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Malta

Malta becomes first EU country to legalise cannabis for personal use

Citizens aged over 18 will be allowed to carry up to seven grams of cannabis and grow up to four cannabis plants at home.

Germany

German police bust cocaine smuggling network from South America

The gang is also accused of using fake companies to fraudulently apply for aid from coronavirus relief programmes.

Culture news

Wild Boys: Duran Duran ordered drugs on room service in the 80s

The British band's favourite West Hollywood haunt delivered enough substances to see them through the decade twice over.

United Kingdom

UK bars and clubs close in solidarity with anti-spiking boycott

Campaigners have called for a one-night boycott of bars and nightclubs on Wednesday in protest at rising cases of young women being drugged via drinks or needles, often a prelude to sexual assault.

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Luxembourg

Luxembourg to legalise growing and using cannabis at home

Luxembourg’s government has announced changes to the law on cannabis, with plans to legalise growing and using the drug at home.

Nature

Pablo Escobar’s cocaine hippos legally recognised as people

A small step in the legal case to protect descendants of the drug lord’s pets could have huge implications for animal rights in the US.

Portugal

Portugal seizes cocaine worth €200m from yacht in Atlantic Ocean

The haul is reported to be one of the largest hauls in Europe in recent years and the biggest in Portugal for 15 years.

Nature

CBD oil: Wonder drug or widespread scam?

CBD oil derives from hemp, a cousin of marijuana in the Cannabis family. But we look at what it really is and whether it's healthy.

Finland

Party in Finland's ruling coalition backs legalising cannabis

The Green League, the party of Finland's interior minister, Maria Ohisalo, voted on the issue during a virtual conference earlier this month.

Afghanistan

Getting high: Afghan opium prices soar after Taliban takeover

The Taliban largely funded their insurgency on the production and trade in opium but have since signalled they would ban it.

Nature

The surprising reason you shouldn’t do drugs at Glastonbury Festival

Scientists have discovered environmentally damaging levels of illicit drugs in a river that runs through the festival site.

World News

Police bust Balkan cartel’s European ‘cocaine pipeline’

61 people were arrested as police from eight European countries pounced on a Balkan crime organisation allegedly "flooding Europe with cocaine."

Italy

Matteo Salvini's social media manager quits over drugs investigation

Luca Morisi has been placed under investigation by Verona prosecutors but has denied any wrongdoing.

USA

Actor Michael K. Williams, Omar on 'The Wire,' dead at 54

His death was being investigated as a possible drug overdose, New York City police said.

Montenegro

Police find record haul of cocaine in bananas shipment

Around 900 kilograms of the drug was found divided into 1,205 packages, law enforcement said in a statement on Friday.

Money

Sweden gives three drug dealers back their Bitcoin worth €1.3 million

Authorities will hand back the seized crypto after a prosecutor demanded the then-cash value of the tokens. It's now worth ten times as much.

France

Teenager shot dead and two others injured on Marseille housing estate

The local prosecutor said that "it was a motorbike with two people armed with at least one assault rifle — Kalashnikov type — who fired (...) in the street."

World News

Gibraltar seizes €15m worth of cannabis resin after sea pursuit

Authorities in Gibraltar seized 2.6 metric tons of cannabis resin with a street value of €15 million after a high-speed chase at sea.

China

Chinese court upholds death sentence for Canadian drug convict

A Chinese court on Tuesday rejected a Canadian drug convict's appeal of a death sentence, in what appeared to be an effort to step up pressure on Canada to release a detained executive of tech giant Huawei.

United Kingdom

Drug-related deaths in England and Wales at highest level since 1993

About half of the deaths involved opiates.