Colombia

Even in freedom, Brittney Griner remains a political pawn

Brittney GrinerIt’s a fairly open secret that Brittney Griner was Putin’s geopolitical pawn when she was in Russian detention for nine months on a minor cannabis charge. And her freedom came at a high price—swapped for a Russian “Death Merchant” who now boasts he’ll aid Putin’s savage war in Ukraine. But GOP exploitation of Griner indicates that she remains a political pawn even as a free woman in America.

Brittney Griner gets her day in court —amid geopolitical intrigue

Posted on June 30th, 2022 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

Brittney GrinerUS Olympic gold-medalist Brittney Griner, held in a Russian jail since February, is finally going before a judge. But the trial is looking more and more like a political show.

The odds for justice in Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian Russia are already slim—and especially, we may assume, for a dreadlocked African American icon of the international LGBTQ community. But the war in Ukraine and the geopolitical rivalry between Moscow and Washington are now explicitly at play in the case of Brittney Griner.

Colombia: campesino cannabis cultivators face continued crackdown

Posted on June 16th, 2022 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , .
ColombiaColombia is at a crossroads with the historic election of the left-populist Gustavo Petro as president. But will he be able to close the country’s cannabis gap? Big Bud is booming, while small peasant producers face continued eradication.

UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs deschedules cannabis —partially

Planet WatchAt the annual Vienna meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, the governing body of the UN Office on Drugs & Crime (UNODCvoted Dec. 2 to strike cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the global treaty regulating drug control policy.

From Mythos to Monoculture

Posted on August 21st, 2020 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , .

hempHemp’s Curious Cultural Trajectory

Now that hemp has finally arrived at its long-sought status as a legal crop and commodity, there is a sense of inevitability to its deviation from the utopian vision that animated the advocates who fought for it a generation ago.

A tension that has always existed between two currents in the subculture of hemp advocacy is increasingly weighted toward the more mundane—activists versus entrepreneurs, idealism versus pragmatism, agrarianism versus agribusiness. And finally the original paradigm of a crop with multitudinous uses as “food, fuel and fiber,” holding the potential to solve humanity’s ecological crisis, versus the hegemony of CBD.

Morocco retains status as world's top (illicit) cannabis producer

MoroccoThe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last month issued its World Drug Report 2019—its 22nd annual survey of production, trafficking and eradication and enforcement efforts around the world. In addition to providing figures on cocaine and opiates, the report seeks to quantify the amount of cannabis cultivated in each producer country.

Cannabis industry unveils 'social responsibility' standards

Posted on June 25th, 2019 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

cannabisCannabis industry leaders have announced certification standards to promote corporate responsibility. The move appears to be prompted by some embarrassing scandals in the young industry. Activists are meanwhile raising more far-reaching demands for drug war "reparations." 

Steve DeAngelo speaks on Harborside going public

Posted on June 6th, 2019 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , , , , , .

SteveDeAngelo Harborside, the San Francisco Bay Area's flagship cannabis dispensary chain, is going public on the Canadian stock exchange. Founder and chairman emeritus of the company, Steve DeAngelo, speaks with Cannabis Now about what this means for Harborside's future and the fast-evolving cannabis industry.

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