Global Ganja Report

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.

The cannabis industry is globalizing fast, which means changes for mainstays of commercial production in Europe and North America, and new players coming on line from regions such as the Middle East, Southeast Asia and Central America. Here’s a brief overview of a few entries from these categories.

Digital technology is rapidly colonizing every sphere of human existence, and the cannabis industry is certainly no exception. Entrepreneurs are aggressively plugging the application of artificial intelligence in everything from automating grow operations to matching strains with symptoms they are effective against. But is there a downside?

Canada's largest licensed producer of cannabis, with globe-spanning operations, is shutting down two massive greenhouses in British Columbia, and laying off hundreds of workers. Industry observers call it a sign that infrastructure overshot the market in the post-legalization euphoria.

A ground-breaking British Columbia dispensary that has been operating for 20 years won a request for an "exemption" from the licensing requirements of Canada's Cannabis Act by vote of the Victoria city council. This municipal action is a challenge to the national crackdown on Canda's "gray-market" dispensaries.

A new study in Canada on cannabis and driving casts doubt on zero-tolerance limits for THC. The study's authors say that THC can indeed impair driving—but that applying laws designed for booze to marijuana is bad science and bad policy.

Bernie Sanders has released his plan for cannabis legalization, which features provisions to keep Big Tobacco from colonizing the new industry. But other exponents of corporate power are already getting a jump on the cannabis sector, and could just as effectively squeeze out independent operators.

With the legal cannabis market increasingly dominated by "Big Bud," more Canadians are turning to homegrown—both for reasons of economy and an ethic of self-sufficiency. And they are fighting in the courts and the public squares for their right to do so—challenging both the federal limit on plants per household and efforts by two provinces to ban homegrown outright. So far, they are winning.