Lesotho is aiming to make money from the booming medicinal marijuana industry, but the BBC's Vumani Mkhize says the southern African nation already has an unheralded illicit trade in the drug for recreational use.

Green dust swirls around Mampho Thulo as she uses her hands to scoop dried marijuana leaves from a massive heap on the floor of her home into a big linen bag.

She has been cultivating the prized crop in her scenic village of Mapoteng for as long as she can remember.

Seventy kilometres (43 miles) north-east of the capital, Maseru, her land lies in a lush valley surrounded by the mountains that the country is well known for.

It is in this breath-taking scenery that people have been illicitly growing marijuana for recreational use for decades.

Marijuana, mountains and money: How Lesotho is cashing in

An international indigenous network for drug law reform was launched yesterday at the international indigenous conference, Healing Our Spirit Worldwide – The Eighth Gathering, in Sydney, Australia.

The International Indigenous Drug Policy Network has been established by the Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council (SA), the New Zealand Drug Foundation and the Thunderbird Partnership Foundation of Canada to ensure the world’s indigenous peoples have a voice on international issues associated with alcohol and drugs.

“As the global push to end the war on drugs and treat substance abuse as a health issue gains momentum, it’s never been more important that indigenous communities are at the forefront of the discussion on drug law reform,” said the NZ Drug Foundation’s Māori Advocacy Advisor, Jack McDonald.

“Māori we know that punishing rather than supporting people with substance abuse issues is causing excessive harm in our communities – our people make up 43% of convictions and 58% of imprisonments due to drug related offences.

“The disproportionate impact of current punitive drug laws and enforcement is influenced by the institutional racism that all indigenous communities consistently face,” said Mr McDonald.

“The UN General Assembly held a Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in April 2016 in New York, but the outcomes document is largely silent on the challenges facing indigenous communities,” said Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council (SA) Director Scott Wilson.

“As we look towards the UN’s next drug policy summit in 2019, we will be approaching other indigenous organisations and First Nations to consolidate a representative international indigenous group and lobby to reduce harms to indigenous communities from substance abuse and discriminatory drug laws,” Mr Wilson said.

International Indigenous Drug Policy Network launched in New Zealand

“It used to be that you’d be walking on your way to score, and if you’d see a policeman, you’d give them three 

 [about 10 cents], and they’d tell you to wrap your business up quickly because undercovers were about to bust the spot,” says Sasha, a 40-something heroin user from Crimea (formerly Ukraine).

In 2014, as the Ukraine crisis erupted, “little green men” started popping up across the Crimea—a Black Sea peninsula the size of Maryland dangling off the south of Ukraine. A “referendum” was held in which 95.5 percent of the population 

backed joining the territory up with Russia. In the political surprise of the century, Vladimir Putin later admitted that the mysterious strangers in green uniform were Russian troops.

Crimea’s history—and tensions reignited this week with the Russian capture of three Ukrainian naval vessels—is complicated. For all the international outrage, the 2014 change in power was 

bloodless. But for one group of people, it was life-or-death.

Once Crimea went under Russian control, the territory’s “registered drug addicts” found themselves cut off from their methadone supplies, which they’d previously got courtesy of Kiev. They were in for a nasty surprise when the new leadership bannedtheir medication, in line with the rest of Russia.

“They gave it a few days, but then the feds and the Cossacks got together and came down on the dealing spots. They broke arms, legs, everything.”

Rather than risk withdrawal, many went back to using heroin, subject to dodgy doses and harsh enforcement. Within a year, over a hundred of them had died.

Russia’s harm reductionists are once again under attack

Thailand’s parliament has almost unanimously accepted the first reading of a bill to legalise medical cannabis, but there is growing fear that foreign companies will monopolise any new marijuana industry.

On 23 November, 145 members of the National Legislative Assembly supported the bill's first reading, with one member abstaining, and none opposing. The bill intends to amend the country’s Narcotics Act, legalising cannabis as a treatment for patients. It would also legalise the medical use of kratom, a plant indigenous to Thailand which is used by some people – but not officially recognised – as a treatment for opioid withdrawal symptoms.

