Los intentos para legalizar la siembra y la venta de cannabis volvieron a generar controversia en Bermudas, después de que la Cámara baja de la Asamblea aprobara la medida y esta quede ahora a expensas del consentimiento real de la gobernadora británica. Un proyecto de ley similar ya fue aprobado hace un año por la Cámara baja de este territorio británico de ultramar y rechazado por el Senado, que ahora, sin embargo, no puede bloquearlo por segunda vez. La última palabra es de la gobernadora británica de Bermudas, Rena Lalgie, quien ha enfatizado que el cannabis como uso recreativo no está permitido bajo las obligaciones internacionales del Reino Unido. El proyecto de ley, presentado por el ministro de Interior de Bermudas, Walter Roban, fue aprobado con 18 votos a favor y seis en contra.

The University of Bern cannot conduct a study on the effects of the regulated sale of cannabis in pharmacies on behalf of the city’s authorities. In a written reply the Federal Office of Public Health says the legal framework does not exist to authorise such a scientific project as “current drugs legislation does not allow the use of cannabis for non-medical reasons”. In May 2017, researchers from the university’s Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and the Clinical Trials Unit filed a request with the health office for an authorisation to carry out a scientific study on the effects of the regulated sale of cannabis for recreational purposes via pharmacies. It also planned to study the illegal cannabis market in the Swiss capital. (Bundesrat Berset blockiert Cannabis-Politik der Städte)

Bern's city government announcedit had commissioned the university’s Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) to research the effects of selling cannabis in pharmacies. Under the study, cannabis would be put on sale in participating pharmacies in the city, with the ISPM monitoring 1,000 registered users of the service, who must be over 18, living in Bern and already using cannabis. However given possessing cannabis is technically illegal in Switzerland – even if many cantons turn a blind eye – the project must be agreed by the federal government before it can go ahead.

Die Stadt Bern soll sich an einem Pilotversuch mit Cannabis-Clubs beteiligen. Das Stadtparlament hat einen Vorstoss der linksgrünen Fraktion überwiesen und damit der Stadtregierung den Rücken gestärkt. Via Motion forderten die Grünen, dass Bern sich zusammen mit anderen Städten an einem Pilotprojekt mit «Cannabis Social Clubs» beteiligt. Die Idee ist, dass innerhalb solcher Clubs der Cannabis-Konsum freigegeben wird. (Google translate: Bern wants to allow smoking pot in clubs | Mehr dazu: In Bern wird Kiffen legal | Basel-Stadt will Cannabis-Pilotprojekt)

Le Conseil fédéral veut dorénavant autoriser les essais pilotes avec cannabis. Les résultats de la consultation semblent lui être favorables. UDC mis à part, un large consensus réunit les partis et les organisations de prévention des addictions. Ils espèrent que ces essais seront instructifs pour la gestion de cette substance à l'avenir. C'est le refus d'autorisation d'une étude qui a motivé le processus de changement de loi. Plusieurs villes et cantons ont voulu que les effets de la vente de cannabis légal sur les consommateurs soient étudiés scientifiquement. L'Office fédéral de la santé publique (OFSP) a rejeté la demande, en indiquant que les bases légales faisaient défaut.

In recent years, the international debate on drug policy reform has intensified, and with it has come a productive exchange of information between academics, activists and advocates on the diverse models and approaches in different countries. Portugal’s decriminalization model is the subject of numerous reports and articles, the legalization of cannabis in a number of U.S. states and Uruguay is heavily studied. Heroin-Assisted Treatment (HAT) in Switzerland is often discussed, and the Czech Republic’s progressive drug policy has been much heralded. On the outside looking in is Spain, a country with a curious mix of cannabis clubs, decriminalization of drug possession for personal use, innovative harm reduction policies, drug checking, and more. It also occupies an interesting geographical position as a transit hub for drugs entering Europe from the Americas and North Africa. Yet in mainstream drug policy discussions, little is known of the Spanish approach to drug policy, with the possible exception of cannabis clubs.

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Citing that bhang is not a prohibited drink under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the Karnataka high court has granted bail to an accused from Bihar. "There is no scientific evidence before this court to show that bhang is prepared out of charas or ganja or ganja leavesand seeds are excluded from the definition of ganja, and nowhere in the NDPS Act is bhang referred to as a prohibited drink or prohibited drug. Even the state government has not made any rules under the NDPS Act and mentioned bhang as a prohibitory drug or issued any notifications (on bhang)," Justice K Natarajan has noted in his order. (See also: 'Bhang' is not prohibited under NDPS Act: Karnataka HC)

President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be in the same legal category as drugs like heroin and LSD. The pardons will clear everyone convicted on federal charges of simple possession since it became a crime in the 1970s. Officials said full data was not available but noted that about 6,500 people were convicted of simple possession between 1992 and 2021, not counting legal permanent residents. The pardons will also affect people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession, who vastly outnumber those charged under federal laws.

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Joe Biden, ha anunciado que perdona todas las condenas federales leves por posesión de marihuana. La medida, cargada de simbolismo, allana el camino hacia la despenalización total del uso del cannabis en el país, que ya es legal en muchos Estados: 37 han aprobado su uso médico; y en 19 está autorizado también su uso recreativo entre los adultos. Las autoridades calculan que esos indultos afectarán a unas 6.500 personas, condenadas por la ley federal entre 1992 y 2021, así como a otras miles en el Distrito de Columbia, el que alberga Washington. Nadie está cumpliendo ahora mismo una pena en una prisión federal por estos delitos leves, pero muchos sí cargan con antecedentes por esos motivos, lo que puede suponer un obstáculo para obtener un trabajo o acceder a una vivienda.

