Global

Dutch To Find Illegal Cannabis Plots From Space Via Satellite

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 25, 2011 Global, Growing, News

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police used satellites to gather intelligence about this marijuana grow operation hidden deep in the heart of Mount Seymour, on Vancouver’s North Shore. Dutch police say they’ll begin using satellite images to find cannabis crops early next year.

With the coming to power of a right-wing government, the Netherlands is less and less cool about cannabis. Dutch police and local governments in the southern Netherlands plan to work with the European Space Agency to find illegal marijuana plots hidden in fields of corn and asparagus by using satellite data.

The experiment will begin early in 2012, using images taken from orbit to identity cannabis plants, according to Max Timp, a spokesman for the municipality of Venlo, which is leading the misguided project, reports Rudy Ruitenberg at Bloomberg.

While growing marijuana is illegal in the Netherlands, authorities “tolerate” up to five cannabis plants for personal use. The country’s southernmost province, Limburg, has set up a program called “Green Gold” to stamp out the illegal rural growing of marijuana, this year removing 4,140 plants with a claimed street value of three million euros ($4 million).

High Times Cannabis Cup Shut Down By Cops In Amsterdam

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2011 Culture, Global, News

Big Buds

Police shut down the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam today. It will be relocated and is still a “go.”

The 24th annual High Times Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam, for the first time in its history, has been raided by Dutch police. According to reports, attendees were searched as they left the event.

The unprecedented raid comes as a wave of more conservative cannabis policies and attitudes engulfs the Netherlands.

In a video posted to YouTube, police can be heard announcing the event was being shut down and that attendees are subject to search, reports High Times. Vendors were asked to remain at their booths while attendees left.

High Times has announced that the event will continue Wednesday night with a scheduled concert at the Melkweg a concert hall in Amsterdam, followed by a full day of the expo — including Cannabis Cup voting — at the Borchland (Borchlandweg) on Thursday, the final day of the competition.

Czech Republic Celebrates ‘Cannafest’ Next Weekend

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 18, 2011 Culture, Global, Products

Cannafest Prague 2011

Next Friday, one of the best festivals in Europe — Cannafest Prague 2011, celebrating the cannabis plant and the culture which has sprung up around it — will kick off in the Czech Republic’s capital.

This will be the second annual Cannafest, and organizers say they’re expecting more than 130 participants from the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, France, Australia, Great Britain, Italy, the U.S.A., and, of course, the Czech Republic, reports Czech-netz.com.

Switzerland Legalizing Up To 4 Marijuana Plants January 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 17, 2011 Global, Growing, Legislation

Cannabis Culture

The Swiss cannabis strain “Walliser Queen” with the Alps in the background. Starting January 1, cultivation of up to four marijuana plants will be legal in the Alpine nation.

Citizens of Switzerland will soon be allowed to grow up to four marijuana plants each at home, according to government officials. Four people sharing a house can grow up to 16 plants, but only if each person tends to their own crop.

The further relaxation of the Alpine nation’s already liberal cannabis laws has been agreed upon by four regions in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, reports Ian Sparks at the Daily Mail.

“We have agreed these new rules to prevent drugs tourism between regions where the rules are different, and to stop them buying it on the streets,” said a spokesman for the Neuchatel region of Switzerland.

Cannabis Song of the Day: ‘Open Your Eyes’ (The Vibratones)

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 15, 2011 Culture, Global, Products

Toke of the Town’s Song of the Day, the infectious, laid-back groove of “Open Your Eyes,” comes from Finland via talented pro-cannabis rock band The Vibratones.

”We really feel strongly for the song and the message,” the group’s drummer, Niklas Finnäs, told Toke of the Town on Tuesday. “The cannabis culture in Finland is not as open as in many English speaking countries. It’s not really socially accepted, and that’s mostly due to fear and a lack of knowledge.”

Ban On Tourists In Dutch Cannabis Cafes To Begin Jan. 1

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Global, News

Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Foreign visitors will be banned from the “coffee shops” which sell cannabis in southern Netherlands starting January 1, supposedly to combat “anti-social behavior” among tourists. (So when do the tourists get banned from bars?) The ban won’t hit Amsterdam, however, until a year later, in 2013.

The Dutch Justice Ministry announced the ban was going forward after a consultation period, despite opposition from some MPs who called the move “tourism suicide, reports Travelmail Reporter at the Daily Mail.

Licensed coffee shops will be considered private clubs under the new rules. Their maximum of 2,000 members will be limited to Dutch residents 18 and older who carry a so-called “dope card.”

High IQ Linked To Drug Use: Decades-Long British Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 14, 2011 Global, News

Zazzle

It’s the smart thing to do.

The next time some buzzkill tries to hit you with the old drooling stoner stereotype, tell ’em about a new British study that finds children with high IQs are more likely to use drugs as adults than people who score low on IQ tests as children.

The data come from the 1970 British Cohort Study, which has been following thousands of people over decades, reports Jennifer Bixler at CNN. The children’s IQ scores were taken at ages 5, 10 and 16. The study also asked about drug use, among other questions.

When the participants turned 30, they were asked if they had used drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin in the past year.

The study found that men with high childhood IQs were up to twice as likely to use illegal drugs than their lower-IQ former classmates. The difference was even more pronounced in girls, where those with high IQs were up top three times more likely to use drugs as adults.

Bolivia’s President Says U.S. DEA Agents Not Welcome Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 9, 2011 Global, News

Bob Strong/Reuters

Bolivian President Evo Morales: “They repressed us in Bolivia. That has ended.”

The president and vice president of Bolivia both said this week that American drug agents will not be returning to their country, despite the newly announced normalization of diplomatic relations with the United States.

Bolivian President Evo Morales said on Tuesday during a regional summit in Bogota, the Colombian capital, that it is a question of “dignity and sovereignty,” reports Vivian Sequera at the Huffington Post.

U.S. Secretly Sends DEA Commandos Across Latin America

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 7, 2011 Global, News

Chronic Candy

The United States has been secretly deploying Drug Enforcement Administration commando squads across Latin America and the Caribbean in recent years, The New York Times revealed on Monday. The five commando units have reportedly been used in Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Belize.

The DEA commando program began under President George W. Bush, supposedly as part of the “war on terror,” and has been continued under the Obama Administration. But according to the New York Times article by Charlie Savage, the Administration has expanded the operations “far beyond the war zone.”

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