Global Ganja Report

You know the times they are a-changing when Forbes magazine runs a headline predicting that the international market for cannabis will hit $31.4 billion within the next four years. This projection is based on  a new report from the Brightfield Group, a cannabis market research firm based in Chicago. Currently, the global market is estimated to be worth $7.7 billion, but a compound annual growth rate of 60% is foreseen as countries around the world liberalize their marijuana laws.

The trial of a paralyzed man who was prosecuted by Swedish authorities for self-medicating with cannabis sparked debate over the right to cultivate medicinal herb in the Scandinavian nation. Now Sweden's Supreme Court has just ruled against the defendant, dealing a blow to the right to self-medicate.

Peru's President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski on Nov. 16 signed a bill to legalize the use of cannabis products and derivatives to treat medical conditions such as cancer and epilepsy. PPK, as he is popularly known, hailed the law as opening a new chapter in his country's approach to the herb. "Here we are breaking with a myth," he said, referring to marijuana's reputation as a dangerous drug. "Peru is turning several pages, moving toward modernity."

After 13 years of occupying the country—during which they fired on protesters and accidentally introduced cholera to the island, setting off an epidemic—UN "peacekeepers" were finally withdrawn from Haiti in October. To take up the slack in figting drug gangs in the capital Port-au-Prince, the United Nations has called for increased international support for the 15,000-strong Haitian National Police.

The Balkan country of Albania, trying to live down its pariah status as Europe's top cannabis producer, has cracked down hard in recent years, sparking instances of armed resistance from peasant growers. But despite repeated declarations that the country is "marijuana-free," the issue won't go away—and is coming to the fore once again as Albania seeks to join the European Union. The latest to lecture Albanian leaders is US ambassador Donald Lu, who this month warned that the country's criminal networks remain intact.

Spain made unwanted international headlines Oct. 7 when nearly four metric tons of cocaine worth an estimated $260 million was seized by Spanish customs officers in the Atlantic, headed for the Iberian peninsula. The haul was found on a tugboat between Portugal's Madeira and Azores islands, with 165 packages of cocaine each weighing 23 kilograms—for a total of 3.7 tons—concealed beneath the vessel's cooking area. The operation was jointly conducted with UK's National Crime Agency under the co-ordination of the Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre-Narcotics (MAOC-N) in Lisbon. The crew, from Turkey and Azerbaijan, were arrested.

In the long string of Mexican journalists assassinated for covering police abuse and narco-corruption, the latest case is particularly egregious. On Oct. 6, authorities in San Luis Potosí found the body of Edgar Daniel Esqueda Castro outside the city's airport, dead of three gunshot wounds. He had been abducted by armed men in police unforms the previous night.

Some 15 civilians were killed and more than 50 were injured when Colombian security forces opened fire during coca eradication operations in a hotly contested incident Oct. 5. Local cocaleros say a mixed force of army and National Police troops fired "indiscriminately" into a crowd of peaceful protesters, in what they are calling a "massacre."  Police and military officials claim they fired in response to an attack by remnant FARC guerillas under a renegade commander who goes by the alias "Guacho."