Global Ganja Report

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."

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.

Activists in Oregon say that cannabis legalization in the Beaver State has failed to live up to its promise, and are preparing to place a remedy before the voters in the form of a new ballot initiative. They also view their proposed Legalization Justice Act as a model to be exported nationally. 

Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives would protect the jobs of federal employees who use cannabis in states where their use is currently legal. The measure is being hailed by advocates as a critical blow for workers' rights in the age cannabis normalization.

With approval of new regs, Alaska is set to become to the first state to officially oversee cannabis use at licensed retail outlets. Municipalities in Colorado and California have pursued this "Amsterdam model" by working around the state law. But The Last Frontier is once again breaking new ground in personal freedom for cannabis tokers.

The conventional wisdom—and certainly the impression made by much media and advertising—is that CBD is legal pursuant to the federal Farm Bill enacted late last year. As is often the case, however, there are some devils in the details.