Nueva York siguió los pasos de otros 14 estados al aprobar el proyecto que legaliza el uso recreativo de la marihuana para mayores de 21 años, tras horas de intensos debates en la legislatura estatal. El controvertido proyecto encontró finalmente luz verde después de que la pasada semana los demócratas, que dominan el Senado y la Asamblea, lograran un acuerdo con el gobernador Andrew Cuomo, que ve así cumplida una vieja promesa, que tras ponerse en marcha podría ayudar a sanear las arcas públicas tras el impacto de la pandemia. El proyecto se estima que tardará dos años en estar totalmente implementado e impondrá un nueve por ciento a la venta del cannabis y otro cuatro por ciento para el condado donde se produzca la venta y el gobierno local. 

Organizaciones aseguran que el dictamen que regula el consumo lúdico de la mariguana, aprobado en el Pleno de la Cámara de Diputados, mantiene una criminalización contra usuarios, e incumple el mandato de la Corte de eliminar su prohibición. México Unido Contra la Delincuencia destacó que aunque la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación fue clara y ordenó al legislativo eliminar su prohibición y regular todas las acciones necesarias para acceder al consumo, el proyecto de ley aprobado incumple con este mandato. Con ello, señala, se pierde la oportunidad de dejar de criminalizar usuarios, evitar que la policía y otras autoridades persigan administrativa y penalmente la posesión de la sustancia y reorientar la estrategia de seguridad hacia la persecución de otros delitos que sí dejan víctimas.

Los cambios políticos ocurridos en los últimos cinco años han reconfigurado dramáticamente el mercado del cannabis. No solo ha habido un boom sin precedentes en el mercado medicinal sino que, siguiendo los cambios políticos en muchas jurisdicciones, un número creciente de países también se están preparando para la regulación legal del uso no medicinal. Tales movimientos son impulsados por el reconocimiento de la inefectividad probada de las políticas represivas durante décadas, que han acarreado graves consecuencias negativas y apuntan a proporcionar un amplio rango de beneficios en términos de la salud y los derechos humanos.

Descargar el informe (PDF)

Gady Zabicky Sirot, titular de la Comisión Nacional Contra las Adicciones (Conadic), solicitó a los senadores integrantes de las Comisiones Unidas de Justicia, Salud y Estudios Legislativos aprobar un dictamen que “proteja a las personas por encima del dinero”, en materia de regulación de cannabis. Durante la reunión de las comisiones, que tuvo lugaren el Senado, Zabicky advirtió que el posible comercio de cannabis sativa permitirá a México entrar a un mercado mundial de “billones de pesos”, pero el gobierno debe privilegiar el acceso al cultivo seguro a pequeños campesinos, por encima de las grandes farmacéuticas. (Véase también: El titular de la Conadic apoya el uso lúdico de la marihuana)

The Position Paper "For inclusive business models, well designed laws and fair(er) trade options for small-scale traditional cannabis farmers” produced by The Fair(er) Trade Cannabis Working Group aims to contribute to the debate on finding sustainable and realistic solutions to the challenges posed by the developing cannabis industry, with a special focus on traditional and small scale farmers.

When Canadians have expressed concerns about upcoming cannabis legalization, the government has assured them that the legal cannabis industry will be strictly regulated to protect public health. This promise raises important questions: Has legalization of our other drug industries – alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals – prevented harm from their misuse? Have these drug industries effectively balanced the pursuit of revenue with protection of public health? Has government regulation of drug industries been effective? Canadians have far more to fear from a revenue-obsessed, poorly regulated cannabis industry than they do from cannabis itself. (See also: Marijuana stocks ‘a bubble ready to burst’ | The wild west of weed: will legalisation work for Canada?)

Two shadowy companies vying for multiple licenses in the upcoming pot shop lottery share the same west suburban address as an investment firm led by the co-founder of Green Thumb Industries, a River North-based power player in the weed industry. Matt Estep was among a group of investors who started GTI in 2014, the same year medical cannabis was legalized in Illinois. The firm, which has since blossomed into a publicly traded behemoth valued at roughly $3 billion, has operations in multiple states and runs two cultivation centers and six dispensaries in Illinois, including Rise Joliet and Rise Mundelein. (See also: New marijuana shops need ‘true social equity,’ lawmakers say in pitching change to weed law)

El proyecto de Ley Federal para la Regularización de la Cannabis avalado la víspera en comisiones, debe ser modificado a fin de no criminalizar el autoconsumo de esa droga en adultos, coincidieron senadores de Morena, PRI y PRD, quienes plantean que se elimine la obligación de realizar adecuaciones a las viviendas de los fumadores de mariguana, para establecer un espacio reservado a ello, lo que será verificado por las autoridades. Ello significa “una intromisión a la privacidad y una violación a los derechos humanos, recalcó la senadora de Morena, Jesusa Rodríguez. La senadora priísta, Silvana Beltrones, hizo notar que dentro de la regulación que se hará, debe estar presente la justicia social y asegurar la participación de campesinos y pequeñas comunidades en el mercado legal.

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni’s tweet about pushing for it to be legal to grow cannabis - for the SA Revenue Service’s sake - is a step in the direction towards including small growers, although it is more likely they will remain in the informal economy. This is the view of GG Alcock, informal economy expert and author of Kasinomics and Kasinomic Revolution, who said: "We need a policy which is like fair trade coffee where companies like Starbucks invest in small farmers in Costa Rica and central Africa, supplying them with seed and plant stock and then buying the coffee from them. This should be the model we explore, investing in small farmers and then aggregating their crop via large commercial entities.... the problem is that government models do not currently consider this type of model."

