Global Ganja Report

With half a billion people under lockdown, the coronavirus outbreak in China is virtually certain to take a grave impact on the Asian superpower's economy—with ripples across the planet. And the cannabis industry is, like so many global concerns, dependent on labor in China's factory zones. Canna-businesses as far away as Canada's prairies are fearing an imminent pinch.

A month into legal cannabis in Illinois, Chicago is considering various experimental models for cultivation and retail sales aimed at empowering those communities criminalized under prohibition. Ideas being weighed include a city-owned cultivation coop which residents could join, including the low-income on a "sweat equity" basis.

The Trump administration has issued rules allowing drug tests (including for cannabis, of course) for those receiving unemployment benefits. But as more states embrace legalization, pressure is mounting to do away with cannabis testing for workers altogether.

A federal appeals court in Denver has held that protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to "all workers"—including those in the cannabis industry. The ruling sets an important precedent, boosting efforts to unionize the new legal industry.

Advocates increasingly assert that cannabis legalization is not fully realized unless workers are guaranteed their right to employment even if they partake of the herb off-hours. Some states are finally taking measures to rein in the use of urine-test results as an excuse to fire or turn down job applicants.

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?

Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives would protect the jobs of federal employees who use cannabis in states where their use is currently legal. The measure is being hailed by advocates as a critical blow for workers' rights in the age cannabis normalization.

In a sign of progress, the courts are increasingly siding with employees fired for use of cannabis under state medical marijuana programs. The latest such victory comes from Arizona, where precedent has been set. Other states, however, are still awaiting legal clarity on the question.

A former Arizona Walmart employee and card-holding medical marijuana patient who was fired after testing positive for cannabis has won a wrongful termination suit in federal court.