Spanish Police on Sunday announced the interception of a tug boat carrying seven tonnes of hashish. Reportedly, a gang was attempting to smuggle the seven tonnes of hashish into the Spain. This interception marked one of the largest drug busts in the country this year.

The drugs were being carried by three members of a gang in mid-April. The police had stopped a converted tug boat in the sea off the southern coast of Spain. It had 200 packets of hashish, Reuters reported the police as saying.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/india-news/myanmar-drug-surge-worry-for-neighbours-including-india-381602" hreflang="en">Myanmar drug surge worry for neighbours including India</a>

The drugs gang was being under the radar of Spanish, Dutch, and French police since March 2020. Reportedly, the group had previously smuggled large quantities of hashish into different countries in Europe. The police have not specified which countries yet.

"This is one of the biggest operations against drugs (gangs) this year, with more than seven tonnes of hashish seized, which reduces the activity of criminal organizations based in the Straits of Gibraltar," the Civil Guard announced in a statement.

Also read:&nbsp;<a href="http://13.235.153.162/world/us-lifts-barriers-to-prescribing-addiction-treatment-drug-380949" hreflang="en">US lifts barriers to prescribing addiction treatment drug&nbsp;</a>

The police also said that the gang operates out of the southern city of Huelva. Even then, the nationalities of those arrested have not been revealed. On Sunday, May 2, the police released video footage of the boat which was carrying the drugs which were seized last month.

Spanish Police on Sunday announced the interception of a tug boat carrying seven tonnes of hashish. Reportedly, a gang was attempting to smuggle the seven tonnes of hashish into the Spain.

Spanish Police on Sunday announced the interception of a tug boat carrying seven tonnes of hashish. Reportedly, a gang was attempting to smuggle the seven tonnes of hashish into the Spain. This interception marked one of the largest drug busts in the country this year. The drugs were being carried by three members of a gang in mid-April. The police had stopped a converted tug boat in the sea off the southern coast of Spain. It had 200 packets of hashish, Reuters reported the police as saying. Also read: Myanmar drug surge worry for neighbours including India The drugs gang was being under the radar of Spanish, Dutch, and French police since March 2020. Reportedly, the group had previously smuggled large quantities of hashish into different countries in Europe. The police have not specified which countries yet. "This is one of the biggest operations against drugs (gangs) this year, with more than seven tonnes of hashish seized, which reduces the activity of criminal organizations based in the Straits of Gibraltar," the Civil Guard announced in a statement. Also read: US lifts barriers to prescribing addiction treatment drug The police also said that the gang operates out of the southern city of Huelva. Even then, the nationalities of those arrested have not been revealed. On Sunday, May 2, the police released video footage of the boat which was carrying the drugs which were seized last month.

Spanish police bust gang trying to smuggle 7 tonnes of hashish into Europe

In a Lebanese farming village of rocky soil and stone villas, cannabis grows everywhere.

It fills the fields that surround the village and lines nearby roads where the army operates checkpoints. It sprouts in the weedy patches between homes and is mixed with other colorful blooms in flower beds.

There is a cannabis crop near the mosque, and down the road from a giant yellow flag for Hezbollah, the militant group and political party whose leaders forbid its use on religious grounds.

Jamal Chraif, the mukhtar, or village chief, of Yamouneh, praised cannabis as “a blessed shrub” for what he called its many beneficial properties and the ease of its cultivation.

“There is something sacred about it,” he said. “God makes it grow.” 
 
<img alt="Syrian workers load a truck with cannabis in Yammouneh in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, a cannabis growing region, September 24, 2020. (Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times) " data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0977d488-96e8-4b61-904b-f029b867161b" src="//cdn.wionews.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/11.JPG" />

Syrian workers load a truck with cannabis in Yammouneh in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, a cannabis growing region, September 24, 2020. (Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times)&nbsp;

But for the first time since he began growing cannabis two decades ago, Chraif planted none this year because a chain of events has erased most of the profits that used to come with the village’s main product: the hashish extracted from the plant. Instead, he is focusing on apples.

