Global Ganja Report

As New Zealand waits on a promised cannabis legalization referendum, a domestic industry is starting to blossom, with big capital inflows reported. But police cannabis seizures are actually up—and the government even shows sings of wavering on following through with its commitment to hold a binding referendum.

A new study finds that cannabis legalization is not linked to an increase in traffic deaths. This may come as little surprise to those with experience in cannabis' actual effects, but challenges an entrenched assumption of prohibitionist propaganda.

A US citizen was among a trio arrested in Burma for running a 20-acre cannabis plantation. The three could face life in prison, or even the death penalty. But the controversy could give new political energy to Burma's emergent legalization movement.

Two Israeli ex-prime ministers are now involved in the cannabis industry, and legalization became a key issue in this month's elections. But in a case of strange bedfellows, legalization was aggressively taken up as a campaign plank by the far right.

Albania is pledging another one of its endless and fruitless cannabis eradication campaigns, which never succeed in bumping the country from its spot as Europe's biggest illicit producer. The US is pressing the small Balkan nation for the campaign—and kicking in military aid.

A new law in Georgia will allow the production of cannabis for medical purposes. The measure gives teeth to a formalistic 2015 law that legalized patient use of low-THC cannabis oil, but still inhibited actual access. Now the Peach State is poised to develop a cannabis business sector.

Hardcore Tuna-heads aren't going to be able to resist this one. They already know the basic outline of Jorma Kaukonen's life: an authenticity-obsessed student of traditional finger-picking country blues in the folk revival of the early '60s (Harlem legend Blind Gary Davis was his special inspiration), he was catapulted to stardom when he went electric as the lead guitarist for the Jefferson Airplane, flagship band of the San Francisco sound.

A showdown is shaping up in Vancouver, where the city's 420 event has always been held with no permit. This year it promises to be huge, with Cypress Hill headlining—and city authorities are pressing for cancellation. Organizers pledge to go ahead with the event—with approval of the bureaucracy or not.