More than 100 doctors have come forward to put their names behind cannabis legalisation, in response to the New Zealand Medical Association's backtracking from opposing the bill to neutrality. They say they fear the Medical Association's decision to oppose the cannabis referendum and legalisation, without having consulted its members, could lead to the referendum failing. The NZMA only changed its stance to a neutral one after several doctors came forward complaining about its stance, and NZMA chair Dr Kate Baddock admitted that it did not consider the proposed legislation before opposing the referendum. Many doctors thought the referendum would pass, and so did not speak up about the NZMA's anti stance. That was until polling showed the referendum was unlikely to pass.

The cannabis reform bill in Malta is one step away from being passed in parliament after it cleared committee stage. In a four-hour-long sitting MPs discussed the individual clauses and approved minor changes to the Bill that will allow people to possess up to 7g of cannabis, grow the plant at home and buy from regulated clubs. However, despite being against the reform, the Opposition MPs on the committee did not put forward any substantial amendments. The Bill now has to pass the Third Reading in parliament, which is a mere formality given government’s majority, before being signed into law by the President. (See also: Catholic and social work organisations call for free vote on cannabis law | MUMN wants President to veto cannabis reform)

The ACT parliament passed significant reforms in regard to cannabis. Whilst the headlines called it "cannabis legalisation" the actual change was rather mild – a reform of territory offences allowing for the possession of 50 grams of cannabis as well as the cultivation of cannabis plants — two plants per person, with a cap at four plants per household. The proposal avoided political controversies associated with the large-scale cultivation, manufacture and sale of cannabis – preferring a "home-grown" approach to cannabis consumption. Questions have been raised about how this legal change will relate to Commonwealth laws that criminalise cannabis possession. Generally when a state or territory law conflicts with the Commonwealth – the Commonwealth prevails.

Local and regional authorities across Europe are confronted with the negative consequences of a persisting illicit cannabis market. Increasingly, local and regional authorities, non-governmental pressure groups and grassroots movements are advocating a regulation of the recreational cannabis market. The Transnational Institute (TNI) analysed possible cannabis market regulation models (in Belgium, Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands) to allow local authorities to share best practices and improve the understanding of drug markets as a means to reduce the negative consequences of illicit drug markets on individuals and society.

Cannabis should be legalised in France and there should be a public debate about it, says the head of a parliamentary committee after a year spent looking into its different uses. The committee’s results, which involved 250,000 submissions from citizens and interest groups, are being published soon and committee head Jean-Baptiste Moreau, a La République en Marche MP, said legalisation was the obvious conclusion. He said: “When I took up the mission, I had no preconceived ideas. But listening to all the experts and interested parties made me realise the actual situation is untenable. It is supposed to be illegal but our young find it anywhere and everywhere and consume massively which poses public health problems. So we need to legalise it, while making it illegal for under-age users."

Cannabis smokers in Malta will be asked to register with the government once a reform of the country's cannabis rules is implemented. “Government will be insisting on some principles, including a minimum legal age of 21, absolute prohibition [to smoke] in public places, as well as a user registration platform that protects users from criminal action and which controls dispensing,” Julia Farrugia Portelli, the parliamentary secretary piloting the reform said. She stressed that any amendments would be implemented following a public consultation, explaining that the government intended to adopt a harm reduction approach when dealing with the drug. Malta will not have any coffee shops or cannabis clubs. (See also: Harsh sentence for cannabis cultivation reopens case for decriminalisation)

Eine Hanfpflanze ist ihr Vereinslogo, der Kampf für die Legalisierung von Cannabis ihr größtes Ziel: Der erste Cannabis Social Club (CSC) hat in Hamburg Wurzeln geschlagen. Doch ganz so reibungslos funktionierte die Gründung nicht: Das Amtsgericht erklärte die Satzung für unzulässig.

