International
Germany launches the partial legalization of cannabis between celebrations and criticism
The law that partially legalizes the use and recreational consumption of cannabis in Germany entered into force today after difficult debates within the political, police and health, which hundreds of people took advantage of to meet in Berlin and celebrate – smoking marijuana – the measure, criticized by some doctors and part of the opposition.
About 1,500 Berliners gathered around midnight in front of the Brandenburg Gate along with a one-meter-high model of a hemp leaf and posters on which you could read slots such as “precaution, smokers” or “we don’t want to be criminals.”
More actions of this type are expected this Easter Monday in other places throughout the country.
“I think the legalization of cannabis is right and arrives late. In my opinion, it is important to allow the use of cannabis, especially if its effects are compared with those of alcohol consumption. I also hope that decriminalization will reduce the desire for consumption among young people,” Christian, a native of Hamburg, told EFE.
From today, people over 18 years of age will be able to grow a maximum of three cannabis plants at home for self-consumption or have 50 grams of dried flowers in their private space. 25 grams will be allowed in the public space.
Smoking is prohibited in playgrounds, schools, sports facilities, including soccer stadiums, and facilities for children and young people, and in sight of them. It will also not be possible to consume cannabis between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. in pedestrian areas.
From July 1, it will be legal to create clubs with up to 500 members who will be able to grow cannabis collectively and non-commercially and exchange it between them for private consumption.
Distribution and sale are still prohibited, as is driving a motor vehicle under the influence of the drug.
There is no legal limit for cannabis behind the wheel as with alcohol. Given the legal vacuum, a commission of experts proposed a maximum concentration of 3.5 nanograms per milliliter of blood serum for the active ingredient THC.
Anyone who exceeds the grams allowed for personal use faces penalties of up to 30,000 euros or in the worst case prison sentences.
From the perspective of those who oppose legalization, the limit of cannabis possession allowed by law is too high.
The German Medical Association considers that 50 grams per month “corresponds to high-risk consumption and leads to cannabis-related disorders.”
The Ministry of Health argues that legal cannabis must also be available in larger quantities if the illegal black market is to be undermined.
The Minister of Justice, Marco Buschmann, also argues that the legalization will ease the pressure on justice and the police in the medium term. Currently, more than 100,000 criminal proceedings are open against cannabis users.
The road to the partial legalization of cannabis was not easy in the Central European country, where the main opposition party, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has already said that it will reverse the law if it reaches the Government.
The measure, proposed by the Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, in April of last year, obtained – in a strongly modified version – on February 23 the approval of the Lower House, with the vote in favor of the government coalition of social democrats, greens and liberals, as well as the left.
But the measure was about to derail in the Upper House, in which the governments of the 16 federal states are represented and where several of them had shown their opposition.
A commitment offered by Lauterbach at the last minute to regularly introduce controls in cannabis clubs and the promise of federal support for prevention measures made it possible to carry out the measure on March 22.
Meanwhile, the Government Commissioner for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Burkhard Blienert, has already asked that a decision now also be made on the pilot projects for the cannabis trade.
“It’s the only way to ensure that occasional consumers don’t have to go to camels either,” he says.
Initially the Government also wanted to allow the sale of cannabis in stores with a state license, but it ruled out the idea after the concerns expressed by the European Commission
International
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
The power of criminal gangs in Haiti continues to grow and at the moment they control about 85% of the capital, Port-au-Prince, according to “certain estimates” that this Monday were cited in the UN Security Council by Miroslav Jenca, Undersecretary General for Europe, Asia and the Americas in the UN Political Affairs Department.
The gangs have begun to attack the places of “relative security” that remained in the capital, such as the Petionville neighborhood, where UN offices, embassies and foreign personnel are located. There, an attack recorded last Tuesday left “dozens dead,” he said.
In response, spontaneous groups of neighbors have begun to organize armed patrols, to set up unofficial road controls “and to take justice into their hands,” Jenca lamented.
The number of displaced people reaches 700,000
In the vast areas where gangs have control, the security and human rights of their inhabitants are in danger, and especially those of women, since gang members resort to all forms of violence, often sexual violence, to subjugate neighbors.
This situation has caused 700,000 Haitians to flee their homes and are now in a situation of “internally displaced people.”
Despite this, neighboring countries continue to deport Haitians (170,000 so far), mainly from the Dominican Republic, although Jenca did not cite this country.
What is the situation of the Multinational Mission to contain gangs in Haiti?
The Multinational Security Mission that was supposed to train the Haitian police has so far received only 400 agents of the 2,500 that it must gather, mainly due to lack of funds, and the prospects are so pessimistic that the Government of Haiti has already asked that the MMS be transformed into a classic mission of “blue helmets”.
However, this will not be easy because so far Russia and China oppose the deployment of a peace mission in Haiti arguing that the last mission of this type left the country among very serious accusations of sexual abuse and having caused and spread in 2010 a cholera epidemic that was fatal for the country, leaving thousands dead.
International
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
An Oslo court issued this Wednesday preventive detention of one week with a ban on visits for Marius Borg Høiby, son of Princess Mette-Marit of Norway, for two cases of rape of two different women.
