Global Ganja Report

Hemp really did become a symbol of patriotism during the American Revolution, and was certainly grown by some of the Founders. But not all the stoner folklore checks out...

As political and legal space opens for cannabis in state after state, the idea of caps on the potency — whether of flower, extracts or edibles — is gaining currency. But voices in the cannabis industry view this as a phobic response rooted in the flawed assumptions of prohibition.

New Mexico's Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the state's cannabis legalization bill on April 12, allowing those age 21 and over to start cultivating up to six plants at home and possess up to 2 ounces (56 grams) outside their homes starting at the end of June. Retail sales are to begin in a year. On April 7, Virginia's Gov. Ralph Northam reached a deal with the General Assembly, winning amendments that speed up the state's legalization to July 1. The law will make home cultivation of up to four plants and possession of up to an ounce legal for those 21 and older. Sales are expected to begin in 2024. The Virginia law has strong social equity provisions, while those in the New Mexico bill were mostly put off to future legislation. (National Law Review, AP, NPR, Virginia Mercury, Marijuana Moment, Marijuana Moment)

Can Rural America's Expropriated Use a New Crop to Forge a New Agrarianism?

Green Heffa Farms, in North Carolina’s Piedmont, has emerged as a national symbol of vision and success in America’s new hemp economy. As a producer of boutique full-spectrum hemp-flower products, it has won a cachet in the industry—which is augmented, at least in more enlightened sectors, by the fact that it is Black-owned, and has an overt political consciousness.

Green Heffa’s CEO is Clarenda Stanley—popularly known as Farmer Cee. She was featured in the April issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, and was last year the 2019 “Featured Farmer” for National Hemp History Week.

Zambia becomes the latest African country to legalize cannabis cultivation—in the midst of a shriveling drought that has caused massive crop failures. The landlocked republic could be an unwilling test case in whether cannabis is as effective a drought-resistant crop as its boosters claim.

Bernie Sanders has released his plan for cannabis legalization, which features provisions to keep Big Tobacco from colonizing the new industry. But other exponents of corporate power are already getting a jump on the cannabis sector, and could just as effectively squeeze out independent operators.

As the cannabis industry is embraced by corporate power and finance capital, the patenting of strains, products and applications is an increasing concern. But the international patchwork of legality makes for a confusing environment. Illegality has served as a paradoxical break on privatizing of varieties. Growers and advocates are devising means to protect the genetic commons in the new cannabis order.

Advocates increasingly assert that cannabis legalization is not fully realized unless workers are guaranteed their right to employment even if they partake of the herb off-hours. Some states are finally taking measures to rein in the use of urine-test results as an excuse to fire or turn down job applicants.