Global Ganja Report

The push to legalize cannabis in the Empire State got a significant boost on Election Day as Democrats took control of the state Senate—long controlled by Republicans. A re-elected Gov. Cuomo played to a progressive base on the campaign trail, and will no longer be able to blame GOP intransigence for lack of progress. Will New York become the 11th state to legalize in 2019?

Cannabis is set to become legal in Michigan after voters in the Wolverine State passed Proposal 1 during the midterm elections. 

The passage of Prop 1 makes Michigan the 10th state in the nation and the first in the Midwest to legalize cannabis for "recreational" use, joining California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Colorado, Nevada, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine and Washington DC.

For the fifth time, a ruling of Mexico's Supreme Court has upheld the individual right to recreational cannabis. Under the Mexican constitution, this is the critical number that makes the decision binding case law throughout the country. Mexico's Congress now has 90 days to bring the penal code into conformity with the ruling—that is, to effectively legalize cannabis for personal use.

Cannabis has become a global industry, but obviously it is still limited by legal restrictions—and the fact that these increasingly vary from country to country further complicates things. Where is commercial cannabis going and where is it coming from? And how is this likely to change as the international atmosphere further liberalizes?

An international network of non-governmental organizations has submitted a "shadow report" to the United Nations, calling the war on drugs a "spectacular failure"—and calling on the world's governments to reconsider it. The report takes heart from the growing official tolerance of cannabis in several countries around the world, but warns of escalating and horrific repression in the name of drug enforcement in several others. Will the UN take heed when it revisits the question of drug policy in 2019?

Amid the seemingly endless hype about CBD, its once better-known sibling cannabinoid THC seems to increasingly languish in the shadows—both in terms of media attention and industry investment.

Voters in several states will cast ballots on cannabis-related measures in the Nov. 6 midterm election. Michigan and North Dakota are facing general legalization measures, while Utah and Missouri voters will get to weigh in on medical marijuana.

Canada's course to cannabis prohibition closely followed that in its southern neighbor. As in the United States, cannabis a century ago was widely available in tincture form as a medication before being banned in a campaign that blatantly harnessed racism and xenophobia. Yet now Canada is legalizing coast to coast, while the US federal government remains intransigent.

An early harbinger of Canada's enlightenment was the 1969 Le Dain Commission, which studied illegal drugs at the order of Ottawa, in response to then exploding use—especially of cannabis. The Le Dain Commission cut through the propaganda to recommend a common-sense policy—which Canada's government is actually now going beyond.