He blames the woes afflicting the village, and Lebanon in general, on cosmic forces, including aliens, the Antichrist and the Bermuda Triangle — an explanation that could have been inspired by the drug itself.

The reality is more terrestrial. The Lebanese pound has lost 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar since last fall, and farmers have taken the hit. The costs of imported fuel and fertilizer needed to grow the crop have soared, while the Lebanese pounds that growers earn by selling their hash are worth less and less.

Lebanon’s financial crisis has also undermined the drug’s domestic market, and the war in Syria has snarled smuggling routes, making it harder for middlemen to reach foreign markets.

This has forced painful choices in Yamouneh, a picturesque hamlet in a neglected pocket of Lebanon where drugs, poverty, religion and stunning natural beauty converge in unexpected ways.

For as long as anyone alive can remember, the yearly cycle in Yamouneh has been driven by the planting, weeding and harvesting of cannabis.

The hashish extracted from the plant and sold to smugglers who spirit it out of the country has done more than any other crop to help the village residents edge out of abject poverty. It has provided reliable income not offered by their legal, more fickle crops, like apples and potatoes, and funded home expansions, truck purchases and children’s educations.

Now, the drug earns so little that some growers in Yamouneh doubt it is still worth producing.

“It’s over,” Chraif said. “Now, growing hashish is a hobby.”

The production here and in other communities made Lebanon the world’s third largest hashish supplier, after Morocco and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations.

Although hashish, a cannabis concentrate with high levels of THC, is illegal to produce, possess and sell in Lebanon, the government this year passed a law legalizing some cannabis cultivation for medicinal purposes. The law has yet to be implemented, and the cannabis grown in Yamouneh remains illegal because of its high THC content.

Now Lebanon’s economic crisis threatens to do what years of army raids and government efforts to combat the drug never did: reduce hashish production.

While fondly recalling the days when a kilogram of hashish easily fetched between $500 and $800 — and the few years when the price shot above $1,000 — the farmers fear the earnings for this year’s product could fall to around $100 per kilo, or about $45 a pound.

“If the situation stays like this, we won’t plant,” one longtime grower said, speaking on condition of anonymity like others to avoid legal jeopardy. “Hope has been cut off.”

But the full effects of hashish’s declining appeal as a cash crop are yet to be seen in the village. Even as some farmers are abandoning it, others are still clinging on.

During a recent visit, scores of Syrian refugees swung scythes to fell waist-high cannabis plants outside town, then piled the cut stalks into large bales. Most were minors, some as young as 9, who said they welcomed the work since fears of the coronavirus had shut their schools.

They earned about $2.50 for a long day in the sun.

The landowner looked on, occasionally raising a shotgun from his shoulder to fire at birds overhead. He had grown up with hashish and said this was the worst year he had ever seen. The costs for imported supplies — fuel, fertilizer and plastic sheeting to bale the harvest — ate into his profits, but tradition kept him growing.

“We were born into this,” he said. “If there were no hashish here, you wouldn’t see a single house in the village.”

The 5,000 or so citizens of Yamouneh, at the base of a mountain in the Bekaa Valley, are Shiite Muslims. Nearly all share the same last name, Chraif. About 1,200 Syrians have settled in the area to look for work and escape the war across the border.

Talal Chraif, the mayor and elected head of the village council — and a rare resident who says he has never grown cannabis — attributed its prominence to chronic unemployment and the plant’s suitability for the local environment.

“No sickness afflicts it. The bugs don’t attack it. The lack of water doesn’t affect it,” Chraif said. “There is a guarantee with the crop, and that is why the farmers went in that direction.”

He recalled the old days when the Lebanese government, with funding from the United States, tried to snuff out cannabis, dispatching soldiers to torch fields and sparking clashes with armed growers. But those efforts yielded to official neglect about a decade ago.

“It reached a state where they realized, because of the poverty, ‘Let’s leave those people alone and act like we don’t see them,’” Chraif said.

