Global Ganja Report

With Canada on a final one-month countdown to legal cannabis, the country's provinces are adopting widely varying regulation regimes, creating a "crazy quilt" policy patchwork. While Ontario and Quebec are opting for provincial government monopolies on retail sales, Alberta and Saskatchewan have embraced a private model, sparking a flood of canna-capital into these western provinces.

Authorities' denial of a permit to the longtime organizers of Denver's annual 420 rally has prompted a change of leadership and tone. Now, the new leaders that got the permit are saying it will no longer be called a "rally," and are downplaying its usual activist spirit. Have oppositional politics outlived their place in the age of legalization?

Several bills now pending before the Colorado state house will further shape what the legal cannabis economy will look like in the Centennial State—for better or for worse. While some of these measures would mean a freer atmosphere both for "recreational" and medicinal users, others may portend greater big-money control of the fast-growing industry.

As Canada prepares to legalize cannabis nationwide, Ottawa is consulting citizens and stake-holders to shape the new policy. Among the proposals floated at a Vancouver Cannabis Hemp Conference this weekend was a measure to cap the THC content of approved strains. Not surprisingly, this met with a resounding negative from industry and advocates. "It's time for us to stop demonizing THC. We need policy that's based on both evidence and expertise," Hilary Black of the BC Compassion Club Society told the CBC.  "We have an opportunity in Canada right now to be leaders on the world stage and to do this right."

"Colorado teens stubbornly refuse to smoke more weed." That's the smart-alecky headline over a chart of youth cannabis use rates that appeared in the Washington Post June 21. The story cites Colorado Health Department findings that rates of use among the state's teenagers are essentially unchanged in the years since the herb was legalized there in 2012. In last year's figures, 21% of Colorado youths had used cannabis in the past 30 days. That is slightly lower than the national average, and down from 25% in 2009. The findings are based on a random survey of 17,000 middle and high school students. "The survey shows marijuana use has not increased since legalization, with four of five high school students continuing to say they don’t use marijuana, even occasionally," the health department stated.

A mass shut-down of cannabis dispensaries in Big Sky Country is feared after a Feb. 25 ruling of the Montana Supreme Court. In a 6-1 decision, the high court upheld provisions of the state's restrictive medical marijuana law passed in 2011, finding them a "rational response" of the dramatic increase in users. The provisions limit providers to no more than three patients each, and impose other restrictions, incuding a ban on advertising. In one victory for the state's burgeoning cannabis industry, a provision that banned providers from receiving compensation was struck down. But the ruling was harshly assailed by the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, which brought the legal challenge. 

The Colorado Supreme Court on June 15 unanimously upheld a lower court decision that employers' "zero tolerance" drug policies are not pre-empted by the state's medical marijuana law. The court held that an employee can legally be fired for consuming cannabis off-duty, finding that the state's  statute on "lawful off-duty activitie"s implies that "lawful" is intended to protect only those activities permissible under both state and federal law. The opinion emphasizes that "employees who engage in an activity, such as medical marijuana use, that is permitted by state law but unlawful under federal law are not protected by the statute." Colorado law permits employers to implement drug policies of their choosing, with many opting to drop THC from pre-employment drug screening.

In the most serious challenge yet to Colorado's cannabis legalization policy, the states of Nebraska and Oklahoma took the unusual move of filing a case against it directly with the US Supreme Court. The two states argue that "the State of Colorado has created a dangerous gap in the federal drug control system...  Marijuana flows from this gap into neighboring states, undermining Plaintiff States' own marijuana bans, draining their treasuries, and placing stress on their criminal justice systems." Lawyers for the Cornhusker State and the Sooner State assert that local authorities have registered a big uptick in cannabis entering their towns since Colorado legalized with voter-approved Amendment 64 in 2012. The suit also claims Colorado's legalization policy violates the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution.