DEC nabs German tour guide over cannabis
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Thu 14 Nov. 2013, 14:00 CAT
COMMENT - Legalize it. What an assault on civil liberties, and what a waste of police time. - MrK
THE Drug Enforcement Commission has arrested a 42 year-old German tour guide for trafficking in cannabis.
DEC public relations officer Theresa Katongo stated on Tuesday that Albert M. Helmut, a German Tour Guide, had been arrested for trafficking in 200 grammes of cannabis concealed in a clear lunch box. Katongo stated that the suspect was apprehended at a weigh bridge in Livingstone.
In another development, Katongo stated that the commission has also arrested a 16-year-old pupil of Shishibeti village of Nchelenge in Luapula Province for being in possession of 0.02 grammes of cannabis.
She stated that others arrested in Luapula included Chama Musonda, 25, a carpenter of Mutuna village in Kawambwa for trafficking in 1.32 kilogrammes of cannabis, Douglas Chola, 22, a fisherman of Shinjoni village in Nchelenge for trafficking in 1.2 kilogrammes of cannabis and Francis Bwalya, 19, of Kawambwa for trafficking in 1.032 kilogrammes of loose cannabis.
And Katongo stated that on the Copperbelt, the commission had arrested Mike Zulu, 32, of Chifubu, Ndola, for trafficking in 20 tablets of diazepam and 7.4 mls of liquid diazepam.
She stated all suspects would appear in court soon.
Labels: CANNABIS, TOURISM
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Chipata man gets 4 months over marijuana
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Wed 17 July 2013, 14:00 CAT
COMMENT - No one should spend one day in jail for the possession of hemp. The so-called 'war on drugs' bloats the legal system with non-violent offenders, and takes away prison places for violent offenders, making society more violent. And most of all - most of the so-called illegal drugs can be had over the counter. The world's bigges opium dealer is not Khun Sa in the Iron Triangle, but Glaxo Wellcome in Tasmania. That is where all the legal opium comes from.
I quote from the GlaxoSmithKline website: "1999: With over 700 growers and more than 10,000ha under cultivation, Glaxo Wellcome is firmly committed to consolidating and expanding its role in the world market." End the drug war, end the hypocrisy and the mass incarceration of non-violent offenders. - MrK
THE Chipata Magistrates' Court on Monday sentenced a Chipata resident to four months imprisonment with hard labour for trafficking in psychotropic substances.
Before resident magistrate Sanford Ngobola was Whyson Mphande who was convicted after the prosecution called two witnesses.
Mphande was arrested by Drug Enforcement Commission officers on May 15, 2013 after they found 18 grammes of marijuana in his yard.
According to court records, after a tip off, DEC officers went to search Mphande's house but could not find the marijuana.
The officers only found the 18 grammes of the marijuana when they extended the search to the outside yard.
Mphande however told the court that he was not the owner of the marijuana and that he suspected foul play.
The convict could not call any witness other than himself when he was put on his defence.
In mitigation, Mphande said he was a married man with four children.
He said his house was burnt and that he had borrowed money to buy maize to assist his family.
But magistrate Ngobola said the case that Mphande committed was a serious one and that the sentence could go up to 25 years.
He said the four months sentence was with effect of the day of arrest.
Labels: CANNABIS, CHIPATA
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America’s Secret Deal with Mexican Drug Cartels
By Tom Burghardt
Global Research, September 03, 2012
In a story which should have made front page headlines, Narco News investigative journalist Bill Conroy revealed that “A high-ranking Sinaloa narco-trafficking organization member’s claim that US officials have struck a deal with the leadership of the Mexican ‘cartel’ appears to be corroborated in large part by the statements of a Mexican diplomat in email correspondence made public recently by the nonprofit media group WikiLeaks.”
A series of some five million emails, The Global Intelligence Files, were obtained by the secret-spilling organization as a result of last year’s hack by Anonymous of the Texas-based “global intelligence” firm Stratfor.
Bad tradecraft aside, the Stratfor dump offer readers insight into a shadowy world where information is sold to the highest bidder through a “a global network of informants who are paid via Swiss banks accounts and pre-paid credit cards. Stratfor has a mix of covert and overt informants, which includes government employees, embassy staff and journalists around the world.”
One of those informants was a Mexican intelligence officer with the Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional, or CISEN, Mexico’s equivalent to the CIA. Dubbed “MX1″ by Stratfor, he operates under diplomatic cover at the Mexican consulate in Phoenix, Arizona after a similar posting at the consulate in El Paso, Texas.
His cover was blown by the intelligence grifters when they identified him in their correspondence as Fernando de la Mora, described by Stratfor as “being molded to be the Mexican ‘tip of the spear’ in the U.S.”
In an earlier Narco News story, Conroy revealed that “US soldiers are operating inside Mexico as part of the drug war and the Mexican government provided critical intelligence to US agents in the now-discredited Fast and Furious gun-running operation,” the Mexican diplomat claimed in email correspondence.
Those emails disclosed “details of a secret meeting between US and Mexican officials held in 2010 at Fort Bliss, a US Army installation located near El Paso, Texas. The meeting was part of an effort to create better communications between US undercover operatives in Mexico and the Mexican federal police, the Mexican diplomat reveals.”
“However,” Conroy wrote, “the diplomat expresses concern that the Fort Bliss meeting was infiltrated by the ‘cartels,’ whom he contends have ‘penetrated both US and Mexican law enforcement’.”
Such misgivings are thoroughly justified given the fact, as Antifascist Calling reported last spring, that the Mexican government had arrested three high-ranking Army generals over their links to narcotrafficking organizations.
In Conroy’s latest piece the journalist disclosed that the “Mexican diplomat’s assessment of the US and Mexican strategy in the war on drugs, as revealed by the email trail, paints a picture of a ‘simulated war’ in which the Mexican and US governments are willing to show favor to a dominant narco-trafficking organization in order to minimize the violence and business disruption in the major drug plazas, or markets.”
A “simulated war”? Where have we heard that before? Like the bogus “War on Terror” which arms and unleashes throat-slitting terrorists from the CIA’s favorite all-purpose zombie army of “Islamist extremists,” Al Qaeda, similarly, America’s fraudulent “War on Drugs” has been a splendid means of managing the global drug trade in the interest of securing geopolitical advantage over their rivals.
That major financial powerhouses in Europe and the U.S. (can you say Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, HSBC, ING and Wachovia) have been accused of reaping the lions’ share of profits derived from the grim trade, now a veritable Narco-Industrial Complex, the public continues to be regaled with tales that this ersatz war is being “won.”