, many licensed groups and individuals who would be entitled to possess cannabis include government ministries, local administrative bodies, the Red Cross, the Government Pharmaceutical Organisation, and certain medical professionals. However, people who have been convicted of drug offences under current Thai law will not be permitted to have cannabis in their possession.

Several international companies have applied for Thai patents for their medical cannabis products, raising concern that - if the bill is eventually passed into law - foreign pharmaceutical companies will dominate the Thai cannabis market.

Thailand legislators overwhelmingly endorse medical cannabis legalisation

Antigua and Barbuda is set to legalise the regulated production and supply of cannabis for religious and medical purposes, following consultations with Rastafarian communities.

The Cannabis Bill 2018 has two main functions: regulating the production, prescribing, and supply of medical cannabis for patients; and permitting Rastafarians (and other religious groups) to possess, cultivate, and supply cannabis – at quantities exceeding existing thresholds - for religious purposes. The bill stops short of legalising cannabis for recreational purposes.

Following a legal amendment passed in March 2018, all adults can now legally possess less than 15 grams of cannabis, and cultivate a maximum of four plants, for personal use.

The new bill allows "an adherent of a religious body, including, but not limited to, the Rastafarian faith … [to] register with the Authority to" cultivate 

 four cannabis plants, and possess or transport 

 15 grams of cannabis, for religious purposes. It also allows such religious followers to “dispense cannabis solely for religious purposes as a sacrament in adherence to a religious practice of the religious body, at a sacramental dispensary”.

The bill is supported by Prime Minister Gaston Browne, who has publicly apologised for the brutal state discrimination against Rastafarian people found using cannabis. As 

 in February, Browne recalled personally witnessing police using excessive force against Rastafarian people for alleged cannabis offences:

Antigua and Barbuda set to pass inclusive cannabis regulation law

More than 100 drug offenders were arrested overnight during raids in nine provinces across the country, according to the Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB). Those apprehended were one narcotic producer, 26 drug traders, 18 drug possessors and 66 drug addicts who were taken to undergo the rehabilitation process.

More than 700 military, police and administrative officers took part in the raids, which were carried out in 32 districts of Chai Nat, Chon Buri, Chaiyaphum, Roi Et, Phrae, Uttaradit, Phetchaburi, Krabi and Trang, according to the ONCB's news briefing on Thursday on the anti-drug operation, code-named "1386".

Officers managed to seize 42,693 speed pills, or ya ba, 1,067.2 grammes of crystal meth, or ya ice, 2.6g of marijuana, 5.8kg of kratom leaves, 6.8 litres of kratom cocktail, two kratom plants, a marijuana plant and 1.2g of ketamine. They also recovered 18 firearms and 34 rounds of ammunition during the operation and confiscated 900,000 baht worth of valuables, according to officers.

Thailand: 100 arrested during drug raids

An Egyptian MP has proposed a draft law that would decriminalise the personal use of drugs, though the move has received a mixed response.

John Talaat, an independent MP and deputy governor of Cairo, has put forward draft legislation which would end the criminalisation of drug use, and offer people “treatment” instead. Talaat said this reform was necessarybecause “treatment is better” than “the cost that the state spends on [imprisonment]”. He also noted that many of those currently prosecuted for drug offences are young people, meaning that criminalisation is “wasting their future”.

Talaat suggested people found using drugs should receive “treatment ... for a period of time from 3 to 6 months, in order to address drug addiction” instead of incarceration, though he did not describe whether this would be mandatory.

Egypt MP proposes law to decriminalise all drug use

Today the Home Office released a review of its 2016 Psychoactive Substances Act (PSA) which introduced a blanket ban on the production, distribution, sale and supply of most psychoactive substances including former ‘legal highs’.

