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The operation concluded on 4/20.

The Paraguayan National Anti-Drug Secretariat (SENAD) recently celebrated 4/20 by announcing that more than 300 tonnes of cannabis had been destroyed as part of “Operation Omega IX.”

Alongside a unit of the Paraguayan Armed Forces, authorities allegedly destroyed 96 hectares of crops and incinerated 19 drug camps over five days in April, reports Diálogo Americas.

While that operation concluded on 4/20, two days later authorities destroyed another four tonnes of cannabis that was found ready for packaging in a rural area.

If the Mexican military is deeply corrupt and now effectively controls the national government under its incompetent President, we are in a new phase of our Latin American disaster.

This article was originally published by The Fresh Toast. Disclaimer:The views expressed in this article solely belong to the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Fresh Toast.

In 2018, the Mexican Supreme Court found the country’s marijuana laws unconstitutional and ordered Congress to draft new laws. Congress has had to request several extensions, but now it has failed to meet another deadline, just as it seemed close to agreement on new laws.

For Americans, this problem may seem familiar, but in Mexico, the stakes are much higher.

Photo by Jezael Melgoza via Unsplash

That Mississippi’s medical cannabis program appears to have been sunk just prior to it starting hasn’t sat well with the state’s voters.

As we reported earlier this week, a voter-supported initiative to amend the state’s constitution to allow qualified patients with debilitating medical conditions to use medical marijuana has been cancelled due to a technicality with more wide-ranging ramifications.

Chism Strategies has carried out a poll since, gauging the mood of 905 Mississippi voters on the decision by the Mississippi Supreme Court to invalidate Initiative 65.

Here’s some of what it found.

The calls for impeachment may be a little rough – the Justices appeared to make their decision grudgingly and their personal views had to be put inside – this was purely a matter of law, as flawed as it was.

Will This Federal Reform Bill Pass Through The House?

A crucial and important chairman has set a goal to reintroduce a bill to federally legalize marijuana. Along with this bill will be measures that promote social equity. This reintroduced legislation may come as soon as next week in the House. As well its language will have at least two important modifications in comparison to the previous version of the bill. The news arrives as advocates anxiously await the filing of a separate cannabis reform bill. Currently, this bill is being planned by Senate leaders.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler has stood in favor of supporting the MORE Act. The Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement Act were passed in the chamber. This approval was a historic time in the House even though it was shut down in the Senate. According to an email thread from advocacy groups, it’s set to be refiled as soon next week with some new terms.

Different references that are familiar with the strategy shed some insight on the matter. They also said their understanding is that Nadler plans to introduce the revised legislation ahead of Congress’s Memorial Day recess. However, a spokesperson in the chairman’s office was not able to verify details by press time.

This new reform bill will not include language that was added just before last year’s House floor vote. Which would have stopped people with previous cannabis charges from obtaining federal cannabis permits. Which you would need to run a legal marijuana business

That was a controversial stipulation that surfaced at the last moment which advocates strongly stood against.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, expressed his belief that marijuana will soon be legalized in his state, while asserting that he still has concerns about allowing people to consume the plant.

The Louisiana state legislature was considering a bill that would have taxed cannabis as lawmakers there pushed for legalization. But that legislation was rejected in the state House on Tuesday, making it unlikely that cannabis will be legalized in the southern state this year.

However, Edwards suggested in a live radio interview on Wednesday that he believes marijuana will be legalized in the near future.

"In the past, as a legislator and as governor, I've been opposed to legalizing recreational marijuana," he said on the monthly program Ask the Governor broadcast on local radio. "I will tell you, I have come to believe that it is going to happen in Louisiana eventually."

"I'm not quite comfortable yet," the governor added, "but I understand we're likely to get there in the next several years."

After the legalization of medical marijuana in Germany in 2017, there has been a surge in interest from both patients who may benefit from cannabinoids and companies that produce and sell the drug.

Patients who meet the criteria for medicinal cannabis use and have failed to respond to traditional medicine will now expect to receive cannabis-based medications, though marijuana products are still out of reach for those looking to use them recreationally.

We will discuss some main points about the legal and political status of cannabis in Germany.

Is it legal to own and use cannabis in Germany?

The German Federal Narcotics Act makes it illegal to possess cannabis in Germany. If found in possession of certain drugs, the criminal faces a maximum sentence of five years in jail.

Cannabis use, on the other hand, is not classified as a crime. If a criminal is found with small quantities of cannabis for personal use, the legislation provides several options for punishment. These options are chosen based on the following criteria:

It seems as though everyday we catch news of yet another state making strides to legalize medical cannabis.

For those who rely on the healing properties of cannabis to improve their health, it’s great to see that more people will have access to safe, non-habit forming medicine.

This time, we’re talking about Alabama. 

