Champions of the legalization of cannabis take to the streets yearly around the world. Not so this year for 9 of the 10 cities scheduled to take part in Brazil, but the controversy is far from over.

 

Amnesty International's Tim Cahill spoke to Comunidad Segura about the triple burden that women of the periphery have to bear in the nation's violent cities. They suffer the violence of drug traffickers, of police brutality and are prevented access to services by criminals.

University of Albany Criminologist David Bayley devised a test to evaluate police efficiency and states that by violating human rights police risk losing the support of the community, crucial for successful investigations.  

In spite of the reduction in its domestic sales to the civilian market, brought about by the implementation of the well known Disarmament Statute, approved in December of 2003, Forjas Taurus, the leading manufacturer in the arms business, managed to increase its profits by diversifying its production to include non-lethal products, and also by consolidating its export market.

With 2000 guns already handed in according to local reports, Angola's Disarmament Campaign begins in an effort to improve security for development in advance of upcoming elections.

This article reminds us that the resistance to a change of habits and routine in the administration of arsenals and arms storages implies risks and threats which reinforce the situation in which, for lack of adequate controls, the arms intended to defend the nation often end up in the hands of criminals or illegal armed groups.

Efficient public security policy requires integrated actions of both government and society - the question is whether policies can survive changes in administration. Brazil' s São Leopoldo, Recife and Diadema have their say.