El líder del partido oficialista Morena en el Senado, Ricardo Monreal, espera que antes de diciembre se apruebe una ley para el uso recreativo de la droga, que permitiría a firmas privadas reguladas venderla al público. La industria legal del cannabis ya es un comercio mundial de miles de millones de dólares, y algunos grandes jugadores, incluidos Canopy Growth y The Green Organic Dutchman, de Canadá; y una unidad de la californiana Medical Marijuana Inc, están ansiosos por acceder al nuevo mercado mexicano. Si bien una industria del cannabis en crecimiento promete ser una máquina de hacer dinero, enfrenta la resistencia de los activistas que están preocupados de que las regulaciones favorezcan a las grandes corporaciones, a menudo extranjeras.

Después de años de lucha, organizaciones a favor de la regulación de la mariguana empiezan a observar que se abren las puertas para que esto sea una realidad. La especialista Zara Snapp destacó que algunos de los mínimos para una iniciativa que legalice la mariguana son que se respete el derecho al consumo y al autocultivo de la yerba, el reconocimiento a asociaciones cannábicas sin fines de comercialización y que se garantice producción nacional para fines personales, medicinales y de cáñamo. Igualmente, que establezca la excarcelación de personas por delitos contra la salud relacionadas a cannabis, y priorizar la siembra y la cosecha para ejidos, propiedades comunales y cooperativas.

For two years, New Jersey lawmakers had failed to mobilize enough support to pass a bill to fully legalize marijuana. Instead, they agreed in December to put the question directly to voters: “Do you approve amending the Constitution to legalize a controlled form of marijuana called ‘cannabis’?” A dominant conversation in the nation now centers on race and policing, giving a core argument among supporters of legalization new potency in a state where Black residents are more than three times as likely as white residents to be charged with marijuana possession. A poll in April found that 64 percent of New Jersey voters supported legalizing the possession of marijuana for personal use; 61 percent of respondents said they intended to vote “yes” on November’s ballot question.

A month ago, Mexican marijuana legalization seemed like a done deal. The bill was approved by the Senate last November, but greatly modified by the Chamber of Deputies, causing senators to have to give the proposed legislation a final approval before sending it to the president. The legalization bill moved through two Senate committees. But then, Monreal said they would ask the high court for more time, meaning the bill would be halted until the next legislative sessions in September. But, senators never officially asked for a deadline extension, or prórroga, which shows a pointed lack of concern for an issue in a country where cannabis users are extorted daily by law enforcement, despite the decriminalization of small-scale possession.

Following the Constitutional Court's decision in 2018 to decriminalize the personal use and cultivation of cannabis in South Africa, there are concerns on the ground that black farmers who have been working for decades in what has been an illegal industry may miss out on the potential boom. Many smaller growers cannot afford to get the licenses needed to grow marijuana for medicinal and research purposes. The stringent requirements include getting police clearances, registering a specified plot size, erecting high-tech security fencing, getting irrigation systems and setting up agreements with overseas buyers, among others. The cost of establishing a legal marijuana farm is estimated to be $200,000 to $350,000, according to a South African agricultural publication, Landbouweekblad.

South Africa’s new master plan is a bright spark for those dismayed by lawmakers’ previous attempts to reform the country’s cannabis laws. Introduced in 2018, the Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill legalizes personal cultivation but otherwise takes a punitive approach by criminalizing most cannabis activities, including buying and selling. After receiving public comments, the South African Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) led the development of the cannabis master plan, which was presented to the justice committee. Critics point out that the plan lacks a restorative justice component for communities hurt most by prohibition and ignores the thousands of Indigenous Black farmers who are the backbone of the dagga industry today.

In July 2016, the Colombian government enacted Law 1787, which regulates the use of medicinal cannabis and its trade in the country. With this decision and a series of subsequent resolutions, Colombia joined the more than a dozen countries that have put into practice different types of regulation to explore the advantages of this plant as an alternative pharmaceutical. Even though the law stipulates that 10 per cent of production should come from small- and medium- scale growers, the reality is that most of the business has been dominated by large local and foreign investors.

Download the briefing (PDF)

The legalization of cannabis in Canada just had its third anniversary, which means it's time for the federal government to review and possibly tweak the policy. In some areas, the reviews are positive. Legalization has resulted in the emergence of a multibillion-dollar industry, new jobs and tax revenue. There have also been fewer cannabis-related drug convictions among young people. But some health experts are concerned that the rapid growth of the industry combined with a lack of recent data about potential public health impacts means we could be missing some warning signs. Many of the concerns around legalized cannabis — including potential increased cases of cannabis-induced psychosis and schizophrenia, and driving under the influence of drugs — have not materialized.

The Canadian cannabis industry is booming. From giant industrial operations such as Canopy Growth to smaller “luxury” cannabis retailers, to an array of cannabis “lifestyle” brands and “cannabis brand consultancy” firms, the industry is a lucrative frontier for those seeking wealth. Canadians spent $1.6-billion on legal weed in 2018. Cannabis is quickly becoming mainstream, and – as is the norm for our capitalist society – firmly corporate. This is a failure. Revenue from legal weed should be used to fund meaningful reparations for communities targeted for decades by racist drug laws and enforcement. The rapidly growing cannabis industry in Canada reveals a troubling trend: The profits and wealth being generated are overwhelmingly landing in the pockets of white Canadians.

The cannabis industry can build a better and regenerative culture, rather than falling into the same old tired and destructive human and corporate patterns of extractive companies. We can create a diverse industry from the ground up. The federal and provincial governments can incentivize and support the creation of small sustainable environmentally friendly farms. In a transparent legal market, consumers can purchase cannabis aligned with their values, whatever they may be. We can promote gender parity and inclusiveness in the boardroom, and foster equity in the licencing process with buy-in from local, provincial and federal governments. Let’s create fair trade standards that will help farmers to not just survive but thrive, and give back to our communities economically, in the spirit of good stewardship.