Global Ganja Report

A new study finds that cannabis legalization is not linked to an increase in traffic deaths. This may come as little surprise to those with experience in cannabis' actual effects, but challenges an entrenched assumption of prohibitionist propaganda.

In a sign of progress, the courts are increasingly siding with employees fired for use of cannabis under state medical marijuana programs. The latest such victory comes from Arizona, where precedent has been set. Other states, however, are still awaiting legal clarity on the question.

A former Arizona Walmart employee and card-holding medical marijuana patient who was fired after testing positive for cannabis has won a wrongful termination suit in federal court.

In Arizona, the statehouse and supreme court are in a race to clarify whether hashish is to be included in the Grand Canyon State's medical marijuana program. The question also has implications for the status of extracts and edibles.

Arizona's top court issued a ruling hailed as a victory both for medicinal cannabis users and for the power of the state's voters to make law through the initiative process. The justices struck down a law banning possession of cannabis on college campuses even by those registered under the state medical marijuana program. In fact, the victory is limited—it doesn't mean students with medical marijuana cards can now light up on campus. But simple possession, at least, now cannot be prosecuted. 

New Mexico is the latest state to announce that it will play host to the biggest legal cannabis grow operation in the United States. But other claims to that title over the past years have still not panned out, and a facility in Arizona now occupies the number one slot. And as various states vie for the honor, Canada is far in the lead of its southern neighbor.

A new study published in The Economic Journal vindicates the optimistic prognosis of cannabis activists that legalizing the herb would de-escalate drug war violence. The study notes a reduction in violence in US states along the Mexican border in recent years, and especially in the counties along the international line. The authors draw a connection to the reduced legal pressure on cannabis in the United States over this same period, thanks to legalization and medical marijuana laws.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions, speaking to the Justice Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) on April 18, pledged that the Trump administration will have "zero tolerance for gang violence" from "transnational criminal organizations"—particularly singling out MS-13, the Central American narco-network that has its roots on the streets of Los Angeles.

One is tempted to facetiously ask what some of these Republican lawmakers have been smoking. Speaking in support of Trump's planned border wall with CNN on Feb. 22, Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) offered this astonishing speculation: "There are national security implications here for a porous border. We sometimes used to make the point that, you know, if someone wanted to smuggle a dangerous weapon, even a nuclear weapon, into America, how would they do it? And the suggestion was made, 'Well, we'll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.'"