Global Ganja Report

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 cannabis prohibition regime in South Korea is a harsh one. Authorities have long been intent on maintaining the official fiction of a "drug-free" nation. But the first crack has appeared in this intolerant edifice, with lawmakers and bureaucrats now moving to approve use of certain imported medical marijuana products.

The Oklahoma Board of Health has issued new rules to oversee the state's medical marijuana program, and advocates are relieved that the ban on smokable herbaceous cannabis has been removed. However, concerns remain about other restrictions that could make it essentially impossible for cannabis business to function in the state.

With Oklahoma’s passage of a medical marijuana law, advocacy organizations say there is now only one state in the entire union without some sort of legal provision for medicinal use of either herbal cannabis or cannabinoid extracts: Idaho. And with a governor's race this year, there may be hope even there. One by one, even the most culturally conservative states are succumbing to the demands of patients and the findings of science to pass laws to allow use of (at least) extracts containing cannabinoids, or (at most) actual herbaceous marijuana, for either medical or "recreational" purposes.

District of Columbia activists actually passed out joints to city lawmakers in their effort to press them on a law to permit cannabis sales in the nation's capital. They've also tried to win this through ballot initiative, building on 2014's Initiative 71 that legalized possession of herb in DC. But councilmembers say their hands are tied by a Congressional stricture on any further lifting of the legal pressure on cannabis.

Panama may be the next Latin American country to pass a medical marijuana law, with the nation's National Assembly now debating a measure. But, in sharp contrast to that in neighboring Colombia, the Panamanian program would fly pretty close to the ground. In a play to social conservatives, the law would only allow imports, and users would be limited to extracts rather than herbaceous cannabis. And even this may face a fight from opposition lawmakers.

A cannabis "shatter" production lab in England's North East, said to be the first of its kind in the post-industrial region, was busted Oct. 12 in a paramilitary-style raid by the Northumbria Police. Local media show a squad of cops in full body armor breaking down the door and smashing the windows of a local property with buzz-saws, battering rams and pick-axes. Two arrests were made in the raid on the Croft Estate housing project in the town of Gateshead, just across the River Tyne from the historic city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. An unspecified number of plants as well as butane and other equipment were seized.

It has been a long, slow ride for patients hoping to get access to medical marijuana in the Lone Star state—and then just special strains of low-THC cannabis, and only for those suffering from "intractable epilepsy." Three dispensaries are hoping to get final approval from Texas authorities to start cultivating next month. Of course, it will be several more months before they can actually begin distributing—and then ambiguities in the law may mean further delays. Activists and lawmakers are pushing both to clear things up and expand the scope of the program.