Høiby, 27 years old and the result of a previous relationship with the princess, had been arrested on Monday night for the third time since August for an alleged rape, but the Prosecutor’s Office revealed today at the end of the hearing, held behind closed doors, that another case had been discovered during the investigation.
The young man, who is not part of the Royal House, is also being investigated for injuries and damages against three of his ex-girlfriends and for threats to a man.
Prison for two cases of rape in Norway
The hearing began at 14:00 local time (13:00 GMT) and ended two hours later, but Judge Anne-Lene Åvangen Hødnebø did not issue her opinion until after 22:00.
According to public television NRK, the police used as evidence recordings found on Høiby’s phone.
In both cases it is sexual intercourse without penetration, reported the Prosecutor’s Office, which had requested two weeks in prison.
“The reason we asked for two weeks is that we discovered another violation last night. It is a case of sexual relationship without intercourse with a woman unable to resist the act. We are investigating two rape cases,” prosecutor Andreas Kruszewski said at the end of the hearing.
HØiby’s lawyer, Øyvind Bratlien, stated that his defendant denies the accusations and described the allegations as a “catastrophic” error of judgment.
Three arrests since August
Høiby was arrested on Monday night when he was driving with his ex-girlfriend, the protagonist of the incident that led to the first arrest and which he is forbidden to contact.
His home in Skaugum, on the same property where Crown Princes Haakon and Mette-Marit reside, was searched by police officers.
According to Norwegian media, the first alleged rape occurred at the young woman’s home in March of this year; the other, in her residence in Skaugum a few weeks ago.
It is the third arrest of Høiby, who was arrested a few hours ago in early August after an incident in his ex-girlfriend’s apartment and was accused of injuries, damage and threats, in a case that was later expanded and that also includes two of his previous partners and another person.
Høiby admitted a few days after his arrest in August in a statement part of the accusations and admitted to having problems with alcohol and other drugs and suffering from mental problems.
The Royal House is reluctant to talk about the case
The Norwegian Royal House has been reluctant to comment on the case of the young Marius Borg Høiby, which has generated a lot of media attention in this Nordic country, and only Prince Haakon has made statements.
“I think Marius faces serious accusations. The judicial system must do its job,” Haakon said today from Jamaica, where he attended an event organized by the UN.
The heir to the Norwegian throne said that as “parents” they have tried to get the young man to receive “help.”
Høiby is the result of a previous relationship of Mette-Marit and has no official commitments to the Royal House, although he attends some celebrations such as the birthdays of his stepbrothers and has always maintained the relationship with both Haakon and Kings Harald V and Sonia.
International
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
The Ethics Committee of the US House of Representatives did not make public this Wednesday due to lack of agreement the report of its investigation into Matt Gaetz, nominated by President-elect Donald Trump, to be the next attorney general and investigated for inappropriate sexual behavior and drug use.
The president of that commission, Republican Michael Guest, told the press at the end of the nearly two-hour meeting at the Capitol that there was no consensus among the members when making that document public.
That body was going to put its decision to a vote last Friday, but Gaetz’s resignation from his seat two days earlier, after being appointed by Trump, delayed that scrutiny and effectively ended the investigations into him.
Although with the departure of the Florida representative of Congress, the commission was left without jurisdiction to investigate him, the publication of the conclusions of his investigation opened in 2021 for alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, irregular use of campaign funds, acceptance of bribes and drug use was still in the air.
Committee interviews
The committee interviewed two women who testified that Gaetz, nominated for attorney general, paid them for having sex at a party in Florida, where prostitution is illegal.
According to the women’s lawyer to the NBC News channel, Joel Leppard, one of them also testified that she saw Gaetz having sex with a minor, although he said that he did not think he knew that he was 17 years old at the time.
Gaetz has denied those accusations and Trump’s transition team considers them unfounded and recalls that the Department of Justice closed a parallel investigation without charges.
Review of the report
Several senators, both Republicans and Democrats, had said that they wanted to review that report before the Judicial Committee of the Upper House examines Gaetz’s nomination next year and then the plenary of that hemicycle validates or stops it.
The authorization of the positions of the future cabinet depends on the Senate, but until then Gaetz has the support of Trump, who has stated that he does not question his own decision, and also of the future vice president, JD Vance, who accompanied him to Congress this Wednesday.
Report on Gaetz next attorney general has had leaks
However, although the House Committee on the House of Representatives stopped the dissemination of the report, there have already been leaks in the national press.
The lawyer of the two women indicated that they provided that committee with numerous photos related to the time they spent with the Republican, who according to that lawyer paid 6,000 dollars to one and 4,000 to another to sleep with them.
The leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Mike Johnson, had wanted to stay out of the committee’s decision, but at the same time he did not consider it appropriate for it to disseminate his investigation: “That would open Pandora’s box and I don’t think it’s something healthy for the institution,” he said.
85% of Haiti’s capital has fallen into the power of gangs, according to UN reports
One-week preventive detention for Princess Mette-Marit’s son of Norway for rape
The next attorney general Matt Gaetz manages to stop the report on his sex scandal
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