While the Mexican body count continues to rise (nearly 120,000 dead since 2006 according to the latest estimates published by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía, or INEGI, as reported by the Paris daily Le Monde in a recent editorial) the United States is escalating its not-so-covert military involvement in Mexico and putting proverbial boots on the ground as part of the $1.6 billion U.S.-financed Mérida Initiative.
But have such “initiatives” (in actuality, taxpayer-funded boondoggles for giant military contractors), turned the corner in the drug war? Not if estimates published the United Nations are accurate.
According to the 2011 World Drug Report, published by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC): “US authorities have estimated for the last couple of years that some 90% of the cocaine consumed in North America comes from Colombia, supplemented by some cocaine from Peru and limited amounts from the Plurinational State of Bolivia. For the year 2009, results of the US Cocaine Signature Program, based on an analysis of approximately 3,000 cocaine HCl samples, revealed that 95.5% originated in Colombia (down from 99% in 2002) and 1.7% in Peru; for the rest (2.8%), the origin could not be determined. The trafficking of cocaine into the United States is nowadays largely controlled by various Mexican drug cartels, while until the mid-1990s, large Colombian cartels dominated these operations.”
Despite more than $8 billion lavished on programs such as Plan Colombia, and despite evidence that leading Colombian politicians, including former President Álvaro Uribe and his entourage had documented links to major drug trafficking organizations that go back decades, the myth persists that pouring money into the drug war sinkhole will somehow turn the tide.
But drug seizures by U.S. agencies only partially tell the tale.
As UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov pointed out in the introduction to the agency’s 2011 report, Estimating Illicit Financial Flows Resulting from Drug Trafficking and Other Transnational Crimes, “all criminal proceeds are likely to have amounted to some 3.6 per cent of GDP (2.3-5.5 per cent) or around US$2.1 trillion in 2009.”
UNODC analysts disclosed that illicit money flows related to “transnational organized crime, represent the equivalent of some 1.5 percent of global GDP, 70 percent of which would have been available for laundering through the financial system. The largest income for transnational organized crime seems to come from illicit drugs, accounting for a fifth of all crime proceeds.”
“If only flows related to drug trafficking and other transnational organized crime activities were considered,” UNODC asserted, “related proceeds would have been equivalent to around US$650 billion per year in the first decade of the new millennium, equivalent to 1.5% of global GDP or US$870 billion in 2009 assuming that the proportions remained unchanged. The funds available for laundering through the financial system would have been equivalent to some 1% of global GDP or US$580 billion in 2009.”
“The results,” according to UNODC, “also suggest that the ‘interception rate’ for anti-money-laundering efforts at the global level remains low. Globally, it appears that much less than 1% (probably around 0.2%) of the proceeds of crime laundered via the financial system are seized and frozen.”
Commenting on the nexus between global drug mafias and our capitalist overlords, former UNODC director Antonio Maria Costa told The Observer in 2009, “that the proceeds of organised crime were ‘the only liquid investment capital’ available to some banks on the brink of collapse last year. He said that a majority of the $352bn (£216bn) of drugs profits was absorbed into the economic system as a result.”
Would there be an incentive then, for U.S. officials to dismantle a global business that benefits their real constituents, the blood-sucking gangsters at the apex of the capitalist financial pyramid? Hardly.
Nor would there be any incentive for American drug warriors to target organizations that inflate the balance sheets of the big banks. Wouldn’t they be more likely then, given the enormous flows of illicit cash flooding the system, to negotiate an “arrangement” with the biggest players, particularly the Sinaloa Cartel run by fugitive billionaire Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán?
In fact, as Narco News disclosed last December, a “quid-pro-quo arrangement is precisely what indicted narco-trafficker Jesus Vicente Zambada Niebla, who is slated to stand trial in Chicago this fall, alleges was agreed to by the US government and the leaders of the Sinaloa ‘Cartel’–the dominant narco-trafficking organization in Mexico. The US government, however, denies that any such arrangement exists.”
Narco News reported that according to “Zambada Niebla, he and the rest of the Sinaloa leadership, through the US informant Loya Castro, negotiated an immunity deal with the US government in which they were guaranteed protection from prosecution in exchange for providing US law enforcers and intelligence agencies with information that could be used to compromise rival Mexican cartels and their operations.”
In court pleadings, Zambada Niebla’s attorneys argued that “the United States government considered the arrangements with the Sinaloa Cartel an acceptable price to pay, because the principal objective was the destruction and dismantling of rival cartels by using the assistance of the Sinaloa Cartel–without regard for the fact that tons of illicit drugs continued to be smuggled into Chicago and other parts of the United States and consumption continued virtually unabated.”
Those assertions seem to be borne out by emails released by WikiLeaks. Conroy disclosed: “In a Stratfor email dated April 19, 2010, MX1 lays out the Mexican government’s negotiating, or ‘signaling,’ strategy with respect to the major narco-trafficking organizations as follows:
The Mexican strategy is not to negotiate directly.
In any event, “negotiations” would take place as follows:
Assuming a non-disputed plaza [a major drug market, such as Ciudad Juarez]:
• [If] they [a big narco-trafficking group] bring [in] some drugs, transport some drugs, [and] they are discrete, they don’t bother anyone, [then] no one gets hurt;
• [And the] government turns the other way.
• [If] they [the narco-traffickers] kill someone or do something violent, [then the] government responds by taking down [the] drug network or making arrests.
(Now, assuming a disputed plaza:)
• [A narco-trafficking] group comes [into a plaza], [then the] government waits to see how dominant cartel responds.
• If [the] dominant cartel fights them [the new narco-trafficking group], [then the] government takes them down.
• If [the] dominant cartel is allied [with the new group], no problem.
• If [a new] group comes in and start[s] committing violence, they get taken down: first by the government letting the dominant cartel do their thing, then [by] punishing both cartels.
“MX1,” Narco News revealed, “then goes on to describe what he interprets as the US strategy in negotiating with the major narco-trafficking players in Ciudad Juarez–a major Mexican narco-trafficking ‘plaza’ located across the border from El Paso, Texas:”
… This is how “negotiations” take place with cartels, through signals. There are no meetings, etc. …
So, the MX [Mexican] strategy is not to negotiate. However, I think the US [recently] sent a signal that could be construed as follows:
“To the VCF [the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes] and Sinaloa cartels: Thank you for providing our market with drugs over the years. We are now concerned about your perpetration of violence, and would like to see you stop that. In this regard, please know that Sinaloa is bigger and better than [the] VCF. Also note that CDJ [Juarez] is very important to us, as is the whole border. In this light, please talk amongst yourselves and lets all get back to business. Again, we recognize that Sinaloa is bigger and better, so either VCF gets in line or we will mess you up.”
