Politics Outside US

Click here (http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/CannabisSocClubs/) for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance's (http://www.lca-uk.org) petition to the British Prime Minister to allow private-member Cannabis Social Clubs for adults. The petition simply states "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow local authorities the power to license legal private-member Cannabis Social Clubs for adults." The Legalise Cannabis Alliance adds: CANNABIS SOCIAL CLUBS: A HEALTHY OPTION In most countries, adults can go to a shop or bar when they want to buy alcohol or consume, or they can brew their own. There should be a system for production and distribution of cannabis that will cause less problems and lower policing costs. There should be a place where cannabis can be enjoyed in a responsible way, where it is away from minors, hard drugs, and where the consumers are safe. CSC's are associations of citizens who want to cultivate a limited amount of cannabis to satisfy their personal needs legally. Health and safety conditions of a CSC should be monitored during the entire process - from cultivation to consumption. This would stop the use of adulterants used in the illegal market all with their own risks. Cultivation would take place in accordance with safety rules. This would reduce problems such as fire risk and theft of electricity. Membership of the clubs would be limited to adults, so these clubs are a way to reduce the availability of cannabis to minors. This proposal is a harm reduction measure.

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #351 - Sunday, 29 July 2007 On Friday, the British medical journal Lancet published a 13 page meta-analysis 'Cannabis Use and Risk of Psychosis in Later Life.' As a result the media around the world has used the study, most often with incorrect data and conclusions, to create another reefer mania scare. Backers of stern cannabis prohibition laws have seized on this news to urge the British government to increase the potential punishment of users under their laws. More reasoned voices have cautioned that escalating criminal penalties based on a perceived increased health risk would be counterproductive. See 'Experts Dismiss Case for Cannabis Reclassification' http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n901/a05.html MAP is continually archiving both international and domestic coverage of the issue as we receive clippings. These press clippings may be reviewed by using the following link, which is updated nightly. Note that MAP identifies press stories by the location of the story. Thus a number at the link are identified as "UK:" but are actually from newspapers in the United States or Canada. http://www.mapinc.org/topics/psychosis Please consider writing and sending Letters to the Editor to the newspapers of your choice. It is important that mainstream newspaper editors and opinion writers are given a more complete and balanced perspective than that being pushed by prohibitionists. If you elect to write to more than one newspaper, we suggest at least some modification of your message so that each newspaper receives a unique letter. Thanks for your effort and support. It's not what others do, it's what YOU do. ********************************************************************** The study, as published in the Lancet, was placed on line by the Guardian as a 13 page .pdf file. See: http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2007/07/27/cannabis_new.pdf The best critique of the media's reaction to the study we have seen provides an accurate assessment of the report. Thus it may provide ideas for letter writers. Please see the column 'Cannabis Data Comes to the Crunch' at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n906/a02.html Additionally, as the Lancet study was in the preparatory stages this past May, NORML's Paul Armentano provided an astute analysis of the core propositions put forth. See: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6798 Armentano's analysis may help letter writers more accurately explain key alternative conclusions which may be drawn from the Lancet study. ********************************************************************** Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides Or contact MAP's Media Activism Facilitator for personal tips on how to write LTEs that get printed. [email protected] ********************************************************************** PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent letter list ([email protected] ) if you are subscribed, or by e-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form ********************************************************************** Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team, www.mapinc.org/resource === DrugSense provides many services at no charge, but they are not free to produce. Your contributions make DrugSense and its Media Awareness Project (MAP) happen. Please donate today. Our secure Web server at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm accepts credit cards. Or, mail your check or money order to: . DrugSense 14252 Culver Drive #328 Irvine, CA 92604-0326. (800) 266 5759. DrugSense is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about the expensive, ineffective, and destructive "War on Drugs." Donations are tax deductible to the extent provided by law.

