Global Ganja Report

A month into legal cannabis in Illinois, Chicago is considering various experimental models for cultivation and retail sales aimed at empowering those communities criminalized under prohibition. Ideas being weighed include a city-owned cultivation coop which residents could join, including the low-income on a "sweat equity" basis.

The Chicago suburb of Evanston has become the first city in the United States to put revenues from legal cannabis sales into a "reparations" fund for the city's African American residents—seeking to redress harms not only from the war on drugs but a greater matrix of social injustice.

Legal cannabis sales are officially starting in Michigan on Dec. 1—but with a big emphasis on the "officially." Cannabis shortages and a dearth of licensed dispensaries mean that the Wolverine State's retail recreational program will be off to a less than flying start. Even last-minute abandonment of the planned firewall between the medical and recreational markets may be insufficient to salvage the situation.

A federal appeals court in Denver has held that protections under the Fair Labor Standards Act apply to "all workers"—including those in the cannabis industry. The ruling sets an important precedent, boosting efforts to unionize the new legal industry.

Over the past weeks, dozens of people across several states have experienced serious lung problems, even requiring hospitalization, apparently after using vape cartridges. It is unclear if cannabis products were at issue in all such cases, and authorities are still investigating. But the illicit market in unregulated knock-off dab carts may be to blame.

New York state's second city of Buffalo has long been a national symbol of rust-belt economic and infrastructural decay. Now urban planners have approved a massive cannabis facility backed by California capital for the city's long-inactive waterfront. Buffalo's boosters say the project could turn the Great Lakes region into a leading global hub of cannabis output.

Insurance companies in Canada are starting to cover medical marijuana, but high costs continue to be an impediment to access in the United States. Even in states that have legalized medicinal use of cannabis, the insurance industry will provide no coverage. Advocates are now starting to demand legislation to address this contradiction.

Following the crackdown on CBD-infused foods and beverages by authorities in New York City and elsewhere, Capitol Hill lawmakers are formally calling upon the FDA to provide immediate clarity on the question. Meanwhile, New York, at least is starting to lift the pressure.