Leader of the Opposition, Mark Golding, says Jamaica's ganja industry can assist in the economic recovery of the island, providing much needed foreign exchange and creating employment. Should his party become Government, they would take the law relating to the cannabis industry out of the Dangerous Drugs Act. “We will... enact a Cannabis Industry Development Act to support the inclusive development and growth of this industry,” Golding told Parliament. Households have the right to grow up to five ganja plants for medical, therapeutic or horticultural purposes. The PNP will empower householders to monetise this, by allowing them to sell their ganja to licensed processors or retailers, creating an important new economic opportunity to supplement the income of Jamaican households.

Small farmers, the Maroons and Rastafarians are to be given special treatment in the ganja industry whenever the People’s National Party (PNP) next forms the Government in Jamaica. That commitment was given by PNP President Mark Golding at the party’s 84th Annual Conference at the National Arena. He said it was time for Jamaica to move beyond decriminalisation of the weed. “The potential of this industry is vast but the Government does not seem to understand or believe in it. Time come to proactively empower and include small farmers in the ganja industry. They’re the ones who built and protected our knowledge system around ganja over a century of prohibition enforced by international interests,” Golding remarked.

Minister of State for Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Floyd Green, says the Government, through its Alternative Development Programme (ADP), is committed to assisting traditional cannabis growers to transition to the emerging legal medicinal industry. “The ADP was specifically created to offer farmers the technical and financial support they need to enter the legal industry. It is designed to guide the transition of small traditional Jamaican ganja farmers into the regulated and licensed cannabis industry,” he noted. “The ultimate goal is to create an environment where farmers can operate legally and where Jamaica can be positioned as a world leader in the global cannabis sector,” he added.

The Ganja Growers and Producers Association (GGPAJ) says despite the success of several Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) operators, Jamaica's regulated cannabis industry has failed to live up to its potential. In a statement the GGPAJ said while the 2015 legislation was progressive, the regulations are unworkable, restrictive and draconian. It said that the industry was not designed with a ground-up approach and blamed both of the major political parties for the state of affairs. It accepted culpability too, saying it has so far failed to adequately lobby on behalf of the local sector, but claimed it can still be rescued as an inclusionary income generating enterprise for thousands of Jamaicans with a new approach. (See also: Cannabis agency defends its stewardship on ganja)

From 16 to 18 October 2019, representatives of member states, intergovernmental organisations, and civil society attended the 6th Intersessional Meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs. On 17 October 2019, representatives of coca and opium growers from Colombia (Pedro Arenas) and Myanmar (Sai Lone of Myanmar Opium Farmers' Forum) delivered statements highlighting the situation of communities involved in the illicit cultivation of coca and opium in both countries. Read their full statements.

Acompañamos la instalación de un espacio humanitario conformado por organizaciones sociales para atender la crisis desatada tras los operativos de erradicación forzada. Las comunidades denuncian una política de tierra arrasada y las autoridades defienden estas acciones porque van en contra de la disidencia al mando de “Gentil Duarte”, comandante del Frente Séptimo de las Farc que no se acogió al Acuerdo de Paz. Un puñado de campesinos, alrededor de una carpa improvisada que levantaron con plástico y les sirve de cocina, se comunican por radio con decenas de ellos que están regados por la zona alertas a la entrada del Ejército en los tajos de coca.

In New Zealand, it’s Māori communities who have been hit by racial bias in drug policing. Even when accounting for rates of use, at every stage of the criminal justice system, Māori are more likely to be apprehended, charged, and given a prison sentence than their Pākeha pot-smoking counterparts. In this 2007 report, for example, Corrections notes that on the basis of equivalent usage of cannabis, Māori experienced arrest at three times the rate of non-Māori users. Now, New Zealand is poised to legalise. But who stands to benefit from a medicinal cannabis industry?

