Following the passage of the Cannabis Act by Canada\u2019s Senate in early June, the Great White North is now on track to see legal herb by year\u2019s end \u2014although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now saying the law will take effect in October, rather than July as originally promised.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously the current approach \u2014 the current prohibition of marijuana \u2014has not worked to protect our kids, to keep the money out of the pockets of organized crime and that\u2019s why we\u2019re bringing in a new legalized framework around marijuana,\u201d Trudeau said in\u00a0announcing the new schedule<\/a>.<\/p>\n Which country around the world will be next to embrace this logic? The next likely candidate may well be in Latin America, where Uruguay has already legalized, although retail sales there are\u00a0off to a slow start<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is a sense of inevitability to the legalization solution when even United Nations experts are calling upon the region\u2019s governments to consider it. On May 28, the head of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC<\/a>),\u00a0told a forum of regional governments<\/a>\u00a0in Paris that the idea\u2019s time has come.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going to be very provocative. Who would drug legalization be good for? Latin America and the Caribbean, for God\u2019s sake. Because the illegality is what\u2019s killing people,\u201d Alicia Barcena, a Mexican scientist who now heads ECLAC, said. \u201cIt\u2019s time to seriously consider legalizing drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n And some of the Latin countries hit hardest by drug war violence are in fact widening elbow room for cannabis. Out in front by a mile is Colombia, which is\u00a0fast embracing<\/a>\u00a0a legal cannabis industry under the rubric of its 2015 medical marijuana law. And last year Peru passed a medical marijuana law, although a much more limited one, and the implementing regulations which will determine if cultivation will be permitted\u00a0remain delayed<\/a>. Both countries have also decriminalized \u2014 Colombia through a\u00a0Supreme Court decision<\/a>\u00a0in 2012, and Peru through legislation in 2006.<\/p>\n A clear sign of the tide turning in Mexico is the recent news that ex-president Vicente Fox is\u00a0joining the board<\/a>\u00a0of High Times magazine. Fox has emerged as an aggressive advocate of legalization, despite the fact that he vetoed a legalization bill as president in 2006 (under heavy U.S. pressure). Mexico passed\u00a0a decriminalization law in 2009, which progressive lawmakers have been seeking to expand since then, introducing new measures to increase the current 5-gram \u201cpersonal use\u201d quantity. Mexico also\u00a0passed a medical marijuana law<\/a>\u00a0last year, although the program remains limited\u00a0to CBD products at present.\u00a0In an extraordinary move in 2015, Mexico\u2019s Supreme Court\u00a0ruled\u00a0that cannabis use is protected by the country\u2019s constitution, under provisions guaranteeing the \u201cfree development of the personality.\u201d Due to restrictions on the power of Mexico\u2019s judiciary, however, this did not result in immediate overturn of cannabis prohibition.<\/p>\n After Latin America, Europe may be in line to produce the next country to legalize. A seemingly odd candidate is buttoned-down Britain. The United Kingdom is already the\u00a0world\u2019s top producer<\/a>\u00a0of legal cannabis, largely due to the globe-spanning ambitions of British firm\u00a0GW Pharmaceuticals<\/a>. But it\u2019s a paradox that Britain\u2019s Home Office is\u00a0denying the right of its own citizens<\/a>\u00a0to self-medicate with cannabis. In some good news, the Home Office last week\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that it will allow the use of medicinal cannabis products in one case \u2014 that of\u00a012-year-old epilepsy sufferer Billy Caldwell<\/a>. The policy is no under review, although Home Secretary Sajid Javid was quick to emphasize that there are \u201cabsolutely no plans\u201d for a general legalization.<\/p>\n Progress is also reported from Portugal, which already has perhaps Europe\u2019s most progressive cannabis policy, at least where personal possession is concerned. In 2001, it became the only European country to completely remove all penalties for small quantities of illegal drugs, a policy known as \u201cdepenalization.\u201d In this sense, Portugal is even ahead of the Netherlands, which continues to have (small and largely unenforced) penalties on the books for cannabis possession. On June 15, Portugal\u2019s parliament\u00a0overwhelmingly approved<\/a>\u00a0a limited medical marijuana bill, with no provisions for personal cultivation or even herbaceous cannabis. However, in the same strange contradiction seen in Britain, Portugal is\u00a0already permitting<\/a>\u00a0industrial cultivation of medical marijuana on a large scale.