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MAP - Cannabis - United Kingdom
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Media Awareness Project Drug News
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UK: Hundreds Of East Anglian Drug Dens Found Each Year
Beccles & Bungay Journal, 28 Feb 2010 - Hundreds of drug dens - from industrial-scale factories to smaller operations in criminals' own homes - are uncovered in East Anglia each year, an EDP investigation has found. More than 550 drug-growing operations have been raided by police in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire over the last three years.
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UK: Editorial: Advising the UK Government
The Lancet, 20 Feb 2010 - All too often governments make political policy choices rather than evidence-based ones. This approach has caused deep consternation among the scientific community in the UK, where a schism now exists between the government and its scientific advisers. The trouble started last October after David Nutt, chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), was sacked for publicly speaking out against the government's decision to ignore the ACMD's advice on cannabis. In November, the scientific community, though understandably angry at the way in which the government had treated a respected scientific adviser, decided to respond in a constructive manner. 90 senior scientists, scientific advisers, and Sense about Science--an independent charity promoting good science for the public--drafted a set of principles on the treatment of scientific advice and sent them to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The principles fall under three themes: academic freedom to express views openly without restriction, independence of operation, and proper consideration of advice by ministers. The code enshrined what scientific advice to government should be--independent of political interference and ideology.
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UK: Time To Prohibit Drugs Prohibition
The Guardian, 14 Feb 2010 - Nubia Legarda is a young woman from El Paso, Texas and Students for Sensible Drug Policy member. Just one year ago, she gave evidence to her city council urging them to pass a resolution on the violence in the Mexican border city of Juarez, and to promote a national debate over drug legalisation. While the resolution was initially passed, a number of representatives changed their minds after receiving pressure from the federal government, fearing that funding to the city would be cut in the event it passed. Nubia has been unable to visit family in Juarez out of fear for the violence that is a daily feature of life there. She is just one of millions of young people around the world whose lives have been caught up in the war on drugs.
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UK: Woldgate College Head Teacher Jeff Bower Issues Alert Over
The Press, 19 Jan 2010 - THE head of a school at the centre of a drugs scare has said every head teacher in the country should be aware of "legal highs". Jeff Bower, head of Woldgate College, in Pocklington, said the drug-induced collapse which saw a 17-year-old sixth-former rushed to York Hospital, had hit the school "right between the eyes" - and urged other heads to take pro-active action to prevent further incidents.
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UK: Government's New Drug Adviser Les Iversen Wanted Cannabis Legalised
The Times, 14 Jan 2010 - A retired academic who once called for cannabis to be legalised was appointed yesterday as the Government's new adviser on the harm caused by drugs. Les Iversen, a former pharmacology professor at the University of Oxford, was made interim chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. He replaces Professor David Nutt, who was sacked for criticising the Government's decision to reclassify cannabis as a Class B substance.
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UK Drug News 