Vecinos de la sierra de Heliodoro Castillo (Tlacotepec) lanzaron piedras y cohetes a dos helicópteros del Ejército en protesta contra la fumigación de sus plantas de amapola, y exigieron a las autoridades federales que las destruyan por tierra. Desde hace varios meses los campesinos han pedido a las autoridades que no fumiguen sus parcelas de amapola y que les envíen proyectos para el campo, para dejar la siembra de enervantes. Los pobladores denunciaron que “aparte de la amapola fumigan sus cosechas de tomate y aguacate, contaminan el río y nos dejan sin nada para sobrevivir, queremos que vengan y lo hagan por tierra, porque hay parcelas donde la gente siembra lo que se va comer”.

If a person is found with more than 1kg of dried cannabis or nine flowering plants they could be jailed for up to 15 years. These are just some of the “arbitrary” limits on personal cannabis possession and cultivation imposed in the new Cannabis for Private Purposes Bill. Such limits are likely to be challenged should the legislation be passed by Parliament in its present form. The Bill caps private, personal home possession of cannabis at 600g a person, or 1.2kg of dried cannabis per household. Trading in the plant carries a potential jail term of 15 years. The Bill will be tabled in Parliament during the next session and was drafted in response to a Constitutional Court judgment that upheld the right to personal, private possession and cultivation of cannabis. (See also: New bill not all that dope, say activists)

Did dagga growers influence MPs? The withdrawal of the Opium and Habit-Forming Drugs (Amendment) Bill No.06 of 2020 in the House of Assembly, has raised more questions than answers. Dagga grower Jama said he would continue advocating that dagga should not be legalised and that members of the Royal Eswatini Police Services (REPS) should continue destroying it but not all of it. “By destroying the dagga, the police control the price of dagga from dropping further,” said Jama. Another dagga grower, Musa, also said he was pleased that the Bill had been withdrawn. He said this was good because it meant that the value of the dagga would continue to be high.

The potential for cannabis in South Africa is enormous. The country has drought-resistant acclimatised genetic strains that have naturalised over hundreds of years, combined with tens of thousands of existing farmers who are familiar with the crop and how to grow it. The country’s long history of illicit cannabis production and export puts us in a strong position to develop a local cannabis market that unlocks the entire value chain, stimulates economic growth and generates substantial tax revenue for the fiscus. Early estimates for a co-operative farming and agro-processing model based on empowering small farmers as a strategy to regenerate rural economies indicate considerable economic potential.

As Morocco's 2021 round of elections approaches, the cannabis question is once again on the table. The Moroccan government approved the bill to legalize medicinal cannabis for export on March 11 of this year. Proponents of the bill argue that the legalization of cannabis is intended for the promotion of its medical use and that the lucrative revenues will boost the Moroccan economy. The bill was introduced by Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit, who said it would positively impact the underdeveloped regions of northern Morocco and improve economic prospects for the Riffian population. Amid the run-up to the 2021 elections, the question of the legalization of cannabis legalization has grown more divisive among political parties and is being weaponized to glean votes. 

The recommendation follows the completion of a market study of the cannabis industry in Jamaica, which revealed that funding is one of the major impediments in the industry. The FTC report, which was released in August, stated "policymakers should consider establishing [a] source of funding to encourage easier entry/expansion of the legitimate trade of cannabis". The agency said this is crucial as potential entrants may encounter difficulties accessing loans through local financial institutions given global efforts to limit the illegal trade of cannabis. The recommendation was also made in light of the fact that access of legally produced cannabis to international markets is likely to be frustrated by numerous treaties established to curtail the illegal trade of cannabis.

More than 25 persons representing cannabis growers and consumers from several communities throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines met at Victoria Park to discuss government’s announcement to legalise medical cannabis. The meeting, which was called by the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Cannabis Revival Committee (SVGCRC) was presided over by Junior Spirit Cottle, who is also the committee’s president and Vice President Ajit Duncan. The meeting looked at the restructuring of the organisation to enable it to operate more effectively. The SVGCRC has been calling for alternative livelihood for growers, medical cannabis and decriminalisation, as well as the legal right of Rastas to use cannabis as a religious sacrament.

The Draft South African Cannabis Masterplan states that there are up to 900,000 traditional dagga growers in South Africa and that they and ‘dagga’ need to be included in the cannabis value chain, but makes no recommendation as to how this is to be achieved. The current trajectory of industrial and medical cannabis is exclusionary of traditional growers and our indigenous cannabis. The country’s cannabis legislation must enable existing growers to enter and participate in the value chain serving as a pro-poor mechanism to regenerate the rural economy, maximise our competitive advantage of farmers and climate-resilient and drought-tolerant genetics, formalise the massive existing illicit market and negate the necessity for further court challenges on the constitutionality of the legal framework.

The opportunity to commercialise the hemp and cannabis industry in South Africa is that it is a new, fast-growing, multi-billion dollar sector with local and international markets. The potential legal pharmaceutical market for hemp and cannabis in South Africa alone has been estimated at over R100 billion a year. But there are challenges. First, that the government fails to implement changes needed to ensure the sector grows in a way that benefits township and rural entrepreneurs farmers. The second is that, from mid-2022, small scale farmers farming cannabis promised to be issued with licences to farm legally. However, some farmers in the rural areas of the Eastern Cape are still waiting.

Cannabis is a heavily criminalised plant in Nigeria. It can get its growers, traders and users long prison sentences. The National Drug Law Enforcement Act prescribes an imprisonment of not less than 15 years for possession and use of cannabis. Yet its very illegality ensures high prices and makes it lucrative to grow. This research project is one of the few to explore the inside views of illicit cannabis farmers and traders in Africa. These insider views challenge the dominant story that the illicit cultivation and trade of cannabis is unproductive or driven by organised criminals. The main findings show that livelihoods are not only made from legal crops. In fact, it is illicit cannabis, with its illegality premium, that made a difference to our interviewees’ lives in Nigeria.

