Global Ganja Report

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on May 28 signed into law the Cannabis for Private Purposes Act (CfPPA), codifying the personal use of cannabis by adults. The new law removes cannabis from the federal Drugs & Drug Trafficking Act and recognizes the rights of adults to possess and grow personal-use quantities of cannabis in private.

The attempted coup d'etat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may or may not have been assisted by the CIA, but one of the Americans arrested in the affair is named as a "cannabis entrepreneur" —pointing to the possibility of legal cannabis playing the same destructive role in Central Africa that bananas have played in Central America. Yet while corporate power sees a lucrative new cash crop, lives (and especially Black lives) are still being ruined by cannabis prohibition in the United States. In Episode 228 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg argues that the old anarchist slogan "Neither your war nor your peace" can be updated as "Neither your prohibition nor your legalization!"

Legalization in states across the country has led to a reassessment of the word "marijuana." Is it a dated term with racist roots? Many advocates seem to think so. I'm not one of them. Now, Cannabis vs Marijuana: Language, Landscape and Context, a new book by David Paleschuck, dives into the debate. It's a polemic with just one point of view on the cannabis vs. marijuana subject. In the intro, he writes:

The Canadian province of British Columbia changed its drug policy dramatically in January 2023 in an effort to address its dire opioid crisis. New Democratic Party provincial leaders decriminalized possession and public use of drugs including fentanyl and heroin. But now, after pressure from law enforcement and a backlash from the opposition Conservatives, BC is reversing course, and making public use of drugs illegal again. Personal possession will remain decriminalized, for now.

Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek on April 2 signed a law recriminalizing the possession of personal quantities of illicit drugs. The law overturns Measure 110, approved by voters with 58% support in 2020, which made personal-use possession of drugs such as heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine only punishable by a ticket and a maximum fine of $100.

Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, passed a bill Feb. 23 legalizing the regulated production and  consumption of cannabis. The legislation was brought by the federal government, led by the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP), and the ecologist Greens party. In a roll-call vote, 407 MPs supported the law, 226 opposed it, and four abstained. The legislation faced opposition from the conservative Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and affiliated Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) as well as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). 

A series of documents from US Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) officials published Jan. 12 make clear the department's recommendation that cannabis be reclassified to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, allowing cannabis to be prescribed by medical professionals. Officials wrote that the basis for the recommendation is the "currently accepted medical use" of the plant.