News
in
Brief
7/2/99
Jane Tseng, [email protected] Jamaican Official Calls for Hemp Cultivation Last Friday (6/25) the Jamaican national security justice minister encouraged farmers in his country to cultivate hemp in hopes it will help the Jamaican economy. Before the Parliament, K.D. Knight said that hemp cannot be used as a narcotic drug, and thus there is no law forbidding its cultivation. Though Knight made it clear that it is unacceptable to grow marijuana, the National Alliance for the Legalization of Ganja (marijuana) found Knight's statements to be encouraging. The organization says it will lobby for a referendum in which voters can decide whether or not the cultivation of marijuana should be legal. The Jamaican government currently allows researchers to study marijuana only with prior governmental approval. China Executes 71 on U.N. Anti-Drug Day Seventy-one people were executed for drug trafficking in China by firing squads on Saturday, June 26. The day marked the United Nations' "International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking." The Chinese press reported that at least 98 additional people were sentenced to death or executed for drug trafficking in the days prior to the holiday in provinces across China. The offenses of those executed ranged from manufacturing 2,085 pounds of amphetamines to selling 14 pounds of heroin. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has opposed the death penalty and called for an end to executions worldwide. Last year, officials in Iran called for an end to the death penalty for traffickers in that country, saying it had not solved the drug problem.
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
