Public Health Ministry officials reported that they have found a total of 69 websites, including social media profiles and online pharmacies, that offer to deliver medication and other health products that don't comply with Costa Rica’s sanitary regulations.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition's branch in Costa Rica, its first in Central America, will focus on educating the public through public speaking and providing a law enforcement perspective to drug policymakers. “We law enforcement have been the tip of the spear for 50 years, and we have failed in our mission to reduce crime, death, disease and drug use," said LEAP co-founder Howard Wooldridge.
"Anti-drug policies in Central America have not had their desired effect,” Public Security Minister Celso Gamboa said. "I can say that after 20 years experience fighting drug trafficking, ... the cases where white collar criminals are caught, those who never touch the drugs, these cases are scarce.”
The president has previously expressed his desire to see the marijuana -- the most commonly used illegal drug in Costa Rica -- further decriminalized and has expressed frustrations with the war on drugs and its impact on Central America.
Citizen Action Party lawmaker Marvin Atencio wants to make Costa Rica the first country in Central America to legalize medical marijuana and generate millions of dollars for public institutions along the way.
A man with the last name Whytworth and a woman with the last name Olszewski, both U.S. citizens, were arrested Saturday for allegedly running a hydroponic marijuana growing operation on a farm in Santa Cruz, in the northwestern province of Guanacaste.
A study by the Adolescents Clinic at the National Children's Hospital conducted among 3,373 high school students in the Greater Metropolitan Area indicates that the number of marijuana users increased from 1 percent in 1991 to 10 percent in 2006 and to 15 percent last year, reported the Social Security System, or Caja.
Lawmakers on Monday evening voted to extend permission to the U.S. Coast Guard to participate in joint drug patrols in Costa Rican waters and to dock in the country's ports.
