The US Virgin Islands ends vehicle searches based on the smell of weed, the drug czar's office is reviewing Drug Free Community grants to ensure they don't promote "the radical left's agenda," and more.

[image:1 align:right caption:true]

Marijuana Policy

US Virgin Islands Court Decision Ends Use of Marijuana Smell as Basis for Vehicle Searches. The US territory has become the latest jurisdiction to end the odor of marijuana as probable cause for a vehicle search after Superior Court Judge Ernest Morris Jr. ruled that the islands' Cannabis Use Act, which legalized marijuana, meant the smell of weed was no longer evidence that a crime had been committed.

The ruling came in the case of three men charged with firearms offenses after a March 2024 traffic stop in Christiansted. An officer reportedly smelled marijuana from within the vehicle and used that as an excuse to search the vehicle, resulting in the seizure of the guns. No marijuana was recovered.

The men's attorneys filed a motion to suppress the evidence, arguing that no probable cause to search the vehicle existed. Judge Morris granted the motion to suppress. In doing so, he noted that the Cannabis Use Act was already in effect at the time of the traffic stop and that because marijuana is legal "it is not inherent that the marijuana in a person’s possession is illegally acquired or is being illegally used."

With their evidence suppressed, prosecutors moved to dismiss the case -- a request Judge Morris promptly granted.

Psychedelics

Alaska Psychedelics Campaign Launches Signature Drive to Put Legalization Measure On 2026 Ballot. State activists have launched a signature-gathering campaign to qualify an initiative that would legalize certain psychedelics on the 2026 ballot.

The Alaska Natural Medicine Act "would establish a comprehensive framework for the legal access, cultivation, and use of natural medicines -- including psilocybin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT), mescaline (excluding peyote), and ibogaine -- for adults aged 21 and older. It also recognizes and protects traditional and indigenous uses of these substances," according to the office of Lieutenant Governor Nancy Dahlstrom, which certified the measure for circulation last month.

If approved by voters next year, the initiative would create a Natural Medicine Control Board to oversee licensing, regulation, and public education; establish a Traditional Use Council to support cultural and spiritual practices; decriminalized personal possession, cultivation, and non-commercial sharing of certain natural medicines; authorize licensed facilities and facilitators to provide therapeutic services; and protect certified traditional practitioners and their clients from criminal penalties.

While "building off of" Colorado's 2022 Natural Medicine Health Act, a campaign policy outline says the measure "shifts away from a restrictive healing center model, allowing individual practitioners to provide [natural medicine] in their offices and at-home facilitation, increasing accessibility in rural communities" that are common in Alaska.

A 2024 poll found that less than half (49.4 percent) of Alaskans would support such a measure, but support rose to nearly two-thirds (65 percent) when participants were told that Alaska has high rates of mental illnesses that could potentially be treated with psychedelics.

Organizers need some 34,098 valid voter signatures to qualify for the ballot. They have one year to come up with them.

Drug Policy

ONDCP To Recompete Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Grants to Ensure Compliance with President Trump’s Executive Orders. The drug czar's office last Friday issued the following statement saying it will review all Drug Free Community grants to ensure they do not further "the radical left's agenda":

"The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has decided to recompete the Awards for the 2025 DFC Support Program to ensure that applicants are in compliance with the President's Executive Orders. DFC Awards are granted every year to drug-free youth coalition organizations across the nation that have applied for federal funding through ONDCP's DFC Support Program.

"It is imperative that ONDCP protects American taxpayer dollars. Our team is working aggressively to put safeguards in place towards advancing President Trump's America-First policy agenda and mission. We are performing due diligence to ensure that absolutely no taxpayer dollars go to furthering the radical left's agenda.

"The money remains available for awards. We want to ensure that the money entrusted to our office is being responsibly allocated to the communities that are actually working to protect our youth from drugs."

(And not for harm reduction.)

International

Urgent Call for Continued WHO Leadership on Harm Reduction. Global advocates for harm reduction earlier this month sent an open letter to the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, "urging WHO to maintain and resource its strong presence, expert capacity, normative guidance and diplomatic voice within the harm reduction, human rights and drug policy spaces, to ensure the continuation of its crucial work in support of harm reduction and people who use drugs, and also through ensuring meaningful involvement of people who use drugs at all levels."

Led by the International Drug Policy Consortium, 177 civil society and community-led organizations joined in saying they "recognize that this is a time of unprecedented challenges for the WHO, as it is for health and human rights movements and stakeholders across the globe. However, we urge you to ensure that current funding cuts and other geopolitical pressures are not allowed to weaken the WHO's role, its political will and its position as the normative leader for harm reduction and programs for people who use drugs."

"Even before the recent pushback and defunding of human rights, health and development agendas, harm reduction was already facing a crisis of funding and political leadership -- despite the overwhelming evidence for its effectiveness," the letter continued. "People who inject drugs were already 14 times more likely to acquire HIV than the rest of the adult population. The funding for harm reduction in low- and middle-income countries was already just 6 percent of the estimated annual resource needs. Service delivery was hampered by disinformation and political resistance. Sweeping cuts to foreign aid this year have had an additional, immediate and devastating effect on programs and those who access them, as well as on the available support for civil society and community-led advocacy, including community networking and empowerment."

"Now more than ever, we need the World Health Organization to lead, protect and promote harm reduction and champion evidence-based, rights-based policies and programs for people who use drugs. A weakened WHO role would inevitably translate into setbacks not only for harm reduction, but for the broader fight against infectious diseases."

One area where the WHO could demonstrate leadership, the letter suggested, is by nominating a panelist on Commission on Narcotic Drugs panel reviewing the implementation of drug policy commitments and considering changes in the international drug control machinery who is "someone with specific expertise in, and an active champion of, harm reduction and human rights, and particularly someone who has a strong connection and relationship with the community of people who use drugs."

Singapore Executes Malay Drug Offender, 11th Execution of the Year. Singapore authorities hanged Malaysian citizen Datchinamurthy Kataiah, 39, last Thursday. He had been convicted of trafficking about 1.6 ounces of heroin into the city-state back in 2011.

His execution marked the 11th so far this year in Singapore, despite rising calls for the abolition of the death penalty.

"Capital punishment is imposed only for the most serious crimes, such as the trafficking of significant quantities of drugs which cause very serious harm, not just to individual drug abusers, but also to their families and the wider society," the Singapore Central Narcotics Bureau said in a statement announcing the killing.

Under Singapore's draconian drug laws, there is a mandatory death sentence for possession of more than 15 grams of heroin or 500 grams of marijuana. Critics say that law has mostly sent low-level mules to the gallows and has done little to stop drug trafficking.

Dozens of human rights and civil society groups last week reiterated calls for an end to the executions. They warned that four other drug offenders are on death row and could killed soon after losing their latest appeals.