Efforts to replace cannabis with sunflowers and saffron never took off.

Two years ago, as Lebanon’s finances slid toward the abyss, McKinsey, the consulting giant, generated a national buzz by suggesting that legal cannabis cultivation could earn the country big profits.

“The quality we have is one of the best in the world,” Raed Khoury, the economy minister at the time, said, suggesting it could spawn a $1 billion industry.

Lebanon did legalize cannabis in February, the first Arab country to do so. But the government has made no progress since on implementing the law.

And since hashish is still illegal, and the government would be able to tax legal strains of cannabis, Yamouneh’s farmers, long used to operating outside the law, opposed legalization.

The many two- and three-story villas and pricey SUVs out front bear testament to the cash that hashish has brought to the village, but residents say the big money has always gone to the smugglers.

As he was receiving struggling farmers outside his home, the mayor said he expected hashish production to drop by as much as half this year as growers struggle to make ends meet.

“They are asking, ‘Why should I grow it if I am going to lose?’” he said. “They smoke it themselves to forget their worries.”

In a Lebanese farming village of rocky soil and stone villas, cannabis grows everywhere. It fills the fields that surround the village and lines nearby roads where the army operates checkpoints.

In a Lebanese farming village of rocky soil and stone villas, cannabis grows everywhere. It fills the fields that surround the village and lines nearby roads where the army operates checkpoints. It sprouts in the weedy patches between homes and is mixed with other colorful blooms in flower beds. There is a cannabis crop near the mosque, and down the road from a giant yellow flag for Hezbollah, the militant group and political party whose leaders forbid its use on religious grounds. Jamal Chraif, the mukhtar, or village chief, of Yamouneh, praised cannabis as “a blessed shrub” for what he called its many beneficial properties and the ease of its cultivation. “There is something sacred about it,” he said. “God makes it grow.” Syrian workers load a truck with cannabis in Yammouneh in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon, a cannabis growing region, September 24, 2020. (Diego Ibarra Sanchez/The New York Times) But for the first time since he began growing cannabis two decades ago, Chraif planted none this year because a chain of events has erased most of the profits that used to come with the village’s main product: the hashish extracted from the plant. Instead, he is focusing on apples. He blames the woes afflicting the village, and Lebanon in general, on cosmic forces, including aliens, the Antichrist and the Bermuda Triangle — an explanation that could have been inspired by the drug itself. The reality is more terrestrial. The Lebanese pound has lost 80% of its value against the U.S. dollar since last fall, and farmers have taken the hit. The costs of imported fuel and fertilizer needed to grow the crop have soared, while the Lebanese pounds that growers earn by selling their hash are worth less and less. Lebanon’s financial crisis has also undermined the drug’s domestic market, and the war in Syria has snarled smuggling routes, making it harder for middlemen to reach foreign markets. This has forced painful choices in Yamouneh, a picturesque hamlet in a neglected pocket of Lebanon where drugs, poverty, religion and stunning natural beauty converge in unexpected ways. For as long as anyone alive can remember, the yearly cycle in Yamouneh has been driven by the planting, weeding and harvesting of cannabis. The hashish extracted from the plant and sold to smugglers who spirit it out of the country has done more than any other crop to help the village residents edge out of abject poverty. It has provided reliable income not offered by their legal, more fickle crops, like apples and potatoes, and funded home expansions, truck purchases and children’s educations. Now, the drug earns so little that some growers in Yamouneh doubt it is still worth producing. “It’s over,” Chraif said. “Now, growing hashish is a hobby.” The production here and in other communities made Lebanon the world’s third largest hashish supplier, after Morocco and Afghanistan, according to the United Nations. Although hashish, a cannabis concentrate with high levels of THC, is illegal to produce, possess and sell in Lebanon, the government this year passed a law legalizing some cannabis cultivation for medicinal purposes. The law has yet to be implemented, and the cannabis grown in Yamouneh remains illegal because of