Global Ganja Report

It's pretty surreal that even as a legal cannabis industry emerges on a global scale, there are still countries that impose outrageously draconian sentences for the herb—up to and including the death penalty.

The egregious case of a man sentenced to death for smuggling two pounds of cannabis into the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore has focused global attention on the disturbing reality.

A new report by the British think-tank Prohibition Partners foresees a $5.8 billion cannabis market in Asia by 2024—if the tentative seeds of liberalization now witnessed across the continent in fact bear fruit.

China's ambition to get in on the "cannabis boom," providing hemp for the global CBD market, is now making international headlines. But marijuana is more harshly proscribed in China than just about any other country in the world, and the People's Republic continues to execute thousands every year for drug crimes.

A Chinese delegation to Israel to explore cooperation in the cannabis sector points to the East Asian giant's growing footprint in the global industry. But in a continued contradiction, the People's Republic has possibly the harshest drug laws on Earth—and, where unsanctioned use by the commoners is concerned, cannabis is no exception.

While Canada's move to officially legalize cannabis has been hailed as courageous and historic by advocates around the world, some of the planet's most intolerant governments are reacting with dismay—even threatening to have their own citizens arrested if they indulge in legal marijuana on Canadian sovereign territory.

Malaysia's surprise announcement that it will abolish the death penalty is a breakthrough for conservative Southeast Asia—and follows a global outcry over the death sentence meted out to a provider of medicinal cannabis oil. But will the reform come in time to save the life of Muhammad Lukman?

As the UN General Assembly met in New York, President Trump issued a "Global Call" to renew the war on drugs—to the dismay of activists and dissenting nations. But the UN itself has a contradictory cannabis policy—with some agencies recognizing its efficacy as medicine and others backing the prohibitionist doctrine of the Single Convention treaty.

Chijioke Stephen Obioha, a Nigerian national sentenced to death in Singapore for cannabis possession, was executed Nov. 18, in defiance of international protest. As the final appeals for clemency were exhausted last week, Amnesty International issued an urgent statement calling on Singapore to halt the execution. "The death penalty is never the solution," said Rafendi Djamin, Amnesty's director for Southeast Asia. "It will not rid Singapore of drugs. By executing people for drug-related offenses, which do not meet the threshold of most serious crimes, Singapore is violating international law."