critics, it looks like more of the same old failed policies, with a step forward on treatment and prevention and a few steps back on policing.

The Czech Supreme Court has overturned the marijuana cultivation convictions of a retiree who claimed she was growing to treat her ulcers and foot pain. It doesn't mean it's legal to grow pot now, but it appears the lower courts will have to take medical necessity defenses under consideration.

A Jamaican government official said last Friday that the island nation is considering legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana as part of a drug law reform proposal. But don't hold your breath, the government said this was coming "soon" back in 2003.

Denmark could be the next European country to embrace heroin maintenance therapy. The Danish parliament approved a pilot program this week.

As Colombian President Uribe attempts a massive manual eradication of coca plants, he is running into opposition from both angry peasants and armed rebels.

While Vietnam is generally noted for dealing with its heroin problem by sentencing traffickers to death, one methadone maintenance program for users is already underway and another one is set to open in Ho Chi Minh City.

The drug laws just got tougher in Australia's Queensland. The parliament there passed a bill increasing penalties for Ecstasy, PMA, and a number of other drugs, added "analogues" to the list, and made it a crime to provide items used to make drugs.

A judge in Cali has found a Colombian army colonel and 14 of his troops guilty of murder for killing 10 elite Colombian anti-drug police and their informant at the request of drug traffickers.