• Britain is developing a weed café culture under the radar

    Enterprising youths are providing an in-demand product that governments around the globe are regulating and taxing
    The Independent (UK)
    Monday, October 2, 2017

    smoking pot2There is bipartisan support for cannabis legalisation among MP’s in the UK. However, the only pro-legalisation party, the Liberal Democrats, failed to increase their share of the vote this year while Labour remain opposed to legalisation although Corbyn has said he’s in favour of decriminalisation for medicinal use. There are reportedly at least six clandestine smoking hot-spots in and around the City of London and it’s a growing trend, although places like this have existed across the UK for years. Many cannabis clubs openly advertise the fact that they sell weed over-the-counter but because they do not attract any trouble, they’re often left alone by the law.

  • Gov't urged to rethink medical ganja policy

    Reports say the bank of Jamaica had instructed commercial banks against doing business with players in the medical ganja industry.
    Jamaica Observer (Jamaica)
    Monday, October 2, 2017

    jamaica flagsTwo of the Jamaica's leading thinkers have called on the Government to rethink its policy approach towards the development of the medical ganja industry. Former governor general Professor Kenneth Hall disagrees with the establishment of the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) to regulate an industry that is at the embryonic stage. Hall suggested that Government should, instead, set up an agency to promote the development of the medical ganja industry. Scientist and entrepreneur Professor Henry Lowe also lamented how the medical ganja industry was being managed, noting that there was “too much control”. 

  • B.C.'s overdose crisis may be 'new normal,' no matter what politicians say

    'I'm really worried we're running out of ideas on how to respond to this,' says journalist
    CBC (Canada)
    Saturday, September 30, 2017

    British Columbia has been in a public health emergency since April 14, 2016. At the time, the government said it was implemented to "help prevent future overdoses and deaths by better targeting outreach, bad drug warnings, awareness campaigns and distribution of naloxone training and kits." Since that time, there have been more targeted outreach, more awareness campaigns, and especially more distribution of naloxone kits — allowing regular citizens to administer the medication that quickly blocks the effects of overdoses. And yet, from January to July this year, 876 people died of an overdose in British Columbia.

  • Legal dagga process draaaags on

    Lesotho gives SA firm dagga licence
    Mail & Guardian (South Africa)
    Friday, September 29, 2017

    Businesses that want to get in on the ground floor of South Africa’s great medical marijuana revolution, or at least the legal one, are bound to find it a frustrating process. Whether you want to legally grow, beneficiate, import or simply consume cannabis for medical use, be warned: there is still a great deal of paperwork and patience required. Verve Dynamics, a local manufacturer of highly purified botanical extracts, was forced to look beyond South Africa’s borders to catch the medical marijuana wave. The company turned to neighbouring countries and this year Verve Dynamics became the first company in Africa to be granted regulatory approval to begin growing and processing high-quality cannabis extracts commercially in Lesotho.

  • Quebec to set legal marijuana consumption age at 18

    Sources confirm to Radio-Canada that distribution will be controlled by Quebec's liquor board
    CBC (Canada)
    Friday, September 29, 2017

    The legal age to buy marijuana in Quebec will be 18, in order to prevent young people from buying their pot on the black market, government sources have confirmed to Radio-Canada. The provincial Liberal government outlined their plan for the age limit and the distribution after a series of discussions among the caucus members. According to Radio-Canada, the sale of cannabis will ultimately be controlled by Quebec's liquor board, the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ). The number of branches that would sell it remains to be determined. Quebec's public health minister, Lucie Charlebois, will introduce a bill on cannabis legalization soon.

  • The new Moroccan hashish

    A close look at the rise of hashish production in Morocco
    Cannabis Now (US)
    Friday, September 29, 2017

    A simple drive through the Rif region of Morocco, where all the cannabis is cultivated, confirms that cannabis cultivation has largely declined in the past few years. Yet no such visual observation can confirm the extent of the decline. The cannabis-covered valleys and hillsides reveal that the traditional Kif variety is being quickly replaced by modern hybrids. This gives sense to the fact that the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of the hashish seized in Europe has been increasing in various European countries for years now. What’s clear is that the Moroccan hashish industry is being modernized with large-scale cultivation of hybrid varieties imported from Europe, most likely both by Moroccan and European growers and traffickers.

  • Legal loophole in DC creates bizarre pot bazaar

    Police aren't "actively out hunting" for marijuana violators as long as everything stays low-key and the neighbors don't complain
    The New York Times (US)
    Thursday, September 28, 2017

    A 2014 ballot initiative to legalize recreational use passed overwhelmingly in Washington DC. But unlike the eight states that have legalized recreational use, the Washington initiative also maintained it was still illegal to buy or sell the drug. So instead of the straightforward marijuana storefronts common in Colorado or Nevada, Washington has developed a thriving "gift economy" marijuana industry. These businesses – many offering delivery – sell everything from coffee cups to artwork – all overpriced and all coming with a little something extra. It's a curious legal and semantic tightrope, and one the District's politicians and police seem determined to keep walking.

  • This Telangana village has been growing and selling ganja for decades, now busted by cops

    The police got a tip-off when they detained a few engineering college students for possessing ganja
    The News Minute (India)
    Thursday, September 28, 2017

    For decades farmers in Lakshmipuram village in Telangana have been harvesting ganja as a cash crop and selling them in open bazaars, unperturbed that growing and selling ganja is illegal. However, their seamless business was interrupted when police cordoned off the village that comprises more than 200 families and conducted a search operation in the village. One of the arrested persons told the CI that for decades they have been growing ganja and the police have never entered their village. He said that farmers in the village harvest ganja during rainfall.

  • More people were arrested last year over pot than for murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery — combined

    Many public health experts have called for illicit drug use to be decriminalized in the United States
    The Washington Post (US)
    Tuesday, September 26, 2017

    In 2016 more people were arrested for marijuana possession than for all crimes the FBI classifies as violent, according to 2016 crime data. Marijuana possession arrests edged up slightly in 2016, a year in which voters in four states approved recreational marijuana initiatives and voters in three others approved medical marijuana measures. Marijuana possession remains one of the single largest arrest categories in the United States, accounting for over 5 percent of all arrests last year. More than one in 20 arrests involved a marijuana possession charge, amounting to more than one marijuana possession arrest every minute.

  • Op-Ed: Marijuana farming – a silver bullet for rural poverty?

    In desperation, farmers, often widows, risk their lives growing marijuana to feed their families
    The Daily Maverick (South Africa)
    Tuesday, September 26, 2017

    When marijuana farming is legalised in South Africa who will benefit? This is not just a hypothetical question. Right now, marijuana is being legally grown at scale by the House of Hemp in irrigated tunnels in the Dube Trade Port, north of Durban. This while the poorest of the poor face arrest and being sprayed with poisons for growing the same crop. If marijuana farming becomes a controlled but legal enterprise, then it is clear that South Africa’s mostly white, commercial farming sector will grab the opportunity to grow this high value crop and thus reinforce South Africa’s existing economic and spacial inequalities.

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