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The minister in charge of the government's drugs policy has admitted that he has smoked cannabis. Vernon Coaker, a former government whip who was appointed Home Office under-secretary of state in the reshuffle earlier this month, said he tried the drug at university. "When I was a student, I took one or two puffs of marijuana but that was it. I think it was once or twice," he told the Coventry Evening Telegraph. The MP for Gedling in Nottinghamshire insisted he had never taken hard drugs, and did not enjoy the cannabis experience, thinking afterwards: "I'm not doing that." Mr Coaker is not the first politician to come clean – in 2000, five members of the shadow ca…

Cannabis 'Best for Pain Relief' After Operations May 17, 06:51 PM By MARK PRIGG CANNABIS is a far more effective painkiller than existing drugs following surgery, a study by London scientists has found. Researchers at Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council said a cannabis plant extract can provide highly effective pain relief for patients after major surgery such as knee replacements. Dr Anita Holdcroft of Imperial College London, who led the study published today in the journal Anesthesiology, said: "Pain after surgery continues to be a problem because many of the commonly used drugs are either ineffective or have too many side effects. "These…

Police raid hippie festival From: The Sunday Mail (Qld) By Paul Weston May 07, 2006 POLICE swarmed into the northern NSW hippie town of Nimbin yesterday in the biggest crackdown yet on illegal drug use at its annual Mardi Grass. Police set up road blocks to stop and search vehicles driving into the township, about 60km south of Murwillumbah, as more than 10,000 people flocked to the festival. Police on horseback patrolled the main streets and officers dressed in paramilitary gear and armed with guns inspected venues including the Nimbin museum, which vibrantly promotes marijuana use with its colourful Kombis inside. Some residents were furious when police threaten…

POLICE have seized 150 mature cannabis plants and about 500 seedlings after swooping on a sophisticated hydroponic set-up west of Brisbane. A raid on a house at Bundamba, in Ipswich, about 8.30am (AEST) today uncovered a number of rooms converted into hydroponic nurseries, police said. A man was being interviewed over the haul. In a separate incident, a 63-year-old man from Blackbutt, north west of Brisbane, was due in court later this month after police yesterday uncovered another hydroponic cannabis set-up. Police said they allegedly found 27 cannabis plants, a quantity of dried cannabis as well as equipment when they raided the Blackbutt property. The man was c…

FDA approves Valeant Pharmaceutical's synthetic cannabis drug Wednesday, May 17, 2006 12:37:08 PM ET NEW YORK, May 17 (newratings.com) – The US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Valeant Pharmaceuticals Inc’s (ICP.ETR) synthetic cannabis drug, Cesamet, for the treatment of vomiting and nausea due to chemotherapy treatment. Valeant Pharmaceuticals Tuesday announced that Cesamet is effective for a long time and is generally administered two times a day. Cesamet is used for the treatment of patients who have failed to respond adequately to conventional anti-emetic treatments, the company mentioned. Valeant Pharmaceuticals had acquired Cesamet from Eli Li…

Author:HAMISH MACDONELL AND SHAN ROSS Date: Mon 1 May 2006 Source: http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=648742006 Copyright: The Scotsman JOHN REID, the Defence Secretary, has insisted that he has no idea where the cannabis resin came from that was found by police at his Scottish home. The amount found in a guest room was "minuscule," he said, and insisted there was no suggestion that he or any of his family were involved. Police found less than one gram of the drug - with a street value of 85p - during a routine security sweep of his house last week. Dr Reid was on ministerial business abroad when police specialists with sniffer dogs swept his house in the…

MUSIC fans will be able to legally record their CD collections onto iPods and MP3 players under a raft of proposed changes to Federal Government copyright laws. Taping TV and radio programs and using copyright material for parody or satire will also be legalised as part of the reforms. And in a move expected to be welcomed by artists, the Government plans to introduce new enforcement measures to combat piracy. The changes are part of a major overhaul of copyright laws to be announced today by Attorney-General Philip Ruddock in response to millions of Australians who effectively break the law every time they reproduce copyright material for personal use. The key c…

