Global Ganja Report

Mayor Bill de Blasio's new policy, discouraging New York City cops from making arrests for public cannabis smoking, is expected to further reduce pot busts in Gotham. But critics say that loopholes or "carve-outs" in the policy mean that the racial disparity in marijuana arrests could continue—or even get worse.

Tens of thousands of students across the United States have lost access to federal financial aid for their studies because they admit on the application form to having a drug conviction—including, of course, for cannabis. But a new bill introduced in the Senate could finally correct what student advocates have called an injustice that disproportionately denies education to the very communities most in need of financial aid..

Sri Lanka has announced that it will start hanging drug convicts, ending a long moratorium on executions. Leaders explicitly hope to "replicate the success" of Rodrigo Duterte's bloody anti-drug campaign in the Philippines, which has now reached the point of mass murder. And while the imminent executions are for cocaine and heroin charges, the move comes amid a widening crackdown on cannabis. Yet proposals to allow medical cultivation provide some hope for a more tolerant model.

Under federal regulations, Section 8 housing residents risk losing their homes if they use cannabis. But residents who are also medical marijuana patients have started to stand up and demand their rights. Now, their efforts have seen fruit in legislation on Capitol Hill.

Emotional exchanges at City Council hearings in New York focused on the NYPD's "gang database," which critics say targets and stigmatizes even those who have long since cut ties to the city's "crews." The city has seen big militarized raids on housing projects as part of the crackdown on crews in recent years. But while heavy charges against suspected crew members made headlines at the time of the raids, little note was paid when some of those charges were downgraded to mere marijuana possession. Are claims of pot-dealing being used to place the city's Black and Latino youth on the database?

A year after legal cannabis first went on sale in Uruguay, it is still only available at a small handful of pharmacies. One particularly ironic obstacle has emerged: Uruguay's banks face US sanctions under the Patriot Act if they do any business with the country's legal cannabis industry. So a measure passed by the US Congress to crack down on criminal and terrorist networks that use drug profits is actually helping to keep cannabis under the control of criminal networks.

In Humboldt County, famed as the heartland of Northern California's cannabis-producing Emerald Triangle, big police raids of cultivation sites—with thousands of plants eradicated—are continuing despite the Golden State's new legalization program. Many growers are choosing to remain underground, in spite of the risks to their property and freedom. And a big part of the reason why seems to lie in a confusing and contested county regulation regime.

A protest in the Caucasus republic of Georgia to demand legalization of personal drugs use, with an emphasis on cannabis, points to changing times in the former USSR. The youth group behind the protest was first formed to demand freedom for a popular artist who was sentenced to 14 years for possession of a small amount of herb. The country's top court actually struck down penalties for cannabis possession as a result of the case. But the activists are pressing their campaign—a sign of cultural thaw in a region with very harsh drug laws.