A recent systematic review concluded that cannabis use increases risk of psychotic outcomes independently of confounding and transient intoxication effects. Furthermore, a model of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia indicated that the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia would increase from 1990 onwards.

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Depuis sa maison de Ketama, à 1 700 mètres d’altitude, Abdellatif Adebibe surplombe la vallée où les embruns d’iode venus de la Méditerranée se mêlent aux senteurs des cèdres. « Nous sommes ici dans le temple du kif »,présente le cultivateur de 70 ans, président de l’Association pour le développement du Rif central. A l’instar du laboratoire Pharma 5, qui, dans une étude publiée par le média marocain Le Desk, met en avant la qualité de la beldiya, sa moindre teneur en THC, son odeur et sa saveur uniques… Un label « made in Rif » ? « Made in Ketama »,préfère Abdellatif Adebibe, qui, lui, défend une « appellation bio, appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC), équitable »dans la « zone historique du kif ».

Au pied du mont Tidghine, plus haut sommet du massif du Rif, dans le nord du Maroc, le village d’Azila est couvert de plantations de cannabis, prêt à être récolté. Mais les temps sont durs pour les cultivateurs locaux, dont l’activité, tolérée bien qu’officiellement interdite, pâtit de la concurrence du chanvre produit en Europe et de « lenteurs » dans la mise en œuvre d’une loi adoptée en 2021 légalisant le cannabis thérapeutique. « On reste attachés à cette plante et pourtant elle ne nous rapporte plus rien. Plus personne n’en veut ! », se désole Souad*, cultivatrice de chanvre à Azila, dans la commune de Ketama. « On est loin des années fastueuses. On vivote dans des conditions difficiles ».(Voir aussi: Maroc : les nouveaux rois du Rif)

L’année 2023 sera peut-être celle de sa première récolte légale de cannabis. Après des années dans la semi-clandestinité, Aziz a décidé de se ranger « du côté de la loi ». Ce cultivateur du Rif, région montagneuse du nord du Maroc qui abrite l’une des plus grandes productions de la planète, entend tourner le dos aux narcotrafiquants pour vendre son « kif » aux industriels lancés dans la fabrication de produits issus du cannabis. « Deux Américains sont venus dans le village il y a quelques jours,raconte-t-il. Ils veulent construire une usine dans la région et auront besoin de grandes quantités. Ils sont intéressés par nos plantes. Nous n’avons pas encore parlé du prix. »(Lire aussi:Maroc : Les Douanes rappellent les conditions d’acheminement licite du cannabis)

Australia’s cannabis industry could be earning the black market $25bn a year and, rather than policing it, we could be gaining revenue from it by legalising it, Greens senator David Shoebridge has said. “Law enforcement is spending billions of public dollars failing to police cannabis, and the opportunity here is to turn that all on its head by legalising it,” he said. In answer to a question from Shoebridge during Senate estimateson how much cannabis Australians consumed, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (Acic) provided data from the nation’s wastewater which found 14.6 kilograms of THC (the psychoactive compound found in cannabis) per thousand people a year.

Possessing and growing cannabis for personal use will become legal in Australia’s capital. The laws, which don’t come into effect until 31 January, were passed in the ACT Legislative Assembly. They will allow Canberrans over 18 to possess 50 grams of cannabis and grow two plants. The ACT attorney-general, Gordon Ramsay, told the assembly it was time to treat drug addiction like a health issue rather than an issue of “right and wrong”, which is why the laws would be accompanied by more drug and alcohol services and the introduction of specific drug courts. (See also: Cannabis legalised for personal use under ACT law | Police could still charge for cannabis possession if laws pass | Home grown cannabis to be legal in the ACT. Now what?)