A group of cross-party MPs said the UK could completely legalise cannabis use within a decade following a research trip to Canada. Labour’s David Lammy, the Liberal Democrats’ Sir Norman Lamb and Conservative MP Jonathan Djanogly visited the country to study the legal weed market, set up after the drug was decriminalised there last year. The Tottenham MP Lammy said he had shifted his stance on the drug, deciding to back legalisation in a departure from his party’s official position. “I want the market legalised, regulated and taken away from crime gangs,” the Tottenham MP told BBC’s Newsbeat. “I want to see the strength of the stuff reduced, labelled and properly organised in this country.” (See also: Over half of Brits support cannabis legalisation in the UK)

The first Swiss project on the legal sale of cannabis in pharmacies will start on September 15 in canton Basel City. Hemp users over 18 can now register to take part, with the number of participants limited to 370. Six cannabinoid products – four types of cannabis flowers and two types of hashish – will be sold in nine pharmacies selected by the authorities. The prices charged by the pharmacies will be around those charged on the black market for products with a THC content. A gram will therefore cost CHF8-CHF12 ($8.40-$12.60). The Federal Office of Public Health approved the pilot in April. It will be part of a project by the University of Basel, its psychiatric clinics and the cantonal health department. It is intended to help evaluate the effects of new regulations on the recreational use of cannabis and ultimately combat black market distribution.

Bremen wird also nach dem 2017 gescheiterten Vorstoß im Bundesrat (damals gemeinsam mit Thüringen) nun für die Landesebene prüfen, unter welchen Bedingungen ein Modellprojekt, in dem die kontrollierte Abgabe des Rauschmittels durch wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen flankiert wird, möglich ist. Auf Bundesebene soll sich der Senat für eine Reform des Strafgesetzes in puncto Drogen einsetzen. Was das Bremer Modellprojekt angeht muss die Regierung nun entscheiden, ob man sich Berlin anschließt, das derzeit nach einem abgelehnten Antrag auf ein eigenes Cannabis-Versuchsprojekt bei der zuständigen Bundesbehörde für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte Rechtsmittel prüft, oder einen eigenen Antrag stellt.

En la última audiencia de la Comisión de Salud del Parlamento alemán (Bundestag), antes de las elecciones de septiembre, no se habló sobre el coronavirus, sino sobre el cannabis. Esta no era la primera vez en el año que los políticos de los distintos partidos y los expertos invitados a la audiencia abordaban propuestas para una política de drogas diferente. Esta vez se debatió, a pedido del grupo parlamentario del Partido Demócrata Liberal (FDP), una distribución legal controlada de "cannabis con fines de consumo" entre los adultos, como exigieron los liberales en la moción. Y en vista de la creciente demanda mundial para su uso medicinal y recreativo, incluso tienen en mente un "Cannabis made in Germany" como posible artículo de exportación.

Neos chairman Matthias Strolz has spoken out in favour of selling cannabis over the counter in pharmacies and allowing people to grow their own plants for personal consumption. He said that half a million people who regularly use cannabis in Austria risk having a criminal record and that legalization would take cannabis out of the hands of dealers and criminal gangs. He added that the goal of legalizing cannabis in Austria would be primarily to reduce drug abuse. (See also: Big cannabis fields in Vienna?)

Finance minister Tito Mboweni expects the newly legal cannabis industry to pour an estimated R4 billion into the government’s dwindling tax coffers while simultaneously unlocking the country’s stagnant rural economy, he said in a tweet earlier this year. But will this potential windfall benefit ordinary people? Many South Africans are excited about the opportunities presented by this new market, since the Constitutional Court decriminalised the use, possession, and cultivation of the plant for private and personal consumption in September 2018. But there is a strict and costly bureaucratic red tape preventing most people from penetrating it.

