-
Could Germany’s impending cannabis legalization prop up Canada’s flagging producers?
Legislation could ban Germany from importing Canadian-grown cannabis, fundraising remains a challenge for Canadian producers and legalization could still be years away
The Globe and Mail (Canada)
Sunday, September 18, 2022
First-mover advantage: It’s a phrase long used by Canadian cannabis companies that have spent billions of dollars to accelerate their international sprawl since legalization in 2018. But as Germany moves to open its adult-use market, it remains unclear to what degree Canada’s early start will help its companies succeed abroad. While medical cannabis has been legal since 2017, Germany would be the first country in the European Union to legalize the drug for recreational use. As Europe’s largest economy with nearly double Canada’s population, Germany’s recreational market is expected to quickly outpace domestic demand. With the prospect of a new cash source in grasp, Canadian companies are jostling to position themselves to capitalize on the new opportunity. -
Pirates are preparing to legalize marijuana. Progress cannot be stopped even in the Czech Republic
Pirates cooperate with Vobořil, with the state
Aktuálně (Czech Republic)
Friday, September 16, 2022
The Pirates are fulfilling one of their pre-election promises. Pirates MPs prepared a bill on the legalization of cannabis in cooperation with the national anti-drug coordinator Jindřich Vobořil, an expert the government should trust. The amendment to the drug law wants to make it possible to legally grow up to five plants and keep with you up to 1,250 grams of dry matter. The legalization of licensed sales is also expected. Vobořil already said in June that he is discussing this fundamental change with Petr Fiala (ODS): “We agreed with the Prime Minister that there is a need to respond to the fact that in Germany they are planning to introduce a regulated cannabis market by the end of the year. There are around a hundred companies in the Czech Republic that would like to enter the hemp market. These companies could then export hemp.” -
Pirates: Legal marijuana could generate up to CZK 1.8 billion in taxes
If the Czech Republic manages to start a regulated market together with the German one, it will mean huge opportunities for our economy in the area of exports
Radio Prague (Czech Republic)
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Legalizing marijuana would bring the Czech state between CZK 650 million and CZK 1.8 billion in tax revenue, according to an analysis commissioned by the Pirate Party, which was presented on Wednesday. The study proposes various options for regulating the marijuana market, including mandatory registration of users. The register would make it possible to regulate the amount per month that can be purchased, or to check that the age of shoppers is over 18. It also aims to regulate the black market and restrict minors’ access to cannabis. The Pirate Party plans to present the study to its government coalition partners next week. (See also: The legalization of cannabis would bring in up to 1.8 billion, the Pirates claim) -
Vobořil is looking for support for the regulated legal sale of cannabis
Vobořil, he wants to fine-tune whether the proposal will be submitted by the government or the deputies
Novinky (Czech Republic)
Monday, September 12, 2022
The new model of cannabis regulation in the Czech Republic envisages controlled sales in specialized branches, the liberalization of the use of cannabis and, in small quantities, also the cultivation of plants. According to Vobořil, it offers greater tools of control than dysfunctional prohibition. At the same time, he wants to bring an elaborate program protecting users from risks, as well as billions to the state budget. "I would first like to agree on the basis of the political spectrum in order to be authorized to prepare the proposal. I would like to create a working group so that the wording of the paragraphs is created and the reasoned report is created by the end of the year," he told Právu. -
Germany’s move to legalise cannabis slows over fears of clash with EU laws
New ‘degree of caution’ in coalition government over promises of breakthrough before end of this year
The Guardian (UK)
Monday, September 12, 2022
Legal hurdles are slowing down German plans to allow the controlled distribution of cannabis among adults, with fears that a badly crafted law to legalise the drug could be thrown out by the European court of justice. In the initial debate around legalising cannabis in Germany, the main obstacle identified was the UN 1961 single convention on narcotic drugs, whose obligations Canada and Uruguay ignored when they took steps to legalise the drug. Now, however, Berlin increasingly sees the convention as the smaller challenge as the binding nature of various European laws has come into focus. A Council of the European Union framework decision from 2004, for example, requires member states to ensure that the sale of drugs including cannabis are “punishable by effective, proportionate and dissuasive criminal penalties”. -
The reality of legal weed in California: Huge illegal grows, violence, worker exploitation and deaths
Intense cultivation is causing unmeasured environmental damage.
