Martin Barriuso, the president of of Pannagh and the Federation of Cannabis Associations (FAC) in Spain and two fellow activist from Pannagh have been arrested for drug trafficking on Monday, November 14, 2011. TNI wishes to express its support for the demand to immediately release of Barriuso and his fellow activists. Pannagh always has been transparent in their wish to create a regulated cannabis distribution system among adults to prevent a criminal black market.

The House of Representatives passed the MORE Act on Friday by a vote of 228-164. It was 2018, Democrats were about to gain control of the House of Representatives, and cannabis justice advocates knew they needed to get to work. Every two years, a handful of new states were joining those that had already legalized cannabis, either recreationally or medicinally. Federal decriminalization was inevitable. If advocates wanted to have any say in what legislation would look like, the first Democratic House majority since 2011 was their best chance to make inroads. Every cannabis measure up for a vote last month passed convincingly. One in three Americans now live in states that have legalized recreational use.

En Reino Unido lleva unos meses funcionando un servicio ilegal de compra de marihuana y hachís a través de una página web que la policía no ha conseguido tumbar. La empresa clandestina se llama Dispenseroo y funciona de manera similar a como lo hacen los mercados de venta de drogas en la deep web, pero funcionando a través de una página web normal que se puede encontrar por medio de los buscadores comerciales y a la que se puede acceder con cualquier navegador. Su creador, que se presenta a sí mismo con la letra “S”, declaró al diario The Independent que nunca antes había vendido drogas y que su proyecto ilegal de venta de cannabis tiene que más que ver con las restrictivas leyes que Reino Unido aplica al cannabis, que valora como “arcaicas”.

Several Mexican Senate committees on Friday tentatively approved a revised bill to legalize marijuana during a joint hearing, with a formal in-person vote scheduled next week. The legislation, which has circulated in draft form this month and further amended ahead of the meeting, would establish a regulated cannabis market in Mexico, allowing adults 18 and older to purchase and possess up to 28 grams of marijuana and cultivate up to four plants for personal use. Members of the Senate’s United Commissions of Justice, Health, and Legislative Studies advanced the bill, months after passing an earlier version. The panels first voted to dispense with that previous bill during Friday’s session.

After decades of strict drug policy, Mexico’s congress is expected to pass a federal law this year that would for the first time create a legal cannabis trade in the country—the Senate passed the bill in November, and the lower house is set to vote on it this spring. But many of Mexico’s marijuana proponents are still opposed: The bill would allow for a cannabis industry on terms that they say favor corporations, and would still impose fines and prison sentences on people without connections or power. If the current version passes, advocates ask, who would the law be for? Mexico’s cannabis market is projected to be worth $5 billion within a few years, according to the National Association of the Cannabis Industry. Canadian and US companies are ready to swoop in.

A drug consumption van where addicts can inject heroin has been launched in Glasgow - despite warnings it could be breaking the law. Peter Krykant, a recovering heroin addict and former drugs worker, has modified a minibus into a facility where he says addicts can safely take drugs under supervision. He hopes it will help prevent overdoses and blood-borne viruses among users. The UK government said it had no plans to introduce drug consumption rooms. It added that anyone running such a facility would be committing offences including possession of a controlled drug and being concerned in the supply of a controlled drug. (See also: 'I'll risk jail to save lives'; UK's first illegal drugs consumption room launches in Glasgow)

With drug poisoning (overdose) now the leading cause of death in British Columbia, there remains an urgent need to invest in and scale up safe supply programs in addition to supporting existing models, broadening the range of safe supply medications and removing barriers to access. We also need to address the root cause of this crisis: a toxic, unregulated drug supply. What we do not need are more police crackdowns directed at people who are stepping up to save lives and who are forced to do so illegally because of government inaction. As harm reduction nurses, we condemn the recent Vancouver Police Department arrests of Drug User Liberation Front organizers. (See also: Study shows selling tested drugs saves lives)

In response to the increased police presence in and around Christiania, a number of citizens are fighting back online. Fans of Christiania have long been using a Facebook page, 'Politi razzia på Christiania?' (PRPC), to inform one another of police presence in the freetown. The page has well over 9,000 likes and also been developed into an app for smartphones that allows people to check for police presence before heading to Christiania. The page was created in response to Taskforce Pusher Street.

A vending machine for powerful opioids has opened in Canada as part of a project to help fight the Canadian city’s overdose crisis. The MySafe project, which resembles a cash machine, gives addicts access to a prescribed amount of medical quality hydromorphone, a drug about twice as powerful as heroin. Dr Mark Tyndall, a professor of epidemiology at the University of British Columbia, came up with the project as part of an attempt to reduce the number of overdose deaths in the city, which reached 395 last year.  “I think ethically we need to offer people a safer source,” he said. “So basically the idea is that instead of buying unknown fentanyl from an alley, we can get people pharmaceutical-grade drugs.”

Downtown Eastside residents at high risk of overdose now have Vancouver’s support to get untainted drugs, but the federal government has the final say whether they’ll get access to a legal supply. A motion to support an application from the Drug User Liberation Front — to run North America’s first compassion club to give members access to untainted heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine — was approved by Vancouver council last week. Drug User Liberation Front co-founders Jeremy Kalicum and Eris Nyx submitted an application for a federal exemption to Canada’s Controlled Drugs and Substances Act on Aug. 31 and had asked for city support. While awaiting the federal decision, Liberation Front is considering whether to purchase more illicit drugs from the dark web to hand out in the DTES.