<\/p>\n Spain decriminalized way back in 1992. But now the restive region of Catalonia,\u00a0with a strong separatist movement, last year threw down the gauntlet to Madrid by\u00a0passing a general legalization law<\/a>. If Catalonia succeeds in winning its independence, it could become the first European country with legal cannabis.<\/p>\n In Italy, production of medical marijuana is under monopoly by the military. But the army facility in Florence is\u00a0not keeping up with demand<\/a>, prompting imports from Canada and the Netherlands. Italy, like Spain, has decriminalized, although enforcement of the non-criminal penalties is definitely harsher there. Several other European countries, from Denmark to Slovenia, are permitting industrial cultivation while failing to loosen up on personal possession or cultivation \u2014 a contradiction that may become unsustainable in time.<\/p>\n Some of the most encouraging news is a report from New Zealand, where the government, responding to popular pressure, has\u00a0pledged to hold a referendum<\/a>\u00a0on cannabis legalization \u2014 possibly as early as next year. The government is still equivocating on whether or not the vote will be binding, but even a non-binding vote would be important in establishing a clear mandate for legal marijuana.<\/p>\n In Australia, the Green Party, which has a significant parliamentary bloc, has just\u00a0come out for legalization<\/a>. Meanwhile, Australia\u2019s\u00a0first medical marijuana clinic<\/a>\u00a0is set to open in Melbourne, under a 2016 program that has been off to a slow start.<\/p>\n And Australia may be seen be looking at its own Catalonia, so to speak. In 2015, Australia\u2019s territory of Norfolk Island\u00a0announced plans<\/a>\u00a0for major medical marijuana cultivation as a ticket to the island\u2019s economic future. While the plans have not yet moved ahead, Norfolk Island is now in a showdown with Australia\u2019s central government. Canberra in 2015 abrogated Norfolk Island\u2019s self-governing powers, \u00a0prompting the island\u2019s leadership to\u00a0file a complaint with the United Nations<\/a>. There has even been talk\u00a0of declaring\u00a0independence, or seceding from Australia to\u00a0join with New Zealand<\/a>.<\/p>\n Morocco is believed to be the world\u2019s leading producer of (illegal) cannabis, and last year saw parliamentarians\u00a0preparing a legalization measure<\/a>. Although the initiative fell victim to political intrigue \u2014 and faced a real challenge in the conservative kingdom anyway \u2014\u00a0growing unrest<\/a>\u00a0in the cannabis-producing Rif Mountains may yet prompt authorities to seek a courageous if obvious\u00a0solution to the poverty and marginalization in the region.<\/p>\n Last year, another major African producer began to face that music. The land-locked mountain kingdom of Lesotho issued the\u00a0African continent\u2019s first permits<\/a>\u00a0for legal cultivation of medical marijuana. Cannabis has long been a mainstay of Lesotho\u2019s economy, with the government turning a blind eye to massive cultivation \u2014 a kind of\u00a0de facto\u00a0legalization.<\/p>\n South African farmers have also launched an initiative to\u00a0demand legal cannabis<\/a>\u00a0as a solution to the country\u2019s ongoing agrarian crisis.<\/p>\n We can be sure that eyes across the world will be closely watching how legalization unfolds in Canada to see if this model can be replicated elsewhere on Planet Earth.<\/p>\n TELL US<\/strong>, where do you think cannabis will be legalized next?<\/p>\n The post The Next Countries Likely to Legalize Cannabis<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Following the passage of the Cannabis Act by Canada\u2019s Senate in early June, the Great White North is now on track to see legal herb by year\u2019s end \u2014although Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is now saying the law will take effect in October, rather than July as originally promised. \u201cObviouslyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3476,50,2121,216,94,490,3157,2154,90,139,4752,1514],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27330"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27331,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27330\/revisions\/27331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2028\u2028The\u00a0Tide is Turning in Latin America<\/h4>\n
\u2028\u2028Europe\u2019s Cannabis Contradiction<\/h4>\n
\u2028\u2028Opportunities in Oceania<\/h4>\n
Challenges in Africa<\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: The Next Countries Likely to Legalize Cannabis<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"