Global Ganja Report

New Mexico's governor signed into law a cannabis decriminalization measure, as well as another bill that opens social space for medical marijuana users. Advocates anticipate a growing market and industry in the state. A full legalization measure, however, died in the state senate.

The governor of the US territory of Guam signed into a law a cannabis legalization measure that would establish an adult-use industry on the island. But there is still opposition from local conservatives, and the same dilemmas that have held back establishment of a medical marijuana program in the territory may prove obstacles to implementation.

As Massachusetts unfolds its legal cannabis market, the Boston area got its first retail outlet with the opening of a Brookline dispensary. Planners are concerned with orderly growth, while advocates demand that the Bay State's new cannabis order emphasize local control.

Idaho is considering legislation that would raise the number of signatures needed to get an initiative on the ballot—in an apparent bid to undercut a medical marijuana legalization effort. Local activists with the Idaho Cannabis Coalition are saying the law would be "tyranny."

California's Native American nations were completely overlooked in the text of Proposition 64, and its enabling legislation. Now one tribe in San Diego County has staked its economic future to legal cannabis—and is standing up for its rights.

Maryland is expanding its medical marijuana program and adopting policies that attempt to redress the social ills associated with prohibition and the war on drugs—but is meeting resistance both from the police and from elements of the local cannabis industry.

The news that CBD products will be arriving at Walgreens and CVS drugstore chains can be seen as further progress for the normalization of cannabis. But it is also a further indication of corporate control of the new cannabis economy.

There is a growing consensus among hemp advocates that the 0.3% limit for THC content is arbitrary and is holding back the industry. And the man widely credited with arriving at this limit himself agrees.

The Contested Border
"It seems like it is pretty much pulled out of air. We ought to be looking to science to determine an appropriate threshold, determine the level at which cannabis is psychoactive and make that the standard."

This typical view is offered by attorney Patrick Goggin of Hoban Law Group, the international firm specializing in cannabis. Goggin is one of the industry's legal heavy-hitters, and has particular experience in the question of the contested border between hemp and marijuana.