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More than half of Europeans support cannabis legalization - report
The European cannabis market is expected to cross 3 billion euros ($3.27 billion) in annual revenue by 2025, up from about 400 million euros last year
Reuters (UK)
Thursday, April 7, 2022
More than half of the European population support legalization of adult use of cannabis and around 30% of them are interested in purchasing it, according to polling data by industry consultants. Europe's liberal approach could reap multiple financial and economic benefits as seen in the United States, which has witnessed a surge in cannabis use during pandemic-induced lockdowns. While majority of Europeans support regulated cannabis shops, most do not favor growing the plant at home, according to the report by London-based consultancy Hanway and pot producer Curaleaf International. The report comes a week after the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to end the federal ban on marijuana. -
Africa eyes the global cannabis market
Africa's rapidly developing cannabis industry could soon supply the entire world. Uganda is already cultivating medical cannabis for the German pharmaceutical market
Deutsche Welle (Germany)
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Benjamin Cadet stands among his plants in a white polo shirt bearing his company logo. He dons surgeon's gloves and handles the flowers carefully. They are full of pollen — ripe for the picking. The Ugandan entrepreneur and former member of parliament is the CEO of the only company licensed to grow and export cannabis legally in the East African country. The cannabis plantation, located in Uganda's mighty Rwenzori Mountains, extends over three hectares in the country's west, almost directly on the Equator. More than 40,000 cannabis plants thrive in greenhouses under strict hygienic conditions. They are destined for export to Europe. (See also: Aiming high: Africa’s cannabis future) -
Dutch police busted fewer cannabis plantations, drug labs last year
Incidents of drug waste dumping increased by 13 percent to 208 cases. The increase has to do with criminals dumping smaller amounts of waste in more places
NL Times (Netherlands)
Monday, April 4, 2022
The police busted and dismantled fewer synthetic drug labs and cannabis plantations last year, latest figures show. The number of discovered drug labs fell by 35 percent. The number of cocaine laundries, crystallization sites, and packaging sites was 63 percent lower. The police attributed the decrease to them arresting various drug gangs and criminal networks after breaking into encrypted phone services like EncroChat, Sky, and ANOM. Last year, the police also dismantled fewer cannabis plantations - 2,285 compared to 2,894 in 2020. This number has been falling for years. In 2017, the police dismantled over 4,600 cannabis farms. (See also: Fewer drugs labs dismantled as criminals are forced to change tack) -
Legalized pot was supposed to help build black wealth in Los Angeles. It failed
Social equity programs were supposed to correct the disparities of the war on drugs as marijuana became legal. What went wrong?
The New Republic (US)
Monday, April 4, 2022
Back in 2017, Los Angeles was among the first places in the United States to legalize weed with social equity in mind. Today, social equity dominates the conversation about who should be allowed to sell legal pot, with programs planned or up and running in Michigan, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut, Virginia, Arizona, and more. But behind the corporate rhetoric and the political promises are sobering numbers and widespread frustration with how social equity has harmed some of the exact people the programs are meant to help. In the five years since a plan was outlined in Los Angeles, 1,629 people became verified as social equity applicants, but only about 35 retailers have opened. -
House approves federal marijuana legalization bill for second time in history
A nearly identical version of the MORE Act passed in 2020, but it stalled in the Senate
Marijuana Moment (US)
Friday, April 1, 2022
The U.S. House of Representatives approved a bill to federally legalize marijuana for the second time in history, also adopting a pair of amendments to the legislation before final passage. Following an hour of debate on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act from House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) the full chamber voted 220-204 to end federal cannabis prohibition and promote social equity in the industry. Nadler’s MORE Act would deschedule marijuana by removing it from the list of federally banned drugs under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). However, it would not require states to legalize cannabis and would maintain a level of regulatory discretion up to states. (See also: Prospects for federal marijuana reform: Q&A with GOP Rep. Nancy Mace) -
PH drug war, rights situation back under global scrutiny
As many as 30,000 were killed from July 2016 to March 2019 alone in the ongoing “war on drugs” of President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration
Philippine Daily Inquirer (Philippines)
Thursday, March 31, 2022
The Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB) has assailed the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) for noting the “extrajudicial targeting” of persons suspected of drug-related activities — a violation of international drug control conventions. The DDB said it had been in constant dialogue with the United Nations body and even “expressed openness” to a visit by experts to officially assess the Philippine anti-drug campaign. The DDB said its “only request” was that the INCB “uphold an impartial stance and refrain from considering sources that have not been vetted or validated by its member-states.” In its annual report for 2021, the INCB called on the Philippine government “to take immediate steps to stop and prevent any further extrajudicial targeting and to accelerate the ongoing investigations.” -
The Tenderloin suffers under another inhumane crackdown
Why doesn’t Breed take aggressive steps to bring more apartments under rent control, and immediately move people into hotel rooms or the 40,000 vacant homes in the city?
