Entheogens

Police in the northern port city of Thessaloniki arrested five people believed to be members of a gang selling drugs in the area around Aristotle University, in a large-scale sweep over the last 24 hours.

Two of those arrested are also accused of resisting arrest.

A gang that had been distributing large quantities of drugs across Attica has been unraveled after a string of raids around the country on Monday and Tuesday, police said on Wednesday.

A total of 21 people have been arrested -mainly Greek and Albanian nationals.

Police in the Peloponnese on Friday were questioning three suspected members of a drug racket believed to have been active in the region of Ilia.

The suspects - three men aged 42, 53 and 58 - were detained following months of investigation and after searches on their homes turned up cannabis, precision scales and 12,650 euros in cash.

A Canadian company announced it acquired 150,000 acres for cannabis production in Bulgaria, Dnevnik reported. At the end of last year, International Cannabis Corp announced that it acquired 100% of the assets of the Balkan Cannabis Corp, which claims to own the land in Bulgaria and the necessary licenses for production of hemp and cannabis for medical purposes.

Greek authorities say they have seized 6.5 tons of cannabis and a large quantity of pills containing the banned stimulant Fenethylline hidden in a tug boat on the south coast of the island of Crete.

A 50-year-old man has been arrested for setting up a hydroponic cannabis growing system in a house on the island of Salamina, near Athens.

Police, who arrested the suspect on Tuesday, said the cannabis was being cultivated for illegal sale.

Members of the Greek Police's anti-narcotics unit on Monday found a fully equipped hydroponic cannabis growing system that had illegally been set up in an apartment in Exarchia, central Athens, and arrested two people.

According to reports, the two suspects - a 29-year-old foreign national and a 26-year-old woman - stored their produce in another apartment, also in Exarchia. 

The Bulgarian authorities have shut down a high-tech illegal cannabis production facility and arrested two suspects, the Interior Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday.

Police in Pomorie found a drug factory with a record amount of cannabis. 

The drug was raised with expensive equipment in a specially adapted room in a house. Policemen encounter nearly 200 pots of marijuana, of which about 40 kg of marijuana was seized. Part of the cannabis was ready for placement. 

Despite the failure of successive governments to implement a decade-old smoking ban, the majority of youngsters in Greece do not smoke, 2017 data from statistics agency ELSTAT show.

Only 12.7 percent of Greeks aged 16-24 spoke daily and 8.1 percent smoke occasionally, a reduction attributed to rising awareness concerning the dangers of tobacco.