Austria’s health agency AGES has revealed that the medical grade cannabis was sold to pharmaceutical companies which used it to make cannabinoid painkillers, used for treating cancer patients. Such medications are banned in Austria. Greens MP Eva Mückstein said it was outrageous that AGES was able to produce and sell cannabis but Austrian patients could not benefit from this. She is calling for the laws on the use of medical grade cannabis to be relaxed. (See also: Greens launch cannabis legalization tour)

The mayor of a town in North Brabant has been accused of acting too harshly after allegedly setting an autistic man out of his home when he was discovered with a cannabis plant. In October 2019, 34-year-old Robin said he had grown a single plant in a forest nearby his home in Bergeijk, according to RTL Nieuws. He was drying the branches and leaves at home when neighbours smelled it and called the police, who confiscated the plant and judged the amount to be high enough to sell. Apparently against the advice of the man’s guidance counsellor and some city council staff, the mayor of Bergeijk Arinda Callewaert decided to close his home under strict opium laws. Last month, the ombudsman for Rotterdam said these closures may effectively bypass people’s housing rights.

British tobacco company Imperial Brands is getting into the cannabis business with a $123 million investment in Auxly Cannabis, the Canadian company run by former Tweed founder Chuck Rifici. The British firm — which has no ties to Imperial Tobacco Canada — will take a 19.9 per cent ownership in Auxly through a convertible debenture, at a conversion price of $0.81 per share, which is a 11 per cent premium to Auxly’s closing share price as of July 24, 2019. Auxly’s stock soared 20 per cent in early trading today to $0.88 a share. Imperial will also get one out of five board seats at the cannabis company, which will give it some oversight of corporate governance at the company. Auxly, for its part, will obtain the rights to Imperial’s vaping technology.

La comisión de Presupuesto y Hacienda de la Cámara de Diputados avanzó en el dictamen del proyecto del Poder Ejecutivo, que cuenta con sanción del Senado, que establece el "marco regulatorio para el desarrollo de la industria del cannabis medicinal y el cáñamo industrial". El proyecto promueve mecanismos de autorizaciones para los productores y comercializadores, y estrategias de seguridad, fiscalización y trazabilidad en la cadena. El objetivo del texto es brindar un marco regulatorio para la inversión pública y privada en toda la cadena del cannabis medicinal y complementar la actual legislación, la Ley 27.350, que autoriza el uso terapéutico y paliativo del cannabis. En el caso del cáñamo industrial, apunta a legalizar los eslabones productivos, los de comercialización y sus subproductos.

El dictamen para regular el consumo de la marihuana en México fue aprobado en lo general por las comisiones unidas de Justicia, Salud y Estudios Legislativos del Senado de la República. Con 26 votos a favor, siete en contra y ocho abstenciones, el documento fue aprobado, lo que no significa que la marihuana ya pueda ser utilizada de manera lúdica, médica o industrial, pues se prevé que la siguiente semana se analicen los puntos particulares del dictamen y posteriormente se envíe al pleno de la Cámara Alta para su votación. El proyecto propone, entre otros temas, que las personas puedan poseer hasta 28 gramos de marihuana, a diferencia de los cinco gramos que actualmente están permitidos. (Véase también: Colectivo rechaza proyecto del Senado para regular la mariguana)

The latest study on cannabis use among the adult population by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Tendencies (OFDT) is painting a picture that sometimes goes against conventional wisdom. Among under-25s, all indicators have been on the decline since 2017, whether they concern experimentation – down 5.5 points compared to the 2017 study, from 53.5% to 48% – or habitual use, which is down 2.1 points between 2017 and 2021, from 8.4% to 6.3%. Conversely, more people are reporting cannabis use over the age of 35, and even more so over 45. Despite the recent decline in the appeal of cannabis among under-25s, France remains firmly established as one of the European countries where this drug is most widely used.

A movement is building in the Bahamas to decriminalise marijuana. This follows a town hall meeting held here by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Regional Commission on Marijuana. The initiative is one of several in  Caribbean countries, with some stakeholders eager to join other international communities and embrace the region's marijuana culture. The meeting is part of CARICOM's mandate to ascertain public opinion in CARICOM member-countries on the issue. The Commission was established by CARICOM leaders in 2014 with the objective being to conduct a rigorous enquiry into the social, economic, health and legal issues surrounding marijuana use in the Caribbean. (See also: Cabinet to discuss marijuana issue)

Banks must accept cafes which sell cannabis and marijuana as clients, says finance minister Wouter Bos. The minister fears that if these businesses, known as coffee shops, are refused bank accounts they could turn to the criminal circuit for financial services, reports Friday’s Volkskrant. At present all the banks are turning down these cafes as new customers and terminating existing accounts even though they are legitimate businesses, the paper says. Coffee shops are licenced by local authorities and allowed to sell small amounts of cannabis. Although Bos cannot force banks to accept coffee shops as customers, he has asked the anti-cartel authority to investigate the situation because it seems that the banks are acting collectively.

