Global Ganja Report

2018 saw historic strides toward the liberation of the cannabis plant, from the proverbial four corners of the Earth—North America to the Antipodes. Canadian legalization garnered big headlines, but there were significant breaks with the global prohibition regime in several other countries—including some seemingly unlikely candidates, in regions where the anti-cannabis stigma is deeply entrenched.

While Canada's move to officially legalize cannabis has been hailed as courageous and historic by advocates around the world, some of the planet's most intolerant governments are reacting with dismay—even threatening to have their own citizens arrested if they indulge in legal marijuana on Canadian sovereign territory.

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?

Malaysia's surprise announcement that it will abolish the death penalty is a breakthrough for conservative Southeast Asia—and follows a global outcry over the death sentence meted out to a provider of medicinal cannabis oil. But will the reform come in time to save the life of Muhammad Lukman?

Malaysian airport authorities have been placed on a "red alert" against drug trafficking following a surge over the past year in arrests and drug seizures. Customs officers are screening all inbound passengers to Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The airport's customs director M. Govinden said 195 kilograms (430 pounds) of drugs had been seized and 33 people arrested at the city's two air terminals so far this year, despite Malaysia's tough anti-drug laws which include a mandatory death sentence for traffickers.

A court in Kuching, Malaysian Borneo, sentenced a 23-year-old postman to life imprisonment and 12 strokes of the rattan cane on May 31 for cultivation of cannabis in his house. Zubairi Ismail was also guilty of possessing 2.17 grams cannabis, for which he was sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment. Judge Nixon Kennedy Kumbong ordered the jail sentenced to run consecutively. Ismail was given the maximum penalty for the first offense possible under Malaysia's Dangerous Drugs Act of 1952. Zubairi appeared calm but his mother wept when the judgement was delivered. (Borneo Post, May 31)

An "unemployed" man, R. Satia­moorty, 26, found with 29.298 kilograms of cannabis in his rented car near Setapak, Malaysia, was sent to the gallows Aug. 7. Said High Court Justice Azman Abdullah: "There is only one punishment for drug trafficking, which is death... Drugs is public enemy number one." (The Star, Malaysia, Aug. 7)