Global Ganja Report

Critical legislation that would allow the cannabis industry to access financial services has passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for yet a sixth time—but will likely be killed once again by the Senate, where the Democratic majority is razor-thin.

Atlanta rapper Terrell Davis, better known by his stage-name Ralo, has been held for nearly four years on a federal cannabis “conspiracy” charge, and finally faces sentencing in March. He is potentially looking at up to 20 years in prison. Top names in the rap industry are mobilizing to plead for clemency in his case.

The boom in "gray market" cannabis street sales in the Big Apple since legalization took effect in New York state has now reached the point of actual unlicensed and unregulated storefront dispensaries—which are apparently tolerated. This development is raising skeptical eyebrows from aspiring cannabis entrepreneurs still waiting for Albany to put a regulation structure in place.

A multimedia extravaganza on the history, culture and politics of the cannabis plant opens in New York City next month.

It is certainly a propitious moment for a theatrical concert celebrating cannabis to hit New York's off-off-Broadway scene, as the Empire State this year actually legalized.

Five years in the making, Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville seeks to be didactic as well as fun, tracing the plant from its origins on the remote steppes of Central Asia straight through the hip-hop culture that animates the show.

The Mediterranean island nation of Malta has become the first European Union member state to legalize cannabis. It's a seemingly unlikely candidate, and the country's powerful conservative bloc is still trying last-minute maneuvers to prevent the law from taking effect. But if Malta can pull it off, is the rest of Europe far behind?

The widely denied media reports turned out to be true, even if not all the details were correct. Cannabis Now can confirm that the new regime in Afghanistan is in talks with a foreign company to establish legal cannabis production for the export market.

The Czech Republic and especially its capital Prague have won a cachet among the international cannabis-cognoscenti. But now a local magazine dedicated to the cannabis culture may be forced to close by legal action — with its editor under threat of prison time.

Of all the post-communist countries, the Czech Republic is seen as the one that has best finessed the transition to an open society. Its predecessor state Czechoslovakia was at the forefront of the fight for freedom. Through it all, there was a strong whiff of alternative culture. The very word bohemia comes from one of the Czech Republic's two historical regions, Bohemia and Moravia.

A federal raid on a Pueblo Indian reservation in New Mexico again brings into focus the contested jurisdictional status of Native American nations where cannabis is concerned. More tribes are asserting their right to cultivation as a matter of sovereignty—despite federal intransigence.