The BMJ has uncovered links between companies, campaign groups and individuals lobbying for wider patient access to cannabis for medical use and a parallel campaign to create a lucrative recreational market for the drug in the UK. The article focuses on the links between commercial organisations that are seeking new markets for recreational cannabis and patient groups and researchers. Some suggest that the debate is being fuelled by a growing breed of new companies, ranging from large scale cannabis growers and distributors in Canada to UK and international investment groups, which are manoeuvring to take advantage of a widely anticipated shift in the UK’s cannabis regulatory landscape.

A handful of the Netherlands’ medium sized cities have come forward to take part in the government’s controversial regulated marijuana experiment but the five biggest cities have all said no, the Volkskrant said. Tilburg, Almere, Breda and Nijmegen had signed up for the trials by the June 11 deadline and Groningen is also considering the idea, even though the city’s 12 cannabis cafes are opposed. The experiment with regulated growing is supposed to remove the gray area between the sale of marijuana in council-licenced coffee shops and the illegal cultivation and supply. However, there are so many problems with the proposals that the big cities, where most of the coffee shops are located, see no point in taking part.

Ohioans rejected a very unusual marijuana legalization proposal. Beyond legalizing pot, the ballot initiative would have given campaign donors direct rights to the state's 10 pot farms as an explicit gift for their support. Even legalization advocates argued it was a flagrant display of would-be members of the pot industry trying to cash in on a movement motivated primarily by social justice issues. Some legalization backers are increasingly concerned that the interests of the pot industry, which will grow more and more as legalization spreads, will take priority over the public's best interests.

Illinois’ coffers have enjoyed a boost in tax revenue approaching the amount generated by booze sales thanks to the year that recreational marijuana has been legal there. But that success is dampened by the fact that the program’s loftier goal of bringing social equity to an industry dominated by wealthy white men hasn’t been met. Sales of highly taxed marijuana that have topped $1 billion are popular in a state with a $3.9 billion budget deficit. But other states are watching Illinois’ experiment that promised to ensure people of color could reap revenue in a rapidly growing, multi-billion dollar industry.” That’s not happening.

Big Tobacco has been planning for this moment for decades. A 1983 industry list titled New Product Ideas, made public as part of a court settlement, reveals that tobacco companies even then were anticipating the opportunity to blend marijuana into cigarettes if the government legalized cannabis. Now tobacco behemoths are pouring billions of dollars into the new legal marijuana industry. We don’t have to let them. Announcing a comprehensive bill to legalize marijuana, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said, “We don’t want the big tobacco companies and the big liquor companies to swoop in and take over.” Tobacco companies are convicted racketeers who knowingly misled the public with false claims about their products for decades.

A bipartisan duo of congressional lawmakers filed a resolution on Friday imploring President Joe Biden to wield his influence to get the United Nations (UN) to end the international ban on marijuana by removing the plant from the list of controlled substances in a global drug treaty. Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced the measure as UN’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) wrapped up meetings for its 65th session this week in Vienna. CND in 2020 adopted a proposal to delete cannabis from Schedule IV of the 1961 Single Convention, but it currently remains in Schedule I, precluding member nations from legalizing the plant.

Since the Netherlands decriminalized marijuana in 1976, Amsterdam’s “coffee shops” have become a destination for weed lovers from around the globe. But pot has never been fully legalized in the country: You won’t get busted for smoking or selling small quantities, but producing or selling it in bulk remains a legal gray zone. And that’s proving to be a handicap for the Dutch marijuana industry as full legalization speeds ahead elsewhere. Dutch seeds are considered the gold standard worldwide, and people with ties to the Netherlands are a big part of the global business. Many of the country’s growers say the future lies across the Atlantic, where Canada and 11 U.S. states now allow recreational pot use, and many more states permit medicinal consumption.

A policy brief by the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation and the University of Toronto looked at c-suite level executives, parent companies and licensed producers in Canada. The research reveals that two years after legalization, 84 per cent of cannabis industry leaders are white and 86 per cent are men; only 2 per cent of industry leaders are Indigenous, and just 1 per cent are Black. Lead author Akwasi Owusu-Bempah says the lack of Black and Indigenous leadership in the industry goes beyond just an issue of representation or diversity: "Black and Indigenous people that we found to be underrepresented in leadership in cannabis were the two groups that were most targeted by prohibition. So they were the groups that were most criminalized, for example, for minor possession."

Senior operating staff working at CannTrust Holdings Inc.’s Pelham, Ont. facility late last year brought cannabis seeds from the black market into production rooms, leading to some illicitly-grown pot flowing into the legal market. In an apparent effort to conceal the black market cannabis seeds from regulatory inspections and other staff members, some CannTrust employees changed the names of as many as 20 strains to those which the company was licensed to sell in the legal medical and recreational markets. Adding cannabis seeds obtained through the black market would have allowed CannTrust to significantly bolster its production at a time when it had overcommitted itself with supply contracts with provinces and other licensed marijuana producers.