Global Ganja Report

David Crosby, a giant of California's 1960s folk-rock scene and leading light of the Woodstock generation, died Jan. 19 at the age of 81. To the end, he was an unapologetic advocate of cannabis legalization, serving as a member of the advisory board of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).

Michael Butler, the Tony-winning producer who financed the 1968 Broadway sensation Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, a key moment in the mainstreaming of the '60s counterculture, passed away Nov. 7 in Los Angeles at the age of 95.

New York’s East Village this summer witnesses the world premiere of a multimedia extravaganza centered on the cultural politics of our favorite herb.

Five years in the making and twice postponed by COVID lockdowns, a theatrical concert dedicated to celebrating cannabis, and raising consciousness around the pant, has opened in New York.

Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville uses music and projected images as well as dialogue to trace the journey of cannabis from the herblore of ancient India and China through bohemia, prohibition, counterculture and finally legalization.

Peter Lamborn Wilson, celebrated "underground intellectual" and a pivotal figure in the revival of American anarchism over the past 40 years, died May 23 at his home in Saugerties, NY, reportedly from a heart attack. A controversial as well as inspirational figure, Wilson was the author of several cult classics, ranging from ecstatic rants to anti-authoritarian interpretations of history and what he called "drop-out culture."

Peter Gorman, the acclaimed journalist, naturalist and adventurer who aggressively covered cannabis and the drug war beat for over 30 years, died at his home in Texas on April 24 at the age of 71. He had just returned from a long-planned river journey into a remote area of the Peruvian Amazon that he had first visited in 1984, and where he first encountered the psychoactive shamanic substances that would define much of his life's work.

Reggae group the Mighty Diamonds' lead singer Tabby Diamond (née Donald Shaw) was shot and killed in Jamaica in a drive-by attack on March 29. Five people were hit with two dying in the St. Andrew South area. Shaw was 67.

The Mighty Diamonds were founded in 1967, but didn't release their first album until 1976. Their best-known song, 1981's "Pass the Kouchie," is about smoking ganja. One year later, Musical Youth's cover of the song, retitled "Pass the Dutchie," was a No. 10 hit in the US.

Ukraine has been suddenly thrust upon the center of the world stage, as Russia pours forces over the border in defiance of the West. In the atmosphere of militarization, space for cannabis and alternative culture is likely to close in both countries—but at least such space had been, slowly and tentatively, opening in Ukraine. Russia, pursuing an aggressive drug-war police state at home, may now be poised to impose its cultural-conservative agenda and roll back the recent gains in its smaller neighbor.

There is jubilation among cannabis advocates in Thailand after authorities announced a change to the narcotics code allowing personal cultivation—a breakthrough for the Asian continent. But does the reform really presage full legalization?