Global Ganja Report

New Mexico is the latest state to announce that it will play host to the biggest legal cannabis grow operation in the United States. But other claims to that title over the past years have still not panned out, and a facility in Arizona now occupies the number one slot. And as various states vie for the honor, Canada is far in the lead of its southern neighbor.

A recent study about the impact of cannabinoids on bone density is raising concerns about possible ill effects on longterm heavy marijuana smokers. Earlier studies, however, showed potential for certain cannabinoids in treating bone fractures. The relationship between cannabis and bone-building function may be more complicated than recent media reports suggest.

Reports indicate that promoters of a popular initiative for a medical marijuana law in Utah have won enough signatures to get their proposal before the state's voters in November. A far more restrictive law allowing use of CBD preparations is meanwhile before the state house. The ballot initiative would make the legislation basically irrelevant—but faces stiff opposition.

The Green Party in Australia has just come out in favor of cannabis legalization, making a big media splash in the country. The Greens are a significant party in the Land Down Under, and all observers agree this marks a watershed moment. But it will be a challenge for the Greens to win enough allies in Parliament to make it happen.

The seizure by federal agents of some 100 homes around Northern California supposedly used in grow operations financed by criminal networks based in China points to ongoing dilemmas in the state's contraband cannabis economy—which persists even in the wake of legalization.

With a bombshell homespun video statement, New York's gadfly celebrity gubernatorial hopeful Cynthia Nixon has—for the moment, at least—placed the cannabis legalization question front and center in the race. Incumbent Andrew Cuomo, feeling the pressure from Nixon's challenge, is already starting to waver from his once intransigent stance against legalization.

Ann Arbor's Hash Bash marked its 46th annual celebration of cannabis culture, with public smoking, no arrests—and an activist call to arms to get a legalization measure passed in Michigan this November.

The Hash Bash was a landmark counterculture event when it was launched on the University of Michigan's Diag on April 1, 1972. This year, organizers were openly hoping it would be the last one before cannabis is legalized in the Wolverine State—and urging a push to make it so.

Authorities' denial of a permit to the longtime organizers of Denver's annual 420 rally has prompted a change of leadership and tone. Now, the new leaders that got the permit are saying it will no longer be called a "rally," and are downplaying its usual activist spirit. Have oppositional politics outlived their place in the age of legalization?