[This release is courtesy of Iker Val at the Ganjazz Art Club in San Sebastian, Spain.] Sunday 22 July Greetings to everyone, from Iker, president of the Ganjazz Art Club in San Sebastián. I was arrested on Friday 20 July and released yesterday, Saturday 21 July. I am very happy with all the support received from all over the country and especially from our land Euskadi. During these 30 hours that I have been free I do not do anything else than reaffirming my thoughts that came to me in the 30 hours that I was arrested: EVERYTHING WILL BE ALLRIGHT. I believe firmly in the work that our association has carried out in the past years and I believe in the strength of my arguments in the declarations to the police and the prosecutor, they are the fruit of many years defending an alternative to the policies that are applied to cannabis, a realistic alternative that we are promoting firmly, to respect some legal parameters and social criteria for normalisation and social integration of the cannabis consumer, in this so-called democratic society and its hypothetical state of law. The entire collective plantation of Ganjazz was destroyed on Friday afternoon, in the course of a desastrous intervention in the seat of the association. The work of many years selecting plants and collecting genetical information has been destroyed, all the stored flowers that were used to develop our programme of activities was erradicated. And even so, we are satisfied, because where they hoped to find some drug dealers, with thousands of euros, with all kinds of substances, kilos and kilos, arms, prostitutes etc. etc., they have found to their own surprise a simple association, that implements its humble activities in accordance with its capacities and necessities. We know that good work is being done if there is absolute coherence between theory and practice and this has been the case of Ganjazz. From now on, a new process starts for Ganjazz, in which we will have to regularise our activities. We believe that every negative event has its advantages, all this innecessary intervention in the daily life of our association has only made our conviction stronger, it has made us stronger. This experience will help us to transmit with more strength and courage the proposal to regulate the collective and individual cultivation for personal consumption. At the same time we know that society is ill in many different ways and that the reaction to all these systematical attacks on our lifestyle will change as long as we maintain this effort to organise us and reivindicate our rights as cannabis users through activities that improve OUR QUALITY OF LIFE. So our message is: Let's go forward and support all these initiatives that create a gap in the wall and increase our capacity of developing means to use our rights that we have as consumers within the law, yesterday in Euskadi we were three associations, today there are more than ten and this will increase in the near future. In various corners of the state similar projects are surging and developing really well. Greetings to all those who have been concerened with my personal situation, to all people who participated in the manifestation, to all people in the Cannabiscafe, to the RCN, to associations and growshops who have expressed their support, I have felt very supported by many people and this reaffirms me in all my ways of acting against the prohibition of cannabis. Thanks to everybody, I will continue to inform you through various media about the legal case and its resolution. On the moment our activities have not ended, nor has the club been closed, so we will be up and running shortly again. STRENGHT AND CHEERS. Iker Val. President Ganjazz Art Club http://www.encod.org/info/@[email protected]

