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Bulletin Antiprohibitionist <liafax@...> wrote:

From: "Bulletin Antiprohibitionist" liafax@...
Subject: Liafax [EN] N. 15
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 04:36:53 +0200

	Sign the appeal to reform the UN Conventions on Drugs e-Newsletter on the world campaign for the reform of the UN Conventions on Drugs #.15 - YEAR II - 20 April 2005 Published in   NEWS FROM THE IAL :                                                                                                                                                    _ ENCOD Appeal on the EU Strategy on Drugs Herewith I ask the European Union authorities to take into account the 'Catania report', approved by the European Parliament, in the elaboration of the new EU Drug Strategy. SIGN ITALY The Criminal Court of Siena has concluded the first hearing in the case of State vs. Rita Bernardini, Claudia Sterzi and Giulio Braccini, accused of having given out free hashish by way of civil disobedience in June of 2002. A previous summary conviction to sixty days’ imprisonment, converted to a fine, was appealed. NEWS FROM THE WORLD :                                                                                                                                            _ 4027     13/04/2005 ASIA / AFGHANISTAN CULTIVATION MISNA The human toll after skirmishes between poppy-growing peasants and anti-drug police in the region of the Kandahar  comes to one dead and six wounded peasants. Vice Interior Minister Mohammed Daoud has pledged continued government destruction of poppy fields. 4030     08/04/2005 EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM JUSTICE EFE, REUTERS Patricia Tabram, a.k.a. ‘Granny Cannabis’, won’t go to gaol. A Newcastle judge explained that he ‘didn’t want to make a martyr of her’ and commuted her six-months gaol sentence to a 750-pound fine (1,095 euros, 1,400 dollars). Granny has already announced that she’ll still go on chewing and eating cannabis, ‘my best medicine’. She is thinking of standing for Parliament. See here 4026     13/04/2005 ASIA / SINGAPORE JUSTICE ANSA  / REUTERS Fifty-five per cent of the prison population is ‘in’ or drug-related crimes. Those of legal age risk being hanged for possession of fifteen grammes of heroin, thirty of cocaine, five hundred of cannabis and two hundred fifty of methamphetamine. To twins are circulating a petition to save their father, convicted for possession of a kilo of marijuana,  from the gallows. 4032     01/04/2005 CENTRAL AMERICA / MEXICO NEW IDEAS NOTIMEX Heriberto MartÌnez Paniagua, president of the industrialists’ association of Vercaruz, has come out in favour of legalisation of all drugs. He thinks that when this gigantic business becomes regulated, organised crime will be sidelined and forced out, so that  social and health problems can then be solved by supervising and taxing  production, distribution and consumption, as is being done everywhere with alcohol. 4034     06/04/2005 NORTH AMERICA / USA - Minnesota LAWS UPI The state legislature’s Health and Family Commission has approved a la that would allow the use of therapeutic cannabis. The proposal now goes to the Judicial Commission, whose approval it must have before it can be discussed in the Senate.  Republican governor Tim Pawlenty, opposed to any liberalisation, doesn’t think the measure can go through this year.   4036     07/04/2005 NORTH AMERICA / USA - Alabama LAWS WWW.THEPLAINSMAN.COM The state legislature is considering legalisation OF therapeutic marijuana. The proposed law, presented by Democrat Laura Hall, is backed by the Liberal Party. Loretta Nall, founder of the Marijuana Party, is busy accumulating testimonials from sufferers of illnesses who have benefited from cannabis. 4031     10/04/2005E. CENTRAL AMERICA / MEXICO NARCOS AP Raul Ribb Guerrero, E.-in-C. of the daily La Opinion of Poza Rica, has been murdered. Investigators say that he was gunned down by professionals on orders of the Gulf Cartel because he had published revelations about the cartel’s work of corruption in high circles. 4033     06/04/2005 EUROPE / SWITZERLAND PUBLIC HEALTH AFP THC, the active principle of cannabis could help in the prevention of heart attacks and other cardiac ailments, says a study by he University of Geneva published in the magazine Nature. It is said that THC can block one of the basic causes of arteriosclerosis.. 4035     07/04/2005 SOUTH AMERICA / COLOMBIA DRUG TRAFFIC ANSA Five American soldiers detailed to the Colombia Plan have been arrested for attempting to smuggle sixteen kilos of cocaine into the US in a military aircraft. They cannot be extradited and tried in Colombia because existing agreements give them diplomatic immunity.   4029     11/04/2005 ASIA / THAILAND THE WAR ON DRUGS EFE Prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has launched a new anti-drug campaign, the third since 2003. It has already caused the deaths of two thousand five hundred people. In an address to thousands of anti-drug cops he exhorted them to crush trafficking and consumption with special vigour during the next three months. 4028     12/04/2005 SOUTH AMERICA / BOLIVIA THE WAR ON DRUGS OPINIONS In the eyes of US State Department, all through 2004 the government of President Carlos Mesa ‘failed’ in its approach to drug control. Eight thousand hectares = twelve thousand acres of coca plantations were destroyed, but in the overall picture, illegal production increased by six per cent. Bolivia remains the world’s third-biggest coca supplier.  --------------------------------------------------------------------- Editor in Chief: Marco Perduca Director: Vincenzo Donvito Layout & Distribution: C.E.D. Roma To SUBSCRIBE To UNSUBSCRIBE If you wish not to receive this bulletin, send a message without modifying the object of the email . Important: please send a message from the email address that you want to delete from our emailing list.

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