Global Ganja Report

In a Capitol Hill hearing that advocates hailed as “historic,” numerous Congress members openly embraced lifting the federal strictures on cannabis—and even outright legalization. The discussion was particularly framed in terms of recognizing and correcting the racial and social iniquities of cannabis prohibition and the "war on drugs."

Manufacturers of vape cartridges filled with cannabis distillate for "dabbing" are facing something of a crisis as the market is flooded with counterfeit products. These contraband knock-offs are apparently fooling many consumers—but may contain toxin-laden and adulterated substances. Industry voices are urging buyers to beware.

The arrival of 7-10 as a special day to celebrate extracts and concentrates marks the growing embrace of "dabbing" by the cannabis community. But the laws governing such products and especially their production vary from state to state. And the real risks continue to garner grim headlines that cast the cannabis industry in a very poor light.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) last month issued its World Drug Report 2019—its 22nd annual survey of production, trafficking and eradication and enforcement efforts around the world. In addition to providing figures on cocaine and opiates, the report seeks to quantify the amount of cannabis cultivated in each producer country.

A Native American tribe in South Dakota is taking the US Department of Agriculture to court to demand its right to cultivate low-THC cannabis—and to force the agency to live up to its regulatory responsibilities under the 2018 Farm Bill.

Big militarized raids by state police and National Guard forces on illicit grows in Northern California's Trinity County brought back bad memories for locals. Several homes were raided and helicopters brought in for the operation—exactly the kind of thing Californians thought they had seen the end of after legalization.

Building on longstanding policy that bars federal cannabis enforcement in medical marijuana states, the House of Representatives passed a measure that would instate a similar hands-off approach to enforcement in states that have generally legalized. Other measures would slash funding for the DEA, and call upon the FDA to promulgate regs for CBD.

A long hoped-for cannabis legalization bill died in the New York state assembly, but reform advocates got a consolation prize as lawmakers agreed to widen decriminalization and expunge thousands of low-level marijuana convictions.