This is more or less a copy of the reply sent to individuals who write to the Government about cannabis. Visit the petition at http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Cannabis/ ------------------------------------------------------ 13 July 2007 We received a petition asking: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to legalise cannabis." Details of Petition: "Prohibition does not work. Any possible dangers the government believes to be involved in the use of cannabis can only increase the need for the government to take the control of it's supply away from criminals and regulate it as alcohol and tobacco are regulated. Add to this the proven medicinal uses of cannabis and it's religious use throughout the world, for which prohibition is illegal under human rights law, and legalisation can be the only logical way forward." Read the Government's response: Thank you for your petition seeking the legalisation of cannabis. The Government has no intention of legalising cannabis. In response to the Home Affairs Committee report on The Government's Drugs Policy: Is It Working? in 2002, we stated that "We do not accept that legalisation and regulation is now, or will be in the future, an acceptable response to the presence of drugs" and that includes cannabis. Whilst there is every sympathy for those with debilitating illnesses and chronic pain who are looking to alleviate their symptoms and who may not find adequate relief from existing medication. The Government's view that cannabis is and will remain a controlled, illicit drug for good reasons. When recommending the reclassification of the drug from Class B to Class C under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs asked for it to be clearly understood that cannabis is unquestionably harmful. It has a number of acute and chronic health effects and prolonged use can induce dependence. Most cannabis is smoked and smoking, in any form, is dangerous. Even the occasional use of cannabis can pose significant dangers for people with mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, and particular efforts need to be made to encourage abstinence in such individuals. The Government believes that it clearly makes sense, on health grounds, for cannabis to remain a controlled drug whose unauthorised production (including cultivation), supply and possession for whatever purpose are and will remain illegal. The Government understands the reasons for your opposition to the prohibition of cannabis and your support for legalisation of the drug and control of its quality in a regulated way. However, we have concluded that the disadvantages of legalisation would outweigh the benefits. Legalisation would run counter to the Government's health and education messages. Our message to all - and to young people in particular - is that all controlled drugs, including cannabis, are harmful and no one should take them. To legalise the possession of cannabis for personal consumption would send the wrong message to the majority of young people who do not take drugs on a regular basis, if at all, with the potential risk of increased drug use and abuse. The Government's objective is to reduce the use of all illegal drugs - including cannabis - substantially, not to encourage increased consumption due to more ready access to increased supply. While our drugs laws cannot be expected to eliminate drug use, there is no doubt that they do help to limit use and deter experimentation. Among other things, the prohibition on cannabis and many other drugs was introduced by UN Convention specifically for protecting public health and welfare. On the human rights front, it is widely agreed that the law has a function in protecting public health and welfare, including protecting people from the consequences of their own actions - compare, for example, speed limits, seat belts, safety and crash helmets, tobacco health warnings, etc. The Government must balance the rights of individuals on the one hand and the greater public health and welfare considerations on the other. Whilst the Government has no intention of legalising the use of cannabis in its raw form for medicinal purposes, we have said that we would seek Parliament's agreement to make any necessary changes to the law to enable the prescription of cannabis-based medicine, for the purposes of relieving pain, but not before the granting of product approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It would not be appropriate for the Government to circumvent or undermine the well-established process attached to the evaluation of the safety, quality and effectiveness of all prospectively prescribable products by the MHRA. It is a process, which is designed to protect public health. Doctors must be confident about what they prescribe. In order to protect public health, the Government faces difficulty in making any changes to the law unless and until we are satisfied that the benefits have been formally established by the statutorily recognised means. This position is supported by the British Medical Association.

[Dutch News link: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2007/07/smoking_in_coffee_shops_will_b.php] Health minister Ab Klink announced late last night in parliament that coffee shops, where cannabis can be sold legally, will not be threatened by the smoking ban which takes effect on July 1, 2008, the Volkskrant reports on Wednesday. 'If we want to stop our policy of toleration, we should just do so, and not use the ban as an excuse,' he told MPs. However, despite the urging of Labour, centre-left D66 and the Green Left party, coffee shops will not be entirely exempt from the ban. Klink insists that the counters where cannabis is sold must be smoke free. But as long as they are divided from the rest of the room, smoking on the premises will be allowed. Klink also wants health insurers to include nicotine patches and courses on how to stop smoking in the basic health care package, according to the NOS news site. And he is also considering allowing insurers to offer people with a healthy lifestyle a lower premium. The minister will present a full package of ideas for preventative healthcare after the summer recess.

