Cannabis News on 5th March, 2005

• Drug abuse continues to rise in Switzerland
  NZZ Online
  

  Consumption of cannabis, amphetamines and cocaine is increasing in Switzerland, according to a United Nations study.

• Cannabis gran's bid to be MP
  David Knox, The Hexham Courant
  

  TYNEDALE’S cannabis-cooking granny Patricia Tabram is bidding to become an MP.

• For Years, Everyone Saw This Coming
  Dan Gardner, The Ottawa Citizen
  

  In the eight years that I have been studying and critiquing the war on marijuana, I’ve occasionally been asked why I spend so much time on an issue many people think is, at best, trivial. I answered by citing the involvement of major organized crime networks, the billions of dollars spent on enforcement, and the criminalization of hundreds of thousands of otherwise lawful citizens for consuming a substance that is, by any fair measure, less dangerous than alcohol or tobacco.

• Groups Offer Exit Strategy for the War on Drugs
  Gene Johnson, The Associated Press
  

  A group of Washington doctors, religious leaders and lawyers offered an “exit strategy” for the war on drugs Thursday, a proposal that would aim to dry up the black market for heroin, marijuana and other substances by having the state regulate their distribution.

• Battle Against Aristocrat's Deportation Continues
  The Scotsman
  

  A Dorset aristocrat fighting deportation to America for allegedly smuggling cannabis two decades ago said today that fresh evidence could lead to the charges being dropped.