Sierra Leone declares national emergency on drug abuse
Freetown, Sierra Leone Reuters Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio has declared a national emergency on substance abuse following calls on his government to crack down on the rising use of a cheap and sometimes deadly synthetic drug known as kush. The highly addictive mix of marijuana, tentanyl and tramadol has caused hundreds of deaths […]
Cannabis use has risen with legalisation and COVID lockdowns – UN report
Vienna, Austria Reuters Places including US states that have legalised cannabis appear to have increased its regular use, while COVID lockdowns had a similar effect, raising the risk of depression and suicide, a UN report said on Monday. Cannabis has long been the world’s most widely used drug and that use is increasing while the […]
Kenyan Rastafarians seek to legalise marijuana over doubts of other faith leaders
Nairobi, KenyaRNS Rastafarians have petitioned the Kenyan high court to decriminalise the use of cannabis, claiming that smoking marijuana is part of their religious practice. “We Rastafari, who have been stigmatized and misunderstood, we have come here to say in agreement with the United Nations that the use of cannabis for cultural, spiritual and medicinal […]
UN drug agency loosens global controls on cannabis, following WHO advice
Vienna, SwitzerlandReuters The UN drug agency’s member states on Wednesday narrowly voted to remove cannabis from the most tightly controlled category of narcotic drugs, following the World Health Organization’s recommendation to make research into its medical use easier. The annual Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime’s governing body, voted 27 […]
Mexican church decries Senate’s marijuana legalisation vote
Mexico CityAP Mexico’s Roman Catholic Church on Sunday criticised a vote in the Senate to legalise the possession, cultivation and use of small amounts of marijuana. The bill adopted this past week must still go to the lower house of Congress for a vote. Marijuana plants grow inside discarded shoes at a makeshift camp outside […]
New Zealand approves euthanasia, set to reject recreational marijuana
Reuters New Zealand has provisionally voted to legalise euthanasia but is on course to reject law changes that would allow recreational marijuana use, the country’s Electoral Commission said on Friday. New Zealand voted on the two referendums this month while casting ballots during a general election that returned Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to power. Issuing […]
New Zealand divided over historic marijuana vote
Wellington, New ZealandReuters A referendum next month on legalising recreational cannabis has divided opinion in New Zealand with ruling party politicians staying clear of the contentious issue ahead of a general election they are likely to win. If passed, New Zealand would be only the third country in the world after Uruguay and Canada to […]
Does God care if you smoke weed? In the US, many Bay State faith groups say yeah, man
RNS Since the US east coast’s first recreational marijuana shops opened in Massachusetts this past fall, pot fans have snapped up more than $US20 million worth of legal weed. But for many people of faith in the Bay State, legalisation hasn’t burned away the moral and health concerns about the use of drugs for fun. […]