On Monday, Alabama became the 37th state to legalize medical marijuana, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, becoming the second market in the Deep South.

Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed the historic bill, which will allow businesses to start applying for licenses Sept 1. 2022. 

Following months of discussion, Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare is set to approve the use of pharmaceuticals containing cannabis as an ingredient in Japan, according to public broadcaster NHK.

The Japanese legal system takes a particularly hardline stance against drugs, and even the possession of a small amount of marijuana is generally treated as a major crime. However, following the approval of cannabis-based medicines in many other nations, at the beginning of the year the ministry formed a committee to discuss whether Japan should follow suit, with the effectiveness of such medications in treating sufferers of refractory epilepsy and as a pain suppressant for cancer patients.

The allowance will require amendments to Japan’s Cannabis Control Law, which currently forbids the use and importation of such medicines. Lifting the prohibition would ostensibly also allow Japanese pharmaceutical makers, with proper licensing, to produce cannabis-based medications of their own.

However, this doesn’t mean that the substance is going to be decriminalized in all forms and applications. It’s likely that the revision will allow for the use of cannabis only for specific medical conditions, and “anxiety” may not qualify, given the Japanese medical system’s comparative aversion to treating mental health issues with medication. Likewise, the lifting of the ban will not allow international travelers to bring as large a supply of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals as they want into Japan, much as how you can’t get through customs with a suitcase full of any other meds that require a prescription within Japan.

It’s also important to bear in mind that the revision appears to be specifically for cannabis-based medicines, not marijuana leaves, and strictly for legitimate medical purposes. Recreational marijuana use in Japan will still get you in as much trouble as it did before, and possibly even more. Possession and cultivation of marijuana are already crimes in Japan, and the ministry is considering amending the Cannabis Control Law to make the act itself of smoking marijuana a crime as well, at the same time that it lifts the ban on cannabis-based medicines.

The South Dakota Board of Education Standards unanimously adopted new rules on Monday that establish guidelines for the use of medical cannabis in South Dakota schools. The move was prompted by the passage of Initiated Measure 26 (IM 26),  a ballot proposition that legalizes medical marijuana in South Dakota, in last November’s general election.

The rules govern the administration of medical cannabis in South Dakota’s public and private elementary, middle, and high schools. The nine-page document includes provisions for the administration of medical cannabis to students, the allowable forms of medical cannabis, and notification requirements. The approved rules also delineate the responsibilities and rights of students, caregivers, volunteers, and school staff in relation to the administration of medical cannabis to students in schools.

South Dakota Board of Education Standards President Jacqueline Sly noted that because of the complexity of the issue, the new rules are subject to future amendments.

“Just like any other rules we put in place, sometimes we miss things or we have to adjust things. I would say we have the ability to do that (here),” said Sly. “I would also say that we need to give it a fair shake, and kind of work out the kinks, because some of that can be worked out at the local levels.”

Diane Roy, general counsel to the state Department of Education, agreed with Sly, noting that implementing IM 26 will be uncharted territory for school districts and administrators. As the legislation is rolled out across the state, school officials will have to remain flexible as policies governing medical marijuana evolve.

Last month, a warning was raised by a chemist on the constituents of delta-8 THC, its production techniques, and other unknowns.

Delta-8 THC is fast becoming an ever-present compound. While this may seem like good news, it is a thing of concern. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about this compound, with a lot of concerns about the production, labeling, and marketing strategy.

Colorado has recently banned sales of delta-8 THC products, and other states like Vermont have already removed it from the shelves.

Photo by Hector Roqueta Rivero/Getty Images

Delta-8 THC is commercially produced by different companies., with each company having its unique technique for preparing d8 isolates. These techniques have no regulations and most times third-party tests are not done. Because to this, some companies are introducing unhealthy compounds like heavy metals when creating these isolates.

Minnesota’s Department of Agriculture has welcomed the USDA’s approval of the state’s revised hemp plan.

The state’s original plan was approved in July last year, but after modifications were made to the USDA’s rules Minnesota needed to file a new plan.

Some of the changes included random sampling of fields being based on risk factors of the crop, allowing remediation of crops if plants exceed the 0.3% total THC threshold but test under 1%, and an extension of the testing window before harvest from 15 days to 30 days.

“This is a major step forward, and we’re pleased that modifications have been made at the federal level that can ensure Minnesota’s hemp growers and processors are successful in this fledging industry,” said Minnesota Department of Agriculture Assistant Commissioner Whitney Place.

In 2015, the Minnesota Industrial Hemp Development Act became law, allowing the Department to create a hemp pilot program that operated from 2016 through 2020. The pilot started off slowly, but gained significant steam in the final couple of years. The following statistics show the number of permitted growers each year since 2016.

