A group of 22 medical experts convened by Johns Hopkins University and The Lancet have called this week for the decriminalization of all nonviolent drug use and possession. Citing a growing scientific consensus on the failures of the global war on drugs, the experts further encourage countries and U.S. states to "move gradually toward regulated drug markets and apply the scientific method to their assessment."
In April of this year, U.N. member states will meet at for the first U.N. General Assembly Special Session on Drugs since 1998. At the last meeting the international community committed to achieving a “drug free world.” This time it can move into the post “war on drugs” era.
Wearing a straw hat, a polo shirt and jeans, Jorge slices the bulbs with a razor blade, releasing a sticky paste -- the raw material of a growing heroin epidemic feeding addicts in the United States and fueling violence in Mexico.
Mexican police arrested up to 24 members of the Sinaloa drug cartel in a joint operation with the United States that also netted a cache of heavy weaponry and drugs, officials said Sunday.
The killing took place on Wednesday in a village near the Amazon city of Iquitos during a shamanic ceremony for tourists that included drinking the hallucinogenic tea that is embraced by advocates as a spirit cure.
The supposed teachings of plants like ayahuasca, datura and tobacco attract travelers from all over the world. Some try to heal diseases, others try to find answers. In the past couple of years, dozens of retreats have been built near Iquitos to accommodate these practices.
PITAL DE SAN CARLOS, Alajuela – A yucca packing company in the northern Costa Rican community of La Tabla de Pital de San Carlos and a pineapple processor in Chilamate de Sarapiquí were fronts for the Italian mafia to traffic cocaine to the United States and Europe, Costa Rican authorities announced Wednesday following several morning raids.
