Global Ganja Report

Amid a bloody prison uprising in Mississippi, hip-hop superstar Jay Z has launched suit against state authorities on behalf of inmates at the violence-plagued penitentiary. Mississippi has some of the harshest cannabis laws in the country, and pot convictions are big factor contributing to the dire crisis of overcrowding and brutality in the state's lock-ups.

Martin Luther King Jr never spoke about cannabis, but his life and works have much to say about the fight for legalization, and against the "New Jim Crow" of the war on drugs. 

The Emerald Triangle mourns the passing of BE Smith, the legendary Trinity County grower who did time in federal prison for openly cultivating cannabis under California's medical marijuana law—throwing down the proverbial gauntlet to Washington DC from his mountain homestead. His bold action put the Justice Department on the spot, and helped prompt a change in federal policy.

With rival cannabis legalization bills now pending in Albany, New York state activists are demanding "Day One Equity"—legislation consciously crafted to correct the injustices of the War on Drugs. Advocates and politicians came together to give voice to this demand at a recent forum on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

The Appeal Court of British Columbia, the province's highest, on Dec. 28 upheld a lower court ruling that the minimum two-year prison term for marijuana possession "for purpose of trafficking" under Canada's Controlled Drugs & Substances Act is unconstitutional. Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein dismissed the Crown's appeal of a 10-month sentence imposed when Phillip Francis McGee pleaded guilty after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided his home in Surrey.

A bipartisan group of senators introduced legislation Oct. 4 that would reduce prison terms for non-violent drug offenders, Reuters reports. Under the proposed reform, mandatory minimum sentences would be reserved strictly for those convicted of violent crimes.

The US Supreme Court on April 4 handed down a unanimous decision in Dean v. United States, giving federal judges greater flexibility in mandatory minimum cases—an aim activists have long been demanding. Advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums filed a brief in support of the petitioner in the case.

In a speech to police chiefs and sheriffs at the Washington DC meeting of the Major Cities Chiefs Association Feb. 9, Donald Trump dealt a harsh blow to any activists who may have been hoping for a tolerant stance on drugs from the United States' new president. As the conservative RedState.com blog happily headlines: "Trump Promises to Ramp Up the War on Drugs." With an almost touching innocence, it writes: "Citing his border wall as a solution along with confidence" in his Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly, "Trump apparently believes he will succeed where everyone else has failed."