police state

Vietnam abolishes death penalty for drug offenses

Posted on June 26th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , .

South East AsiaVietnam's National Assembly on June 25 voted overwhelmingly to abolish the death penalty for eight categories of criminal offenses: espionage, bribery, embezzlement, counterfeiting medicines, vandalism of state property, sabotage, acts aimed at overthrowing the government, and drug trafficking. The revised Criminal Code now imposes a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for these offenses. Under transitional provisions, all death sentences handed down before July 1 for these crimes will be automatically commuted to life terms.

Cannabis dreams go up in smoke as Thailand tightens policy

Posted on June 26th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , .

South East AsiaThailand's government on June 26 approved new measures restricting the sale of cannabis to those with a doctor's prescription, in the hope of reining in an industry that officials see as out of control. The public health ministry also says that consumption of cannabis is to be re-criminalized, although a date for that has not been set.

SCOTUS allows family to sue feds over 'wrong house' raid

Posted on June 14th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , .

SCOTUSThe US Supreme Court ruled June 12 in favor of an Atlanta family attempting to sue the federal government for damages after their home was mistakenly raided by an FBI Special Weapons & Tactics (SWAT) team.

Federal court strips New York City of control over Rikers Island

Posted on May 15th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , .

RikersA federal judge on May 14 stripped New York City of its control over the Rikers Island jail, which will now effectively be run by a third-party “remediation manager.” This comes after the same judge held the city in contempt last November for failing to reduce violence in the notorious jail complex.

MAGA-fascism, Orwell and the cannabis stigma

Posted on May 10th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , .

TrumpTrump is pointing to Kilmar Abrego Garcia's tattoos to justify his indefinite detention without charge in the ultra-oppressive Salvadoran prison gulag. These notoriously include a cannabis leaf, demonstrating the continued propaganda utility of the "Reefer Madness" stigma, even as a multi-million dollar legal industry emerges. But the White House actually added the characters "MS13" (name of the notorious Salvadoran gang) to the shot of Abrego Garcia's knuckles in a crude photoshop job—despite transparent denials from Trump. Lubricating the emerging transnational mass detention program with this Orwellian post-truth stratagem, the Trump regime meanwhile moves toward actual deportation of US citizensBill Weinberg raises the alarm in Episode 277 of the CounterVortex podcast.

Death for hashish in Saudi Arabia —yes, really

Posted on April 25th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , .

KSAAmnesty International on April 24 expressed deep concern over a dramatic increase in executions for drug-related offenses in Saudi Arabia, stressing the fear and uncertainty faced by dozens of men currently on death row. The organization reported that Saudi authorities have executed at least 88 individuals since January, 42 for drug-related crimes, which is almost double the executions for that same period in 2024, none for drug-related crimes. Just this week, in one day on April 22, the Saudi Press Agency announced the execution of three people: two Saudi nationals for “promoting hashish,” and one Pakistani national for “trafficking heroin.” 

Podcast: MAGA-fascism and the dark side of 420

Posted on April 16th, 2025 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , .

TrumpApril 20 has become a national day of celebration for the hedonistic cannabis subculture, but it has also long been marked by the radical right and Nazi-nostalgists around the world for unsavory reasons. It now emerges that Trump's Inauguration Day executive order declaring a state of emergency on the southern border also set a deadline of April 20 for a joint Pentagon-Homeland Security recommendation on whether to invoke the Insurrection Act. This has sparked much speculation that Trump will immediately do so, declaring martial law and consolidating a dictatorship... this weekend. How likely is this, and is the date a mere coincidence? In Episode 274 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg breaks it down. 

Podcast: a cannabis coup in the Congo?

Posted on June 2nd, 2024 by Global Ganja Report and tagged , , , , , , , , .

DRCThe attempted coup d'etat in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may or may not have been assisted by the CIA, but one of the Americans arrested in the affair is named as a "cannabis entrepreneur"—pointing to the possibility of legal cannabis playing the same destructive role in Central Africa that bananas have played in Central America. Yet while corporate power sees a lucrative new cash crop, lives (and especially Black lives) are still being ruined by cannabis prohibition in the United States. In Episode 228 of the CounterVortex podcastBill Weinberg argues that the old anarchist slogan "Neither your war nor your peace" can be updated as "Neither your prohibition nor your legalization!"

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