El ingreso de una planta de mariguana al salón de Plenos dio pie a que senadores se manifestaran a favor de su legalización para uso medicinal y lúdico. El coordinador de Morena, Ricardo Monreal reconoció que la regulación del cannabis es una prioridad. Después de que la morenista y defensora de la legalización de la hierba, Jesusa Rodríguez ingresó al Senado con una maceta con una planta de mariguana de aproximadamente 30 centímetros, los senadores recordaron que este es un tema pendiente. La Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación (SCJN) ya emplazó al Senado a resolver el tema.

Cannabis campaigners want government to present tangible proposals for the legalisation of marijuana for personal use as they contest fears that regulation will lead to a free for all. ReLeaf, an organisation campaigning for the legalisation of cannabis, was reacting to a recent statement by the Maltese Association of Psychiatry and Oasi Foundation warning against legalisation. Government is in the process of drawing up a legal framework to legalise cannabis for personal use, however few details have so far emerged on what type of regulation was being considered. The organisation insisted that the fears expressed by MAP and Oasi were based on the notion of a legalised and commercialised cannabis market, rather than a regulated one. ReLeaf backs a regulated market.

Uruguay legalizó la marihuana en 2013 y se volvió el primer país del mundo en regular su mercado. Si bien el objetivo de la medida fue disputarle el negocio de esa droga a los narcos, los activistas no comparten ese enfoque y buscan una mirada más desde una perspectiva de derechos. La legalización fue un cambio fundamental pero para los usuarios de cannabis la reglamentación “lo vuelve insuficiente por lo restrictivo, por el énfasis en el control y por el propio registro hace que haga falta una mayor apertura y una implementación integral e incluso un ensanchamiento de sus marcos”, dice Julio Rey, cultivador y Referente de la Agrupación de Cultivadores de Cannabis del Uruguay (Acca)

A month ago, Mexican marijuana legalization seemed like a done deal. The bill was approved by the Senate last November, but greatly modified by the Chamber of Deputies, causing senators to have to give the proposed legislation a final approval before sending it to the president. The legalization bill moved through two Senate committees. But then, Monreal said they would ask the high court for more time, meaning the bill would be halted until the next legislative sessions in September. But, senators never officially asked for a deadline extension, or prórroga, which shows a pointed lack of concern for an issue in a country where cannabis users are extorted daily by law enforcement, despite the decriminalization of small-scale possession.

In September 2020, the Swiss parliament adopted a modification to the Federal Act on Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances. The change provides a legal framework for a pilot project that would see legal and government-controlled supply initiatives established in 2021. The projects are expected to provide data on the use of cannabis by the Swiss and contribute to substantiating any potential future regulations. A few days after its passing, a complimentary parliamentary initiative was submitted by a member of the National Council (the lower house of the Swiss legislature). The initiative aims to flesh out a political response to the regulation of cannabis, proposing standards similar to those in place for alcohol.

Today, the contributions of drug suppliers towards harm reduction efforts remain mostly neglected by history, although some within the grassroots end of the movement still emphasise their critical role. The work of Van Dam in The Netherlands and Southwell in the United Kingdom is part of a mostly-forgotten history of drug dealers organising themselves and alongside drug-user activists to advance the health and wellbeing of people who use drugs. In 1996, as the City of Rotterdam was cracking down on the public presence of drug suppliers and consumers, or what they called “nuisances,” the City officially supported drug consumption rooms (DCR). But some drug-user activists were skeptical of these newly above-ground programs. “It is only concerned with regulating and monitoring users.”

It was in 1992 that the Platzspitz city park – right by Zürich train station and internationally nicknamed “Needle Park” – was cleared out by the police, who had previously tolerated drug use and sales there. This was eventually followed, however, by a far more enlightened policy. Switzerland found itself at a crossroads, and chose to take the path of careful consideration instead of ostracization, incarceration and destruction of fellow human beings. From the mid-1990s, we vastly expanded syringe services and methadone access, and also permitted the limited prescribing of heroin – a policy with many well-studied benefits, which spawned a number of imitators around the world. 

A Vancouver man is planning to open what would be Canada’s first store that sells heroin, cocaine, meth, MDMA, and other drugs as a way to reduce the rising number of deaths stemming from the overdose crisis. Jerry Martin, 51, wants to open the brick-and-mortar shop by the end of January, when British Columbia’s new drug decriminalization policy kicks in. The pilot project, which will last three years, will mean it’s no longer illegal to possess up to 2.5 grams of opioids, crack and powder cocaine, meth, and MDMA. Selling those drugs will remain illegal. But Martin, a former cocaine user, believes providing drugs that have been tested for contaminants will save the lives of drug users. 

In the midst of a federal election campaign, a group of activists plan to again hand out tested, untainted heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine in a push to put the need for regulated, wide-reaching safe supply on the agenda. The “compassion club” model the Drug User Liberation Front has been demonstrating since June 2020 can’t be found in any party platform. Eris Nyx, one of the founders of the Drug User Liberation Front, says that organized drug users, not politicians, have led the way in pushing for drug policy reforms in response to poisoned, unregulated drugs. (See also: Five ways to end the toxic drug crisis)

Nurses and volunteers watch over drug users at the Toronto's first pop-up supervised drug-use site. In the month since the site started operating in a gritty east-end park with the tacit approval of police and city officials, volunteers have stopped 27 overdoses. The activists behind the site, who call themselves the Toronto Harm Reduction Alliance, say it's a desperately needed response to the rising wave of opioid overdose deaths caused by the increasing presence of fentanyl in other street drugs. The mayor and city officials do not want it to become a permanent fixture in the park.