Global Ganja Report

Counterintuitively, the world's top legal cannabis producer, the United Kingdom, is now importing its first shipments of medicinal cannabis prodccts, from Canada and the Netherlands. This is an advance for the UK medical marijuana program, but a proverbial case of "coals to Newcastle"—pointing to the paradoxes of cannabis globalization.

Latin America is at the forefront of the global wave of cannabis law reform, according to a new report from a DC-based industry analyst. New Frontier Data sees a $9.8 billion market in the region, with big expansion potential for both exports and serving local consumption. 

A bill that would legalize "recreational" cannabis is moving forward in Hawaii's state legislature. It would build on the dispensary system established by the state's medical marijuana program to bring about a regulated adult-use market.

With Oregon's cannabis surplus so big that authorities estimate 70% of the state's output goes unsold, "craft" producers are calling for a novel solution—allowing export to other states that have legalized.

The cannabis market is flooded in the Beaver State, and that's a real problem for an industry that has seen explosive growth since Oregonians voted to legalize in 2014. But some say this provides an opportunity.

Israel's internal market for medical cannabis products is limited by the country's relatively small population, but with exports now approved by the cabinet, a multi-billion-dollar industry is foreseen. Since the announcement, share prices of cannabis companies on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange have soared.

California's ArcView Market Research and its affiliated BDS Analytics have released a "2019 Update" to the 6th edition of their report on The State of Legal Marijuana Markets, which was published back in June. The Update takes stock of events in the second half of the year, and anticipates that worldwide spending on legal cannabis will grow 39.1% to $17 billion in 2019.

A contraband cannabis economy booms in the Balkan Peninsula, where the wars of the 1990s spurred an underground dope-for-guns network that still thrives today. But amid EU pressure to crack down, a legal industry is now starting to emerge.

Two bills to legalize "recreational" cannabis have been introduced in Portugal—a country that already has a thriving medical marijuana industry, and a "depenalization" policy for personal possession that has been hailed as a success by reform advocates across the world.