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The Republican leader of the State Senate said yesterday he was warming to legalizing the use of medical marijuana, opening the door for movement on an issue that has been stalled here for years. The new sentiment from Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Brunswick) came on a day when Assembly Democrats offered a measure that earned support from key medical and health associations and after TV personality Montel Williams met with legislative leaders. Bruno said his change of heart may be in part due to his own bout with prostate cancer last year. "Your life experiences can add to how you legislate," Bruno said, adding that he would closely review the measure. The…

The price of illicit drugs has soared since drug house legislation was introduced, police said last night. The laws have hit the price of cannabis the hardest. A pound (0.45kg) of cannabis has risen from about $3800 to about $4500 in the past few months. Drug squad boss Senior Sergeant Les Martin said the rise suggested the availability of the drug in the Territory had been reduced. He said several pro-active drug squad operations, and increased powers that the drug house laws had given police, were in part responsible. "Just recently there's been an increase in the price of cannabis in bulk amounts of $500 to $1000 a pound," Sen-Sgt Martin said. "It means tha…

Police from Broken Hill have been involved in a trial of a new law targeting the movement of drugs across New South Wales borders and seized three kilograms of cannabis. It was the first trial of the new law in the Barrier Local Area Command, based in Broken Hill and it allows police to stop and search any cars for drugs, not just those they consider suspicious. The weekend operation involved Broken Hill detectives, the Target Action Group, highway patrol and Dareton police and they stopped 724 cars. The operation was conducted between Gol Gol and Wentworth on the Sturt Highway near the Victorian border. The searched 47 cars and a 30-year-old man is to appear in t…

Sunday May 2, 11:28 AM Greens appeal for uniform cannabis laws The Australian Greens have called for national uniform cannabis laws. Queensland Senate candidate Drew Hutton has used the pro-cannabis Mardi Grass festival in Nimbin in northern New South Wales to launch the party's campaign. He says it is time to declare the Prime Minister's zero-tolerance to drugs approach a failure. He says every state should adopt laws which allow individuals to buy, possess and grow small quantities of marijuana. "You remove, as a part of the criminal justice system of this country, you remove the involvement of the criminal underworld in these sorts of areas and you remove the…

PLANS to tighten up the Netherlands’ famously liberal attitude towards cannabis have met with strong resistance by local authorities across the country. The ruling conservative coalition drafted the new tougher drugs policy in the face of evidence showing a sharp increase in the potency of marijuana openly sold in many towns. The prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende’s cabinet proposed to reduce the number of "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold and to ban sales of cannabis to foreign tourists in border areas. For nearly 30 years, small quantities of marijuana and hashish have been sold at coffee shops. Though the practice is tolerated, cannabis remains a cont…

SANTA CRUZ, CA--In the first rigorous study comparing marijuana use in the Netherlands and the United States, researchers have found no evidence that decriminalization of marijuana leads to increased drug use. The results suggest that drug policies may have less impact on marijuana use than is currently thought. The findings appear in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health. Craig Reinarman, professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, coauthored the article, "The Limited Relevance of Drug Policy: Cannabis in Amsterdam and in San Francisco," with Peter D. A. Cohen, director of the Centre for Drug Research (CEDRO) at the University o…

TWO of Scotland’s leading private schools have admitted relaxing the ‘zero tolerance’ approach to drugs that has seen dozens of pupils across the country expelled in recent years. Loretto and Merchiston Castle say they no longer automatically throw out youngsters caught in possession of drugs provided they agree to random tests in future. The schools deny taking a liberal stance, insisting the move is an ‘enlightened’ reaction to the modern day reality of young people and drug use. Most private schools have adopted an increasingly hard line in recent years, and there have been several occasions where pupils were expelled for possession of cannabis. But there i…

Over 600 South Africans are marching in Cape Town to call for the legalisation of cannabis and highlight its potential use in low-cost housing and medicine, the main organiser said. Andre du Plessis on Saturday said the aim was also to highlight the many uses of cannabis and stressed that the vast majority of the marchers were professionals and not beatniks or hippies. Cannabis, or marijuana, is colloquially called "grass" in several countries. "We will be discussing cannabis and its potential in South Africa's industrial sector, in agriculture and in health and from the criminal and police perspective." Du Plessis, an information technology engineer, said he had …