Amsterdam’s cannabis cafes are often intertwined with serious crime and play a serious role in money laundering, the capital’s mayor Femke Halsema has told councillors, ahead of Wednesday’s debate on refusing entry to tourists. Closing coffee shops which are involved in criminal activities is both complicated and time consuming, the mayor is quoted as saying by the Parool. But by banning the sale of soft drugs to tourists, the cannabis market will shrink and become less interesting for organised crime. This makes a ban on access for tourists is an unavoidable, temporary move in efforts to get the soft drugs market under control, the mayor told councillors, referring to police report De narcostand van Nederland, which was published earlier this year.

Barcelona’s 200 cannabis clubs face closure after the supreme court shut a legal loophole that has seen the city become Spain’s marijuana capital. It is the latest in a series of setbacks for the asociaciónes, as they are popularly known. In 2017, the court overruled a law passed by the Catalan parliament which said “private consumption of cannabis by adults … is part of the exercise of the fundamental right to free personal development and freedom of conscience”. Since then the clubs have operated under a Barcelona city bylaw that regulated their use, but this too has now been overturned, with the judges ruling that the city authorities were not competent to legislate on matters governed by the state.

The Barcelona City Council is considering tightening regulations on access to cannabis social clubs. The concept of cannabis social clubs has drawn numerous locals and tourists to Barcelona over the years, who seek a legal way to consume cannabis rather than supporting the illegal market, especially since adult-use cannabis remains illegal in Spain. But now, the City Council is exploring ways to legally close cannabis social clubs, according to the Spanish online newspaper elDiario.es. The City Council, along with the Guàrdia Urbana, the municipal police force for Barcelona, has recently launched a renewed inspection campaign targeting about twenty cannabis social clubs, signaling a shift from their tolerance policy pursued over the years.

“Si sacas hierba del club te la guardas dentro de los calzoncillos; la policía suele estar en la puerta esperando para identificarte“. Es la regla de oro que uno de los socios de uno de los clubs de cannabis del Eixample de Barcelona explica a otro cliente. La Guardia Urbana ha declarado una guerra contra estas asociaciones de consumidores que han proliferado exponencialmente en la ciudad.A los consumidores locales se les suma un auténtico ejército de turistas que llegan a una ciudad que ven como exponente de la máxima tolerancia con el consumo de esta droga. La batalla legal y policial contra estos clubs se viene librando desde hace meses.

El modelo de los clubes sociales de cannabis, consolidado en Barcelona durante la última década, podría tener los días contados. La Justicia ha tumbado la normativa aprobada por el Ayuntamiento en 2016 que regulaba los más de 200 locales de este tipo en la ciudad. Con esta decisión, confirmada por el Tribunal Supremo, ha desaparecido el último paraguas legal que les quedaba a estos espacios. Tanto el consistorio como estas asociaciones asumen ahora que lo siguiente serán los precintos. "La mayoría de las asociaciones asume que tarde o temprano les precintarán el local", lamenta Eric Asensio, portavoz de la Federación de Asociaciones Cannábicas de Catalunya (CatFAC).

Barcelona es la ciudad europea que en 2021 presentó mayor cantidad de restos de cannabis en sus aguas residuales, según un estudio hecho en 75 ciudades por la Agencia Europea de las Drogas y las Toxicomanías (EMCDDA, por sus siglas en inglés). El estudio revela que en las aguas residuales de la capital catalana se hallaron de media durante el año pasado unos 450 miligramos al día por cada 1.000 habitantes, el triple que en las aguas de Ámsterdam (Países Bajos), la segunda de la lista, con algo más de 150 miligramos diarios. El estudio también revela que en los dos últimos años está creciendo el consumo de marihuana en Barcelona, de acuerdo con los restos que se hallan en sus aguas residuales, en las que se ha casi cuadriplicado la presencia del cannabis.