Global Ganja Report

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."

Vietnam's National Assembly on June 25 voted overwhelmingly to abolish the death penalty for eight categories of criminal offenses: espionage, bribery, embezzlement, counterfeiting medicines, vandalism of state property, sabotage, acts aimed at overthrowing the government, and drug trafficking. The revised Criminal Code now imposes a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for these offenses. Under transitional provisions, all death sentences handed down before July 1 for these crimes will be automatically commuted to life terms.

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.

The US Supreme Court ruled June 12 in favor of an Atlanta family attempting to sue the federal government for damages after their home was mistakenly raided by an FBI Special Weapons & Tactics (SWAT) team.

The White House FY2026 budget request calls for the repeal of a long-standing federal rider that prohibits the Justice Department from using taxpayer dollars to prosecute patients and others involved in the state-legal medical cannabis industry. The provision, which has been in place since 2014, protects patients, caregivers and medical cannabis providers in the 39 states that have legalized medical access from federal interference or criminal prosecution. Prior to the passage of this protection, federal prosecutors routinely took actions against patients and dispensaries in legal states.

A federal judge on May 14 stripped New York City of its control over the Rikers Island jail, which will now effectively be run by a third-party “remediation manager.” This comes after the same judge held the city in contempt last November for failing to reduce violence in the notorious jail complex.

Trump is pointing to Kilmar Abrego Garcia's tattoos to justify his indefinite detention without charge in the ultra-oppressive Salvadoran prison gulag. These notoriously include a cannabis leaf, demonstrating the continued propaganda utility of the "Reefer Madness" stigma, even as a multi-million dollar legal industry emerges. But the White House actually added the characters "MS13" (name of the notorious Salvadoran gang) to the shot of Abrego Garcia's knuckles in a crude photoshop job—despite transparent denials from Trump. Lubricating the emerging transnational mass detention program with this Orwellian post-truth stratagem, the Trump regime meanwhile moves toward actual deportation of US citizens. Bill Weinberg raises the alarm in Episode 277 of the CounterVortex podcast.