[Courtesy of the European Coalition for Just and Effective Drug Policies] The EU Civil Society Contact Group, representing eight large European networks of NGOs, criticises plans by the Council to prepare and agree a revised EU treaty through a closed Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) with a restricted mandate. No retreat from the achievements of the convention. Throughout the convention on the Future of Europe and the Intergovernmental Conference, members of the Civil Society Contact Group campaigned for a text that reflects concerns of citizens. Following the current negotiations and debates we are deeply worried that important achievements of the convention and the draft constitution will be lost. A more coherent European project to respond to common challenges both within and outside of Europe is urgently needed. We urge the Council to take action to maintain the following points as part of a new EU treaty. We are convinced that they are crucial for the future of the EU: It is indispensable to include the Charter of Fundamental Rights in a new treaty. Only by doing so will the interests and concerns of many citizens be taken serious. Key components of part III of the draft Constitution including the reconfirmed policies on environment (III-233), the new energy chapter (III-256), the horizontal social clauses (article III 116,117,118,122) as well as the strengthening of Europe’s development policy (III 316,317,318,319) and its ability to play a responsible role in world (III-292) need to be retained in a new treaty. The principle of participatory democracy (I-47) underlies all our activities. It is important that this becomes a treaty provision. It would support the endeavours of a variety of actors who aim to strengthen democracy in the EU. The extension of qualified majority voting is essential for an EU of 27 to function. Civil society challenges Council to open up inter-governmental approach: Traditionally IGCs have been closed processes offering no possibilities for civil society to engage. A coherent and effective strategy of involving civil society is urgently needed to engage European citizens in the process and inform its outcomes. Such a strategy should include: *Regular meetings between civil society and the presidency of the Union, *A website where civil society positions on the treaty revision could be posted and accessed by all member states, *Discussions in the IGC should be public, and transmitted via the European broadcast system (Ebs) and a dedicated website. Citizens want and expect Europe to provide moral and accountable leadership. The treaty revision will be an important step in re-connecting Europeans to the EU if it takes their concerns seriously. The EU Civil Society Contact Group brings together the Platform of European Social NGOs (Social Platform), the European NGO confederation for relief and development (Concord), the Human Rights and Democracy Network, the Green 10 (environmental organisations), the European Women’s Lobby, the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage (EFAH), the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) and the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL). Encompassing hundreds of European NGOs and thousands of national affiliates, they work together to develop the dialogue between civil society organisations and the EU institutions as an essential part of strengthening participatory democracy. www.act4europe.org *Contact person: Regula Heggli, Coordinator Civil Society Contact Group, T: +32 2 511 17 11, F: +32 2 511 19 09, [email protected], www.act4europe.org Find the call also on _

National Alliance of Methadone Advocates For Immediate Release: May 17, 2007 Contact Person: Joycelyn Woods, President, Tel: 212-595-NAMA, E: [email protected] Leaders of NAMA’s Swedish Affiliate Svenska Brukarforeningen (SBF) Report to Police for Handing Out Clean Needles On May 4 SBF’s President, Berne StÃ¥lenkrantz and the Stockhom Director, Johan Stenbäck presented themselves to the Norrmalm Police Station in Stockholm for handing out clean needles to drug users. The purpose of the action was to get an official assessment of the their crime and to bring to the public the fact that Sweden does not allow syringes to be sold in pharmacies as is done is all other countries in the European Union (EU). SBF is also considering reporting Sweden to the European Union for its failure to comply with EU rules surrounding the common market. In southern Sweden needle exchange programs have been keeping the spread of HCV nd HIV under control for the past 20 years. County and Town Councils have been allowed to establish needle exchange programmes if they so wish. However in Stockholm no such programs have been established. According to StÃ¥lenkrantz if the penalty is mild they will continue with what they are doing. However after SBF publicized that they were providing drug users with clean needles the organization suddenly found its financing from Stockholm City Council under threat. StÃ¥lenkrantz also reported that a colleague suffering from a Hepatitis C was planning to report the city's social services department to the police because he has contracted a deadly illness after being refused clean syringes. He will also state that he was a victim of SBF’s having received clean syringes from the organization.. Needle exchange programs have been used worldwide for the past twenty years and provides a way for drug users to avoid the risks of drug use as well as a way to access support services including treatment. "We are handing out syringes for purely humanitarian reasons. And we are forced to do so since society is not providing this type of healthcare," said StÃ¥lenkrantz.