I don’t know what the US strategy is, but I can tell you that if the message was understood by Sinaloa and VCF as I described above, the Mexican government would not be opposed at all.
In sum, I have a gut feeling that the US agencies tried to send a signal telling the cartels to negotiate themselves. They unilaterally declared a winner [the Sinaloa Cartel], and this is unprecedented, and deserves analysis. If there was no strategy behind this, and it was simply a leaked report, then I will be interested to see how it plays out in the coming months.
Keep in mind that this “analysis” is from a senior CISEN officer describing U.S. “strategy” for managing, not putting a stop to the flood of narcotics crossing the border.
“In a separate Stratfor email dated April 15, 2010,” Conroy wrote, “MX1′s views on the US strategy with respect to the drug organizations in Juarez, essentially favoring the Sinaloa ‘Cartel,’ is referenced yet again:”
We believe that when the US made an announcement that was corroborated by several federal spokespersons simultaneously (that Sinaloa controlled CDJ [Juarez]), it was a message that the DEA wanted to send to Sinaloa. The message was that the US recognized Sinaloa’s dominance in the area [Juarez], although it was not absolute. It was meant to be read by the cartels as a sort of ultimatum: negotiate and put your house in order once and for all.
One dissenting analyst thinks that the message is the opposite, telling Sinaloa to take what it had and to leave what remains of VCF. Regardless, the reports are saying that the US message to the cartels was to negotiate and stop the violence. It says that the US has never before pronounced that a cartel controls a particular plaza, so it is an unusual event.
“Unusual” perhaps, but not surprising given the secret state’s documented history of close collaboration with major drug trafficking networks that serve as unofficial, though highly-effective instruments, for advancing U.S. imperial strategies.
In a recent piece published by Global Research, analyst Peter Dale Scott observed that America’s two “self-generating wars” on “terror” and “drugs” have “in effect become one.”
“By launching a War on Drugs in Colombia and Mexico,” Scott wrote, “America has contributed to a parastate of organized terror in Colombia (the so-called AUC, United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia) and an even bloodier reign of terror in Mexico (with 50,000 killed in the last six years).”
And by “launching a War on Terror in Afghanistan in 2001, America has contributed to a doubling of opium production there, making Afghanistan now the source of 90 percent of the world’s heroin and most of the world’s hashish.”
“Americans should be aware of the overall pattern that drug production repeatedly rises where America intervenes militarily–Southeast Asia in the 1950s and 60s, Colombia and Afghanistan since then,” Scott noted. “(Opium cultivation also increased in Iraq after the 2003 US invasion.) And the opposite is also true: where America ceases to intervene militarily, notably in Southeast Asia since the 1970s, drug production declines.”
“Both of America’s self-generating wars are lucrative to the private interests that lobby for their continuance,” Scott averred. “At the same time, both of these self-generating wars contribute to increasing insecurity and destabilization in America and in the world.”
In this light, Narco News revelations make perfect sense. As the global financial crisis deepens, brought on in no small part by the massive frauds perpetrated by leading capitalist institutions, they have inflated their balance sheets with a veritable tsunami of hot cash generated by the Narco-Industrial Complex.
In turn, the American secret state, working to recapitalize financial markets beset by a seemingly insolvable liquidity crisis resulting from massive bank frauds, turn a blind eye as these same institutions become major centers of organized crime, monopoly enterprises which could not survive without the trillions of dollars of illicit funds parked in offshore accounts.
Tom Burghardt is a researcher and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition to publishing in Covert Action Quarterly and Global Research, an independent research and media group of writers, scholars, journalists and activists based in Montreal, he is a Contributing Editor with Cyrano’s Journal Today. His articles can be read on Dissident Voice, Pacific Free Press, Uncommon Thought Journal, and the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. He is the editor of Police State America: U.S. Military “Civil Disturbance” Planning, distributed by AK Press and has contributed to the new book from Global Research, The Global Economic Crisis: The Great Depression of the XXI Century.
Labels: CANNABIS, DRUGS, MEXICO
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Currents | Q&A
On the Road to the Cannabis Cup
By STEVEN KURUTZ
Published: April 18, 2012
It may not be celebrated like roses or orchids, but marijuana is a flowering plant all the same, with a community of growers dedicated to its propagation (and boosting THC content). Each November, the best of them gather in Amsterdam for the High Times Cannabis Cup, a kind of taste-off for the stoner set. The author Mark Haskell Smith holds a bud of Jack Herer marijuana.
“It’s a couple of hundred strains of the world’s best marijuana,” said Mark Haskell Smith, whose new book, “Heart of Dankness,” published by Broadway Books, delves into the subculture of high-end pot cultivation.
Mr. Smith visited hippie growers in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, large-scale greenhouses in the Netherlands and medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. As someone who writes that he grew up smoking “Kansas dirt weed,” Mr. Smith finds today’s lab-refined strains, with names like Habañero Haze and Kosher Kush, to be a mind-bending botanical advancement. A Californian, Mr. Smith obtained a doctor’s recommendation to smoke pot legally under the state’s medical marijuana law, even testing out his green thumb. “I actually grew two plants in my driveway in these microfiber pots,” he said. “One got attacked by caterpillars, but the other turned out pretty good.”
He recently discussed more accomplished pot growers and parsed the difference between sativas and indicas.
Could an amateur backyard grower win the Cannabis Cup?
It would be hard to be competitive. People are going to the hills of northern India to find land-raised pure-genetic strains they can take back to Holland. They do it professionally and at a very high level. But we are talking about flowers, so every now and then you could find some rare strain that’s really amazing.
Do top growers generally have degrees in botany or biology, or are they self-taught?
It’s almost all self-taught and from experience. But then you’ll be in some guy’s pickup and see a botany textbook from the University of California, Davis. They’re always looking for an edge.
What unites the best growers is they are all botanical connoisseurs. The attention to detail is amazing. They can walk into a roomful of plants, find one, smell its bloom and know that it’s special.
Does that botanical connoisseurship extend to, say, a rose garden or a vegetable patch?
The guys I met in the Sierras also grow vegetables. When they find something they like, they go all-in. One of the growers I write about, Crockett, is as fanatical about smoked BBQ ribs as he is about pot.
You probably encountered some offbeat methods among growers.