"You want to buy charas? Hashish? Top quality," are invariably the first words you will hear in Malana. Tucked safely away on the highest mountains fringing Kullu Valley and an hour-and-a-half's walk from the closest road, the remote Himalayan hamlet lends its name to Malana Cream, acknowledged the world over as the 'champagne of hashish', an intoxicating dark brown resin rubbed off the leaves and seeds of the locally profuse variety of cannabis sativa-bhang. Residents in nearly 2,500 villages in Himachal Pradesh falling within more than 592 panchayats (each hill panchayat could have up to 12 villages) across Kullu, Mandi, Chamba, Kangra, Shimla and Sirmour rely on drug money for their livelihoods. (See also: Fear and loathing in the magic valley of Malana, India’s cannabis country)

Las modificaciones que los diputados hicieron a la Ley Federal para la Regulación del Cannabis viola derechos humanos de los consumidores de mariguana y acaba con el contenido social de la reforma, al eliminar el trato preferencial a campesinos, ejidatarios, comunidades indígenas y marginadas en la producción de esa droga, advirtieron los senadores de Morena Jesusa Rodríguez y José Narro. Lamentaron que se haya eliminado esa preferencia para el cultivo de mariguana, que incluía también a comunidades afectadas por el crimen organizado. Rodríguez coincidió, sin embargo, con la propuesta contenida en el proyecto de dictamen, de aceptar los cambios para que la ley se promulgue, entre en vigor y se presente de inmediato una iniciativa para corregir lo mal hecho por los diputados.

Victims of overproduction, cannabis farmers in the Beqaa now long for the time when the Lebanese State was fighting against the cultivation of Indian hemp, burning entire fields. When Syrian refugees began arriving in the Beqaa, the authorities stopped destroying the crops to prevent protests from the already impoverished host community. For a few years now, planting and irrigation of the fields has been done openly. The price of cannabis collapsed to $100 per kilo because farmers in the Beqaa have started planting hemp again, taking advantage of the leniency from authorities. Supply has out stripped demand, and last year, the price of cannabis––80 percent of which is destined for export––fell to $150 per kilogram. Last year’s merchandise hasn’t been sold yet and is laying in the farmers’ barns.

California’s marijuana market, which reached an estimated $4.4 billion in sales in 2020, has seemingly reached peak cannabis capitalism. But the overwhelming sense amongst the so-called “legacy growers” is that they’re at a breaking point, exhausted by the regulations of the industry that they largely created. Protecting existing growers was a pillar of Proposition 64, which legalized marijuana for adult use. Legalization advocates included a provision to encourage legacy growers to join the legal market, promising that no cultivation site would be larger than one acre until 2023, so that small farms wouldn’t face competition from multi-acre ‘mega farms’ for at least five years. But cannabis industry lobbyists persuaded the California Department of Food and Agriculture to change the provision.

Some local ganja farmers are fuming over reports that a licence has been granted to a company to import Canadian cannabis into Jamaica. Speaking inside the ‘Jamaica Cannabis Industry Forum’ WhatsApp group, President of the Jamaica Cannabis Licensed Association, Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin, asked growers to figuratively “holster [their] weapons and keep [their] powder dry”, noting that the Cannabis Licensing Authority (CLA) was aware of the ire created within the local industry following the latest development. (See also: Hylton slams Hill’s ‘dubious’ claim on ganja imports | Gov't to formulate local cannabis policy following Canadian company backlash)

Since 2015, Jamaica has become the site of a ganja gold rush, as foreign investors pump in money and set up shop on the island. Smaller local farmers, many of whom were being harassed and punished for growing in the past, simply can’t compete. Some locals see this as another extensions of colonial inaction. “I'm not saying all of these investors coming in are evil,” says Ras Iyah V, an activist who has been fighting for ganja legalization for years. “I'm just saying most of these coming in are concerned with money. About making money out of an industry that our people have suffered for.”

Il faudra s’armer de patience pour connaître la position du gouvernement au sujet des deux propositions de loi portées par le PAM, au sujet de la légalisation du cannabis et l’amnistie des cultivateurs de la plante. L’étude de la proposition de loi relative à l’amnistie des cultivateurs de cannabis a été ajournée, lors d’une réunion de la commission de justice à la deuxième chambre avec Mohamed Benabdelkader, ministre de la Justice. Déposée en 2015 par le PAM à la deuxième chambre, la proposition de loi relative à la légalisation du cannabis sera examinée au sein de la commission des secteurs productifs à la deuxième chambre, mais aucune date n’a été fixée pour le moment.