Los Angeles Times (US)
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Proposition 64, California’s 2016 landmark cannabis initiative, sold voters on the promise a legal market would cripple the drug’s outlaw trade, with its associated violence and environmental wreckage. Instead, the law triggered a surge in illegal cannabis on a scale California has never before witnessed. Criminal enterprises operate with near impunity, leasing private land and rapidly building out complexes of as many as 100 greenhouses. Police are overwhelmed, able to raid only a fraction of the farms, and even those are often back in business in days. The raids rip out plants and snare low-wage laborers while those responsible, some operating with money from overseas, remain untouched by the law, hidden behind straw buyers and fake names on leases. Labor exploitation is common, and conditions are sometimes lethal.
-
Czechia, mulling cannabis decriminalisation, calls for joint EU action
Market regulation and decriminalisation of cannabis users were among the topics of the Prague meeting of European anti-drug coordinators
Euractiv (Europe)
Thursday, September 8, 2022
Czech National Anti-drug Coordinator Jindřich Vobořil wants to strictly regulate the Czech cannabis market as cannabis sales should be decriminalised and regulated at the European level. While recreational cannabis is not allowed in Czechia, possession and growing at home has been decriminalised since 2010 but is still punishable as a civil offence. Market regulation and decriminalisation of cannabis users were among the topics of a meeting of European anti-drug coordinators, organised under the Czech EU Presidency. “We hope it will be a coordinated effort (to regulate the cannabis market). It is impossible not to talk about it on an EU-wide basis. Prohibition has not proved to be effective enough; we need to look for other models of control,” Vobořil said. (See also: Anti-drug coordinator: Czechia could soon legalise sale and growing of marijuana) -
Britain blocks Bermuda’s cannabis legislation
Premier Burt has said if royal assent was not given to the bill, it would destroy relations between Bermuda and Britain
Caribbean National Weekly (US)
Tuesday, September 6, 2022
Bermuda’s governor Rena Lalgie announced that the United Kingdom has blocked the Bermuda government’s controversial bid to legalize the use and production of cannabis in the British Overseas Territory. “I previously announced that I had reserved the Cannabis Licensing Bill 2022 for the signification of her majesty’s pleasure under Section 35 (2) of the Bermuda Constitution. I have now received an instruction, issued to me on Her Majesty’s behalf, not to assent to the bill as drafted." The Bill, as currently drafted, is not consistent with obligations held by the UK and Bermuda under the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. The Cannabis Licensing Act 2022 was intended to create a regulated framework for the growth and sale of the drug. (See also: Crisis looms as Britain blocks cannabis legalisation | The long road to legalisation) -
Explained: Bhang, ganja, and criminality in the NDPS Act
Courts ruled that bhang is not ganja, and is therefore not covered under the NDPS Act
The Indian Express (India)
Thursday, September 1, 2022
While granting bail to a man arrested on June 1 for possessing 29 kg of bhang and 400 g of ganja, Karnataka High Court recently observed that nowhere in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act is bhang referred to as a prohibited drink or prohibited drug in India. Since the ganja recovered was below commercial quantity, the accused was given bail on a personal bond of Rs 2 lakh. The single judge Bench relied on two earlier judgments, Madhukar vs the State of Maharashtra, 2002 and Arjun Singh vs State of Haryana, 2004, where the courts had ruled that bhang is not ganja, and is therefore not covered under the NDPS Act. (See also: Cannabis in India: A rather long story, with its highs and lows) -
Cannabis authority yet to start issuing licences, months after law introduced
‘This is a delicate process that cannot be done overnight’ – ARUC head
Times of Malta (Malta)
Monday, August 29, 2022
New rules on cannabis use came into force in Malta in December after parliament approved a new law aimed at further decriminalising the substance. The new law allows for the creation of cannabis associations for those smokers who might be unwilling or unable to grow the plant at home. They can join such associations, which cultivate cannabis to distribute among members, and buy their supply from there. But, eight months since the law was introduced, the Authority on the Responsible Use of Cannabis (ARUC) has yet to start issuing licences for these clubs - or even publish regulatory guidelines which such clubs must adhere to. Authority chairperson Mariella Dimech said that the process is “delicate” and “cannot be done overnight”.
Page 1 of 447