There’s a guy in Holland named Soma who believes that if you’re growing to make money, you’ll send money vibes into the plant and the plant won’t thrive.
My favorite was vegan cannabis. Just like vineyards, the best growers go for biodynamic organic soil. They use a lot of earthworm castings. Now there are people who won’t use anything that came from an animal. They’re using only other plant materials like kelp to fertilize.
Could you tell the difference?
No. Of course not.
Could you give a quick 101 on the cannabis plant?
It’s an annual. It’s super hearty: it can grow in equatorial jungles and in the mountains. I wouldn’t plant it for an ornamental garden — they get very big. But they are kind of pretty, and the thing that’s amazing about fresh blooming cannabis is they smell great. There are citrus notes and mint notes, and they kind of smell like a ripe pineapple sometimes.
Is today’s pot stronger than the stuff smoked at Woodstock?
It’s not considerably stronger. When you talk to old-timers, they’ll tell you they were smoking sativas from Mexico, which is the pot that makes you energetic and loquacious. But a lot of growers switched to indicas, which are easier to grow. That’s the kind that makes you sit on the couch and eat a bunch of chips. It’s the difference in being high and being stoned.
What was it like to tour an industrial growing operation in Holland?
My impression was that it would be some secret lair, but it’s just a giant greenhouse. It’s like visiting a winery: “Oh, that’s how they make it.” It’s nice to see it out in the open. Even more fun was to go to a coffee shop in Amsterdam and get a menu and talk to a waiter. It made me wish things were like that in America.
Aren’t the dispensaries here creating a pot renaissance?
Absolutely. Because the dispensaries are looking for varieties of flavors and effects, there’s a market for growers to experiment. On the other hand, you could have a federal agent show up at your door and put you in jail for 10 years for gardening.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 19, 2012, on page D2 of the New York edition with the headline: On the Road to the Cannabis Cup.
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Labels: CANNABIS
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COMMENT - Legalize it, and set all the non-violent marijuana prisoners free.
Zambian arrested in Malawi with 17 bags of Indian hemp
By Favour Mazinga, Nyasa Times
August 7, 2012
Malawi Police have arrested 36 years old Zambian Febe Moyo for being found in possession of 17 bags of narcotic drugs suspected to be Indian Hemp. The bags containing the cannabis were weighing 50kgs each. Moyo comes from Chipembe village in the area of traditional authority Mpezeni, Chipata district in Zambia.
Mzimba police spokesperson Gift Nyirongo told Nyasa Times that on 1st August, detectives from Champhira police post received a tip from a driver who was hired by the suspect to ferry the illicit drug to Lundazi, Zambia.
The driver (name withheld) told police that he was hired by the suspect to transport Indian hemp to Lundazi and that they would set off at mid night.
Cops inspecting bags of impounded cannabis
”And working on the tip, the police laid in ambush and at around mid night they arrested the suspect and seized 17 bags of Chamba weighing 50kgs each,” said Nyirongo.
The police spokesperson said Moyo has since been charged with the offence of being found in possession of Cannabis Sativa contrary to regulation 4(a) as read with section 19(1) of the dangerous drug act.
He will appear in court soon to answer the charges.
In June this year, Malawi police also arrested a Zambian woman Hildah Phiri for being found in possession of 6 bags of Chamba each weighing 90kgs which was also about to be ferried to Lundazi, Zambia.
The woman is remanded at Mzimba Prison.
Cases of Chamba are rampant in Mzimba especially around Mgoza and Khosolo areas where the illicit drug is extensively cultivated.
Meanwhile, police in Mzimba are thankful to members of the general public for tipping them on various criminal activities happening which has led to the bust up of habitual criminals.
Labels: CANNABIS
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COMMENT - Cannabis is hemp. Legalize it.
Malawi nabs Zambian with cannabis
By Staff Reporter
Wed 06 June 2012, 13:23 CAT
A 56-year-old Zambian national has been arrested and charged in Malawi with possession of cannabis.
The woman, identified as Hildah Phiri of Chanzonga Village in Chief Magodi's area in Lundazi District, was picked up by police with three Malawian nationals after being allegedly found with six 90-kilogramme bags of cannabis in Mzimba.
Phiri is said to have hired a vehicle registration number KU 1929 to ferry the drugs from Mgozga into Lundazi.
However, the police were tipped off by members of the public and they impounded the vehicle at a roadblock in Luhili area in Mzimba.
Phiri has been remanded in custody and will appear in court soon.
Meanwhile, the Zambia High Commission in Malawi has advised Zambians to desist from engaging in illicit business.
Zambia's Acting High Commissioner to Malawi, Henry Ngilazi said Zambians should be examples of good citizens and avoid getting involved in illegal activities just to make quick money.
Labels: CANNABIS, MALAWI
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COMMENT - Arresting people because they get high on a substance that the state does not approve of is a violation of their civil rights. There is not a single 'drug free' nation on the planet - in fact there is no drug free prison on this planet, which shows you the measures that can be taken against drugs and still fail. The DEC will never make Zambia or any country a drug free nation.
DEC probes drug abuse at Bob Marley memorial concert
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Wed 23 May 2012, 13:38 CAT
THE Drug Enforcement Commission says it does not give permission to anyone to abuse or traffic in illicit drugs and neither does it issue permits to anyone to hold concerts or events where drugs can be used.
Commenting on the abuse of drugs at the Bob Marley Memorial Concert held in Lusaka over a week ago, DEC public relations officer Samuel Silomba stated yesterday that those who were involved in abusing and trafficking in illicit drugs at the Marley Memorial concert did so with the full knowledge that they were breaking the law.
Silomba stated that the commission would endeavour to bring anyone abusing or trafficking in illicit drugs to book.
"The Commission has, therefore, instituted investigations into what transpired at the Bob Marley concert. The commission will also engage relevant authorities including other law enforcement agencies in seeing how these Bob Marley concerts, which have become a breeding ground for drug traffickers and abusers, can be halted," he stated.
Silomba stated that it was the commission's desire that communities and members of the public at large participate in making Zambia a drug-free nation.
Labels: CANNABIS, DEC
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Metaphysics' dream of a little Amsterdam in Harare
23/03/2011 00:00:00
by Henry Makiwa
I CAUGHT up with one of Africa’s hip hop giants, Metaphysics, a couple of weeks ago as he took time off his European tour with his band Sohne Mannheims. The previous night, I had watched Meta, a.k.a Herbert Schwamborn, bring the house down with a 5-mic performance at a jam-packed Koko’s in London’s Camden Town.