its high THC content. Now Lebanon’s economic crisis threatens to do what years of army raids and government efforts to combat the drug never did: reduce hashish production. While fondly recalling the days when a kilogram of hashish easily fetched between $500 and $800 — and the few years when the price shot above $1,000 — the farmers fear the earnings for this year’s product could fall to around $100 per kilo, or about $45 a pound. “If the situation stays like this, we won’t plant,” one longtime grower said, speaking on condition of anonymity like others to avoid legal jeopardy. “Hope has been cut off.” But the full effects of hashish’s declining appeal as a cash crop are yet to be seen in the village. Even as some farmers are abandoning it, others are still clinging on. During a recent visit, scores of Syrian refugees swung scythes to fell waist-high cannabis plants outside town, then piled the cut stalks into large bales. Most were minors, some as young as 9, who said they welcomed the work since fears of the coronavirus had shut their schools. They earned about $2.50 for a long day in the sun. The landowner looked on, occasionally raising a shotgun from his shoulder to fire at birds overhead. He had grown up with hashish and said this was the worst year he had ever seen. The costs for imported supplies — fuel, fertilizer and plastic sheeting to bale the harvest — ate into his profits, but tradition kept him growing. “We were born into this,” he said. “If there were no hashish here, you wouldn’t see a single house in the village.” The 5,000 or so citizens of Yamouneh, at the base of a mountain in the Bekaa Valley, are Shiite Muslims. Nearly all share the same last name, Chraif. About 1,200 Syrians have settled in the area to look for work and escape the war across the border. Talal Chraif, the mayor and elected head of the village council — and a rare resident who says he has never grown cannabis — attributed its prominence to chronic unemployment and the plant’s suitability for the local environment. “No sickness afflicts it. The bugs don’t attack it. The lack of water doesn’t affect it,” Chraif said. “There is a guarantee with the crop, and that is why the farmers went in that direction.” He recalled the old days when the Lebanese government, with funding from the United States, tried to snuff out cannabis, dispatching soldiers to torch fields and sparking clashes with armed growers. But those efforts yielded to official neglect about a decade ago. “It reached a state where they realized, because of the poverty, ‘Let’s leave those people alone and act like we don’t see them,’” Chraif said. Efforts to replace cannabis with sunflowers and saffron never took off. Two years ago, as Lebanon’s finances slid toward the abyss, McKinsey, the consulting giant, generated a national buzz by suggesting that legal cannabis cultivation could earn the country big profits. “The quality we have is one of the best in the world,” Raed Khoury, the economy minister at the time, said, suggesting it could spawn a $1 billion industry. Lebanon did legalize cannabis in February, the first Arab country to do so. But the government has made no progress since on implementing the law. And since hashish is still illegal, and the government would be able to tax legal strains of cannabis, Yamouneh’s farmers, long used to operating outside the law, opposed legalization. The many two- and three-story villas and pricey SUVs out front bear testament to the cash that hashish has brought to the village, but residents say the big money has always gone to the smugglers. As he was receiving struggling farmers outside his home, the mayor said he expected hashish production to drop by as much as half this year as growers struggle to make ends meet. “They are asking, ‘Why should I grow it if I am going to lose?’” he said. “They smoke it themselves to forget their worries.”

‘If there were no hashish here, you wouldn’t see a single house’

Niaz Ali is a deeply religious man: He prays five times a day and visits the mosque as frequently as possible. But he also loves to smoke hashish - lots of it.

Despite it being forbidden by his faith, the 50 year-old estimates he spends about 30 percent of his earnings as a cab driver on the habit.

His love affair with cannabis began as an occasional puff with friends when he was a teenager, but has since morphed into a full-blown addiction for the father-of-nine.

&quot;It is a sacred plant. A sacred intoxication,&quot; says Ali, who asked to use a pseudonym, after taking a fresh rip off a hookah packed with pungent hash in Pakistan`s bustling northwestern town of Peshawar.

&quot;It&#39;s like a second wife, this addiction,&quot; he sighs.