L’avenir de la culture du cannabis et sa relation avec le développement territorial a été sous les projecteurs, samedi à Tanger, lors d’un colloque international organisé par la revue Tidighin des recherches amazighes et développement. Les intervenants à cette rencontre, organisée en collaboration avec le transnational institute (TNI), sous le thème « Quel avenir durable pour les producteurs du cannabis au Maroc après la promulgation de la loi 13-21 relative aux usages licites du cannabis?« , ont souligné que le Maroc, à travers la promulgation d’une loi régissant les usages licites du cannabis, parie sur l’avenir et donne l’opportunité aux régions concernées et à leurs habitants de s’engager dans un processus de développement global.

Cuando en 2016 se regularizó el cannabis medicinal en Colombia mediante la Ley 1787, varios ministros y expertos aterrizaron en Corinto, en el departamento del Cauca, para vender el cultivo como una posibilidad para mejorar la vida de cientos de familias. Entre los campesinos que buscaron aprovecharla estaba Artemio Salazar, un indígena caucano con medio siglo de vida a sus espaldas y quien desde entonces lidera, junto a otras personas, la apuesta en su región por entrar en ese sector económico. Cinco años después ve que la promesa sigue en veremos para los pequeños y medianos productores como él. (Véase también: La promesa del cannabis medicinal todavía tiene quijotes)

Hay esperanzas en el Congreso de sacar adelante la regularización de la marihuana de uso adulto en Colombia. El pasado 20 de julio, durante la instalación de la nueva legislatura, no solo llamó la atención Alejandro Ocampo, representante a la Cámara por el Valle (Pacto Histórico), quien apareció con cervezas y chocolates con marihuana, así como con unos zapatos hechos de fibra de cáñamo, sino que además miembros del mismo partido radicaron un proyecto de ley con el que se espera establecer las condiciones para la comercialización de la marihuana de uso adulto. En los últimos tres años, en el Congreso han cursado dos proyectos con los que se ha intentado modificar el artículo 49 de la Constitución, para permitir el uso adulto de la marihuana.

L'Istiqlal a accueilli avec satisfaction le projet de loi sur la légalisation du cannabis à des fins médicales. Mais, ce parti d'opposition a appelé le gouvernement à dépénaliser le plus vite possible la culture de cette plante qui couvre quelques 73.000 hectares dans le nord du Maroc. "Le gouvernement est appelé à dépénaliser rapidement la culture du cannabis", a déclaré Noureddine Moudiane, le président du groupe parlementaire de l'Istiqlal à la Chambre des représentants. L’autre priorité pour le parti de la Balance, a-t-il souligné, porte sur "une amnistie pure et simple" au profit d'un total de 30.000 cultivateurs poursuivis par la justice pour "culture illégale du kif". Noureddine Moudiane estime qu'actuellement "tous les cultivateurs du kif sont en liberté provisoire".

Lebanon is set to become the first Arab country to legalise the growing and export of medical cannabis in hopes of rescuing the economy - at least that's the stated objective. To be fair, the industry does have the potential to generate $1 billion, according to a report by the American consultancy firm McKinsey and Company. That report - commissioned by the Lebanese government in 2018 - had some MPs salivating at the prospect of fattening their pockets. Lebanon's elites are looking to exploit the cannabis cultivation industry, cutting existing small-scale farmers out of the deal. The government hasn't consulted with Bekaa farmers about its new plan, leaving communities to believe that they are being blatantly ignored. (See also: Lebanon legalises cannabis cultivation)

No one knows with confidence how many small-scale cannabis farmers there are in South Africa, but the number is large: one organisation estimates 900,000. Millions of people probably depend on income from cannabis. In Pondoland, these growers have been cultivating the plant for over 200 years, with most of their harvest in more contemporary times bound for Cape Town townships and taxi ranks, as well as other South African cities. Pondoland is among South Africa’s least economically developed regions, and dagga is the only cash crop in a subsistence economy. There have been a number of failed efforts to eradicate the plant from the area.