July 2014
3 reports. Seizures 1 · Prosecutions 1 · Sentences 1
Syria's courts report a jump in drug cases
A judicial source told a government newspaper that 620 drug cases had come before the courts in four months, 115 of them in Damascus, against fewer than 500 in the whole of 2013. He recalled that trafficking carries ten years to death under the 1993 law, that whoever plants cannabis is treated as a trader, and that the law regards addicts as the victims of dealers.
An Alabama veteran gets life without parole for a marijuana garden
Police looking for stolen property in 2011 found a few dozen marijuana plants at the house Lee Carroll Brooker, a disabled veteran with chronic pain, shared with his son in Alabama. Weighed with stalks and leaves, the plants came to about 2.8 pounds, over the 2.2-pound trafficking threshold.
Isle of Man offers drug education to eligible first-time possession offenders
A Drug Arrest Referral Scheme introduced in 2014 let eligible first offenders caught with small personal quantities complete drug education and receive a caution. The government's 2024 review says most referrals involved cannabis, especially among under-18s, and records 93 completions from 108 entrants in 2021/22.