Global Ganja Report

Weeks after instating a new policy of not prosecuting for low-level marijuana violations, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr addressed a meeting of New York cannabis industry investors and entrepreneurs, where he discussed his vision for fairer policing in the city—and his study calling for legalization to be explored at the state level.

A verdict against glyphosate producer Monsanto in a case brought by a cancer sufferer has brought world attention to the dangers of pesticides and herbicides. This is a question with implications already felt in the cannabis industry—both legal and illegal.

The Green Wolverine conference at the University of Michigan this month will bring speakers from across the country for a symposium on cannabis science. With Michigan facing a legalization initiative this November, the student-organized event is intended, among other things, to help voters make an informed choice.

With the North American Free Trade Agreement under renegotiation, Mexico's former president and born-again cannabis advocate Vicente Fox is calling for the new treaty to include provisions for legal cross-border commerce in cannabis. But of course the federal governments of both the US and Mexico prohibit cannabis—despite growing demands for legalization both sides of the border.

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.

What will ultimately be a multimedia extravaganza on the history, culture and politics of the cannabis plant is currently under production in New York City. The music for Cannabis! A Theatrical Concert was just unveiled for New York audiences in a special performance at a nightspot on Manhattan's Lower East Side.

Recent years have seen ethnic tensions in the northernmost parts of the Emerald Triangle, as Hmong growers—immigrants from the Southeast Asian nation of Laos—have established themselves in local cannabis cultivation. This has led to civil rights litigation and a polarized atmosphere in Siskiyou County. But just to the south in Trinity County, a group is working to head off tensions by helping Hmong growers negotiate the transition to licensed cultivation.

A bill that would allow use of medical marijuana products in California's schools has arrived on the desk of Gov. Jerry Brown. The legislation would address an inequity in California's medical marijuana program, and is named Jojo's Act after a South San Francisco high school student who suffers from a severe form of epilepsy.

The California State Legislature on Aug. 27 approved a bill to allow students to use medicinal cannabis preparations on K-12 school campuses.