Global Ganja Report

Much media hype anticipates an imminent cannabis boom in Africa, and foreign investment is indeed pouring into a few key countries on the continent. But some dreams have also come to naught—and a few initiatives have displayed some of the worst tendencies of corporate agribusiness in the developing world.

There has been significant progress toward cannabis legalization in the United States and globally over the past years, but pockets persist of the most repressive and reactionary prohibition. What are the prospects for expanding cannabis freedom in the coming year?

The African continent, we are often told, has great resources and economic potential, but is held back by lack of development and infrastructure. It is certainly a sign of the times that we are now hearing this line not only from the oil and mineral cartels but the cannabis industry.

California's ArcView Market Research and its affiliated BDS Analytics have released a "2019 Update" to the 6th edition of their report on The State of Legal Marijuana Markets, which was published back in June. The Update takes stock of events in the second half of the year, and anticipates that worldwide spending on legal cannabis will grow 39.1% to $17 billion in 2019.

2018 saw historic strides toward the liberation of the cannabis plant, from the proverbial four corners of the Earth—North America to the Antipodes. Canadian legalization garnered big headlines, but there were significant breaks with the global prohibition regime in several other countries—including some seemingly unlikely candidates, in regions where the anti-cannabis stigma is deeply entrenched.

Lesotho is a land-locked mountain kingdom in Africa that few in the outside world have heard of, but it punches above its weight where cannabis production is concerned. "Dagga" has long been a pillar of its economy. Now it is attracting international investment to grow cannabis for the global medical market. With cannabis just decriminalized in South Africa—which borders Lesotho on all sides, and is closely integrated with the kingdom—this is a promising sign for the entire region.

Zimbabwe, seemingly an unlikely candidate, has just become the second African nation to legalize medical marijuana. The only other African country to have done so is the tiny landlocked mountain kingdom of Lesotho—where cannabis has long been tolerated as an economic mainstay. Given that Zimbabwe is traditionally one of Africa's more closed societies, this is a hopeful sign—both that things are loosening up there after the recent fall of its long-ruling strongman, and for an eventual daylighting of the dagga economy throughout the continent.

A British Columbia firm which is one of Canada's leading licensed producers of medical marijuana has entered a partnership with the national subsidiary of Sandoz, a global leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The deal is being hailed as a milestone that signals the arrival of cannabis in the corporate economy.