Global Ganja Report

New York City, despite its liberal reputation, has long been the marijuana arrest capital of the USA. So many herbal advocates were heartened by the recent poll (carried out by Emerson College on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project and Drug Policy Alliance) finding that 62% of New York's registered voters support legalizing and taxing cannabis to help close the state's budget gap, with 28% opposed. But some activists are quick to remind us that even as the public comes around on the question, all too little has changed on the city's streets.

Colombia, with a burgeoning medical marijuana industry, just saw its first international exposition on the theme, marking a step toward normalization of cannabis in a country hit hard by drug war violence over the past generations. The Medellín Botanical Garden was the scene of the ExpoMedeWeed from Nov. 24-27, with workshops and discussions on technical, medical and cultural themes related to expanding Colombia's legal cannabis sector. The affair won favorable coverage from major Colombian news outlets such as Bogotá daily El Espectador.

The International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women march in Nicaragua's capital Nov. 25 was ironically set upon by the riot police, with several women detained. The Managua march was emotionally charged, as it was led by Elea Valle—a campesina woman whose husband and two young sons were killed two weeks earlier in a raid by army troops on their home in the country's eastern rainforest.

California state authorities have issued new regulations governing the legal cannabis market that is to be officially instated on Jan. 1. Jointly drawn up by the Department of Health, Department of Food & Agriculture and the new Bureau of Cannabis Control, the regs are meeting with some trepidation from the Golden State's traditional cannabis sector. Most controversially, many small growers were disappointed that the regs include no limit on the number of licenses a single grower can hold or the total acreage one can farm.

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.

The latest stats from the UN's annual Afghanistan Opium Survey are in, and the news is grim. Opium production in the war-torn country jumped nearly 87% in 2017, to record levels—an estimated 9,000 metric tons (9,921 US tons). Areas under poppy cultivation rose by 63%, reaching a record 328,000 hectares (810,488 acres), according to the joint survey by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the Afghan Counter-Narcotics Ministry. The survey also found that the number of poppy-free provinces in the country decreased from 13 to 10, with Ghazni, Samangan and Nuristan provinces joining the list of poppy-growing regions. This boosts the number of Afghanistan's 34 provinces now cultivating opium from 21 to 24. 

Sudan's conflicted western region of Darfur has receded from the headlines since the wave of global concern about genocide there a decade ago. But horrific violence in the stark desert region continues—and there are signs that Sudan's regime is resorting to the tried-and-true tactic of using drug enforcement as a rationale for counterinsurgency. AFP reports that Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), usually used to fight rebels in the country's conflict areas, are now boasting a massive hashish haul of 19 metric tons in the state of South Darfur.