Global Ganja Report

Insurance companies in Canada are starting to cover medical marijuana, but high costs continue to be an impediment to access in the United States. Even in states that have legalized medicinal use of cannabis, the insurance industry will provide no coverage. Advocates are now starting to demand legislation to address this contradiction.

Following the crackdown on CBD-infused foods and beverages by authorities in New York City and elsewhere, Capitol Hill lawmakers are formally calling upon the FDA to provide immediate clarity on the question. Meanwhile, New York, at least is starting to lift the pressure.

With cannabis now legal in 10 US states as well as Canada, demands are growing to wipe out past convictions for personal possession. Politicians have started to respond—but not fast enough for some advocates.

In a win both for cannabis freedom and racial justice, Vermont's top court ruled in favor of a motorist whose car was searched on the ostensible basis that a state trooper smelled pot—and the probable basis that he is African American.

After years of upholding employee firings for use of cannabis even under state medical marijuana programs, the courts are finally starting to turn around on the question.

One of the ways state medical marijuana programs have failed to fully extend protection to medicinal users is in failure to defend against employment discrimination. This is now beginning to change, thanks to a few recent court decisions in favor of patients and employees.

The first of July opened a new chapter for legal cannabis in two New England states—at least in theory. Vermont's adult use law officially took effect, while Massachusetts was slated to see the first legal adult-use sales. But the Vermont law doesn't allow for commercial sales, and legal sales in Massachusetts remain delayed.

New Mexico is the latest state to announce that it will play host to the biggest legal cannabis grow operation in the United States. But other claims to that title over the past years have still not panned out, and a facility in Arizona now occupies the number one slot. And as various states vie for the honor, Canada is far in the lead of its southern neighbor.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts issued a unanimous ruling  Sept. 19, voiding court testimony based on "sobriety tests" carried out by police on motorists suspected of driving while high on pot. The Boston Globe reports that in limiting evidence from the familiar roadside tests used to snare drunk drivers—walking in a straight line, standing on one foot—the court found there is no scientific consensus those tests definitively prove someone is under the influence of cannabis.