Foreign interests are eyeing Uruguay’s recent legalization of cannabis use in its territory. Will big pharmaceutical firms be allowed to move in on this huge business opportunity?
Tag: drugs
ACAPULCO — Before coming to Acapulco, I had heard many disturbing things about the city. For example, that six Spanish girls were brutally raped on the top floor of a beautiful beachfront villa last February as their boyfriends, handcuffed, were made to watch. That Acapulco had suddenly become the most violent city in Mexico — […]
One native of Sierra Leone, who arrived in Italy via the now notorious island of Lampedusa, is trying to find peace in a Roman slum.
A port city just like Marseille, but less riddled with crime, Rotterdam is nonetheless equipping itself with an unlikely new unit to fight illegal activity. Forensic police plan to use five big brown rats to shed light on criminal plots. After two years of training that will soon end, Derrick, Magnum, Poirot, Dupond and Dupont […]
An enterprising German trains his pooch to become the country’s first dope-busting dog-for-hire.
Illegal irrigation and other practices by black-market marijuana growers are drying up California’s rivers, poisoning groundwater and killing wildlife.
Shiva was not like the other detainees in the Argentina prison. For one thing, this convicted kidnapper was studying to be a lawyer — which turned out to be the ticket for his daring escape.
Lance Armstrong hasn’t told “the whole story” yet. Ever since his long-awaited January confession with Oprah Winfrey, the high priestess of American talk shows, the now former seven-time winner of the Tour de France hasn’t uttered a word, just a rare tweet from time to time to his four million followers on Twitter. So when […]
Known as sisa, this Greek methamphetamine-based concoction is spreading across the streets of Athens — the latest sign of the side effects of the economic crisis plaguing Greece.
SALOU – It’s about 4 p.m. in the lobby of a hotel in the Costa Dorada, on the Catalan coast of Spain. A brunette sporting micro-shorts and a boy without a shirt are miming a sexual act amongst a sweaty and inebriated crowd. The deejay shouts into his microphone: “Have you had enough?” Of course […]
-Editorial- SANTIAGO – If we based our knowledge of Latin America on Amnesty International’s latest global human rights report, we would believe that there is no real justice in the region, violence is on the rise, police regular torture citizens, that there are multiple attempts to exterminate indigenous groups, and organized crime is gaining ground. […]
Drugs themselves are crazy enough, but what they’re called can sometimes make them (or at least make them seem) even more insane. Drug producers, dealers and users are increasingly creative in both the manufacturing and naming of drugs. Die Welt reported last month on the growing concern over the use of crystal methamphetamine, which in […]
Whether alcohol or absinthe, LSD or heroin, some of humanity’s creative geniuses produced their greatest work as mind-altering substances did theirs. A Paris exhibit connects the dots.
AAP (Australia); NZ HERALD, RADIO NEW ZEALAND, SCOOP (New Zealand) Worldcrunch WELLINGTON – Parliament on Tuesday approved a measure that would make New Zealand the first country to legalize synthetic drugs, otherwise known as party pills. If it gains final approval later this year, the Psychoactive Substances Bill would create a system to test and […]
RIO DE JANEIRO – Cleide Oliveira, a 45-year-old beauty salon owner specialized in straightening curly hair, says she’ll soon be forced to find a new job. Since November 2011, when a Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora or Police Pacifying Unit (UPP) was created in Rocinha — Brazil’s biggest favela near Rio de Janeiro — she has […]
TURIN – Music and organized crime are a duo that have gone hand-in-hand since way back when. Outlaws often see songs as a way to glorify what they do, creating legends that inspire as well as frighten the regions they come to dominate. The Mexico we hear about today is said to be held hostage […]
HINDUSTAN TIMES, ECONOMIC TIMES (India) NEW YORK TIMES (USA) Worldcrunch NEW DELHI — In a landmark decision on Monday, India’s Supreme Court rejected a application by pharmaceutical giant Novartis for a major cancer drug patent, a ruling that could clear the way for cheaper generic versions of medicines to continue to be distributed around the […]
The South African paralympian, accused of killing his girlfriend, has no immediate plans to travel abroad, his lawyer says.
BERLIN – The Berlin chapters of the Bandidos gang, whose members have a reputation for being armed and dangerous, had been considerably weakened of late with many members in jail. But the Berliner Morgenpost has learned from law enforcement officials that all 15 members of the “Midtown” chapter of the Bandidos – the last remaining […]
TELAM, EFE (ARGENTINA) Worldcrunch MONTEVIDEO – Uruguay introduced a bill last November to regulate production and sale of cannabis. Under the proposed legislation, Uruguayans over 18 will be able to purchase pot in state-approved distribution centers. Time to light up? Well, not exactly. While the country is waiting for Congress to pass the bill, the […]
EL TIEMPO, SEMANA (Colombia) MILENIO (Mexico) Worldcrunch BOGOTÁ– Colombia’s Justice Minister announced a government proposal to decriminalize personal use of synthetic drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamines. If the proposal, as laid out by Justice Minister Ruth Stella Correa this week, passes Congress, it will authorize the carrying and consumption of what are known to […]
Two decades after the Sicilian Mafia killed magistrate hero Giovanni Falcone, crime networks have shifted drug trafficking from bases to Russia, Colombia, Burma…and beyond.
BBC, ESPN (U.S.), THE GUARDIAN, THE TELEGRAPH (U.K.) Worldcrunch LOS ANGELES – During an exclusive interview with Oprah Winfrey on Thursday night, Lance Armstrong has admitted that he did, in fact, take performance enhancing drugs during all seven Tour de France wins. The BBC callex it the most sophisticated, professional and successful doping program that […]
Behind codes of encryption, the so-called “Deep Web” hosts a vast network of people trading in illegal sales of all sorts, most notably any drug imaginable.
Smuggled in from Burma and North Korea, meth is flooding Chinese mean streets.
PICHARI – Miguel doesn’t make a sound on his way to the plantation. “Best to keep a low profile, put away your microphone,” he advises. The path leads all the way over the Apurímac River, whose brown waters wind through the middle of the forest, to a clearing where shrubs of coca grow across 12 […]
SÃO PAULO – It was February 10th, 2011, Penitentiary No. 2 in Presidente Venceslau, a rural town in Brazil’s São Paulo state. At 4:51 P.M., a secret conference call began by mobile phone with two prisoners and three criminals on the outside – the conversation would go on without interruption for nine hours and 38 […]
SANTIAGO – “The visible web is the tip of the iceberg,” says Anand Rajaraman, co-founder of Kosmix, a search engine for the Deep Web (DW). One of Kosmix’ investors is none other than Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon. The iceberg sounds daunting, but Rajaraman seems to know what he’s talking about. How is it possible […]
-Analysis- PARIS – In Paulo Coelho’s book The Alchemist, the shepherd Santiago travels to the ends of the earth seeking a treasure that was close by all along. And sometimes, too, we find the key to understanding what is happening in our country today by reading about things far away. Two scholarly articles published last […]
MOSCOW – Rattled by a horrific traffic accident in Moscow, Russian authorities have finally turned their attention to strengthening the country’s laws against drunk driving. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said Russia needed to implement a stricter penalty for drunk driving and called it the biggest issue in Russia. On September 22, a man was driving […]
-Analysis- LIMA – The negotiations that are set to begin formally in October are by no means the first attempt to demobilize members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and incorporate the guerilla organization into the political process. There’s no guarantee, therefore, that these talks will succeed where others have failed. And yet […]