Es el comienzo del fin de una época donde la norma fue criminalizar pacientes y cultivadores solidarios. Pasaron casi cuatro meses desde que el ministro de Salud Ginés González García y su vice Carla Vizzotti presentaron en privado la nueva reglamentación de la ley de uso medicinal del cannabis a referentes de la ciencia y el activismo. Finalmente el Gobierno confirmó aquello y publicó un decreto donde establece la regulación del cultivo doméstico y el expendio en farmacias de aceites y cremas producidas con esta planta. La novedad más importante es la mejora del artículo 8 de la ley, que incluye la autorización del cultivo personal y en red para los usuarios, investigadores y pacientes que se registren en el Programa nacional de Cannabis (REPROCANN) y “que no se encuentra operativo”.

Le Parlement pourra aborder la question des essais pilotes de distribution de cannabis. Contre l'avis de sa commission, le nouveau Conseil national est entré en matière mardi. Le projet qui vise à mener des programmes strictement encadrés. La discussion n'a porté que sur l'entrée en matière. Le dossier retourne auprès de la commission qui avait proposé de rejeter le projet suite à un rapport de l'Office fédéral de la santé publique. Le Conseil fédéral veut créer une base légale dans la loi sur les stupéfiants pour pouvoir mener des études scientifiques sur les effets d'une utilisation contrôlée du cannabis. Son objectif est de comprendre le fonctionnement du marché et de combattre le marché noir.

Des projets pilotes de distribution de cannabis devraient pouvoir être menés en la Suisse. Le Parlement maintient la pression après un premier niet fédéral. Une commission du Conseil des Etats a soutenu une initiative de son homologue du National. Le Conseil fédéral est prêt à revoir la réglementation. En novembre dernier, l'Office fédéral de la santé publique (OFSP) a refusé d'autoriser une étude scientifique de l'Université de Berne sur les effets de la régularisation de la vente de cannabis sur les consommateurs et sur le trafic de stupéfiants à Berne. D'autres villes comme Genève, Zurich, Bâle ou Bienne avaient manifesté leur intérêt pour cette expérience.

“Desde el Ministerio de Seguridad creemos, en consonancia con lo que nos ha pedido el presidente Alberto Fernández, que es necesario generar un debate serio y responsable sobre la regulación del autocultivo y consumo de cannabis”, ratificó la ministra de Seguridad, Sabina Frederic. “Ese debate requiere de la participación amplia y plural de los distintos actores y organizaciones que han venido trabajando en esta temática”. Esos son los términos en los que el actual gobierno nacional abrirá el debate en torno a la marihuana. Regular el cannabis implica ir más allá de su despenalización (algo que solo evita los castigos penales a consumidores) y de su legalización (donde no se hace necesario garantizar el abastecimiento desde el Estado). (Véase: Acuerdo por la Regulación Legal del Cannabis)

Las últimas semanas han sido críticas para la regulación del cannabis en nuestro país. Hasta hace unos días, sabíamos que el Congreso de la Unión tenía como el 30 de octubre como fecha límite para regular el mercado de cannabis y así cumplir con el mandato que le dio la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación después de la creación de jurisprudencia en la materia.Sin embargo, esto no sucedió y, a solicitud de extensión del Congreso, la Corte alargó el periodo de gracia hasta el término del siguiente periodo de sesiones, es decir, el 30 de abril. ¿Cómo es que un Congreso que tiene decenas de iniciativas disponibles para nutrir el dictamen, que ha organizado incontables foros y ha recibido insumos valiosísimos de sociedad civil, no logra cumplir con su trabajo en tiempo y forma?

Canopy Growth is ceasing cannabis cultivation in Africa, Canada, Colombia and the United States in a bid to “improve efficiencies” in its global operations. The company also said it is eliminating 85 full-time positions. Almost half the workforce reduction is coming from the company’s Colombian operations. The downsizing does not affect Europe. Canopy’s pullback comes after Canadian producers raked up collective net losses exceeding 6 billion Canadian dollars ($4.5 billion) in 2019, the first calendar year recreational cannabis products were allowed to be sold in Canada. Many companies, including Canopy and competitor Aurora Cannabis, invested heavily in far-flung areas of the world, where actual medical marijuana markets remain years – maybe decades – away.