Global Ganja Report

The main alcohol industry trade association has just signaled its support for cannabis legalization—despite a seeming history of intriguing against it. With a shift in public consciousness and potential for synergy in cannabis-infused wine, beer and cocktails, the booze biz may be adopting an attitude of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em."

Compassionate care—providing medical marijuana to the ill—was what first opened legal space for cannabis in California a generation ago. But the state's Adult Use of Marijuana Act only regulates commercial businesses—leaving caregivers in legal limbo.

New York and New Jersey are notorious rivals. Especially New York City denizens see themselves as metropolitan sophisticates and view their neighbors across the Hudson River as rubes. But the two states are now racing to see which will legalize cannabis first. There are formidable obstacles in both states, but New Jersey is clearly ahead.

California health authorities dealt a blow to the burgeoning CBD business by banning preparations of the cannabinoid derived from industrial hemp rather than psychoactive cannabis. The diktat adds to the legal confusion around CBD, and highlights the need for greater clarity from the competent authorities at both the state and federal level.

In a fast and furious exchange of retaliatory tariffs, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping appear to have initiated a trade war this week. If Trump isn't careful, he could risk undermining the very domestic economic buoyancy that has helped sustain his popularity among his base. And the cannabis sector is particularly vulnerable, according to industry insiders.

Medical marijuana users who demand their right to smoke herbaceous cannabis were dealt a double whammy as Oklahoma health authorities and a Florida court each issued edicts upholding strictures on smokable forms. But is it really medical marijuana if it doesn't include the right to smoke the herbaceous form of the plant?

With Oklahoma’s passage of a medical marijuana law, advocacy organizations say there is now only one state in the entire union without some sort of legal provision for medicinal use of either herbal cannabis or cannabinoid extracts: Idaho. And with a governor's race this year, there may be hope even there. One by one, even the most culturally conservative states are succumbing to the demands of patients and the findings of science to pass laws to allow use of (at least) extracts containing cannabinoids, or (at most) actual herbaceous marijuana, for either medical or "recreational" purposes.

The first of July opened a new chapter for legal cannabis in two New England states—at least in theory. Vermont's adult use law officially took effect, while Massachusetts was slated to see the first legal adult-use sales. But the Vermont law doesn't allow for commercial sales, and legal sales in Massachusetts remain delayed.