Very much a trailblazing and defining force of Zimbabwean hip hop, Meta has in recent times focused his energies on championing neglected issues and playing an ambassadorial role for his beloved homeland.
Last year, the former A Peace of Ebony frontman sparked an online petition called the Zimbabwe Diamond Trust, to push for the acceptance of Zimbabwe to trade its diamond minerals on the world market.
The country’s new find of wealth in precious stones has been a cause of much diplomatic friction between Zimbabwe and the West following allegations that they were "blood diamonds". But pressure and support from other African and diamond exporting countries in the developing world, has seen a gradual shift from this stance, with Zimbabwe being allowed to make some sales since the turn of the year.
Another interesting occurrence happened. Ahead of elections of the world diamond trade regulating body, Kimberley Process (KP), the United States dispatched an envoy to Harare to lobby for support in the poll. This was in spite of the political sanctions Washington has slapped on Zimbabwe for nearly a decade and the general diplomatic hostility between the two countries.
Zimbabwean officials, as expected, made it clear to the visiting US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Susan Page that the US could not expect Harare's backing for as long as Washington sabotaged the country's diamond industry.
As I sat with Meta reading the news piece on New Zimbabwe.com, sampling his latest solo joint Give Me Zimbabwe, he couldn’t hide feelings of vindication of his petition campaign and how justified his efforts were.
“It’s very cheeky of the Americans to pull off such a move while they are at the forefront of prohibiting diamonds from Zimbabwe from KP certification and international trade. They’ve had it coming,” he quips.
Meta also feels justified about his other campaign: the legalisation of marijuana, which has stirred a storm in Zimbabwe. If he had his way, downtown Harare would be a little Amsterdam.
On his last visit to Harare, the German-based rapper armed himself with an HD camera and filmed and produced the pro-marijuana documentary Rolling, Smoking. In it, Metaphysics gets to the core of the issue, conducting a vox pop on the streets about weed and gauging the public mood about legalising the drug.
Attention from the media was to follow, when he was interviewed by Harare’s popular tabloid, H-Metro. Then the unexpected happened when one of the country’s legislators from President Robert Mugabe’s Zanu PF party took the debate into parliament.
Uzumba MP Simbaneuta Mudarikwa reportedly drew prolonged laughter in the House of Assembly after suggesting marijuana should be grown legally in “remote areas” for medicinal purposes or for worldwide export to countries where the drug is legal.
In Zimbabwe, the negative publicity about weed has managed to demonise it to such an extent that there is barely anyone who vouches for it in public although many people use it.
Metaphysics reckons the tide is about to change and puts his case in the video I shot, directed and edited below.
Labels: CANNABIS, HIP-HOP
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Smoking cannabis a religious right, man tells court
14/03/2012 00:00:00
by Phyllis Mbanje
A RASTAFARIAN held on drug possession charges has told a court that smoking cannabis is part of his religion. Amos Mupfudza, through his lawyer, asked Harare magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini on Wednesday to refer his case to the Supreme Court.
Mupfudza, 39, was arrested by detectives acting on a tip-off in Greendale, Harare, on January 22. He had cannabis stashed in seven small plastic packets which investigators believe he intended to sell on the streets.
His lawyer, Tawanda Zhuwarara, of the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, told a Harare magistrate Mupfudza had been tortured while in police custody.
"My client will not receive a fair trial in this court and we ask that the case be referred to the Supreme Court because his arrest and subsequent torture in police custody were a violation of his constitutional rights,” Zhuwarara argued.
Zimbabwe’s Supreme Court made a landmark decision in 2009 when it halted the trial of human rights activist Jestina Mukoko, who had been charged with banditry, sabotage and terrorism after ruling that her illegal detention and torture by police was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Mupfudza, the lawyer added, would also ask the Supreme Court to recognise his use of cannabis as part of his Section 19 constitutional right to “freedom of thought and of religion... and freedom, whether alone or in community with others, and whether in public or in private, to manifest and propagate his religion or belief through worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
The magistrate will rule on the application for referral on Thursday.
Earlier this year, a dreadlocked four-year-old who had been barred from attending school was readmitted after his father appealed to the High Court.
Mbalenhle Dube was turned away from Masiyephambili Junior School in Bulawayo for breaking the school’s hair policy.
His father, Khumbulani Dube, argued that his family was Rastafarian, and dreadlocks were part of their religion.
High Court judge Martin Makonese granted the appeal, and the young boy returned to school.
Labels: CANNABIS, COURTS, POLICE BRUTALITY
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US$140 000 mbanje at accident scene
Saturday, 14 January 2012 00:00
Felex Share Herald Reporter
A VEHICLE carrying 714kg of Mbanje with a street value of US$140 000 overturned near Chivhu along the Harare-Masvingo highway early Wednesday morning, leading to the arrest of two suspects.
The dagga was stashed in 19 bags when the car overturned at around 3:40am. National traffic police spokesperson Inspector Tigere Chigome yesterday said details of the accident were still sketchy.
But, two people were arrested while an undisclosed number of accomplices fled.
Insp Chigome said the Nissan Elgrand, which the suspected drug peddlers were using, was travelling towards Masvingo when it had an accident at the I56km peg.
"The Nissan Elgrand was being driven by Admire Gutu and it is believed it had three or more passengers on board and the 19x90 bags of mbanje. The driver, Admire lost control of the vehicle and veered off the road to the left."
The vehicle overturned twice before landing and no one was killed.
"The driver and another accomplice were injured and police who attended the scene discovered the two together with the bags of mbanje," he said.
"After discovering the mbanje, police from the dog section were called in to trace the other accomplices who are suspected to have escaped.
"The number of people who were in the car is not yet clear and police are continuing with investigations."
Insp Chigome said the injured men, who were hospitalised under police guard, were assisting with investigations.
Their condition could not be ascertained by late yesterday.
The car and the contraband were impounded and are at Chivhu Police Station.
Cases of people dealing in illicit drugs are on the increase.
Recently, a Malawian was arrested near Nyamapanda Border Post after trying to smuggle over 700kg of mbanje into Zimbabwe.
Two other men were arrested in Chivhu after they were found in possession of 9kg of mbanje.
Police in Beitbridge last year discovered a two-hectare mbanje plantation and arrested two people, including a village head.
In 2006, police arrested 29 suspects, most of them women aged above 50 years, for cultivating mbanje on more than three hectares of land along Umzingwane River in Matabeleland South.
Labels: CANNABIS
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COMMENT - Free the Malawi Gold.