To accompany Bill 13-21, a coordination of cannabis growers and the descendants of farmers met with the parties represented in the Lower House to present a memorandum. It calls for authorizing the recreational use of this plant, establishing a general amnesty, defining a reference price and granting more roles to cooperatives. Mohammed Kharchiche, a member of the coordination, referred to the question of cooperatives. «The role of these has been reduced in the bill, acting only on collection and distribution of the harvest for companies which creates a sort of monopoly». The coordination considers that «cooperatives must also have the right to proceed with the transformation of the product and its valuation, so that they can really participate in local development».

C’est la question qui brûle toutes les lèvres depuis l’annonce du projet de loi 13-21 : quelles seront, pour le Maroc, les retombées économiques de la légalisation de l’usage médical, thérapeutique et industriel du cannabis? A priori, la panacée. Du moins si l’on se fie à l’étude de faisabilité du ministère de l’Intérieur. De là à se demander s’il existe des possibilités d’ouverture pour le Maroc ? “Il pourrait y avoir un marché, mais il ne se crée pas facilement”, avance Tom Blickman. Ce dernier insiste sur le marché émergent du cannabis récréatif légal, “une solution pour réduire les trafics”. “Là ou d’autres pays ont légalisé le marché récréatif, comme le Canada, pourquoi ne pas produire pour ce marché?, suggère-t-il.

A tripartite agreement was signed to implement a cannabis pilot programme in Accompong, St Elizabeth, under the Cannabis Licensing Authority's (CLA) Alternative Development Programme. The agreement was signed by representatives of the CLA, Accompong Town Maroons, and Timeless Herbal Care. The Alternative Development Programme is being implemented as a strategy to transition traditional cannabis farmers from an illicit framework into the regulated environment, as a means of promoting sustainable economic development and poverty eradication. It is also aimed at providing access to quality-controlled cannabis for medicinal purposes, in keeping with government policy.

A leading drugs policy expert believes members of Malta’s planned cannabis associations should be allowed to consume cannabis on site rather than being restricted to only doing so at home. “It was an issue that came up in several of our meetings these past two days, and the social role of associations should be promoted as going beyond a place where members get cannabis to take home,” said Martin Jelsma, Programme Director for Drugs and Democracy at the Netherlands-based Transnational Institute. As it stands, the law will not allow members to smoke cannabis on the premises of planned cannabis associations. Jelsma also had strong words of criticism for Maltese authorities' handling of CBD cannabis flow, branding it "absurd".

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.

The Black Farmers' Association of South Africa (BFASA) have threatened to shut down the regulatory authority for allegedly excluding them from opportunities in the rapidly growing cannabis industry. BFASA says it has written to the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) amid concerns that the cannabis industry is not being steered in a sustainable nor inclusive manner. "SAPHRA has maliciously and deliberately blocked every aspect of the cannabis and hemp industry. Job creation. Investment from keen investors. Untold agricultural, industrial, recreational, and traditional healing methods are thwarted selfishly," Dr Lennox Xolile Mtshagi, BFASA’s national president, wrote in his letter to SAHPRA. "SAHPRA has handed the cannabis industry to 'white monopoly colonialists'."

Dans les provinces d’Al Hoceima et de Chaouen, les cultivateurs de la plante de cannabis ont décidé de lancer une initiative légale pour accompagner la mise en œuvre de la nouvelle législation relative à cette culture. D’après le quotidien Al Ahdath Al Maghribia, ces derniers viennent de créer la «Coordination des zones d’origine du cannabis». Cette initiative intervient au moment où le nouveau projet de loi sur les usages légaux du cannabis vient tout juste d’être présenté par le ministre de l’Intérieur devant le Parlement. Parmi les premières revendications de cette organisation associative, une révision du casier judiciaire des personnes recherchées pour cette activité, l’assainissement du foncier consacré à cette culture et l’accélération du renforcement du rôle des coopératives.

Le PAM a réussi à réunir les cultivateurs de cannabis de la région de Bab Berred. Des centaines de personnes, liées à la culture de cette plante sujet de polémique, se sont rassemblées dans une tente caidale dressée pour l’occasion à la sortie du village de Bab Berred, non loin du poste de la gendarmerie de la région. Dans l’assistance, des propriétaires ou de simples ouvriers agricoles travaillant les terres cultivées par le cannabis. Pour les agriculteurs qui ont pris la parole, il s’agit de sortir la région tout entière de la peur. Selon certains d’entre eux, la culture de cannabis est la seule source de revenus, mais aussi des tracas et de chantages que subissent les habitants de ces régions. (Lire aussi: Dans les régions du cannabis – sur la piste des 48.000 wanted)

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?

Tras la firma del Acuerdo de paz con las Farc, casi 100 mil familias campesinas admitieron haber cometido uno o varios delitos: participaron en actividades vinculadas a los cultivos de uso ilícito, tráfico y fabricación de estupefacientes, destinación ilícita de muebles o inmuebles y tráfico de sustancias para el procesamiento de narcóticos. Los aceptaron al firmar los acuerdos del Programa Nacional Integral de Sustitución de Cultivos de Uso Ilícito (Pnis)con los que prometieron arrancar sus matas de coca y abandonar esa actividad para reemplazarla por proyectos productivos legales. El proyecto busca detener la persecución penal contra los pequeños agricultores, eliminar los procesos en curso y absolver las penas de quienes se inscriban y cumplan los programas de sustitución.