Author:CRAIG BILDSTIEN KARA PHILLIPS Date: 13 May '06 Source:Advertiser - Adelaide http://www.theadvertiser.news.com.au/commo...255E910,00.html Copyright: Advertiser Newspapers Pty Limited STATE MP Sandra Kanck says ecstasy - which has been linked to more than 110 deaths in three years - "is not a dangerous drug". The Democrats leader told Parliament that after 20 years, there was still no ``evidence that it is a dangerous substance''. She suggested the drug could have been given to victims of last year's fatal Eyre Peninsula bushfires to help them cope with their trauma. Bushfire recovery effort chairman Vince Monterola said he was astounded by the comment, l…

Narooma News Cannabis seizure Thursday, 11 May 2006 Police have seized cannabis plants with a street value of approximately $450,000 from the South East Forests National Park. The Far South Coast Target Action Group located more than 200 plants about 30 kilometres from Wyndham last week after information received from a member of the public. Police are seeking information from anyone who may have witnessed anything suspicious in the area or who may have knowledge of the plantation. Bendigo news Drug bunker found Friday, 12 May 2006 CANNABIS worth more than $160,000 on the streets has been seized from a hydroponics set-up in an underground drugs den. Kyneton…

A meeting of Australia's top policy-making body on drugs today will discuss the creation of three national strategies to tackle alcohol abuse, and substance abuse, including cannabis and petrol sniffing. The Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy is holding its annual conference in Perth. The council comprises the federal, state and territory health ministers, and justice and police ministers. The ABC has been told the conference is likely to endorse a national strategy on cannabis use, covering prevention, treatment, and law enforcement. However it is understood the national plan does not seek to over-ride state laws on cannabis. The state and federal ministers w…

Source: BioMed Central Posted: May 10, 2006 Diffusion tensor imaging, a newly developed magnetic resonance imaging technique, could enable researchers to gain a better understanding of the effects of cannabis on the brain. In a preliminary study published today in the open access journal Harm Reduction Journal, researchers used diffusion tensor imaging to compare the brain tissue of young people who had used cannabis moderately as teenagers and young people who had not. The researchers failed to find any indication that damage to the developing adolescent brain occurred. Lynn DeLisi and colleagues from the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and New Y…

Associated press Fri May 12, 10:09 PM ET WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - Four men were arrested Friday for investigation of trying to burgle a medical marijuana clinic after someone used a garden hose to climb down from the roof, authorities said. The men, whose identities were not immediately released, were arrested without incident and did not manage to steal any pot, sheriff's Detective Sylvia Arreseigor said. A deputy responded to a burglar alarm at The Farmacy medical marijuana dispensary about 5:45 a.m., where he saw someone inside the closed shop and called for backup, Arreseigor said. The burglar apparently cut open a metal grate on top of the roof and used a gar…

A South Australian woman who smoked cannabis before a crash which killed her teenage friend has been fined and banned from driving for six months. Kay Ellen Colman, 22, had smoked four "cones" of cannabis before she rolled her car near Wilmington in the state's mid-north in November 2003. Her 14-year old passenger was killed. Ms Colman was this week found not guilty of causing death by dangerous driving, but guilty of the lesser charge of driving without due care. District Court judge Michael Boylan sentenced Colman on the basis that her driving was not impaired by the cannabis. He added that smoking it before taking the wheel was an act of "gross selfishness." …

A survey of the Northern Territory's drug users shows most have driven while drunk or under the influence of illicit drugs. The survey by the Drug and Alcohol Research council pays people $30 to talk about their drug use, as well as a substance's availability, quality and price. The 2005 results show ecstasy is becoming more popular and is considered easy to get. The results also show users are increasingly combining the party drug with large quantities of alcohol. The majority of those surveyed said in the past six months they had driven while over the alcohol limit and within an hour of taking illicit drugs, usually cannabis or ecstasy. The survey has also fou…

Control centre to tackle cannabis GLENN MILNE 07may06 A NATIONAL Cannabis Control Centre will be established under a new $20 million Federal Government plan to tackle Australia's growing cannabis menace. Federal Treasurer Peter Costello will unveil measures to combat cannabis use in Tuesday's Budget after a new report revealed about 300,000 Australians use it each day. The centre will train specialists in how to educate young people against the dangers of cannabis abuse. It will be used to establish a national database on the problem. Sources said the centre's activities would be backed up by counsellors who will be assigned to university campuses where they w…