Global Ganja Report

Ghanians cheering their national team to victory in the World Cup match in South Africa may have been imbibing in more than just beer. Earlier this month, agents of Ghana's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) discovered 70 acres of land under illegal cannabis cultivation at Omuaran, Ekiti state. The plantations were burned and seven farmworkers arrested. (The Daily Sun, Accra, June 3)

The DEA is said to be preparing a new crackdown on khat, the mildly psychoactive leaf grown in Yemen and the Horn of Africa, in response to a boom in domestic demand as more Somali, Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants arrive in the US. In a joint raid with local police, US Customs and Border Patrol intercepted a 22-pound package of the leaf in Wisconsin's La Crosse County March 13. It was apparently bound for the Twin Cities area. (La Crosse Tribune, March 13)