GERMANY
In the Saxon region, there has been a drop in criminality, and the life in the Laender is quite safe; on the other hand there has been an increase of 40% in drug-related crimes.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 16/10)
GERMANY
In 1996, Justice Helmunt Schneider, from the Lubeck Court, condemned a drug courier (caught with 11 kilos of hashish) to one year with parole. The national law normally sets from 1 to 15 years in prison. Mr. Schneider is not new to this kind of sentences, always very well argued, that try to provoke the very conservative Federal Court that tends to issue tough sentences for hash dealers. Due to this final provocation, Mr. Schneider has been transferred to the Civil Court. Magistrates from all over Germany are complaining for this displacement.
(DER SPIEGEL 19/1)
BRAZIL
According to a federal police report published in the newspaper "Estado de Sao Paulo", Southern American Mafias have chosen Rio de Janeiro as the new center for the international trafficking of cocaine.
(FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG 20/1)
GERMANY
On Feb. 2, the "10th ordinance for the enforcement of the law on narcotics" will be implemented. The new directive encloses Codeine, a cough 'tranquilizer', in the list of other narcotics, because the human body transforms parts of it into morphine. This means that Codeine could not be prescribed as a 'normal' medicine. A feral piece of news for 30,000 heroin addicts that were freed form their "slavery" by that medicine.
(DER SPIEGEL 26/1)
GREAT BRITAIN
A former officer of the anti-drug office of Scotland Yard, Edward Ellison, has recently said that the production of substances like ecstasy (MDMA) should be taken away from mobs, legalizing it and appointing pharmaceutical companies for the production. The proposal has provoked the tough reaction of some former colleagues of his, and of the recently appointed "anti-drug czar", Keith Hellawell.
(THE TIMES 25/1)
GREAT BRITAIN
There are allegations that Tories have received 1 million sterling from a Chinese dealer in search of immunity. The story has appeared in the first page of the "Oriental Daily" a newspaper of Hong Kong that belongs to the family of the dealer. An embarrassed William Hague, the Tory leader, has not confirmed the donation.
(CORRRIERE DELLA SERA, NEUE ZUERCHER ZEITUNG, THE TIMES 21/1, SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 22/1)
GREAT BRITAIN
The government has issued two booklets on 'soft drugs' targeting youths. The general approach is no longer "just say no to drugs", but a detailed information on risks and collateral effects of different drugs, tobacco and alcohol included.
(THE TIMES 20/1)
SPAIN
Madrid - During a convention on drug-addiction at the Universidad Complutense, a researcher of the University of San Diego, CA, has announced the eventual realization of a vaccine against cocaine. The medicine will act on the brain rendering innocuous cocaine's molecules and in this way working as a antidote in OD cases, and a help in rehabilitating patients.
(CAMBIO 12/1)
EUROPEAN UNION
Strasbourg - The initiative of the Socialist, Green, Communist and Radical Euro Groups to the EP that encourages the decriminalization of the consumption of drugs, the legalization of "soft" drugs and the controlled distribution of heroin, has been blocked by the well compacted prohibitionist front. The indecision of the Labor MEPs has jeopardized a possible majority at the plenary session. The so-called d'Ancona report has been sent back to the Committee on Civil Liberty.
(IL SOLE 24 ORE 15/1, DIE PRESSE, IL MESSAGGERO. SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG 16/1)
WORLD
The European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid, Emma Bonino, has criticized UNDCP's Chief, Pino Arlacchi, strategy of financing Talibans for a project of eradication of crop. Ms. Bonino says that the program cannot work because the country is so poor that there will be no other legal produce capable of rivaling with opium.
(PANORAMA 22/1)
SPAIN
The UROD therapy for rehabilitation from opiates, has been toughly criticized by two scientific reviews, "The Lancet" and the "Journal of the American Medical Association". According to the latter, UROD, besides its known counter-effects, also provoked some deaths.
(EL PAIS 22/1)
ITALY
The proposal of the General Procurator, Galli Fonseca, for the controlled distribution of drugs as a pragmatic step against drug-related crimes has opened a "holy war" between prohibitinist and antiprohibition advocates.
(CORSERA, IL SOLE 24 ORE, LA REPUBBLICA, LA STAMPA 15/1, IL GIORNALE, IL MESSAGGERO, 15-17/1, L'ESPRESSO 22-29/1, PANORAMA 29/1)
WORLD
UNDCP's Director, Pino Arlacchi (former Senator of the center-left coalition) has recently reiterated his argument in support of the deal with the Talibans saying that "In 10 years we could eradicate opium and cocaine crop all over the world".
(EL PAIS 27/1)
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