While Ali freely acknowledges using hash runs counter to the tenets of Islam, he insists it has its advantages.

&quot;We know that it is haram but it`s an intoxication that doesn`t harm anyone else,&quot; he explains.

In conservative Pakistan, an Islamic republic, the consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden for Muslims. Any semblance of a sybaritic nightlife takes place at home behind closed doors, where the country`s elite have been known to quaff booze.

But many Pakistanis are surprisingly open to using cannabis, with the spongy, black hash made from marijuana grown in the country&#39;s tribal belt and neighbouring Afghanistan the preferred variant of the drug.

Whereas alcohol is explicitly forbidden in Islamic scripture, hash seemingly straddles a theological gray zone, which could explain its popularity in the country.

Even if most observant Muslims in Pakistan scoff at the idea of drinking, a prod into their feelings on marijuana often triggers a wry smile followed by a trite maxim about how good it makes food taste or how restful sleep can be after a toke.

People have been smoking hash on the subcontinent for centuries.

It predates the arrival of Islam in the region, with reference to cannabis appearing in the sacred Hindu Atharva Veda text describing its medicinal and ritual uses.

According to a 2013 UN survey, cannabis was the most widely consumed drug in Pakistan with around four million users, representing 3.6 percent of the population -- a figure that has drawn scepticism in a country where reliable data can be hard to come by.

&quot;It&#39;s an underestimation,&quot; says Dr Parveen Azam Khan, president of the Dost Welfare Foundation, a nonprofit that treats drug addicts in Peshawar.

Despite its widespread consumption, not all are happy about hash`s prevalence in the so-called &quot;Land of the Pure&quot;.

&quot;There is no compromise with hashish,&quot; says Maulana Mohammad Tayyab Qureshi, the imam of the main Peshawar mosque. 
According to Qureshi, anything that causes intoxication or bodily harm is strictly forbidden in the faith. He chalks up marijuana&#39;s popularity in Pakistan as a law enforcement issue.

Public health experts also warn the ubiquitous availability of cheap hash in Pakistan`s northwest has been especially harmful to impoverished children, who increasingly use the drug to deal with the hardships of poverty and trauma from years of militant violence.

&quot;For children, it`s the drug of choice,&quot; says Dr. Khan, blaming the vicious nexus between the region`s narco-funded insurgencies and widespread drug use for the scourge.

Pakistan also remains wholly unequipped to handle the problem, with the UN survey saying a dearth of treatment clinics and prohibitive costs keeps users from seeking help.

But in Islamic shrines salted across the country others see cannabis as more benign.

At the Bari Badshah shrine in the heart of Peshawar, followers of the Sufi sect of Islam gather in a small courtyard nightly, where they smoke copious amounts of hash and listen to devotional music while draining tea by the kettle.

Conversations are fluid, only to be interrupted by hard drags off hash pipes with the occasional song performed by one of the devotees.

&quot;The basic work of hash... it wakes up new corners in your mind,&quot; says Mohammed Amin, 50.

According to Sayeed Asjid, 27, such shrines are welcome to members of any faith and in Peshawar are frequented by high-level bureaucrats, police officers and members of security agencies.

&quot;It&#39;s a deep relaxation,&quot; says Asjid of the cannabis high as he exhales clouds of marijuana smoke.

But Sufi shrines have been the frequent target over the years by Taliban militants and sectarian extremists like the Islamic State group, who view the mystical sect as heretical.

&quot;That was only to spread fear and havoc,&quot; says Asjid of the attacks, while expressing his faith in the power of the shrine to protect.

The herb is not only enjoyed by free-spirited Sufi mystics.

Mehwish, a single mother of three, says the occasional joint helps manage the stress that comes with the daily grind.

&quot;You can use hash when you are alone... then you can think in a relaxed way,&quot; says Mehwish, whose name has been changed on request.

Although she admits most of her family are unaware of her habit, the 26-year-old is a firm believer in its benefits.

