Global Ganja Report

Cannabis is increasingly the drug of choice among young adults in the US, while methamphetamine use  is dropping, according to a national survey released Sept. 8 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Overall, 8.9% of the US population or 22.6 million people aged 12 and older used illicit drugs in 2010, up from 8.7% in 2009 and 8% in 2008, the study finds according to Reuters. Cannabis use appears to be driving the increase, with some 17.4 million—or 6.9% of the population—saying they used marijuana in 2010, up from 14.4 million or 5.8% of the population in 2007.

Last year, when the New York Times ran a story on "haute stoner cuisine"—suggesting that cannabis use by chefs is encouraging a trend for "chin-dripping, carbohydrate-heavy food"—we responded that, while we did not have the figures to back it up, there is probably a higher percentage of vegetarians and healthy eaters among pot-smokers than the general population. Now, our assumption appears to be vindicated by a new study. From the NY Daily News, Sept. 4:

A small Massachusetts-based company called Medicinal Genomics has announced the sequencing of the entire genomes of the species cannabis sativa and cannabis indica, opening the way for more research into the therapeutic effects of the plant—including its potential for treating cancer and inflammatory diseases. The company published the genetic code Aug. 18 on Amazon.com's EC2 cloud-computing system.

The country's leading medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), with the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC), on July 21 appealed a recent decision by the federal government to keep marijuana classified as a dangerous drug with no medical value. The appeal to the DC Circuit comes just two weeks after the DEA denied a 2002 petition to reschedule marijuana filed by a coalition of patients and advocacy groups. ASA will argue in a forthcoming appeal brief that the federal government erred by keeping cannabis out of reach for millions of patients throughout the US.

Less than two months after patient advocates filed a lawsuit compelling the federal government to answer a nine-year-old petition to reschedule medical marijuana, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on July 8 made official its denial of the petition in the Federal Register. The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC), which includes patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA), filed the petition in 2002 seeking to reclassify cannabis from its current status as a dangerous drug with no medical value, but never heard from the federal government until it received the denial.

Starting July 6, the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) will hold its 21st annual symposium in St. Charles, Ill., just outside of Chicago. Notably, this year's symposium is sponsored by an array of pharmaceutical companies, the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and ElSohly Laboratories of Oxford, Miss., the federal government's only licensed source of research-grade cannabis.

During last year's Prop 19 fight in California, we noted the strange phenomenon of "Stoners Against Legalization"—tokers who opposed the legalization measure, sometimes spouting bizarre conspiracy theories that the ballot initiative was all a plot by Monsanto and other big corporations to corner the cannabis market and squeeze out independent growers with bio-engineered patented varieties. We noted that even if Prop 19 passed, "cannabis will remain illegal at the federal level, allowing Monsanto to be shut down if they dabble in the Evil Weed." But now it emerges that—surprise, surprise!—the feds have actually been giving multi-national corporations the legal right to grow cannabis that us commoners are denied.

A coalition of advocacy groups and patients filed suit in the DC Circuit Court on May 23 to compel the Obama administration to answer a nine-year-old petition to reclassify medical marijuana. The Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC) has never received an answer to its 2002 petition, despite a formal recommendation in 2006 from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the final arbiter in the rescheduling process.