Is Salvia the Next Marijuana?
On Web sites touting the mind-blowing powers of Salvia divinorum, come-ons to buy the hallucinogenic herb are accompanied by warnings: “Time is running out!” and “stock up while you still can.”That’s because salvia is being targeted by lawmakers concerned that the inexpensive and easy-to-obtain plant could become the next marijuana. Eight states have already placed restrictions on salvia, and 16 others, including Florida, are considering a ban or have previously.
“As soon as we make one drug illegal, kids start looking around for other drugs they can buy legally. This is just the next one,” said Florida state Rep. Mary Brandenburg, who has introduced a bill to make possession of salvia a felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Are organic and hydroponics a good fit?
The permissibility of hydroponics in organic agriculture is a source of on-going debate in Canada. Under current standards, soil-less culture appears not to be permitted, but some intriguing questions need answers in order to bring clarity to the issue.
A loophole under the 1999 Canadian National Organic Standard made hydroponics permissible (depending on the certification body) because guidelines for greenhouse production did not explicitly state production must be soil-based.
Ruling shines different light on Emery’s case
Finally, a court ruling that puts in perspective the five to 10 years’ imprisonment that B.C. cannabis crusader Marc Emery faces in U.S. prison for selling pot seeds.
In a judgment released Friday, B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Richard Low (backed by Justices Mary Newbury and Anne Rowles) said a one-month jail sentence plus probation was appropriate punishment for such an offence.
If anyone needed evidence, this decision exposes the fundamental unfairness of what is happening to Emery.
The appeal grew out of a case heard in Courtenay last fall in which the Crown thought too lenient concurrent, 30-day sentences imposed on Daniel Anthony Kostantin for selling marijuana seeds.
The 36-year-old Kostantin pleaded guilty Sept. 26 to possession a year earlier of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking and export.
The prosecutors thought nine to 15 months’ incarceration more fitting.
Two years for’cannabis gardener’
A VIETNAMESE gardener who spent thousands of pounds illegally travelling to Britain has been jailed after being discovered working as a cannabis “gardener”.
Thoa Nguyen (34) was found asleep in the kitchen of a house in Beechwood Close, Dogsthorpe, Peterborough, on Wednesday, January 9, after an early-morning police raid.
The house had been converted into a cannabis factory, and he had been working as a gardener, watering the 200 plants for his bosses.
On Friday, he appeared at Peterborough Crown Court, and pleaded guilty to cultivating the class C drug.
Algerian officials seize four tonnes of cannabis in a week
Algerian authorities seized four tonnes of cannabis worth several million dollars on the border with Morocco during two separate hauls in the past week, a law enforcement agent said Sunday.Officials Friday discovered two tonnes of marijuana worth two million euros (three million dollars) inside all-terrain vehicles abandoned by drug traffickers during a police chase near the Moroccan border, a police official said.
The suspects apparently managed to escape to Morocco.
More than two tonnes of cannabis were seized Monday, also on the Algerian-Moroccan border.
Algeria is considered a key drug transit zone, with roughly half of all narcotics passing through the country consumed locally, according to Algeria’s health minister.
Drug plane tip-off leads to Cannabis bust
Police were given a tip-off from a member of the public who recognised a light plane linked to last week’s $77 million drug bust at an airport south of Perth.
Detectives were told the plane shown in news coverage had been based at Narrabri airport.
Further inquiries led police to a property in the Pilliga State Forest, where the cannabis crop was found.
