Global Ganja Report

In response to the growing tensions between the Trump White House and Colombia, the South American nation's President Gustavo Petro called for replacing the policy of marijuana prohibition with a regulatory framework allowing for adult use and international export of cannabis, like "any good."

The Supreme Court announced Oct. 20 that it will consider whether a federal law prohibiting gun possession by unlawful drug users violates the Second Amendment, marking the latest firearms dispute to reach the high court following its landmark 2022 ruling that significantly expanded gun rights.

State and local law enforcement made nearly 190,000 marijuana possession-related arrests in 2024—comprising more than 22% of all drug arrests nationwide, according to data compiled by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and posted on its Crime Data Explorer website. According to the database, police made at least 204,036 arrests for marijuana-related violations last year.

US citizen and Army veteran George Retes on July 16 spoke out after being arrested during an immigration raid at his workplace on a California cannabis farm, stating that he was detained for three days without explanation.

ICE agents raided a cannabis farm in California's Ventura County July 10, sparking a clash with protesters and resulting in the death of an employee. Agents threw smoke canisters and flash-bangs into a crowd that gathered to confront them as the operation was taking place at Glass House Farms near Camarillo. A farmworker who had apparently climbed onto a roof to evade the agents fell during the chaos, and expired after two days on life support with a brain injury. Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first known person to die during one of the Trump administration's ongoing immigration enforcement operations. Similar confrontations were reported in a raid on a second Glass House Farms facility around 35 miles away in Carpinteria. ICE said that they detained 361 "illegal aliens" in the raids on the two sites. (KABC, LAT, NYT, SBI, NNN, USAT, AP)

New York City's Democratic Party primary winner for the 2025 mayoral race Zohran Mamdani was a big supporter of marijuana legalization in New York state when the bill passed in 2021. He's also reportedly a cannabis consumer himself. In 2024, City & State New York said, "Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani enjoys cannabis personally." It's unclear whether Mamdani's ever been asked specifically about his personal use of cannabis. But on the day the Marijuana Regulation & Taxation Act (MRTA) was signed into law by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, March 31, 2021, Mamdani enthusiastically tweeted no less than 11 times. He also made the following memorable floor statement:

In a last-minute move before the measure was to automatically become law, Gov. Greg Abbott on June 23 vetoed Senate Bill 3, which sought to ban the sale of all THC-laden products in Texas, whether Delta-8 and Delta-9. The bill would have also placed greater restrictions on CBD products, such as banning their sale to those under 21. Abbott has called for a special legislative session to revisit the question, which has pitted the hemp industry against the GOP establishment. Abbott's own Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was a key advocate of the "THC ban." Patrick bashed Abbott over the veto, saying he "wants to legalize recreational marijuana."

Thailand's government on June 26 approved new measures restricting the sale of cannabis to those with a doctor's prescription, in the hope of reining in an industry that officials see as out of control. The public health ministry also says that consumption of cannabis is to be re-criminalized, although a date for that has not been set.