Global Ganja Report

With the North American Free Trade Agreement under renegotiation, Mexico's former president and born-again cannabis advocate Vicente Fox is calling for the new treaty to include provisions for legal cross-border commerce in cannabis. But of course the federal governments of both the US and Mexico prohibit cannabis—despite growing demands for legalization both sides of the border.

Recent years have seen ethnic tensions in the northernmost parts of the Emerald Triangle, as Hmong growers—immigrants from the Southeast Asian nation of Laos—have established themselves in local cannabis cultivation. This has led to civil rights litigation and a polarized atmosphere in Siskiyou County. But just to the south in Trinity County, a group is working to head off tensions by helping Hmong growers negotiate the transition to licensed cultivation.

A new product is being plugged as containing CBD derived from humulus—that is, hops, the buds used as a bittering agent in beer. Some of the media hype has implied that this novel origin gets around the US federal stricture on the cannabinoid. But experts raise a skeptical eyebrow at the claim of hops-derived CBD. And in any event, the federal stricture is on the cannabinoid itself, regardless of how it is derived. 

The bureaucracy overseeing California's cannabis industry is moving fast to facilitate insurance coverage for businesses—a question very pressing as wildfires rage through the Emerald Triangle.

The case of an elderly grandmother who was jailed for cannabis possession because her Michigan state medical marijuana card had expired exemplifies the dilemmas faced by patients who fall between cracks in the bureaucracy. Keeping paperwork in order can be a challenge for those already burdened with disabling health conditions.

A fire swept through one of California's premier cannabis cultivation facilities, at Greenfield in Monterey County's agricultural Salinas Valley—destroying several greenhouses, and a large quantity of product. Authorities say an investigation is underway. But the timing of the blaze does raise eyebrows—it started at exactly 4:20.

Compassionate care—providing medical marijuana to the ill—was what first opened legal space for cannabis in California a generation ago. But the state's Adult Use of Marijuana Act only regulates commercial businesses—leaving caregivers in legal limbo.

California health authorities dealt a blow to the burgeoning CBD business by banning preparations of the cannabinoid derived from industrial hemp rather than psychoactive cannabis. The diktat adds to the legal confusion around CBD, and highlights the need for greater clarity from the competent authorities at both the state and federal level.