Global Ganja Report

Well, the dust has hardly settled but the boots are at the door; they might come storming through, riling up that dust some more.

But we hope not. The boots belong to the Justice Department and the door belongs to the states of Washington and Colorado. The dust is the election that saw those two states make the biggest moves toward cannabis legalization any state has made in a long long time. No, neither law is perfect, and it is going to be a cold day in hell probably before state stores are up and running. But still, the fact that the voters got out there and said enough is enough and let's get something on legalization out there is very freaking refreshing. Ask anyone who works in any capacity to end the drug war: Wins are few and far between. It took more than 10 years of effort to rein in law enforcement's forfeiture spree; it took a lot longer than that to get New York's racist Rockefeller sentencing laws even semi-tossed. So what happened in Washington and Colorado is in the win column, though we cannot be at all sure that the feds are not going to come in and try to muck things up like they have with California's and Oregon’s medical marijuana laws.

We have noted before that the cannabis industry has a huge carbon footprint—something of a dirty little secret for the legalization movement. This is an especially relevant fact in Colorado, where Amendment 64 specifies that all legal weed must be grown indoors. Roberta Ragni in the Italian eco-journal GreenMe, asks "Marijuana Legalization: What Will It Mean for the Environment?" After quoting triumphant pot activists, Ragni lays on the inconvenient truth:

The Fiscal Times is enthused by the emergence of "Pot-economics" and the "The Birth of the Legal Weed Industry" in Colorado after Amendment 64. But PBS News Hour emphasizes that "State Is Anxious Over US Government's Reaction" after the Colorado vote. Note the quote from Jerry Peters of Denver's North Metro Drug Task Force:

Prosecutors in Washington's King and Pierce counties are dismissing more than 220 misdemeanor marijuana cases in response to last week's vote to legalize small quantities of cannabis. In King County, 175 cases have been dismissed involving possession of one ounce or less. I-502 makes one ounce legal on Dec. 6, but King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg decided to apply I-502 retroactively.  "Although the effective date of I-502 is not until December 6, there is no point in continuing to seek criminal penalties for conduct that will be legal next month," Satterberg said in a statement.

With Colorado hoping to harvest revenue from taxes and licensing fees on newly legal cannabis, the herbal enthusiasts who fought for Amendment 64 may find their fantasies of free—or at least cheap—weed dashed by the state's new marijuana order. National Public Radio on Nov. 13 features an interview with reporter Tony Dokoupil, author of a Newsweek cover story, "The New Pot Barons." He notes the restrictive system already in place for medical marijuana in the Centennial State, and warns:

Cannabis is set to become legal in Colorado and Washington after voters passed historic ballot initiatives on Nov. 6. In Washington voters approved Initiative 502, allowing possession and distribution of cannabis through a state licensing system of growers, processors and stores, where adults will be able to buy up to an ounce of dried cannabis; up to a pound of a cannabis-infused product, such as brownies; or up to 72 ounces of cannabis-infused liquids.. The Colorado initiative actually introduces Amendment 64 to the state constitution, allowing adults over 21 to possess up to an ounce and to privately grow up to six plants—although public use will be banned. In Oregon, the similar Cannabis Tax Act Initiative or Measure 80, failed by approximately 55-to-45% of the vote.

Oregon's Secretary of State on July 13 announced that Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, received 88,887 valid signatures—just over the 87,213 needed to qualify for the general election ballot. Oregon now becomes the third state, following Washington and Colorado, to place measures on the ballot this year to legalize cannabis.

The administration of Uruguay's President José Mujica announced June 20 plans to establish an unprecedented system of government-controlled legal cannabis sales, saying that a bill will be submitted to Congress to approve the program. Under the plan, the government would maintain a monopoly on legal cannabis sales to registered users who would be allotted a fixed quantity per month. The government would assure standards for quality. Minister of Defense Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro told reporters in Montevideo that the measure aims to undercut criminal networks that currently control the marijuana trade. "We're shifting toward a stricter state control of the distribution and production of this drug," Fernández said. "We think its prohibition is creating more problems to society than the drug itself."  (Notimex, June 21; InfoBae, AP, June 20)