Cannabis Hemp News

VIENNA (AFP) - Austria’s parliament has adopted a new bill allowing the cultivation of cannabis for medical and scientific purposes, under the Health Ministry’s control.The bill, approved by parliament during a late-night session Wednesday, will give the health and food safety agency AGES the exclusive right in Austria to grow the plant, which is otherwise categorised as a drug. Michael Bach, president of the Austrian pain studies association OeSG, welcomed the new legislation, saying: “Any initiative that makes it possible to develop and provide new drugs for pain therapy is welcome.” “Substances drawn from cannabis have been used for medical purposes more an…

Rastas can use cannabis, Italian court rules The Independent Author: Peter Popham in Rome Saturday, 12 July 2008 <http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/rastas-can-use-cannabis-italian-court-rules-865829.html> Rastafarians have always regarded Ethiopia as the promised land, but Italy could rank a close second after its Supreme Court ruled that smoking or possessing cannabis is not a criminal offence but a religious act when the person doing it is a Rastafarian. Last year, the same court declared that cultivating even a single cannabis plant was a punishable offence. But now Italy's Court of Cassation has said Rastafarians use marijuana "not only as …

Check out my most recent Blog... Ali xx LEAP Blog: June 26, 2008 A Leader in the Movement Canada remains at the forefront of Drug Reform with INSIGHT - Canada’s first Safe Injection/Intravenous Drug Facility. Some cutting edge news came down a few weeks ago that I thought was just too important to miss and which none of us at LEAP Blogged about in detail… Canada’s and the World’s first Safe Injection Site - INSITE - is being threatened once again with Government initiated closure and we as a Country - have stood up in protest! Letters to Editors of local and National newspapers, demonstrations, meetings, conferences and the like are being attend…

Not sure If I posted this already? Either way, here is my most recent LEAP Blog.... Hope you all enjoy! Alison xx Hi Folks… My apologies for not being around again for a while. Not only have I been extremely busy again, I had also run out of cannabis the past few weeks and found it difficult to get out of bed and stay awake thanks to all the pills I take when I have no cannabis. Between being so busy and then dropping like a rock I feel like I've been run over by a train! I SWEAR my Government knows this is how I become when I can`t fill my prescription for this plant. Very disheartening to say the least. Speaking of my being busy, I had another trying m…

Hi Everybody... Please pass this on to whom ever you think should know.... ;-D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIOi_6o9gjY%20 Thanx tons in advance! Love and stuff, Alison xx

The UN is hosting a historical meeting of NGOs to provide input to the next CND review in March 2009: http://www.unis.unvienna.org/unis/en/event...rum_070708.html "Global NGO Forum on the 1998-2008 Review of the United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on illicit drugs. The forum to be held in the Vienna International Centre (Austria) is organized by the Vienna NGO Committee on Narcotic Drugs, in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The forum will allow civil society to have a say on drug policy through the adoption of a global NGO Declaration along with three topic specific resolutions that will be tabled at the high …

Stolen from http://cannabisnews.com/news/24/thread24054.shtml USA -- The United States has some of the world's most punitive drug policies and has led the cheering section for tough "war on drugs" policies worldwide, but a new international study suggests that those policies have been a crashing failure. A World Health Organization survey of 17 countries, conducted by some of the world's leading substance abuse researchers, found that we have the highest rates of marijuana and cocaine use. The numbers are startling. In the United States, 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough p…

Author: Reporting by Ho Binh Minh; Editing by Jerry Norton Date: 7/7/2008 Source: Reuters Copyright: © Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved HANOI (Reuters) - Police have detained two custodians who were about to harvest their first crop of cannabis, a source of drugs like hashish and marijuana, from a cemetery in Vietnam's capital, a state-run newspaper reported on Monday. Police took in Nguyen Manh Hung, 44, who heads the caretaker team at the cemetery in Hanoi's outer district of Hoang Mai, and Ho A Lau, 46, after the authorities found cannabis plants grown on a 25 square meter (82 square feet) patch, the Vietnam Labour Confederation-run Lao Dong newspaper said.…