ACB officer arrested for cultivating Indian Hemp
By Catherine Chimzimu, Nyasa Times
January 12, 2012
Police in Mzuzu made a lunch hour arrest of Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Investigations Officer for allegedly cultivating Indian Hemp at his Katoto yard.
Mzuzu Police Spokesperson Edward Longwe confirmed the arrest of Kondwani Zulu, 35, of Kachilenga Village, Traditional Authority Mzukuzuku in Mzimba district who is currently in Police custody pending investigations.
Longwe said Zulu was arrested after Police discovered eight plants in a garden at his yard.
Zulu: Arrested
“Police had gone to crime scene in Katoto Township. Unfortunately the crime scene turned to be a place next to Zulu’s house. Afterdoing their job. Our CID officers decided to take a short cut that passes through his yard.
“That is when they discovered eight well tendered plants. They appeared pruned suggesting that harvesting did take place,” the Police spokeman said.
Longwe said the CID then called Zulu, who was at the office, to come home.
“They arrested him at home and took him to Police,” he said.
He has been charged with an offence of cultivating Indian hemp which is contrary to regulation 4 of the Dangerous Drugs Regulations.
Malawi Police Service faces a lot of challenges which expose the country to continued drug production and trafficking.
Legalise?
In 2000, Deputy Minister of Agriculture Joe Manduwa surprised MPs in the august House when championed Indian hemp's legalisation.
Manduwa argued that Malawi stood to gain a great deal from cultivating the plant, which he said was a much-sought-after commodity on the world market and could be a valuable alternative to tobacco.
A recent World Bank study says Malawi's cannabis has a street value of $8.5 million (K1.4 billion) about 0.2 percent of the country's GDP.
Since Malawi farmers receive only about a fifth of the price for which its being sold on foreign consumer markets, the positive effect of the production of cannabis on the overall Malawi economy is negligible, says the Bank in a study done in last year.
Labels: CANNABIS, MZUZU
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Smoke clears over pot: no harm to lungs
11/01/2012 00:00:00
by AP
SMOKING a joint once a week or a bit more apparently doesn't harm the lungs, suggests a 20-year study that bolsters evidence that marijuana doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does.
The results, from one of the largest and longest studies on the health effects of marijuana, are hazier for heavy users - those who smoke two or more joints daily for several years. The data suggest that using marijuana that often
might cause a decline in lung function, but there
weren't enough heavy users among the 5,000 young adults in the study to draw firm conclusions.
Smoking marijuana as often as one joint daily for seven years, or one joint weekly for 20 years was not linked with worse lung function. Still, the authors recommended "caution and moderation when marijuana use is considered."
Marijuana is an illegal drug in most countries around the world, including Zimbabwe. Some countries, including individual states in the United States of America, allow its use for medical purposes.
The study by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham was released Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The findings echo results in some smaller studies that showed while marijuana contains some of the same toxic chemicals as tobacco, it does not carry the same risks for lung disease.
It's not clear why that is so, but it's possible that the main active ingredient in marijuana, a chemical known as THC, makes the difference. THC causes the "high" that users feel. It also helps fight inflammation and may counteract the effects of more irritating chemicals in the drug, said Dr. Donald Tashkin, a marijuana researcher and an emeritus professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. Tashkin was not involved in the new study.
Study co-author Dr. Stefan Kertesz said there are other aspects of marijuana that may help explain the results.
Unlike cigarette smokers, marijuana users tend to breathe in deeply when they inhale a joint, which some researchers think might strengthen lung tissue. But the common lung function tests used in the study require the same kind of deep breathing that marijuana smokers are used to, so their good test results might partly reflect lots of practice, said Kertesz, a drug abuse researcher and preventive medicine specialist at the Alabama University.
The study authors analysed data from participants in a 20-year federally funded health study in young adults that began in 1985. Their analysis was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
The study randomly enrolled 5,115 men and women aged 18 through 30 in four cities: Birmingham, Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and Minneapolis. Roughly equal numbers of blacks and whites took part, but no other minorities. Participants were periodically asked about recent marijuana or cigarette use and had several lung function tests during the study.
Overall, about 37 percent reported at least occasional marijuana use, and most users also reported having smoked cigarettes; 17 percent of participants said they'd smoked cigarettes but not marijuana. Those results are similar to national estimates.
On average, cigarette users smoked about 9 cigarettes daily, while average marijuana use was only a joint or two a few times a month - typical for U.S. marijuana users, Kertesz said.
The authors calculated the effects of tobacco and marijuana separately, both in people who used only one or the other, and in people who used both. They also considered other factors that could influence lung function, including air pollution in cities studied.
The analyses showed pot didn't appear to harm lung function, but cigarettes did. Cigarette smokers' test scores worsened steadily during the study. Smoking marijuana as often as one joint daily for seven years, or one joint weekly for 20 years was not linked with worse scores. Very few study participants smoked more often than that.
Like cigarette smokers, marijuana users can develop throat irritation and coughs, but the study didn't focus on those. It also didn't examine lung cancer, but other studies haven't found any definitive link between marijuana use and cancer.
Labels: CANNABIS, HEALTHCARE, TOBACCO
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Form I pupil found with dagga, expelled from mhlatane high
By MBONGISENI NDZIMANDZE on November 24,2011
PIGG’S PEAK - A Form I pupil at Mhlatane High School who has been found in possession of dagga at the hostel has been expelled from the school.
It is alleged the dagga was found hidden under his pillow and he was caught after some of the pupils he shares the dormitory with complained of a strange smell that was being produced by the dagga.
After he was caught the pupil is said to have told the teachers that the dagga was given to him by one of his colleagues who does not reside at the hostel.
The size could not be established.
Principal of the school Simeon Makhubu said they have since advised the parent of the pupil to look for him a place in another school. He said after the pupil was caught with the illegal herb they called his parent and informed him that he should seek for him a place in another school as they do not have place for such people at Mhlatane High School.
"In December no one is suspended but we simply tell the parent of the offender to look for a place in another school when schools open, but we allow him to finish writing the end of year examinations," he said.
He said at Mhlatane High School there is no place for pupils who carry drugs as it is against the school’s rules and regulations.
He said they cannot allow dagga in the school as it illegal not only in Swaziland, but internationally.
"We no longer punish pupils who are found in possession of dagga in the school, but we now refer the matter to the police. The decision we usually take thereafter is that we do not allow pupils who have committed such an offence to return to the school," he said.
The principal said there are a number of pupils who had been found in possession of dagga this year.