Following is an update from Moscow on the police brutalization and free speech violation committed by authorities against marijuana march participants. (Click here to read the first update received this weekend.) - Dave Dear sisters and brothers! Thank you for your assistance and attention to Russian problems with human rights. Below there is new information about events with cruel breaking up of Marijuana march in Moscow: All cannabis activists were unlawfully sentenced by Moscow district court! As I earlier informed all arrested cannabis activists were delivered at The Presnentsky administrative district court of Moscow City. Not only participants of Marijuana march were accused but also other people who were sympathized them. The Judge has worked during the whole night without the rest. She has hypocritically convicted demonstrators according to The Russian Administrative law for the propaganda of drugs (...and bla-bla-bla). No one of councels for the defence was allow in the process. Finally some of activists were sentenced for 15 days of arrest. Other ones were nominated money fine. On juridical commentary all accusations are unlawfully. There are not simply disproportionate sentences, but sentences absolutely fixed by lawlessness. Here is that Ivan Ninenko who is the protector of activists has told: I just returned from the court versus delayed on the March for Legalize MJ and people who sympathized them near police department named "ARBAT". They all were accused according articles 19.3 (non-obedience to legal requirements of employees to militias), 6.13 (propaganda of narcotics) and 20.2 (overset of undertaking of meeting, demonstration and picketing). The judge listened the case during the whole night from 9 P.M. to 9 A.M. Total: Three girls - a fine on 4500 rubles. Sergey Konstantinov - 15 days of arrest and the fine on 3500 rubles. To every another 6 lads (list later) - 10 day of arrest and the fine on 3500 rubles. Now I'm going to sleep because I'm very tired. Such unlawfulness that I never saw! Brothers and sisters, friends, this is never mind what kind of the march is this and as you are to take to it. More so, some guys were delayed not on the march, but beside a police department "Arbat". BUT it is IMPORTANT to spread this information over the World into the name of God and for liberties of people and human right. Please, put this letter and other links on your LJ blogs, the forum conferences, or WebPages. All people must hear ABOUT THESE UNDOUBTEDLY ILLEGAL actions of Moscow militias. We all hope that they will carry responsibility for this! You may organize: 1. The action of solidarity beside Russian embassies, consulates and representations with requirements to free cannabis activists. Moreover it is very important on Action to raise a voice not for the hemp, but against cops bestialities. In the insulator there are people without defence councels. 2. To call Phones and faxes of Russia embassies. See below Richard Lake advice: In the United States there is a Russian Consulate in Washington, D.C., New York, Houston, Seattle and San Francisco. Please see for address and phone numbers: http://www.russianembassy.org/consulat/contact.htm The location and contact information for Russian embassy and consulate offices worldwide may be accessed from this page: http://www.russianembassy.net/ 3. To call Phones and faxes of Russia in Moscow straight: +7 495 684-42-36 - an insulator, where keeping imprisoned people now. Presently the most important, so that defence councels can come to the delayed activists in the insulator. Also they need Public prosecutor (or attorneys), because there are repressions. Sergey Konstantinov who was sentenced for 15 days arrest is keeping hunger strike. + 7 495 2009305; 2008510; 2008924; Fax: 9732041. This numbers are telephones of Head service of investigation of Moscow, Petrovka street, 38. It is necessary to call them and talk about cops bestialities in police department and that sentenced activists are requiring defence councels, which do not allow. You may surf on Marijuana march organizers Website http://www.legaliz.info/ You can read last reporting on http://community.livejournal.com/legal_team/ ; http://blancanevies.livejournal.com/432177.html; http://sportloto80.livejournal.com/92719.html; http://gazeta.ru/2007/05/05/oa_238380.shtml Unfortunately only in Russian. But there are many photos. You also can write to me [email protected] or call in my mobile telephone 8 916 980 8590, or meet in ICQ # 291099002 as well as to protector Ivan Ninenko [email protected]; mob: 8-926-568-4583; icq 299200108 God bless you and bless us all, Eugene Kazachenko

Dear friends, Two Dutch artists opened today the first mobile coffeeshop in Belgium, just 200 meters from the border with Holland.n The first WIETKOT (a combination of a FRIETRKOT (place where they sell French frites) and a coffeeshop was presented to the press, though no weed was sold yet. The caravan (in the colours of the Dutch flag) is meant to be the solution to reduce Belgian coffeeshop tourism to Maastricht and other cities.

[Courtesy of Joep from ENCOD] Dear friends, Herewith I send you the translation of this excellent news from Spain: Last Wednesday 25 april the Bilbao Cannabis Social Club Pannagh received the cannabis that was confiscated from them by the police on 3 October 2005.