The U.S. is in a unique position right now to make drastic policy changes that will continue to benefit the country for decades to come.

You or someone you know wants the United States government to legalize marijuana. In fact, it’s more likely than not that most of the people you rub elbows with on any given day support ending federal pot prohibition.

The latest poll from the Pew Research Center finds that 91% of the population now thinks Uncle Sam should end cannabis criminalization across the board and allow it to be used for therapeutic purposes. They also think it should be taxed and regulated like alcohol and tobacco. This means only 1 in 10 Americans believe marijuana should remain classified as an illegal drug, and that most of the population considers it ridiculous to keep policing it.

Photo by RobinOlimb/Getty Images

So, hey, someone should let the federal government know that the country is primed for legal weed. Because the inner workings of that rusty machine are not likely to come to terms on this issue anytime soon.

On Thursday 15 April, a crucial summit hosted by the Centre for Medicinal Cannabis convened to shape the future of medical cannabis in Britain. Medical cannabis has been lauded as an industry-creating, health-changing, and socially progressive medicine, but the UK has had anything but a smooth transition of medical cannabis from experimental agent to licensed medicine.

Understanding how this group of medicines has developed in the UK is key to understanding where they are heading, and most importantly how best to foster productive interventions for the medical cannabis industry, the clinical space, and above all the benefit of patient care.

Cannabis in the UK

Prior to 2018, cannabis was not a considered a medicine in the UK. Under the Misuse of Drugs Act, cannabis possession was illegal, supply and distribution were strictly limited to the research sphere and no prescriptions had been written of dispensed on UK soil to date. This contrasted greatly with the regulatory landscape in the USA and Canada, where for a decade the prescription and dispensation of medical cannabis has been common practice and very much in the lexicon and formulary of clinicians.

That all changed in November 2018, when Charlotte Caldwell, whose unwell son Billy had been successfully treated with medical cannabis in Canada, sought to return to British soil and continue their lives at home with an ongoing prescription. When Caldwell and her son returned to the UK, his cannabis-based medicine was confiscated at the UK border. Billy fell desperately unwell and was admitted to Great Ormond Street Hospital. With the assistance of a group of experts, Charlotte was able to make contact with the Home Secretary, and after a matter of days the law was changed. Cannabis was moved from a schedule 1 drug, which could not be prescribed under any circumstances, to a schedule 2 drug, meaning it could now be prescribed by a specialist doctor within their area of expertise. The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis was born. Billy was reunited with his medicine, thankfully recovered, and now enjoys a life at home with his mother.

Policy changes

The Centre for Medicinal Cannabis continues to advocate for policy changes which bring the right medicines to the right patients in a way that is transparent, fair and measured. We anticipated an increase in the prescribing of cannabis-based medicines across the UK, but to this date this has not occurred to any significant level. We knew that this would not be immediate. However, after over two years the number of prescriptions written in the UK for such is barely out of triple figures. Any prescriptions written are largely within the small private sector, not the NHS as we would have expected.

Mississippi will remain in the minority of states without a medical marijuana program after the state Supreme Court on Friday overturned an initiative that voters approved last fall — a decision that also limits other citizen-led efforts to put issues on the statewide ballot.

At the heart of the ruling is the fact that initiatives need signatures from five congressional districts to get on the ballot, but because of Mississippi’s stagnant population, the state only has four districts.

Six justices ruled that the medical marijuana initiative is void because the state's initiative process is outdated. Three justices dissented.

The initiative process was added to the Mississippi Constitution in the 1990s as Section 273. It requires petitioners trying to get any initiative on the ballot to gather one-fifth of signatures from each congressional district. Mississippi had five congressional districts at the time that was written. But the state dropped to four districts after the 2000 Census, and language dealing with the initiative process was never updated.

“Whether with intent, by oversight, or for some other reason, the drafters of section 273(3) wrote a ballot-initiative process that cannot work in a world where Mississippi has fewer than five representatives in Congress," Justice Josiah Coleman wrote for the majority in the ruling Friday. "To work in today’s reality, it will need amending — something that lies beyond the power of the Supreme Court.”

The Minnesota House of Representatives is planning a Thursday vote on a bill (HF 600) that would legalize adult-use cannabis in the state. The measure is expected to be passed by the House’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL) majority in what will be the first cannabis legalization vote by the full legislative body in its history.

Under HF 600, adults 21 and older would be permitted to buy and use up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana for recreational purposes. Adults would also be allowed to cultivate up to four mature and four immature cannabis plants at home. The measure would establish a regulatory framework for the operation and taxation of licensed cannabis businesses. Cannabis taxes raised would be dedicated to youth access prevention and substance abuse treatment programs.

Under current Minnesota law, possession of even small amounts of marijuana is considered a misdemeanor criminal offense, although cases involving less than 42.5 grams of cannabis are punishable by a fine of not more than $200 instead of time in jail.