Labels: CANNABIS
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Despite dire predictions, state farm jobs aren't disappearing
Former Mexican foreign minister calls for North American union
Jorge Castañeda, Mexico's foreign minister from 2000-2003 and a professor at New York University, expects North American economies tied together in a European Union-style system complete with open borders. With the present porous border, many Mexican take jobs on farmers, predicted to disappear due to protections for the environment, but guess what actually happened? We trim, blend, and append two 2010 articles from (1) BigThink.com, Feb 16, the interview of Castañeda by Stephen C. Webster; and (2) the Los Angeles Times, Feb 22, on farm jobs by Bettina Boxall.
by Stephen C. Webster and by Bettina Boxall
Former Mexican foreign minister calls for North American union
With nearly 11% of Mexicans living in the United States, former minister Jorge Castañeda see Mexico “moving closer and closer to forms of economic integration with the United States and Canada and conceivably Central America and Caribbean in the coming years."
"I don’t see Mexico as a Latin American country. Too much trade, investment, tourism, immigration, remittances, absolutely everything is concentrated exclusively with the United States. So, Mexico has to be part of a North American community, a North American union, which at some point should include some type of monetary union along European lines with a free flow of labor, with energy being on the table, etc."
In May of 2005, the Council on Foreign Relations released a document entitled "Building a North American Community" in which it calls for an EU-like integration of Canada, the United States and Mexico.
While the document does not specifically call for the ceding of sovereignty between the three nations -- as some vocal opponents of the idea have suggested -- it does recommend the formation of a North American Advisory Council and a multinational inter-parliamentary group to facilitate mutual cooperation. Though the group originally set out to achieve this goal by 2010, few Americans are even aware of it.
CFR member Carlos Heredia wrote, "To the extent that citizens of the three partner countries see that North American integration brings concrete benefits, a new constituency will be galvanized to support these efforts in the years to come."
"How far away are we from that?" Castañeda asked, rhetorically. "Quite far, but so did it seem back in Europe in the 1950's and very little time later they came around and understood that that was their future lay. Already Mexican society is voting with its feet. We have a higher share of Mexicans living in the United States than we have ever had in our history. One out of every nine Mexicans, Mexican citizens, people born in Mexico, live in the United States today."
In recent weeks, Castañeda appeared on CNN's Amanpour for a debate about the drug war. He explained that marijuana should be legalized in order to take away the drug cartels' primary revenue source.
"Having recklessly plunged the country into [the drug war], what President Calderón and the United States should do is sit back for a second, think this through, see what they want to achieve, what is achievable, and what should be done that's new," he said.
"There are more and more states in the US that are moving towards decriminalization at least of marijuana. Mexico is still a very important producer of marijuana. Some people say that up to 60% of the profits of Mexico’s cartels come from marijuana. Well, if the United States or California is de facto legalizing it through medical marijuana, what sense does it make for Mexicans to die to stop marijuana from entering the US when once it enters it can be sold legally at over 1,000 dispensaries in Los Angeles, more than the number of public schools there are in Los Angeles?
JJS: One way America and Mexico are already joined is that most of America’s food is harvested by Mexicans, to a large extent in California, which last year had a drought the threatened agriculture.
Despite dire predictions, state farm jobs aren't disappearing
"People in California's breadbasket face complete economic ruin," said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, unless government weakens endangered species protections to deliver more water to San Joaquin Valley farms.
Richard Howitt, a UC Davis economist, predicted that water cutbacks could cause a loss of as many as 80,000 jobs and up to $2.2 billion in revenue.
A chorus of Central Valley politicians and farm groups bemoaned environmental protections that cut water deliveries and the jobs that depend on them.
But in Fresno County, the state's top-producing agricultural county, the number of farm jobs rose slightly last year. Farm employment has increased statewide since 2006 -- a year of bountiful water supplies in the valley -- and dipped only slightly between 2008 and 2009.
Growers of major crops such as rice and processing tomatoes enjoyed a bumper year in 2009. Grape production was down slightly, but still among the highest on record.
And though photographs of farmers bulldozing their almond groves for lack of water were a media favorite, California had more acres of bearing almond trees last year than ever before.
Most of the acreage left unplanted was on the valley's west side. But other parts of the valley didn't have water problems.
"The west side of the valley was a major wreck," said Al Montna, a Sacramento Valley rice grower and president of the State Board of Food and Agriculture. "We had hearings at the Fresno County Farm Bureau where growers and farmworkers were crying.
JJS: The land cries too. Yet it need not be a win/lose situation. Geonomics -- sharing the worth of Earth while forgoing taxation on our efforts and subsidies to special interests (like big growers) -- is a way to utilize our planet and conserve her, too.
---------------------
Jeffery J. Smith runs the Forum on Geonomics.
Labels: CANNABIS, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, NEOLIBERALISM
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COMMENT - Legalize it today. These guys shouldn't spend one day in jail for possession of a dried plant. Hard labour?
Malawi jails 2 Zambians for drug trafficking
By Ernest Chanda
Mon 18 Apr. 2011, 04:00 CAT
TWO Zambians have been jailed by the Mzimba magistrates' court in Malawi after being found guilty of drug trafficking. Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) public relations manager John Nyawali disclosed yesterday that Felix Phiri, 43, was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment with hard labour while John Zulu, 42, was handed an eight-year jail term.
Nyawali said the two were found guilty of trafficking in 20 bags of loose cannabis, with each bag weighing about 90 kilogrammes. He said Phiri and Zulu were arrested by the Mzimba police a fortnight ago when they attempted to traffic the psychotropic substance into Zambia.
And Nyawali said the Commission had arrested a 36-year-old Lebanese for drug trafficking.
He said Marc Dargham, a business developer, was arrested from a hotel in Lusaka after he was found with nine sachets of crack cocaine.
Nyawali said the arrest followed an operation that DEC officers conducted at the hotel after trailing Dargham.
He said Dargham was also found with paraphernalia containing cocaine powder hidden in the drawers of his hotel room.
Nyawali said Dargham, who came into the country two weeks ago, was in police custody and would appear in court soon.
Labels: CANNABIS, DRUGS
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COMMENT - Indian Hemp, also known as Cannabis Sativa, Malawi Gold, among many other names. :) Legalize it.
Malawi Police nab three Zambians with Chamba
By Nyasa Times
Published: March 28, 2011
Malawi Police’s undercover operation in Mzimba District has led to the arrest of three Zambians who are believed to have been doing illegal cross-boarder trade. During the mission, police successfully seized 20 bags of Indian hemp (Chamba) packed in 90kgs.
The three Zambian nationals are Joseph Mwenda, 40, John Zulu, 42 and 43-year-old Nyakeka Phiri all from Lundazi District in eastern Zambia.
