Global Ganja Report

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.

With growing legal and cultural space for cannabis, can the mere smell of the stuff still be sufficient cause for a search that could potentially land you in jail? The answer is that the courts are divided on this question. Meanwhile, cannabis attorneys warn against the fatal error of consenting to a search.

Critical legislation that would allow the cannabis industry to access financial services has passed the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives for yet a sixth time—but will likely be killed once again by the Senate, where the Democratic majority is razor-thin.

Atlanta rapper Terrell Davis, better known by his stage-name Ralo, has been held for nearly four years on a federal cannabis “conspiracy” charge, and finally faces sentencing in March. He is potentially looking at up to 20 years in prison. Top names in the rap industry are mobilizing to plead for clemency in his case.

A multimedia extravaganza on the history, culture and politics of the cannabis plant opens in New York City next month.

It is certainly a propitious moment for a theatrical concert celebrating cannabis to hit New York's off-off-Broadway scene, as the Empire State this year actually legalized.

Five years in the making, Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville seeks to be didactic as well as fun, tracing the plant from its origins on the remote steppes of Central Asia straight through the hip-hop culture that animates the show.

A federal raid on a Pueblo Indian reservation in New Mexico again brings into focus the contested jurisdictional status of Native American nations where cannabis is concerned. More tribes are asserting their right to cultivation as a matter of sovereignty—despite federal intransigence.

South Dakota was one of four states that voted to legalize cannabis in November 2020. But now the state's supreme court has barred the amendment from taking effect, after a challenge brought with the support of the Republican governor—and based on narrow legalisms.

Nearly 20 states have now approved initiatives or legislation to legalize cannabis, and demands are growing to wipe out past convictions for personal possession. Authorities in some of these states have started to respond—but things are not moving fast enough for advocates of a socially just model of legalization.