The review admits the PSA has failed to meet many of its goals - as predicted by experts:

While high street ‘Head Shop’ sales have stopped, the trade has just shifted to street dealers

The ‘cat and mouse’ game of new drugs coming onto the market as others are banned has continued

Use among children and the homeless have not fallen, and the review cannot say if overall drug use has fallen because even where adult use has reduced, people may have shifted to other banned substances instead

In prisons, use of synthetic cannabinoids (‘Spice’) in particular has increased while deaths directly attributable to NPS appear to have fallen in England and Wales, they have risen in Scotland

The review cannot tell if overall social and health harms have fallen because people may have just moved to other drugs - where deaths, for example from cocaine and MDMA use, have been rising sharply

Psychoactive substances act: UK government review admits extensive failure

Marijuana in Canada is now legal, and while the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on Latin America’s black market, it could trigger a shift towards more progressive international drug policies.

Recreational marijuana in Canada is now officially legal, and while the change is unlikely to have a significant impact on Latin America’s black market, it could trigger a shift towards more progressive international drug policies.

How Canada marijuana legalization impacts on Latin American drug policy?

The Greek health ministry is preparing a legislative amendment to permit the opening of drug consumption rooms in Athens, after a university’s claim that it’s overwhelmed by widespread public drug use.

The drug consumption rooms (DCRs) – if approved - will provide a hygienic environment and sterile equipment for people to consume drugs with under the supervision of trained medical staff, according to Greek newspaper, 

. Staff will keep a record of the service users, Health Minister Andreas Xanthos has said.

The ministry’s announcement, in late October, came after the Athens University of Economics and Business warned that it may have to close due to an overwhelming number of people using drugs in the campus area.

"In recent years, the [university has faced] difficult and complex problems due, among other things, to the degradation that has occurred in the wider area of its premises and the city centre of Athens […] due to the presence of drug addicts," a university spokesperson said.

“The problem [can be attributed to] insufficient policing, and it also concerns other policy areas such as health, education, social support structures, hygiene, the aesthetics of the city, and, in general, the application of the law,” the spokesperson added.

Greece health ministry plans drug consumption rooms

Non-medical prescription drug use has gained increasing attention due to the use of opioids in North America and recent concerns in rising stimulant use for neuroenhancement in Western states (Maier et al., 2018). Less attention, however, has been given to non-medical use of prescription stimulants and other drugs in Southern and Eastern regions where statistical data is also scarce. Recent debates also indicate the need to research polydrug use, i.e. use of prescription medications as substitutes or additions to the drugs of first choice. The UNODC World Drug Report 2018 addressed the issue of spreading psychotropic drug use among injecting users, highlighting quick replacement of illicit drugs in open drug scenes by prescription and other synthetic drugs. Policy questions are also especially topical due to the upcoming ministerial segment convened by the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March 2019. Thus, there remains a need for more research on user motives and polydrug use as well as policy responses regarding supply chains of prescription drugs.

Beyond prescription drugs: international perspectives on supply chains, polydrug use, and user motive

Last month, Mexico’s Supreme Court handed down two decisions that effectively overturned Mexico’s longstanding ban on the personal use of marijuana. The Court affirmed the power of the individual—rather than the state—to decide what to do with their own body. More importantly, it struck down a form of prohibition and brought the “war on drugs” in Mexico closer its end than ever before.

Both of us are plaintiffs in the two cases and, for the past decade, we have worked as drug policy reform advocates who have sought to decriminalize the use of cannabis in Mexico. The Supreme Court had already chipped away at the prohibition of cannabis on three previous occasions between 2015 and 2017. Coupled with its most recent decisions, Mexico’s Supreme Court has created a new precedent, one which lower courts must apply to their rulings.

As a result of these rulings, new criteria must be used by every judge across Mexico for cases concerning drug possession or use. This is no small thing; as recently as 2014, the Attorney General’s Office initiated almost 5,000 preliminary inquiries into “consumption”—and another 4,000 for “possession”—of marijuana, even though these activities are not punishable by law. This change may help reduce mass incarceration in Mexico.

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