Police check bags of Indian Hemp
Mzimba Police Station spokesperson George Kondowe confirmed the arrest of the three on Sunday in Khosolo area in the district.
He said police have been investigating the three for being suspected of doing illicit cross-boarder trade after getting a tip from the public.
“The public tipped us that some three strange Zambians had illegally entered the country through Mzimba and were in Khosolo area so we started investigating the issue,” explained Kondowe.
He said on the material day, the suspects hired a three tonner lorry to smuggle the illicit drug unfortunately the vehicle developed a mechanical fault before they packed the bags.
The police then deployed their officers using someone’s three tonner vehicle and offered it to the suspected drug traffickers to hire which they unsuspectingly did.
“We drove together to where they were keeping the 20 bags and that is where we apprehended them,” said Kondowe.
Khosolo area which is located in South West of Mzimba Boma is well known for Indian hemp farming.
Kondowe said the three are on remand and have been charged with two counts of being found with illicit drugs and illegal entry into Malawi.
In another development, Mzimba police over the weekend also arrested 20 people for various offences during a sweeping exercise.
Kondowe said their offences range from gambling, touting and rogue and vagabond.
“The idea is to intensify security and to bring sanity in the district,” he said.
The spokesperson explained that some of the arrested people were doing trade in areas that are not designated for business.—(Reporting by Felie Mzumara, Nyasa Times)
Labels: CANNABIS, MALAWI
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COMMENT - Legalize it. Weed is healthier than kachasu.
DEC arrests 11 over cannabis
By Ernest Chanda
Wed 29 Dec. 2010, 03:59 CAT
THE Drug Enfor-cement Commission (DEC) has arrested 11 people for cultivating and trafficking in different quantities of cannabis weighing over eight tonnes.
DEC public relations manager John Nyawali said the arrests were made over the Christmas weekend and among those arrested were Boniface Tabama of Mung’ambwa village in chief Matako’s Sichili area in Sesheke for cultivating over 8.7 tonnes of cannabis.
Tabama, 31, was arrested on Christmas Day with the help of local leadership when officers conducted an operation in the area.
Nyawali said Tabama was found to have cultivated the psychotropic substance together with five other villagers who bolted and were still on the run.
He described the operation as one of the largest single seizures of cannabis recorded this year.
Nyawali said others arrested in different parts of the country were 10 people for trafficking in different quantities of cannabis weighing 57 kilograms.
And Nyawali said the Commission was saddened that some peasant farmers had been contracted to cultivate cannabis, which was being earmarked for export to some, identified neighbouring and European countries.
He said plans were underway to incorporate agricultural extension officers in the fight against the cultivation of cannabis through identification of ideal cash crops and enhanced sensitisation.
Labels: CANNABIS, DEC, JOHN NYAWALI
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COMMENT - Screw The Hague, that little fascist town.
Snoop Dogg not welcome in Dutch city of Hague
By Reuters
Fri 18 June 2010, 14:00 CAT
Rapper Snoop Dogg sits courtside during Game 6 of the 2010 NBA Finals basketball series between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics in Los Angeles, California June 15, 2010 . Credit: Reuters/Mike Blake
U.S. rapper Snoop Dogg, a frequent visitor to the Netherlands and aficionado of its readily available marijuana, will not be allowed to perform at a free concert in The Hague, authorities said on Thursday.
The mayor of the Dutch city, public prosecutors and the police have asked organizers of the Parkpop festival, billed as the largest in Europe, to find another act to replace Snoop Dogg "in order to be able to guarantee the open and friendly character and free admission of Parkpop" to be held June 27.
Notorious for his appreciation of marijuana and hash, which are sold openly in the Netherlands at stores called "coffee shops," Snoop Dogg is a frequent visitor and usually holds concerts in the European country at least once a year.
"This is all very annoying that the headliner is being removed from the programme 10 days before the event," a spokeswoman for organizer Ducos Productions told ANP-Reuters.
Snoop is also scheduled to perform at a sold-out conference at Amsterdam's "Melkweg." During a 2008 concert at the same venue he smoked several joints during a performance and at one point was joined by singer Willy Nelson, who is also co-chair of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
The 38 year-old, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, has been denied entry into the United Kingdom since 2007 after a fracas the previous year involving members of his entourage. In that year Snoop Dogg also pleaded no contest to gun and drugs charges in the United States and was barred from entering Australia after failing a character test.
Labels: CANNABIS, SNOOP DOGG, THE HAGUE
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Marijuana plantation in Uganda convent probed
By BBC News
Fri 11 June 2010, 10:10 CAT
The nuns were reportedly unhappy police had entered convent grounds
Uganda police are investigating after a marijuana plantation was uncovered in the garden of a convent.
A regional police chief told the BBC that plants covering one acre had been found and uprooted in the southern Masaka district. Two nuns and two porters have been questioned.
One of the nuns has been quoted by local media as saying the marijuana was used to treat farm animals, such as pigs.
Southern regional commander Emmanuel Muhuirwe told the BBC News website that only the porters had been arrested - not the nuns. He said the nuns had been questioned because the garden was part of the convent. But he said no-one had been charged yet and the porters have been released on bail.
Commander Muhuirwe also dismissed reports in Uganda's New Vision newspaper that the nuns had been angry that the police had entered the convent without permission, pointing out that the garden was separate from the convent building.
Labels: CANNABIS, CATHOLIC CHURCH
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COMMENT - There is nothing immoral about growing weed. Free the weed. Hemp should be a growth industry in Zambia and the world. Zambian weed is among the best in the world.
DEC arrests Chipata woman over cannabis
By Christopher Miti in Chipata
Sun 25 Apr. 2010, 04:30 CAT
THE Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC) in Chipata has arrested a 41-year-old woman after she was found with 105 kilogrammes of cannabis. DEC spokesperson John Nyawali confirmed the arrest of Brenda Hamanenga, a businesswoman of Jack compound in Lusaka.
Nyawali said that Hamanenga was arrested on Wednesday morning at Kapata Bus Station after she boarded a Lungu Luxury Bus en route to Lusaka. He said that the 105 kilogrammes of cannabis was concealed in two suitcases. Nyawali said the suspect had been detained in Lusaka while waiting for commencement of court trial.
And Nyawali has advised women to uphold their dignity and desist from activities that reduce their moral standards.
He also appealed to peasant farmers to grow crops that could contribute to enhancing food security in the country instead of growing prohibited cash crops.
Labels: CANNABIS, CHIPATA
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