Global Ganja Report

Big militarized raids by state police and National Guard forces on illicit grows in Northern California's Trinity County brought back bad memories for locals. Several homes were raided and helicopters brought in for the operation—exactly the kind of thing Californians thought they had seen the end of after legalization.

Building on longstanding policy that bars federal cannabis enforcement in medical marijuana states, the House of Representatives passed a measure that would instate a similar hands-off approach to enforcement in states that have generally legalized. Other measures would slash funding for the DEA, and call upon the FDA to promulgate regs for CBD.

A long hoped-for cannabis legalization bill died in the New York state assembly, but reform advocates got a consolation prize as lawmakers agreed to widen decriminalization and expunge thousands of low-level marijuana convictions.

In Episode 35 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg interviews Emily Ramos, Pilar DeJesus and Kara Bhatti, members of the worker-owned marijuana consumer cooperative High Mi Madre, on their lobbying and activist efforts in support of the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act, still pending in the final countdown to the close of the current New York State legislative session. They emphasize the demand for "Day One Equity" with cannabis legalization in the Empire State—measures for reparative justice and reinvestment in the communities that had for generations been criminalized and oppressed by cannabis prohibition. Listen on SoundCloud, and support our podcast via Patreon.

A Louisiana coroner declared a local woman's death to be the first on record attributed to a cannabis overdose, winning lurid national headlines. But medical experts and even federal officials as well as advocates are skeptical of the claim.

Two years after legalizing, Nevada has become the first state to bar employers from discriminating against job applicants on the basis of a positive test for cannabis. Will other states follow the lead of the libertarian-spirited Silver State?

A young man from Wisconsin has been jailed on a cannabis charge in the Philippines, and his mother back in the states says she fears for his life. The case has brought some stateside media attention to President Duterte's relentless and draconian "drug war," which has sent nearly 200,000 Filipinos to prison.

The East African nation of Uganda is preparing to become the continent's next big commercial cannabis producer. But after the Agriculture Ministry approved cultivation licenses, other cabinet ministers demanded that legality be clarified before planting commences. International investors are anxiously awaiting a resolution.