Additionally, the state has a strictly limited medicinal cannabis program. Patients with one or more of 18 serious medical conditions are eligible for the program with a doctor’s recommendation. Smoking of cannabis flower is not permitted under the state’s medical marijuana program. 

Pending legislation in Nebraska that would have established a medical cannabis industry failed by two votes, a frustratingly tight margin for advocates. The vote needed 33 yes votes to pass, and only received 31, making it unable to break a filibuster. LB 474 is officially off the table. 

Nicole Hochstein, a mother of a child with epilepsy, described herself as: “Devastated. Broken. In pieces because they literally voted my child’s life away” following the missed opportunity.

This isn’t the first time medical cannabis advocates in Nebraska have been let down. Back in September, the ballot measure to legalize medical cannabis through a vote was pulled by the Nebraska Supreme Court, who claimed the measure violated the single-subject rule. This was even after those supporting it had collected 196,000 signatures. 

“It’s beyond frustrating. This is literally our children’s lives here,” Hochstein said.

State Senator Anna Wishart backed LB 474, and now plans to start a petition to add the issue to the 2022 ballot. 

Zimbabwe abolished a rule which requires co-ownership between government and private investors in the cultivation of cannabis for medicinal use, seeking to encourage what the country sees becoming the biggest cash crop.

“Investors can have 100% ownership of their investments and locate their facilities anywhere in the country without prescription,” Douglas Munatsi, chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe Investment & Development Agency, said Wednesday in an emailed statement.

The decision is in line “with government’s investor-friendly stance to attract capital and to be competitive,” Munatsi went on to say by phone.

Zimbabwe sees export earnings from cannabis outstripping those of tobacco this year with sales expected to reach $1.25 billion, according to a Treasury forecast given in November. That may help boost an economy that’s been desperately stretched for some time.

The government also said it will guarantee the protection of property rights and ring fence investments against expropriation. The country in 2000 took over land without compensation from White farmers, displacing almost 4,500 people.

The latest study goes against the grain of previous research that shows how property values increase with the onset of legalization.

Marijuana legalization is happening across the United States. Naysayers have predicted that a veritable apocalyptic moment is coming on the heels of the movement, screaming about how ending marijuana prohibition would increase crime, minor consumption rates and contribute to the overall decline of civil society. Yet, the only thing that most of these people have proved is that they are no Nostradamus.

Marijuana legalization is working for the most part, and it hasn’t led to any drastic uprising in dread and downtrodden. However, if there has been a downfall to this progress, it’s that it seems to be lowering property values in neighborhoods that open dispensaries.

A recent study in the journal Regional Science and Urban Economics found that Washington state, one of the first jurisdictions to legalize for recreational use, has experienced a decline in property values in districts with cannabis dispensaries. Researchers found a 3-4% decrease in property values in homes that were .36 miles from retail pot shops. Although the study focused specifically on Washington state, it provides a glimpse into what might be expected nationwide as legalization spreads.

Photo by Kindel Media from Pexels

Mexico is very close to becoming the third country in the world to legalize all uses of cannabis . The end of the approval process for the Federal Law for the Regulation of Cannabis in Mexico is approaching . Let us remember that the law was approved by the Senate in November 2020 and by the Chamber of Deputies in March 2021.

Due to the multiple modifications and changes that the deputies made to the bill, the bill had to return to the Senate for the changes to be validated and thus finally become a reality.

Back in the Senate, the project seemed to have the necessary consensus to move forward, so much so that it was taken advantage of by two of the three ruling committees; Justice and Legislative Studies.

However, the claim of errors and unconstitutionalities resounded in the leadership of the parliamentary majority, which through Ricardo Monreal completely stopped the advance of the project. In this way, the Senate made changes to the errors claimed, again the bill will go back to the lower house to ratify the modifications.

​What can happen?

There are several scenarios, the first is that the Senate requests, for the fourth time, an extension to the SCJN, hoping that this time will be the last, and that the issue will be discussed again in the next regular period of sessions, that is, of September to December 2021.

Medical marijuana is legal in New Hampshire, but patients have to buy their therapeutic cannabis at one of a handful of Alternative Treatment Centers. Now, legislators are considering allowing patients to grow their own marijuana at home.

The law as it stands

Back in 2013, New Hampshire legalized the use of marijuana as a medical treatment. Under that law — RSA 126-X — patients with certain symptoms can be prescribed the use of cannabis by their healthcare provider. Some of these include:

■suffering from chronic severe pain;

■diagnosed with a qualifying medical condition such as cancer, glaucoma, or HIV;

■a terminal medical condition resulting in at least one of a list of specific symptoms, such as seizures or severe nausea.