Global Ganja Report

Protests have spread across the country in response to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police—a haunting crystallization of institutionalized racism in law enforcement. The protests have been punctuated by looting in many cities, and cannabis businesses have not been spared. How the industry reacts at this moment will reveal much about the soul of America's cannabis community.

Lockdowns and economic paralysis imposed by the COVID-19 outbreak are spurring a new emphasis on self-sufficiency. Even before the crisis, medicinal cannabis users facing shortages at local dispensaries were turning to home cultivation.

As the cannabis industry is embraced by corporate power and finance capital, the patenting of strains, products and applications is an increasing concern. But the international patchwork of legality makes for a confusing environment. Illegality has served as a paradoxical break on privatizing of varieties. Growers and advocates are devising means to protect the genetic commons in the new cannabis order.

Harborside, the San Francisco Bay Area's flagship cannabis dispensary chain, is going public on the Canadian stock exchange. Founder and chairman emeritus of the company, Steve DeAngelo, speaks with Cannabis Now about what this means for Harborside's future and the fast-evolving cannabis industry.

Among several cannabis-related bills signed into law by California's Gov. Jerry Brown was one creating an "equity" program for the state's legalized industry, aimed at justice and inclusion for those communities hardest hit by marijuana prohibition. Another measure will erase past convictions for possession of cannabis in quantities that are now legal.

Among several cannabis-related bills that cleared California's state house before the last legislative session came to close is one that would lift the tax burden on medical marijuana providers. The bill is intended to again open space for "compassionate care," which was ironically squeezed out under California's adult-use regulation regime. 

A figure from the Bay Area cannabis industry was embroiled in America's fast-escalating culture wars when she threatened to call the police on a young Black girl selling water on a San Francisco street. In the outcry, she has stepped down from her own company—and helped draw a line over what behavior is considered acceptable in the cannabis community.

Five months into legal cannabis in the Golden State, the temporary licenses issued by authorities to get things off the ground are running out. But the full annual licenses are still being held up by several factors—including the failure of local authorities to approve cannabis operations, and implementation of a "track-and-trace" system to monitor marijuana from seed to sale.