She adds: &quot;When you feel good and you`re active and it puts a smile on your face then nobody minds.&quot;

In conservative Pakistan, an Islamic republic, the consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden for Muslims. Any semblance of a sybaritic nightlife takes place at home behind closed doors, where the country`s elite have been known to quaff booze.

Niaz Ali is a deeply religious man: He prays five times a day and visits the mosque as frequently as possible. But he also loves to smoke hashish - lots of it. Despite it being forbidden by his faith, the 50 year-old estimates he spends about 30 percent of his earnings as a cab driver on the habit. His love affair with cannabis began as an occasional puff with friends when he was a teenager, but has since morphed into a full-blown addiction for the father-of-nine. "It is a sacred plant. A sacred intoxication," says Ali, who asked to use a pseudonym, after taking a fresh rip off a hookah packed with pungent hash in Pakistan`s bustling northwestern town of Peshawar. "It's like a second wife, this addiction," he sighs. While Ali freely acknowledges using hash runs counter to the tenets of Islam, he insists it has its advantages. "We know that it is haram but it`s an intoxication that doesn`t harm anyone else," he explains. In conservative Pakistan, an Islamic republic, the consumption of alcohol is strictly forbidden for Muslims. Any semblance of a sybaritic nightlife takes place at home behind closed doors, where the country`s elite have been known to quaff booze. But many Pakistanis are surprisingly open to using cannabis, with the spongy, black hash made from marijuana grown in the country's tribal belt and neighbouring Afghanistan the preferred variant of the drug. Whereas alcohol is explicitly forbidden in Islamic scripture, hash seemingly straddles a theological gray zone, which could explain its popularity in the country. Even if most observant Muslims in Pakistan scoff at the idea of drinking, a prod into their feelings on marijuana often triggers a wry smile followed by a trite maxim about how good it makes food taste or how restful sleep can be after a toke. People have been smoking hash on the subcontinent for centuries. It predates the arrival of Islam in the region, with reference to cannabis appearing in the sacred Hindu Atharva Veda text describing its medicinal and ritual uses. According to a 2013 UN survey, cannabis was the most widely consumed drug in Pakistan with around four million users, representing 3.6 percent of the population -- a figure that has drawn scepticism in a country where reliable data can be hard to come by. "It's an underestimation," says Dr Parveen Azam Khan, president of the Dost Welfare Foundation, a nonprofit that treats drug addicts in Peshawar. Despite its widespread consumption, not all are happy about hash`s prevalence in the so-called "Land of the Pure". "There is no compromise with hashish," says Maulana Mohammad Tayyab Qureshi, the imam of the main Peshawar mosque. According to Qureshi, anything that causes intoxication or bodily harm is strictly forbidden in the faith. He chalks up marijuana's popularity in Pakistan as a law enforcement issue. Public health experts also warn the ubiquitous availability of cheap hash in Pakistan`s northwest has been especially harmful to impoverished children, who increasingly use the drug to deal with the hardships of poverty and trauma from years of militant violence. "For children, it`s the drug of choice," says Dr. Khan, blaming the vicious nexus between the region`s narco-funded insurgencies and widespread drug use for the scourge. Pakistan also remains wholly unequipped to handle the problem, with the UN survey saying a dearth of treatment clinics and prohibitive costs keeps users from seeking help. But in Islamic shrines salted across the country others see cannabis as more benign. At the Bari Badshah shrine in the heart of Peshawar, followers of the Sufi sect of Islam gather in a small courtyard nightly, where they smoke copious amounts of hash and listen to devotional music while draining tea by the kettle. Conversations are fluid, only to be interrupted by hard drags off hash pipes with the occasional song performed by one of the devotees. "The basic work of hash... it wakes up new corners in your mind," says Mohammed Amin, 50. According to Sayeed Asjid, 27, such shrines are welcome to members of any faith and in Peshawar are frequented by high-level bureaucrats, police officers and members of security agencies. "It's a deep relaxation," says Asjid of the cannabis high as he exhales clouds of marijuana smoke. But Sufi shrines have been the frequent target over the years by Taliban militants and sectarian extremists like the Islamic State group, who view the mystical sect as heretical. "That was only to spread fear and havoc," says Asjid of the attacks, while expressing his faith in the power of the shrine to protect. The herb is not only enjoyed by free-spirited Sufi mystics. Mehwish, a single mother of three, says the occasional joint helps manage the stress that comes with the daily grind. "You can use hash when you are alone... then you can think in a relaxed way," says Mehwish, whose name has been changed on request. Although she admits most of her family are unaware of her habit, the 26-year-old is a firm believer in its benefits. She adds: "When you feel good and you`re active and it puts a smile on your face then nobody minds."