Filter (US)
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
In December, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the Tenderloin (TL), a neighborhood which has long been home to some of the most disenfranchised people in the city. At a news conference with police officers lined up behind her, Breed, a Democrat, unleashed a “tough on crime” tirade that was positively Reaganesque. “Without evidence, officials frame unhoused people as dangerous to housed people, particularly their children,” stated the California ACLU in its October 2021 report, The Legal War Against Unhoused People. “They are condemned as a threat to public safety, and a form of blight that needs to be swept up, disappeared, and excluded from places where housed people gather.” -
Netherlands' regulated cannabis experiment postponed again
Selecting the growers is taking longer than expected, and several growers are having problems getting a location
NL Times (Netherlands)
Wednesday, March 30, 2022
The Netherlands' experiment with regulated cannabis cultivation has been delayed again. The trial will only start in the second quarter of 2023, Ministers Ernst Kuipers of Public Health and Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security said in a letter to parliament. The initial plan was to start selling regulated cannabis in 2020. That was then delayed to the second half of 2022 and now to next year. According to the Ministers, it is taking longer than expected to get to the point "when the quantity, quality, and diversity" of the legally grown cannabis is sufficient to supply the participating coffeeshops. They expect this point to be reached in the first half of next year at the earliest. (See also: Dutch regulated marijuana growing trial is delayed as problems mount | Dutch recreational cannabis production pilot beset by delays) -
Cannabis associations should be ‘safe spaces’, NGOs propose
Policy paper suggests clubs where users can share best practices and seek advice
Times of Malta (Malta)
Monday, March 28, 2022
Two NGOs have proposed that cannabis associations should be “safe spaces” where members have a “true interest and passion” in the substance, and where they could share best practices and seek advice even about unwanted effects. The proposals are among those made by ReLeaf Malta and Moviment Graffitti in a policy document that urges a ‘social equity’ approach to Maltese cannabis associations. The document has been presented to psychotherapist Mariella Dimech as CEO of the cannabis authority. In December, Malta became the first European country to legalise the cultivation and possession of cannabis. Cannabis users can now carry up to 7g of the substance without fear of prosecution and also grow four plants at home. -
Cannabis legislation passes 18-6, setting up constitutional face-off
Rena Lalgie, the Governor, has made it clear legalisation of cannabis for recreational use was not allowed under the UK’s international obligations
The Royal Gazette (Bermuda)
Saturday, March 26, 2022
It will be legal to grow and sell cannabis in Bermuda – if controversial legislation passed in the House of Assembly gets Royal Assent from the Governor. The Cannabis Licensing Act 2022 would create a regulated framework for growth and sale of the drug. A series of licences would be available through a licensing authority, which will allow people to not only possess more, but also to grow, harvest, sell, and export it. The Bill was introduced by Walter Roban, the minister for home affairs, who was standing in for Kathy Lynn Simmons, the Attorney-General. Mr Roban, in a repeat of the speech that Ms Simmons delivered in the House a year ago, said that the illegality of cannabis was “an unjust colonial legacy” and evidence of “systemic racialised disparities” where Black people were criminalised by a White oligarchy.
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