United Kingdom

Albania, Europe's capital of illicit cannabis, under US pressure to eradicate

Posted on April 23rd, 2019 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , , .

AlbaniaAlbania is pledging another one of its endless and fruitless cannabis eradication campaigns, which never succeed in bumping the country from its spot as Europe's biggest illicit producer. The US is pressing the small Balkan nation for the campaign—and kicking in military aid.

Skunk-psychosis link claimed: more reefer madness?

Posted on March 21st, 2019 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , .

Reefer MadnessYet again, a scientific study linking cannabis use to psychiatric maladies gets widespread and sensationalistic media play. And once again, the assumptions behind the study are questionable, and the findings are further distorted by irresponsible reportage.

Does daily cannabis use, especially of high-potency "skunk" strains, lead to an increased risk of developing psychosis? Based on recent media coverage, you can be forgiven for thinking so. But you should really take a closer look before you believe the hype.

UK imports first shipments of medicinal cannabis products

Posted on February 21st, 2019 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , .

extractCounterintuitively, the world's top legal cannabis producer, the United Kingdom, is now importing its first shipments of medicinal cannabis prodccts, from Canada and the Netherlands. This is an advance for the UK medical marijuana program, but a proverbial case of "coals to Newcastle"—pointing to the paradoxes of cannabis globalization.

World Health Organization calls for re-scheduling cannabis —but don't light up a celebratory joint yet

Posted on February 1st, 2019 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , .

cannabisThe World Health Organization has released its long-anticipated recommendation on cannabis scheduling. But rather than removing it from Schedule I of the Single Convention, it only removes it from Schedule IV, where it is also listed. CBD, however, has indeed been de-scheduled entirely.

ArcView analyzes state of world legal cannabis markets in 2019

Planet WatchCalifornia'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.

Cannabis impacts on adolescent brain: skeptical views overlooked (surprise)

Posted on January 17th, 2019 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , .

Reefer MadnessIn what is starting to smell like an anti-cannabis media campaign, headlines erupt this week on the possible deleterious effects of cannabis on the developing brains of young teens. Again, the accounts are one-sided—and the political assumptions behind them flawed.

Recent days have seen successive stories in the media on the supposed mental health hazards of cannabis—seeming to signal a backlash to recent gains in normalizing the plant and overcoming the stigma.

Does cannabis make you crazy? You have to be nuts to believe that, some say

Posted on January 8th, 2019 by Bill Weinberg and tagged , , , , , , .

Reefer MadnessThe claim that cannabis causes "mental illness" rears its dubious head like clockwork every few years, and this latest round has occasioned a virtual media frenzy—a seeming backlash to the recent advances in normalization of the herb and its aficionados. Scratching the claims, however, reveals more hype than rigor.

The headlines are all too familiar ones, but this time they got very prominent play.

Global steps toward cannabis liberation in 2018

Planet Watch2018 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.

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