High and dry: Pakistan's penchant for hash

Israeli soldiers who smoke cannabis have so far been systematically court-martialled and have received prison sentences of up to two months but the army said Wednesday that it would begin to ease up on the policy.&nbsp;

Danny Efroni, the general overseeing the reform, told military radio Wednesday that soldiers caught smoking marijuana (while on leave) would no longer be court-martialled nor sent to prison.&nbsp;

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="row">
<div class="article-blockquote">
<div class="col-sm-10 col-sm-offset-1 blockquote-content quoteshare">
<blockquote>
<h5>The pot-smoking soldiers would have to undergo regular tests to ascertain that, after their &#39;misdemeanour&#39;, they are staying away from the drug</h5>
</blockquote>
</div>

<div class="col-sm-1 blockquote-content">
<div class="share-blockquote"><a class="twitter popup" href="http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=The pot-smoking soldiers would have to undergo regular tests to ascertain that, after their 'misdemeanour', they are staying away from the drug" target="_blank">&nbsp;</a></div>
</div>
<a class="close-mark close-div" href="#" id="jqquoteclosemark">&times;</a></div>
</div>
</div>

But that they would after that have to undergo regular tests to ascertain that, after their &quot;misdemeanour&quot;, they are staying away from the drug. &nbsp;

The new policy -- which goes into effect January 1 -- does not apply to soldiers on duty.&nbsp;

&quot;We are offering soldiers the chance to continue their service normally and not be imprisoned and hindered by a criminal record in civilian life,&quot; AFP reported&nbsp;Efroni as saying.

&quot;The army wants to give a second chance to soldiers who want to complete a proper military service and to return to the right path,&quot; AFP reported the military as saying in a statement.&nbsp;

The use of marijuana is illegal in Israel except for medical purposes.

The Haaretz daily reported that 128 soldiers were convicted last year for using narcotics.&nbsp;

(WION with inputs from AFP)

Offending soldiers will no longer be systematically court-martialled nor receive prison sentences of up to two months

Israeli soldiers who smoke cannabis have so far been systematically court-martialled and have received prison sentences of up to two months but the army said Wednesday that it would begin to ease up on the policy. Danny Efroni, the general overseeing the reform, told military radio Wednesday that soldiers caught smoking marijuana (while on leave) would no longer be court-martialled nor sent to prison. The pot-smoking soldiers would have to undergo regular tests to ascertain that, after their 'misdemeanour', they are staying away from the drug × But that they would after that have to undergo regular tests to ascertain that, after their "misdemeanour", they are staying away from the drug. The new policy -- which goes into effect January 1 -- does not apply to soldiers on duty. "We are offering soldiers the chance to continue their service normally and not be imprisoned and hindered by a criminal record in civilian life," AFP reported Efroni as saying. "The army wants to give a second chance to soldiers who want to complete a proper military service and to return to the right path," AFP reported the military as saying in a statement. The use of marijuana is illegal in Israel except for medical purposes. The Haaretz daily reported that 128 soldiers were convicted last year for using narcotics. (WION with inputs from AFP)

Israel to go easy on soldiers who smoke pot (while on leave)

hashish

Hashish, News on Hashish, stories on Hashish, articles on Hashish, Hashish stories at Wion, Hashish news, Hashish latest news