Global Ganja Report

The Empire State and Big Sky Country, although seemingly on opposite sides of America’s political divide, now each face the opportunity—and the challenge—of crafting a post-prohibition cannabis economy on the principle of justice for all.

Voters in Montana approved a cannabis legalization initiative in 2020, which included language explicitly calling for expungement of past convictions. But the process has been meeting with some resistance from local courts—and plans for a special court to oversee expungement have been dropped.

Voters in Montana passed a ballot measure mandating legalization of adult-use cannabis. But there was a pre-emptive attempt in the state legislature to repeal it before it even passed. Montana's road to legalization has been a long and twisted one, and there may be further political fights ahead. 

Voters in Arizona, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, Oregon and South Dakota passed statewide ballot measures favoring medical marijuana, adult-use cannabis legalization or hemp cultivation in the Nov. 3 elections.

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.

Driven by the notorious market glut in Oregon, wholesale cannabis prices have predictably plunged in the Beaver State. They have done so less precipitously in other western states. But this is offset by continued high prices elsewhere in the country, especially the East Coast—making for an overall upward trend this year.

Some states that have legalized cannabis are seeing a surge in the illicit market—and attendant police raids and repression. The dystopia that legalization was supposed to leave behind has proved disconcertingly persistent. But is the problem, as conservatives claim, legalization itself—or that is hasn't gone far enough?

Colorado has passed a law allowing Amsterdam-style public cannabis smoking in "Marijuana Hospitality Establishments," as well as a measure lowering the penalties for cannabis in quantities exceeding those permitted for the adult-use market.